a college class with 50,000 students. we'll talk to nick parlant dwrchlt and michael ruben sells his company to ebay for $2.4 billion. so, what's his next move? a reporter of all things digital and michael kra of investors business daily right here this week on "press here". >> good morning. chances are when you were in college had you a class so big the professor did not know your name. i had a class so big the

professor i didn't know his name. this year tan ford has all of those classes beat. we're going to start right in and start doing stuff. >> that's because nick's class has thousands upon thousands of students. a small portion of those are in person in a regular classroom setting and the rest will show up online. stalg foub is on bb stanford is offering free classes from medicine to cryptography. all are empty level and earn you no credit. but stanford says the average online student should expect to dedicate 12 hours a week to watching lectures and studying. >> nick has been teaching at stanford for 20 years. what his students think of him? this guy rocks, wrote one on

ratemyprofessor.com. other, best i've ever had. third complains, he starts the class with horrible puns. joined by mike and liz. so, 50,000 students, does that make you nervous? >> well, you know, no more than being on tv. so, the idea with this class, i think what distinguishes it from some of the classes stanford has done up to now, which have been advanced, fantastic, and very popular, but this class is geared for people with no experience at all. so the idea it could wok for a high school student or someone interested in learning about computers. you know, who uses computers? well, everyone. >> yeah, that's what i was going to say. you want to have the high school student who's interested in computers but your idea is people who have no interest in computers ought to know something about them beyond just shift "p" will print. >> yes. the argument i will make, it's like computers are everywhere, right?

your phone, your computer's a computer, your television. so, everyone i feel like has -- or many people have a kind of -- they use it but i think they're a little intimidated. so the idea with cs 101 -- i think computers put up sort of -- they push people away. they appear impossible. people sort of apologize. well, i use the computer but i don't feel i understand and it goes awry sometimes. my claim with cs 101, my claim is that it's an act. the computer has convinced people that it's some impossible -- you need some humongous cerebellum to understand it. it's not true. how computers work is fairly true. cs 101 is going to go there. >> a new class or the same class? >> so, it's a very new class. it's geared for this niche of people with no experience at all and trying to kind of, you know,

look behind the curtain, show them how it works. you know, i -- goals would be, well, we want people to not be intimidated. i think also computers have -- i mean, everyone sort of understands computers have a funny way they are because of all the bad experiences you've had, where the computer does something you don't expect. so, the idea is with cs 101, you will be -- we can just show you how those things work, how it's structured, from the computer's point of view. that will help people work better with computers, just understand what's going on. >> does your teaching style change for an online class versus -- >> definitely, definitely. one of the things we've learned -- for traditional lecture format we have -- it's maybe an hour of talking and then i'll use the board and draw up examples, whatever. so online, this has affected my life class a little bit, as well, you try to go in smaller chunks. con academy has shown this, you can -- instead of having an hour of discussion and then the

student -- you know, when are they going to get to apply that? we want to try to tighten that up. so, i will have five or ten minutes of explanation. i'll do a little example. ideally i want to turn around immediately and say, here's one, like the one i just showed you, now you do one. >> and it becomes more interactive, though, you are not seeing what the student's doing. you try this. and i'll meet you over here when you're ready sort of thing. so, it becomes much more of a back and forth. >> yes. i mean, you can think of it as this sort of self-paced. self-pace doesn't make it sound -- makes it sound too -- >> no. like rosetta stone or things where i can approach it when i want to. >> back to your question, there's a problem in a live class where -- and my theory, really all students acting out, i think it comes from insecurity. so, you the have problem where you have a live class. there's a huge range of how people already know computers a little bit or just trying to get started. so, there's a problem. the person going really fast will maybe -- you've all been there where they raise their hand. isn't it true, they have some

like, thing -- >> well -- >> i'm making fun but in part they just want to feel good they're being accelerated. i feel bad about the student who's look at the back, who's just barely getting it. now they feel, oh, everyone -- you know, the typical fear of computers is like, oh, everyone can do this. you know, i'm way behind. so, cs 101 is really trying to work the opposite. >> but your topic here, it's a fun topic and kind of the casual person that are interested in it but i think the controversy with online education, fair to say, how much are students really learning? that's the big question. there was a report a couple days ago that said online education was not cutting the grade. this is for lower ed, not higher ed so it's apples and oranges. >> i guess i feel strongly that the current, high quality online education is fantastic.

