Bill gave me permission to forward this email here.
Anyone on this list who'd like to have a 1:1 conversation with him
about whether his technology (it's a dedicated Perl/MySQL online
learning platform which he built himself) might make sense in a
Wikimedia context? He's open to the idea of open sourcing it. It's
probably most relevant to Wikiversity and related efforts.
Erik
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Bill Van Horne <billvh375 at gmail dot com>
Date: Fri, Apr 13, 2012 at 9:23 AM
Subject: New Service for Wikimedia?
Mr Möller:
I have worked for the past seven years programming a multilingual
Adaptive Learning system, which is now ready for use. I am wanting to
find an organization that has a character that meshes with my own,
with whom I can work to provide this as a service for the betterment
of humanity. Your organization tops my list of those with which I
would like to explore a working relationship.
I am willing to provide this service completely free to everyone.
Alternatively, Wikimedia could offer this as a sliding-fee-scale
subscription service to educational institutions based upon their
ability to pay. In short, the profit motive is secondary to the
educational aspect, but if the two can coexist, then I am open to
achieving both goals.
I would think that Wikimedia would like to find a business model that
won't rely forever for its survival on donations from a public that
can be unpredictable at times, combined with philanthropists that can
also choose not to give. Alternatively, if Wikimedia is content with
its current funding model, then I would be happy to explore how this
service could be integrated into Wikimedia's services, such that the
maximum benefit is attained with no associated profitability.
I am asking for 15 minutes of your time to show you how this system
integrates concepts and facts, presented in standard browser
compatible media, to create absolutely individualized teaching for
students anywhere that the Internet is available (and even where it is
NOT available).
I believe that much of Wikipedia's current content could be accessed
as is, with this system acting as a content delivery system that
simply acts to hierarchize the concepts into relevant associations of
educational material for a learner, which are presented while a live
volunteer human observes an entire group of learners at the same time,
and interacts when appropriate, to support each one's individual
learning process.
By SKYPE or phone I can walk you through the different user interfaces
so you can evaluate what I am proposing, and see if you feel it merits
further investigation as an adjunct to what you guys are already
doing. I developed and used this system while living in Peru, South
America for many years, and there are math teachings in Spanish I can
use to demo the system for you. If you want a preview of the system
before agreeing to meet with me, you can go to
http://www.llearnersa.com
Sincerely,
Bill Van Horne
--
Erik Möller
VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate