There’s a possibility that you may, in fact, not be reading this blog post right now because a massive solar flare this morning may have destroyed civilization as we know it. This would be bad on so many levels. In the event that it has happened and you are still reading this post, I fully encourage you to stop and begin scavenging batteries and fresh water immediately. A post about Facebook’s changes to brand pages pales in comparison to the horrific post-apocalyptic existence we’re going to have to eke out until we begin mass producing Twinkies and fast food again (i.e. civilization returns). On the off chance that we still have a working global communications infrastructure, though, the announcement by Facebook last week about new changes to Facebook brand pages may have you in a bit of a tizzy.

Last week, Facebook disgorged a stew of alterations to Facebook pages that will go into effect, whether you like it or not, on March 31. The change that got the most attention was the transition of brand pages from last year’s the “old timey” profile format to the Timeline format introduced for personal profiles in September. However, buried within the steaming mass of Facebook’s announcement were a couple other changes that may significantly impact many branded pages.

So, to help you out, we’re creating a two-part series that explains what the major changes are and how to adapt to them. In this first post, we’re going to discuss the changes, give all the specs for new image sizes and present some information that will help smooth the transition into the new page. Next week, we’ll publish a post walking through exactly how to transition a page with lots of helpful screenshots.

The major changes fall into four major areas:
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In a recent talk at IgniteNYC, entrepreneur Michael Karnjanaprakorn challenges the notion that paying for a traditional four-year college degree is necessary for knowledge attainment and career success. He’s certainly not the only one to recently voice doubt about the state of higher learning in the United States. Numerous editorial voices have weighed in during recent months on the evidence presented by the Pew Research Center’s 2011 study done in conjunction with the Chronicle of Higher Education citing steep tuition costs and fewer job opportunities for all Americans due to current economic conditions. Karnkanaprakorn’s main argument is that higher education today fails to provide sufficient opportunities for students to “learn” and instead is a model where costs increasingly outweigh the benefits. But is his counter-suggestion really that much better for students?

The model proposed by Karnjanaprakorn and deployed via his start-up SkillShare relies on community-based, special interest courses that hone in on specific skill sets, including courses in “How to Make Anyone Fall in Love with You,” “Malaysian Cooking,” and “How to Get a Job at a Start-Up.” Definitely good life skills to have, but outside of filling your lonely days and nights or getting a job at Next Big Internet Thing, LLC (or at least catering their IPO celebration), this “learning-focused” system still lacks the specialized skill focus that careers in healthcare, IT, and the modern service industry require. Recruiting the qualified instructors to teach how to attain career-specific skills, providing equipment and materials to allow realistic settings in which to practice and learn, and gaining state or corporate licensure to even instruct students on how to gain the qualifications to practice certain trades is not free. According to Nate Johnson’s 2009 study of how much education costs for a school, this is just the beginning – operational costs, the cost of student attrition, and dozens of other factors make it clear that offering a place to learn is more complex than Karnjanaprakorn’s analysis conveys.

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