you know, my class -- i think the trap is to compare the online experience to, like, the ultimate live crafted tutored experience. online is not as good, just like some cd of the artist, that's not as good as having them in my living room. how many living rooms can they visit? stanford has -- >> there are some ways online could be better, right? i mean, some examples like con academy, there's evaluation tools as you progress to understand if the student has gotten some. some proefs use online discussion page where students answer each other questions and learn from each other. there's a website, a new startup called code academy which just launched a learn to code challenge as a new year's resolution and got 100,000

sign-ups in the first couple days, including mayor michael bloomberg. but i think a lot of excitement around classes that are more of a -- that are less lecture and more -- >> particularly at the college level. there's so little interaction on the college level. sometimes in your smaller classes they're better. what about the number of women that are in your classes currently, i mean online or -- >> sure. computer science. let me broaden your question a little bit. >> sure, please. >> within the computer science community, it is widely thought there is not enough people studying computer science. it was mentioned earlier, well, i think people feel frightened off by the computer. clearly, my claim is that's not necessary. you can do this. the other way that you see this is just hiring. that if you think of the example i was thinking of, like if i try to pay a bill on the stanford hospital bill paying website, it's awful. there are all these -- it

doesn't make sense. in a way what's going on, there's just too few people ultimately majoring in computer science. so we end up with all these problems we want to be solved. if you talk to google or yahoo or facebook, there's all sorts of things they to want do and it's not lack of money, it's lack of people. so, the hitten agenda of cs 101 which i made a note -- >> yeah it's a tv show. >> the hidden agenda is, in part, to just help any high school student or someone interested in computers to make sure they feel like they have a stronger sense. also, once we show them, well, here's how it works. we feel for some fraction of them, they'll say, oh, hey, i kind of like this. i'm kind of good at this. for whatever the numrs are, the people choosing the computers -- regardless of gender. >> for women, we could turn it on its head. most people electing to go into computer science are men. >> do you -- >> you're saying that regardless

of gender, bringing people who may say this is not for me will come into the fold. >> exactly. >> that computers are appearing too intimidating but today with the technology we have, cs 101, we can go there. >> give the website one more time. >> it's cs101-class.org. it's free. it's online, videos, exercise. the whole thing just works. >> up next, a reason they call it amazon. the enormous online retailers all locked up. e-commerce space. one of the few who may be able to challenge it.

welcome back to "press here." my next question started his company, ski resort business in his parents' basement at age 12. he got himself banned at a strip

mall for handing on you flyers at a ski shop offering to do the same work for less money. at age 14, he opened his own ski shop. >> a year into the business, the junior high kidas tens of thousands of dollars in debt. money michael ruben's father paid off. things turned around after that. by the time ruben dropped out of college, he had sold the ski shops and a woman's shoe wear line to launch gsi commerce, which helped brick and mortar stores like radio shack and sports authority sell online. ruben seen here helping gsi workers ship products on the show "undercover boss" recently sold most if not all gsi to ebay for more than $2 billion. >> am i doing better? >> greg should be around in a little bit and let us know how you're doing.

>> there came the man to fire him. he's not done there. michael ruben took the straps ebay didn't want. he's growing those into a billion dollar business. mike kra of investors business daily. it's on a different network so i don't to want talk about "undercover boss" too much but you sold a company for $2 billion, you can't get a stick other a books? >> i was not a very good warehouse employee. i gave it my best effort. i remember going down to film the show, hey, should i give this my best effort? i'm a young, cool guy, i'm going to be really good and i was fired six hours later. it was pretty depressing. >> that must have been a great education. what did you learn from that show? >> it was a great education and very demoralizing. first thing i learned the jobs are far more difficult than i thought. it was one of the greatest experiences of my life to work with -- we have thousands of employees that worked in the warehouse and call centers.

