Scott MacLeod
10:42 AM (21 hours ago)
to Julian, Larry, Govind, Jayni, Kyle, Juan, tito, yuping.chung, Iulian
Julian (named CEO of the WUaS Corp), and WUaS Board,
Brainstorming-wise, in terms of the planned bookstore at the WUaS Press (at MIT OCW-centric World University and School in ~200 countries' languages), and this Harvard Book Store email - https://mailchi.mp/harvard.com/news-eventswilliam-gibsonnicholas-kristof-sheryl-wudunn?e=2c8be7dea3 - (which store seems to be holding its own against other online large competitors due to location / place), it would be great to build out from such a storefront as this Harvard Book Store's picture in an actual-virtual, physical-digital realistic virtual earth at World Univ & Sch ... (such as in Google Street View ... and in contrast to Amazon, for ex., but with many parallels to Amazon and KDP as well).
The idea would be to go into a bookstore in a realistic virtual earth such as going INTO the Harbin Gate House as bookstore here ~ http://tinyurl.com/p62rpcg ~ (accessible from - https://twitter.com/HarbinBook ~ http://bit.ly/HarbinBook ) ... or into the Harvard Book Store through the image below and be able to buy virtual books in the virtual bookstore (eg the virtual Harvard bookstore in Street View) with direct correspondence to physical customers buying books in the Harvard Book Store (for machine learning purposes partly). And the WUaS Press bookstore could use this Google Street View approach to DEVELOP both actual and virtual bookstores in all ~200 countries.
Another key idea would be for merchants to sell through WUaS Press in this actual-virtual realistic virtual earth conceiving and development.
Glad that the WUaS Press published its 4th book in December 2019 - https://www.amazon.com/Dance-Pools-Virtually-different-Springs/dp/0578625490 - with another title planned for 2020.
Cheers, Scott
- https://www.amazon.com/author/scottmacleodworlduniversity -
- https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/World_University_Foundation -
- http://worlduniversityandschool.org/AcademicPress.html -
- https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Bookstore_/_Computer_Store_%28New_%26_Used%29_at_WUaS -
PS
Am wondering too about TradeMarking the World Univ & Sch name as we begin a merchandising campaign (for T-Shirts, Pens and Mugs, etc., and sold through the WUaS Bookstore too).
See, my letter below to Larry Viehland from yesterday:
If we become members / partner with edX we may at this point want to explore Trademarking the World University and School name and expressly for merchandising. Perhaps we could even explore adding the licensing clarifications to such T-shirts, and merchandise, so we could add the MIT OCW name as well. (I have the sense that New Englanders are great merchandisers). Beyond TradeMarking, a merchandising plan would have merit, and both in our online bookstore, but in many other ways, and countries / languages as well.
I recall talking with you about Trademarking re the Stanford name, for example, on sports merchandise ... but am not finding the blog post in these regards at this time. Here's some mention of Trademark here -
Will seek to call you this evening about communicating with edX possibly tomorrow.
Sincerely, Scott
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- Scott MacLeod - Founder, President & Professor
- World University and School
- 415 480 4577
- CC World University and School - like CC Wikipedia with best STEM-centric CC OpenCourseWare - incorporated as a nonprofit university and school in California, and is a U.S. 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt educational organization.
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Dear Larry,
I wonder if there might be ways to communicate with Lee through his father or similar, since I'm not clear that he's seeing the growth potential of World Univ & Sch for edX or education. Current draft of letter re WUaS ideas in response to his email. How best to express this?
Sincerely, Scott
Dear Lee,
Thanks for your email.
I think it's the CA BPPE licensing for both Bachelor and Ph.D. degrees in English around MIT OCW's ~2500 undergraduate and graduate courses that WUaS brings to the table in communicating further with edX about membership. (Last February 2019 at the licensing BPPE workshop in San Jose, CA, Dianne@DCA <Dianne.Arechiga@dca.ca.gov> said explicitly that the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education could license online Ph.D. degrees in addition to Bachelor degrees). She also said they'd readily license Google Education, which I had asked her about because World Univ & Sch has been in Google Education for years now for free (ie this email is in Google Education), so I'd think that BPPE would also license edX readily. BPPE licensing works together with WASC senior accreditation (andWASC accredits Stanford and UC Berkeley and 150 other universities on the west coast and some internationally). I also think MIT OCW-centric World Univ & Sch, in planning to be in all ~200 countries' official/main languages, could contribute greatly to a diversity focus at edX. And besides this, I think too that World University and School could become an extraordinary growth story for edX - planned as major online universities in ~200 countries' official languages for Bachelor, Ph.D., Law, Medicine and IB high school degrees, (and in all 7111 known living languages as wiki schools too).
(If WUaS were to become members of edX, could we offer all courses from edX to our matriculating students? Am assuming the affirmative).
I'll seek to respond to your 3 points here in a beginning way.
