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I came late to this thread, but I want to add an item to Stevey's list of "trust tests" for prediction #2, "someone will make a lot of money by hosting open-sou

I came late to this thread, but I want to add an item to Stevey's list of "trust tests" for prediction #2, "someone will make a lot of money by hosting open-source web applications": SOVEREIGNTY: I would strongly prefer outsourcing to large companies with C* executives, boards, and/or founders who really "believe" in the mission of the company, have complete financial control, and are generally unlikely to even need or want to sell out, and generally unlikely to ever be vulnerable to a buy-out. When making investments of any kind in an entity that is made up of individuals, I'm increasingly wary of the cupidity of those individuals. Very soon I'm going to have to decide whether to send my kids to private schools or public schools (and switching costs are high, so I want to get it right the first time), and it strikes me that private schools may be less likely to change drastically over the course of 8-12 years than a public school.

jonpeda 14y ago
> switching costs are high Why? switching to private school is expensive. Switching from is not. In the public system, schools change every 3-5 years anyway. " and it strikes me that private schools may be less likely to change drastically over the course of 8-12 years than a public school." Why? public schools change slow and ploddingly, after long tedious debates.
- philsnow 14y ago
  > switching to private school is expensive Well, _paying_ for it is expensive in terms of money, it's not the switching that costs money generally. The switching costs I'm referring to are "social" ones. I don't want to shop my kids around schools if I can avoid it, because each time they'll have to make new friends and be "the new kid" for 1-2 years. In the public system, you change schools twice, elementary -> middle and middle -> high school (or just once, k-8 "middle school" -> high school), and each time you generally know lots of other kids because schools are arranged as "feeders", and a given high school class is made up of cohorts from each of the feeders. > public schools change slow and ploddingly, after long tedious debates. Public schools are beholden to state budgets, and I don't like they choices that were made a couple decades ago when _I_ was in public schools (no music or "arts" education at all in my k-6 school), so I shudder to think of what's going to happen nowadays. State budgets fluctuate along with the political climate. That's my thinking, anyway.

jonpeda 14y ago

> switching costs are high Why? switching to private school is expensive. Switching from is not. In the public system, schools change every 3-5 years anyway. " and it strikes me that private schools may be less likely to change drastically over the course of 8-12 years than a public school." Why? public schools change slow and ploddingly, after long tedious debates.

philsnow 14y ago
> switching to private school is expensive Well, _paying_ for it is expensive in terms of money, it's not the switching that costs money generally. The switching costs I'm referring to are "social" ones. I don't want to shop my kids around schools if I can avoid it, because each time they'll have to make new friends and be "the new kid" for 1-2 years. In the public system, you change schools twice, elementary -> middle and middle -> high school (or just once, k-8 "middle school" -> high school), and each time you generally know lots of other kids because schools are arranged as "feeders", and a given high school class is made up of cohorts from each of the feeders. > public schools change slow and ploddingly, after long tedious debates. Public schools are beholden to state budgets, and I don't like they choices that were made a couple decades ago when _I_ was in public schools (no music or "arts" education at all in my k-6 school), so I shudder to think of what's going to happen nowadays. State budgets fluctuate along with the political climate. That's my thinking, anyway.