i was used to walking in the warehouse and saying, hello, shaking people's hands. when you go there and are doing the job, you learn two great things. the first is how many things we could do better. the only way to do is it-s to be there firsthand. i left that experience with such great appreciation for our 10,000 employees. so much more motivated than ever to get great outcomes for them. >> have you taken that experience with your new company and tried to work in the companies a little bit? >> we usually -- -- we used that experience in a big way. as soon as i finished "undercover boss" experience we instituted a program at gsi so we had our vps that went and worked a week in call centers. to talk to customers firsthand. the things you do well and things you don't do well. an amazing experience. >> you sold gsi to ebay. you're back in e-commerce. e-commerce, we remember pets.com and golden age of e-commerce as

dotcom first started out. but you said, no, this is the golden age of e-commerce. it's just begun. >> e-commerce is doing incredible. i would say 2011 was an absolute breakout year for e-commerce. there are been a few times in the 13 years where i ran gsi where you felt a big function up in revenue in e-commerce. i talk to multiple retailers, you know, $10, $20 billion companies that had 1,000 plus stores. on cyber monday they did more business on their website than all thousands of stores totaled. that's insane. that's never happened before in retail. e-commerce is critically important to major brick and mortar's e-commerce business and this was an enormous share for e-commerce. >> there comes an issue with american economy and taxes. some is unregulated in ways we've let the internet grow. keep your hands off, let it grow. if this is going to be a major issue, then government and regulation and some agreement on taxes has to come behind that. >> yeah. i think that's right. look, at the end of the day, the

most important person who chooses is the consumer. a good retailer gives consumers multiple ways to purchase. they're clearly choosing the internet. if you look at retail overall, most of the growth in retail owe the last couple years, certainly in future, it's all going to come from e-commerce. that said, certainly with how much -- without big ee-commerce, a few hundred dollars, certainly taxation will happen. it's already happening in 60% or 70% of the transactions because it's done by major brick and mortar retailers. it's going to come, work itself out. i don't think that will have any long-term impact on e-commerce. it gets more important every year. >> you're in favor of e-commerce taxation -- >> i think it's fair. when i was at gsi and our business was supporting all the major brick and mortar retailers, we thought it was a fair approach. today i own $1 billion e-commerce company where we don't charge sales tax, that said, don't think it would have a negative impact and it's a fairer approach toward e-commerce. >> from my perspective there's been some pretty entertaining

battlegrounds of e of my commerce versus brick and mortar. over the holiday we saw amazon paying people $5 to walk out of the store. what do you think of that? do you know of any other places that will happen in the future? >> i think you've only seen the beginning of that. i remember four, five years ago hi this chart. we did a once a year conference at gsi and i said five years ago that amazon would be the second largest retailer in the world within the next decade. people said i was crazy. major retailers, major brands come up and say, you don't have a clue what you're talking about. i said, trust me, they'll be the number two largest retailer in the world. sure enough, they're on that track. e-commerce is dominated today by major companies. amazon, one of those companies. ebay is one of those company. i mean, they have such a huge chair within e-commerce. >> can anyone -- you know, is there, hey, let's get together and we'll sell these online and it's great and then you discover amazon sells them for half the price, and free shipping. can anyone get into e-commerce anymore?

>> people say all the time, if you look at how well e-commerce is doing, there has to be so much money made from an investment perspective. >> yeah, if you're amazon. >> that's exactly the point. i think there is a lot of money to be made in e-commerce but it's tricky because there are a few players, am sdmron one, taking huge market share and making it difficult to compete head-on. i would not want to be an e-commerce or brick and mortar online selling competitive products amazon sells. we say best buy is this incredible show room for amazon. it's 100% the truth. i look at our businesses today. we own a $700 million online license sports business that runs nfl shop and north bay store and major league baseball's e-commerce store and 75 individual universities. that's niche product amazon is not good at. that's a great way to exploit a big opportunity. i think amazon will be very successful, ebay. i think the real opportunity is if you can find a niche amazon's not going at head on. there's things you can exploit.

for us, mobile is very important to the business, social is very important to the business. have you to find niches to exploit. >> what would you say is the big trend in e-commerce? is it mobile, social? >> i think it's really mobile. so, roulala is one of the largest private cell companies in the world. mobile two years ago didn't register. this year we were doing 20% of our total revenue coming through mobile by the fourth quarter. we had days where we were doing 35%. thanksgiving day, 35% of total revenue of roulala came from mobile. incredible impact. >> what's mobile? i mean, yeah, it's cell phones, i know, but we've gotten to that point where my ipad is in my living room or in my car or it's walking through me with work, et cetera. is that mobile? >> it absolutely is. by the way, that's going to be another great growth driver of e-commerce. think about ebay's core business, auctions. think about how good mobile is for e-business. before you had to be in front of your computer, time sensitive.

