World: r4wp

I hope Doc has the technical chops to pull it off, because his head 
is in the right place, and the right perspective about the market.

Well, that's where Rebol was getting all their money so I suppose 
it seemed like a great idea at the time.

I won't say more about the opportunites that were there because it 
isn't my story to tell.

The people chosen at the critical stage to run the company were not 
a good fit, unfortunately.

A lot of people said a lot of stuff on both sides. And I meant die 
on a societal level, not just for RT. And I meant back before 2000. 
A lot of people thought they knew stuff back then, but most of that 
knowledge was really belief. For one thing, back then people in the 
free software camp thought free software would succeed because of 
principles - very few knew that those principles would be irrelevant 
and that practical considerations would make it succeed for other 
reasons.

Happens all the time. We are very fortunate that Carl continued the 
work as long as he did.

Yup

That's true Scot :)

Agreed.  So I still have quite a few ideas, though my funding sources 
have long since disappeared.

I suppose I might be able to drum up some more, but not unless they 
can own it.

Scot, you need to write that killer app!

I am working on making a business model.  If I can get it started, 
I can help get funding.

I don't know people who fund open source.

If things go the way I hope this year, I may be able to fund it myself.

Fortunately one pivot that has shown some success lately in these 
cases lately has been the switch from a commercial entity to an industry-backed 
non-commercial project. That has worked for a lot of languages. Since 
that is basically what Carl did, I hope it works for us too.

Not open source - just a simple business.

Cool :)

I'm thinking of a product that empowers enyone who needs to teach 
anything.

That sounds like an inspired idea.

More clearly, create a technologically empowered learning environment.

I'm thinking more of a specific tool/s

JN: I think there will be a key tool around which it all revolves, 
like Hypercard.

Write a business plan, write a business plan, write a business plan

Btw, the reason I can't work in the education market is because they 
don't tend to take college dropouts, even ones that have done post-graduate 
work. Minor detail.

Right.  I'm writing a disseration...

Not at the moment because you people are too distracting. :)

Writing a business plan is faster.

Excuses. Excuses

I will need a job in July.

I never graduated, they just put me into the post-graduate program 
right away. So I never needed the degree.

Actually, I needed some motivation today.  You people have been great 
motivators.

Brian, I don't think people will much care as long as you can produce.

Yes Brian, all that matters is that things get *done for a good price.

In fact, that sort of thing turns people on when they hear of your 
drive and success

My Ph.D. gives me a seat at the table in education conversations, 
so there are possibilities....

You are too smart for the system.

Thanks for taking this up NickA, james_nak, BrianH.  Teacher tools 
in a Classroom Suite.  I have a friend in high places.  I'll pitch 
it and see what he says.

That's important Scot.  I'll trump that, though, if I can get investors 
to dump some cash ;)

Unless the guys at your table have more :)

And Brian, my context is for you is creating for the educators and 
not being "one of them."

..Because then, yes, you need the piece of paper.

I think we'll need both NickA.  Assessment is the key to education. 
 That is an important part of my work.  I'm thinking that the learning 
environment might actually provide the perfect place to develop the 
analytic assessment tools that will emerge from my dissertation.

Well, I'm very glad you're here Scot.

We need more gray matter to help REBOL succeed.

So this discussion is allowing me to synthesize some ideas that might 
be workable.  Perhaps a symbiotic sort of relationship like Stanford 
and Xeorox park for educational technology.  I'm up for a faculty 
spot in So Cal.  Fingers crossed.

And more passionate involvement

Scot, it is ironic because just today I was observing an elementary 
school lab and assessment and true validation was the subject.

Yup. We don't have a clue, to be honest. We talk about learning environments 
but we dont' really know what they are and how they work very well. 
Still stuck in reductionist thinking.

Sociocultural thinking sounds good and makes people feel better about 
the learning experience, but we don't know how to measure it.

The software couldn't really tell if the students were really learning 
anything. (Because they could fool it).