3 ms·
It's worth looking at what OpenCourseWare are doing, as well as university-centric networks like the British Open University's OpenLearn. I co-founded an educa
by benwerd 16y ago
It's worth looking at what OpenCourseWare are doing, as well as university-centric networks like the British Open University's OpenLearn.
I co-founded an educational social network called Elgg.net in 2004 (which later became Eduspaces.net when Elgg's scope grew from education into an open source social networking platform for all), and I've been watching this space carefully. There have been quite a few services which have been and gone that have followed the model you've outlined, but that doesn't mean you won't be able to build something that works.
The biggest deal, in my opinion, is always this: find a way to make it work for the first user. Build it around existing educational resources, or tools for an individual to learn, and then let the community enhance that initial offering. Otherwise you've got one hell of an uphill battle ahead of you. (Pertinent examples include Flickr and Delicious which both allow you to store and share resources, but are so much more when millions of people are also participating.)
- kuvkir 16y agoYeah, you're right, the biggest problem is to make users interested from the beginning. That's why I'm not going to build it from scratch. My partner built a unique educational website with great content on programming, algorithms, networks and computer architecture. That content could be a starting point.
- benwerd 16y agoNB: I should have mentioned that I've moved on from Elgg and EduSpaces, and am not able to speak for either project.
- glen 16y agoWe are building this very thing at www.nixty.com. Benwerd, I'm familiar with Elgg and have actually consulted with Harold Jarche a few times (several years ago). If either of you are interested, then I'd love to hear your thoughts and feedback. Please send me an email at glen at nixty dot com.
- benwerd 16y agoI can't speak for Harold - although we've spoken, he's never directly been involved with Elgg or me - but I'd love to. I'll drop you an email now.