Sony has been making a lot of long term strategic decisions lately, like helping Montclair State University build up their Communications and Media building which will be equipped with all Sony gear. Similar to Sony’s DMPC operation in Hollywood,

the Montclair State facility will be a training and educational resource, with cutting-edge 4K facilities available to students and production professionals in every aspect of the creative process. Sony will use the space to host business development events, conduct training and promote new technologies, establishing Montclair State University as a preferred environment for Sony’s introduction of new products, technologies and services relating to television, film, media and higher education.

Now Sony is placing another bet on education by utilizing the tech that powers bitcoin of all things. Jon Russell writes for TechCrunch:

Sony is one company looking to take advantage of the blockchain, technology that underpins cyptocurrency bitcoin, after the Japanese company announced plans to build a centralized platform for educational assessment and testing scores.

The Sony Global Education division of the company has developed technology that uses the blockchain to house educational data that can be securely shared with other services and third parties. Sony said it believes it could “realize an entirely new infrastructure system” with this technology, which it described as having the potential to be a central system for candidates and their test results, much like a universal education ID or a more official version of resume sites like LinkedIn.

From Sony:

For example, after taking an examination to demonstrate his or her academic proficiency level, an individual could direct the testing organization to share the test results with one or more third-party evaluating organizations. This would be a first if implemented on a system-wide basis.

More after the jump.

Sony goes on to say that their Global Education’s mission is

to provide a range of unifying, non-traditional services that inspire a passion for learning across the world and that offer the opportunity to act on this passion, and to create a new educational infrastructure for a connected society.

The company views blockchain as a core technology that has the potential to significantly shape the educational landscape of the future. Once again, Russell:

Sony said it hopes that the potential of its platform will attract educational institutions and other sources of learning to take part and add further value to the concept. For example, securing the participation of universities and high schools — which may or may not be among Sony’s targets right now — would mean candidates school and graduation records are baked into their profile and accessible to third parties, such as when applying for jobs or further education. Sony added, also, that the technology could be applied to medical care, the environment, energy and other areas beyond education.

While not the most visible sector to operate in, education is a field with a lot of money at stake. As an example, Apple has always had a strong relationship with the education market which has enabled the Mac and iPad to take a strong position in K-12. This deal has resulted in the LA school district purchasing well over a million devices with Apple having similar projects in NYC and Texas. Beyond the initial money that’s exchanged, Apple is also investing in the youth that’s going through the education system and building a rapport with the students as they familiarize themselves with with iOS.

This is a good move for Sony, even if it’s not something as direct as selling them a specific device.

Discuss:

Do you think this is a good long term strategic decision by Sony or are they better off investing their money else place?

[Via Sony]