It's a great investment for two (2) reasons. First, I'm sure the money will be useful, but, perhaps more importantly, the fact that KhanAcademy was narrowed down from 150K -> 16 -> 5 ideas brings a well deserved sense of accomplishment to everything that Salman Khan has been doing.
I've got about 200 of his videos on my iPad, and I'm religious about absolutely absorbing and practicing stuff from them every day.
100% of my friends who have _any_ difficulty with Math, instantly are introduced to Khan Academy by me.
Even Bill Gates has been using Khan Academy with his children and envies Sal's teaching skills.
I'm surprised this never occurred to me. K-12 education is mostly the same stuff every year, and it's not that sophisticated. You'd pretty much only have to compile it once. I'm surprised nobody in the free software or creative commons movements thought of it.
There's a huge interest in education material in the free software and creative commons movements. The idea of putting free education material on the web isn't new at all, and there's tons of material available out there (and has been for quite a while).
Khan Academy stands out because it's just really, really, really (really) good.
For a while I thought Google would be sweeping this under the rug.
Great call on Khan Academy.
But the $1M spent on schweeb could have done more good elsewhere. Nobody wants to go pedaling upside down on a suspended monorail. The bicycle has solved this problem pretty elegantly.
Oh really? I do. I ride a bike 3 miles to work every day through Cambridge MA. This Shweeb idea would solve the weather problem, as well as the unshakable "oh god I'm going to die" feeling (since cycling with cars around is pretty damn dangerous), and probably be faster to boot.
Yeah, here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhxVtUFZVzk) they claim 2x the efficiency of bicycling, thanks to aerodynamics. There are some serious logistical challenges - e.g. to address the problem of slow people & free riders you might have to detect and incentivize/reward contributing (human) power to the system.
But the low-weight, self-powered approach means it's probably the lowest-cost system to mount above the current din of street life, which could end up being a big benefit.
I'd file it under strange/interesting, rather than crazy/ridiculous
I think the worst problem is breakdowns. Given a bunch of complicated mechanical devices zooming around the place all day long being pedaled by people with no incentive to be careful, how often is one going to get jammed? I'd say pretty often. And then your entire line is filled with angry commuters dangling in plastic tubes above the ground while you have to go get a crane to fix it.
Still, a small-scale deployment might work. I can imagine it on a university campus. I can't imagine any city installing it, simply because there are too many voters who would say "damned if I'm going to get into a little plastic tube and pedal while everybody looks at my legs".
I don't think breakdowns would be much of an issue, for one they aren't complicated mechanical devices in the slightest, they seem to be even more minimal than a bicycle.
The difference between waiting a couple of hours for a crane one day every few months, seems like a good tradeoff against sitting in gridlock everyday or the risk of being run down by a car imho.
But yes I agree that humans are not rational and would not do it for petty reasons. Can easily solve the 'look at my legs' problem with opaque tubes :P
That shweeb thing must be one of the most stupid things I've seen. On the other hand, giving Khan Academy money alone is worth every penny given to him for the great work he has done.
I hadn't heard of shweeb, but after a look at the website, it does indeed sound like a remarkably unworkable idea. Still, maybe there's some kind of possible idea for human-powered public transportation that doesn't look like a haven for system-destroying minor breakdowns and upskirt photographers.
There's also a lesson in there somewhere about how if you have an idea which seems silly, you should avoid also giving it a silly name.
I think you hit the nail on the head - it really just sounds unworkable. Just getting civic approval seems unsurmountable, the system seems frail (breakdowns, capacity, misuse) and all it is going to take is one person to have a serious medical issue with no chance of early responders being able to address the issue for this to get shutdown.
I'm so thrilled that they gave Carl Malamud/Law.gov $1 million. His tireless devotion to shining sunlight on government has dramatically changed the way we interact with our government (i.e. SEC EDGAR, which started off as a skunkworks project he turned over to the SEC under threat).
If you'd like to donate, go to http://public.resource.gov and scroll down to the PayPal Donate button. I just gave $100.