now you have your mobile device. roulala, every day at 11 a.m. we launch new sales and people flock to the flight. with mobile being any, where your iphone, ipad, it's great to drive e-commerce very fast. >> have you seen a good social e-commerce experience? i actually focus on social web in my reporting and i have not. i think the best i see is share with your friends. if you get three people to buy this, you get a free version. >> i think there's businesses more influenced by social, i'm not saying this in a self-serving way. we need to look for things influenced by mobile and social. think about the sports business. what's more of a social event than that? tim tebow this past weekend has this amazing game against the steelers. now everyone's showing their friends, here's how you get a tim tebow jersey and it was driven by social. biggest selling jersey on nfl shop today. social is a huge driver of that.

and enables that, accelerate on a nice pace. >> you know who does a good job of think geek. they have people take pictures of themselves using the products so you see a real person. which is another way of seeing it. >> roulala today has 5.5 million members. we don't spend any money in marketing. it's all socially. members only website. one person recommends it to another friend -- >> that's how i joined. >> by the way, we appreciate that. i hope you're a gigantic customer. we appreciate that. completely driven by social. 5.5 million members all through social. >> michael ruben is an entrepreneur. we appreciate you being with us.

welcome back to "press here" our newest contributor is liz gaines from "the wall street journal" all things digital.

explain what this influential blog part of wall street journal. >> well, all things digital is operated independently from "the wall street journal," actually. it's also owned by dow jones. and we write all about technology news. we break a lot of -- >> you break a lot of technology news. >> and we write all day long. we have no print schedule. >> which makes the advantage more than mike? i mean, you've got -- you've got a constant pressure to get something new, right? >> we do. there's a lot of -- a lot of material on our site at any one time of day, but it's also a little different than what you might find in traditional media in that we feel free to have a little more of a good time with the people we're covering. >> you haven't read investors business daily but it's hilarious. >> we're aware of what people say and do that are a little silly. >> i assume you read all things digital? >> do i. it's a great blog. we all have the immediacy, even

print publications, we're all online and it's immediate. >> you go to the facebook briefings and whatnot, mostly in the print section, constantly updating, live blogging, that kind of thing. i watch and i don't have to do it adds mucs much. i watch and i'm not jealous because i'm not sure what's going to happen next. i know i sound old, but i want the context of what this all means as opposed to and at 11:07 mark zuckerberg has walked into the room. >> i think it's magic when you can put together smart news and analysis at the same time. sometimes -- sometimes we do it right and that's what we're striving for is not to tell you why it happened, but why it's interesting or why -- the context for what really is going on, behind not just the announcement of the person standing on stage reading from a lecturn. >> you want to give it out quick. >> the person who is not up

until now read all things "d" it's something the rest of us are checking all the time. >> oh, thank you. >> to make sure we did not get scooped and sometimes we did. on a lighter note, you wrote an article recently about facebook. the ability to flag a photograph that is inappropriate. tell me more about that. >> facebook has for a long time offered community policing. that means they don't have warehouses upon warehouses of people checking every single foet that that someone posts to see if there's nudity or something inappropriate. in fact, they ask users to tell them when a photo is offensive. last year they looked through all these people are flagging as offensive, they realized what was going on is people were embarrassed how they looked in pictures and they didn't want their names to be associated with them. >> thereforing they would say this post is offensive. >> yes, me. what it meant was inappropriate or unattractive. you're at a party -- >> i have bad hair in this photo. >> yeah, yeah. >> you don't want your bad

photos. >> so facebook made a bit of a change. >> i'm making light of it. maybe you don't want your kids' photo to be online, but facebook went through and actually tried to figure out a way where they could have their members talk to each other. because facebook doesn't have the right to take photos down that aren't offensive because the person who uploads it owns the copyright to the photo. what about the person depicted in it? they say why don't the uploader have a discussion. they enable that through compassionate initiative, to have an online discussion saying, hi, in this prefilled form, i really -- >> i have beer cans in both hands. >> i'm not looking how i look in this photo. do you think you could take it down? >> liz gaines with all things digital.

that's our show for this week. thanks to my guests. we have a link to the free signup on our website, pressheretv.com. we'll see you around the virtual campus. a special welcome to liz gaines, you can read her on the wall street journal's all things digital or allthingsd.com. thanks for making us part of your sunday morning.