[Edu-sig] Future of CP4E after CNRI?

[Kirby Urner]

>One of my goals in life is to retire early (alas, 35's not an
>attainable goal by a long shot :-) so I can spend more time doing the
>Python stuff I consider the most fun.  And guess what...  CP4E is high
>on my list!
>
>The sooner BeOpen goes IPO, the better.
>
>--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://dinsdale.python.org/~guido/)

I'd love to see you freed to do CP4E stuff.  I'm skeptical
that the IPO strategy will work because digital assets, 
especially free and open ones, do not work on the "revenue
from sales" principle.  

I regard this not as a short-coming of the open source approach
(which makes plenty of sense, given the technologies involved), 
but of outmoded thought patterns in the business world.  

Clearly we would all profit if Guido were free to contribute 
his talents to CP4E.  It's a deep flaw in capitalism that talent 
goes unrewarded while mediocrity often nets the big bucks.

Kirby

PS:  It's an old book by now, but 'Education Automation:
freeing the scholar to return to his studies' still makes
sense, all these years later, and is available on-line at:
http://www.bfi.org/education_automation.htm

Excerpt:

As automation advanced man began to create secondary or 
nonproductive jobs to make himself look busy so that he 
could rationalize a necessity for himself by virtue of 
which he could "earn" his living. Take all of our bankers, 
for example. They are all fixtures; these men don’t have 
anything to do that a counting machine couldn’t do; a 
punch button box would suffice. They have no basic banking 
authority whatsoever today. They do not loan you their 
own wealth. They loan you your own wealth. But man has 
a sense of vanity and has to invent these things that 
make him look important.