Tell HN: Stackoverflow University

I've been reading Clayton Christensen's analysis of education being disrupted, and I realized that Stackoverflow is doing this. He analyses universities in terms of the task that it performs for its customers (students). These are basically: imparting problem-solving ability and credentials/qualifications. He covers some disruptive education entrants: online courses; in-house corporate training; community colleges. This prompted me to think about online training. Traditionally, computer aided education has been disappointed; but it seems to me that it might be possible to do it well. We just haven't figured it out yet. I thought of the strategy that I have used to educate myself: look at questions people have, and research them (reading specs, prototyping code and testing it). I used to do this with mailing lists; but recently I've done it with Stackoverflow. You sometimes (not always) get knowledgeable feedback on your answer ("teachers") and/or see alternative/better answers. It's a good way to learn. Now, this requires a fair bit of self-teaching ability and skills (autodidacticism ftw!), of analyzing a problem; researching; proposing solutions; coding them etc, so it may not be feasible for everyone who wants to learn. However, it is a way, that's much more effective than traditional CAE. But the interesting part is not in imparting problem-solving ability, but in conferring credentials/qualifications. If you have high karma (OWTFII) in some area, it's pretty compelling proof that you know about that area. Even if you gamed the system, you would have picked up quite a bit along the way. It's probably a comparable measure of knowledge in that area to having passed a university course in the subject, and probably far superior in terms of practical problem solving, of the problems that actually come up in practice. Stackoverflow has created a qualification. It is an alternative to a university qualification. It is superior training and assessment for practical problem-solving. And of course, they now offer "careers 2.0", for connecting contributors to employers. They are disrupting universities. Stackoverflow University. The next stage would be to get formally accredited by government bodies. Tricky; maybe unnecessary.