mainsequence

These may or may not be super-profitable or particularly solvable via software:

Basic math and science literacy for a large percentage of people (in the US at least, but I suspect many other places as well).

The pipeline from childhood to the ability to make something people want.

Access to the opportunity to gain economically valuable skills for those who happen to be born in poor families, neighborhoods, cities, countries.

HFOSS might be interesting, they work almost exclusively with students: http://hfoss.org/

As a writer who sometimes covers tech startups, I can also add that it helps to get in touch before an event or official news release happens. It can sometimes take a while before a story gets ok'd by the editors.

I'm starting on Monday as an intern/reporter at a well established international (print and web) science magazine and am wrestling with these questions right now. I'd love to try (or at least promote) some crazy ideas, if any body has any suggestions.

I think, for example, that magazines should also be (web) tv channels. Vaynerchuk's wine library seems like an interesting model, I wonder, can it work for science?

Also, are there any podcasts that are economically viable?

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated; DM me at Twitter if you want to get in touch (@mainsequence)

Apparently we won't be forced to enter our "Matrix" pods, the economy will make it the only option.

Inspiring idea. Have you considered aggregating the various twitter feeds of your bloggers?

How reliant are you on your own personal knowledge of Chicago to make this viable?

Were you inspired by similar projects in other cities?

Does this open up room for content-providers in other silos to expand into the TV space? For example, magazines. Wired tried to start a science series on PBS a couple years ago and it flopped. Could it work as an online-only thing?

"These subscribers might even be issued a share of stock in the first year."

I wonder, could this work? NYT is trading below $5 today, so that's like ~10% discount on a year's subscription.

I'm not a student at the Media Lab, but I do go to MIT and have some friends there. From what I have seen, it helps to have some good artsy-techy projects under your belt.

I don't think they require the GRE to get in, and I'm not sure how important grades are if you've done some interesting projects. I think they want some form of "accomplishment" combined with decent coding skills.

Admission is to specific research groups, so I'd look at the site, find a group doing work that interests you and contact the professor or some of the researchers in the group. Can't hurt to ask them what makes a strong candidate.

What is "right", moving online, incorporating bloggers, interactive visuals? (legitimately curious)

Thanks for drawing attention to this. Seems like blogs and twitter are more and more becoming platforms for posting about blogging and twittering. Could we start a list of bloggers/tweeters who actually contribute value?

Terry Tao, PZ Meyers (Pharyngula)

There's definitely an element of crowd control in the sense that the students are kids; they naturally like to get into trouble, and don't come pre-installed with self-management skills.

I think that it's important to be cognizant of how to manage crowds, but it's easy to get bogged down in just maintaining the peace. There's gotta be a reason to pay attention, a reason to behave, other than "do what I tell you or else"...this is what I meant by lousy teaching.

Sounds like your brother knows what he's doing and I'd bet his students are lucky to have him. With regards to his story about the overhead projector, it brings back fond memories of pretending to leave the room but really just standing right outside the door to see which students were the first to a) realize I'm gone and b) start trouble. The classroom can be a hilarious laboratory for the study of human nature. (I do certainly hope that the victim was alright and that the perpetrator was held responsible.)

I'm not a programmer, but I did TFA for three years in Compton after graduating with a BS in Physics. I would say that if you are serious about your start-up, it's probably not the best fit for you: you simply won't have the time or energy at the end of the day, especially in your first year. This of course assumes that one would do TFA because one wants to actually tackle the problem of educational inequality, and not just because one thinks it will look good on a resume someday or one has a martyr complex.

A typical day is: get to school at 7, plan, hold before-school tutoring, teach all day (with a lunch break of 30 minutes), kids go home at 3, hold after-school tutoring until 4, plan, go home at 5 or 6, eat, grade papers until you fall asleep. This was my experience at least.

I loved it because for me it was about connecting with people who had a completely different upbringing than I do. The skills I learned in the classroom have colored most of my professional life. I found that students, in aggregate, are excellent judges of character, and I really had to step up my game to gain their trust.

Common Criticisms and responses: "It's crowd control..." -only if you're a lousy teacher (and there are plenty)

"TFA is a cult..." -it is, but after your initial training, which is actually very useful, you can choose to be as involved as you want (I wasn't very)

"Teaching is for those who can't do anything else." -Maybe there's some truth to this. I think it depends on what a person believes is important. Effective teaching in an inner-city school is definitely not easy, and to be honest, I think it's a problem in need of a new solution. I think the world could use a better model of education more than it needs a better way to use RSS to find out what one's friend had for breakfast. So if you have the raw innovative skill, it's a huge opportunity.

It seems like most of you are defining the web to be separate from the people using it. Doesn't the Machine include the hamsters making the wheels spin?