Hi Harold: Your request brought lots of ideas to mind, having taught college courses about entrepreneurship many times.

In the world of eleventh graders, changing friends or which sport they went out for in high school -- is probably the easiest way to relate to the change to self-employment for "former paycheck prisoners". It's a big decision that calls for some soul searching. It's easier when we know ourselves and our reasons for what we like and do naturally. Your comment on my post on "Well marked exits" inventories might help you be transparent with the class about your reasons for switching to free lancing.

As far as the impact of Web 2.0 on start-ups, here are a few thoughts:

Brick and mortar entrepreneurs pursue due diligence to validate a formal business plan's projection of demand and support for pricing of the goods and services. All that costs a lot of money and puts the startup on hold while the preliminary work is done. Web 2.0 simply begins by being valuable before anything is for sale. The "unplanned" startup instantly becomes visible via blogs, discussion lists, websites, personal profiles, etc. The feedback is free, fast and broader in scope than market research. An initial following is generated in the process of discovering what ideas (concepts, issues, problems) gets the most page reads, trackbacks, etc.

Subscribers to RSS feeds get to check out an entrepreneur for free and see how s/he thinks from day to day. That's very different from a customer shopping at a new outlet and spending money on what's for sale. I suspect their inside look at "the thinking behind what's for sale" engenders more customer loyalty, word of mouth advertising and willingness to explore the offerings deeper.

Conventional startups rely on advertising, store location, and coupons to generate sales. All that is push marketing -- that has similar side effects to formal instruction. Web 2.0 allows for pull marketing - that has similar benefits to informal learning. Entrepreneurs can show up on other blogs, in wiki archives or with uploaded videos/slideshows. This visibility "sells without a sales pitch" where the credibility, insights and talents are put on display. The value "goes without saying" and catches on more quickly because its intrinsic (eye of the beholder, context of the customer, solutions for the user).

The value network of brick and mortar start-ups are mostly about tangible "deliverables and transactions" because selling involves physical locations and occasional contacts. The value network of Web 2.0 start-ups -- traffic in many more intangibles because the "store is open 24/7" and transcripts of conversations with other customers can be read anytime.

I hope some of this is helpful for you.
Tom