Talk:FTGSeedProject

Paragogy & Business Musings

 * Joe and I had a nice chat today about education, money, paragogy and how they fit together, building off these 2 blog posts: https://www.edsurge.com/n/2012-12-04-opinion-why-education-technology-doesn-t-exist & http://www.toobigtoknow.com/2012/11/16/2b2k-moocs-as-networks/
 * Paragogy/Business Metaphors
 * Library - Make a 21st century remix of a library that's based on peer learning
 * Brick & Mortar Paragogical Business - Sell computers in Africa and combine it with consultation on how to learn effectively online with paragogical tools
 * DJ - We become the GirlTalk of educators, remixing existing content into new ways that are useful and attractive enough to people they pay us
 * Incubator - Work in an educational incubator and have them pay us. Spend our time figuring out how to make enough progress we can get a second round of funding
 * Money don't matter? - Worrying about money is a distraction for us, what we should be focusing on is how to learn from/with peers in the most effective way possible
 * Agent - LeBron James' agent allows LeBron to focus 100% of his energy on being a better basketball player; ours would allow us to focus on practicing/developing Paragogy and he would make sure we got our paychecks every 2 weeks with him taking a cut
 * Paragogical Learning is what we want to keep our focus on. If LeBron took a summer off from improving his basketball game when he was 17 to focus only on making money he would not have become the best basketball player in the world he is today where money's no longer an issue ... If we can become the best in the world at learning with the tools available today, money will take care of itself? Maybe?
 * 4 Hour Work Week - Figure out a way to get paragogy.net admin work (i.e. billing, grant writing, whatever it is that needs to get done in order for us to make money) down to 4 hours/week so the other time we could focus on improving paragogy

Friday 7 Dec 2012 GChat
me: yo Joe:  hey, saw your email I just replied Sent at 2:52 PM on Friday Joe: I think the only reason to get into startups is if you're very confident that your idea will be successful You need to be able to beat the odds like in a lot of things unless you just like the culture (again, like a lot of things) me: reading your e-mail nice response as usual Joe: I think the paragogy idea is a very good one But I don't know how to make it a successful business me: in terms o' startup metaphor? Joe: yeah, I remain clueless it's almost like, the more successful we are, the less of a good business it is Imagine if Ben Franklin was like, hey I have a good idea It's all about the benjamins remember We're gonna call it the Public Library It will be massively popular great for education there will be one in every city etc etc Totally right No business model Or, rather, there IS a business model tax payers So, maybe we could get funding for paragogy/peeragogy in the same model So maybe we should go talk to Obama Sent at 3:00 PM on Friday me: +1 for Obama talk I promise 2 keep my personal politics out of it So, what's more important? Starting the next "Library" type idea, or having money for going to the bar? Joe: In the end I think librarians make more than $25K per year Probably more like $50K or $70K me: maybe the library metaphor is a good one for paragogy? or, librarians are paragogical consultants? Joe: actually I think it IS a good metaphor me: what do you want to learn about? Oh, check out this, this an dthat Joe: it's like a living library THE Howard Rheingold is an example Like, my friend Tim is a fan of his he read his books in high school and stuff Now we can just chat with him whenever we like because he's into the paragogy idea Sent at 3:04 PM on Friday me: not following Joe: OK let me start over me: can you do voice? Joe: yes I could me: mumble it up! Joe: but let me try one more time now for a bit Oh, my headphones are still broken we'd have to skype me: ok Joe:  But, the idea me: ok Joe:  Is like this Imagine a library where people can donate books or get them out for free Book swap style OK, but now instead of books, people make themselves available So, instead of reading "On the Road" (for instance), I can chat with you Instead of reading Howard's Lucid Dreaming book, I can try to live the peeragogy dream with the group At the same time, I check myself into this "library" too So if you, or Paola, or Howard or whomever wants to check out what I have to say You just go over to the "library" and what you get is there BUT of course, the internet is like this too So paragogy is special me: right Joe: Because it's not just a library, it's more of a workshop Sent at 3:09 PM on Friday me: a remix of the library and internet metaphors? with a dash o' Corneli & Danoff? Joe: something like this yes I think library sorta/kinda works or like DJ Shadow's record collection me: instead of books/blog posts to "check out" we have workshops/meetings Joe: yeah me: +1 DJ Shadow Joe: AND instead of just being things to do online, there's actually something sorta productive about paragogy me: Paragogy is DJing the library and internet to make a song that'll get you 2 fucking dance in 2012 right now Joe: at least, we hope so right So, if Girl Talk can do it for music me: way that audience "productively" dances in response 2 DJ and there's a symbiotic relationship? Joe: I know that this is kind of the idea for a lot of "open education" people... Scott Leslie for example talks about that exact idea But I think it doesn't have the same kind of "culture" as, say, turntabling So it doesn't really stick together or grow easily It's not really a "movement" That's how I see it but it might head that way anyway, sorry to type so much i'll be on skype if you want to chat Sent at 3:15 PM on Friday me: maybe right now we're in the same place house music was in the 1980's Joe:  literally "before it was cool" me: what's possible in the next 20 years is emerging it just hasn't been properly executed yet right rather, it was crazy cool if you were in on it then not mainstream Joe: true! It's definitely fun to do me: b4 it was mainstream Joe: Maybe more like skateboarding Which was actually a really nerdy thing to do (before it was cool) those silly little plastic or wood skateboards Sent at 3:18 PM on Friday me: http://teachpaperless.blogspot.com/ Sent at 3:36 PM on Friday