(2012-06-25) Winer Ideal Circumstance Thinking Tools Lab

Dave Winer describes his ideal circumstance. What I would like to do is create a new kind of development project, one that goes on for years and years. Maybe decades and decades... I love to teach this stuff. And I'd love to get a project going where students come and go as they shuttle through the university... A university-hosted Open Source project staffed by students creating software for and with other students and teachers and the world. A university is a perfect lab for this work. I've been noodling on a similar vision for years: I've called it the Thinking Tools Lab.

Oct'2012 update - Now I realize that I don't need the institution as much as I need the students. And I can't work with beginning programmers. I'm looking for people who have spend at least a few years learning the basics, stumbling, falling and getting up again. What I have to offer is the equivalent of an actor's studio, for people with extreme talent and drive, to be creative making software. You might get rich from what you learn, but that shouldn't be the point.