With regard to item 1:
I think you said on 18 Dec 2019 that edX membership would be $500 for WUaS, although your email of 1/20/2020 is a bit unclear in these regards. Since WUaS has $500 in the bank account (and about $1375 total), I think re funding that WUaS could cover the $500 edX membership fee immediately. And in talking with Larry, the chair of the World Univ & Sch Board, as well as the CFO, it looks like WUaS may be able to get the $5000 for CA's BPPE licensing https://twitter.com/
Furthermore in terms of WUaS planning, if edX were interested in aligning with MIT OCW-centric World University and School - planned online in each of 200+ countries' official and main languages as major online Universities and offering free-to-students' CC-4 MIT OCW-centric Bachelor, Ph.D., Law, MD and IB high school degrees - and WUaS licensed (with BPPE) and became accredited (with WASC senior) first in the US, to the great potential benefit of edX too, then edX would have a further major growth plan as well as the potential or working with an expanding MIT OCW-centric set of startup Universities (seeking to hire 2.2 million people over decades even).
With regard to sustainability: if edX and WUaS decide to proceed together - since we might or could also have about 8 months until the autumn of 2020 when WUaS could begin to matriculate our 2nd undergraduate class - and this could give edX, with your databases, time to seek begin to plan for, and to seek, REIMBURSEMENT (is the word MIT OCW's Ceclia d'Oliviera used with CC-4 MIT OCW-centric WUaS) and with your edX payment mechanisms on the edX platform, for potential matriculating 4-year Bachelor's degree WUaS students in all ~200 countries from the students' countries' Departments of Education, targeting the amount of $55,000 per student per year per GDP - per MIT and Stanford's annual tuition - (so I'm wildly guessing $30,000 per student per year for students from India?) for free-to-students' CC-4 MIT OCW-centric WUaS degrees and in conjunction with the edX courses/platform, this could benefit edX tremendously.
With regard to item 2:
Cryptocurrency, and in particular the mine-able with algorithms 'Pi' digital currency (and potentially in planning for students in all ~200 countries, speakers of all 7111 kown living languages, and brainstorming-wise, all 7.5 billion people on the planet, each a Wikidata PIN#, re coding):
You might find this Webinar on-demand with Stanford Law Professor Joe Grundfest interesting:
http://learn.stanford.edu/
"On June 18, 2019, Facebook announced its plan to launch a more stable and useful “next generation” cryptocurrency in 2020, called “Libra.” Does this new “global digital currency” mark the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of cryptocurrency, or will it fall flat?
Join Stanford Professor and former SEC Commissioner Joe Grundfest, one of the world’s leading experts in cryptocurrency and related regulatory matters, in a conversation about Libra and the future of cryptocurrency.
Although this MIT article today 24 Jan 2020 From MIT Technology Review "An uncertain future for Facebook’s Libra" suggests differently - https://mailchi.mp/
"On June 18, 2019, Facebook announced its plan to launch a more stable and useful “next generation” cryptocurrency in 2020, called “Libra.” Does this new “global digital currency” mark the beginning of a new phase in the evolution of cryptocurrency, or will it fall flat?
Join Stanford Professor and former SEC Commissioner Joe Grundfest, one of the world’s leading experts in cryptocurrency and related regulatory matters, in a conversation about Libra and the future of cryptocurrency.
Although this MIT article today 24 Jan 2020 From MIT Technology Review "An uncertain future for Facebook’s Libra" suggests differently - https://mailchi.mp/
With regard to item 3:
With regard to a single student (from India), and Shahbaz Sanjer in India could be a kind of test case, since one student's tuition could look reasonable to department of education compared with 100 or 500 students per year reimbursement, I've emailed this to Shahbaz in India (and Anant and Larry) on Wed 1/22/20. And see the last paragraph from item 1.
"Hi Shahbaz (your first name), Anant and Larry,
Thanks for your email, the information, your interest and your persistence. Having said that, getting started with edX for your English literature major at World University and School (and as WUaS begins licensing with the state of California's BPPE) sounds complicated (before autumn 2020). Given that, perhaps WUaS can start you with a CC-4 MIT OCW course or two for credit, and as a kind of independent study even. Let me get in touch with the head of business development at edX again, and then get back to you. As a graduate of Higher Secondary School in India, would you be interested in picking a course from CC-4 MIT OCW's English Literature, e.g. https://ocw.mit.edu/
Thank you again for your ongoing support and enquiry.
Regards, Scott"
Lee, could Anant help with getting in touch with the Department of Education in India (and I have a Stanford contact in these regards too) re matriculating students from India - 100-500? - at WUaS in the autumn of 2020?
World University and School platform development would be part of all 3 items, and with regard also to BPPE licensing (and WASC senior accreditation too). Am curious too if WUaS could we collaborate with edX for coding our WUaS Miraheze MediaWiki platform too - and with Wikidata / Wikibase in its ~300 languages?
I'd like to point out to you, Lee, and Anant too how slowly and small WUaS is starting, but WUaS does have 3 Bachelor's degree students:
1) Tanya S: majoring in Business, needs to 6 Sigma and 'Finance Theory' to graduate - and it's possible that if she were to do these 2 courses through edX (having begun the BPPE licensing process), she could graduate from WUaS in the autumn of 2020, and WUaS could become fully accredited by WASC Senior much sooner than the 4 years we learned it would take in 2013. And perhaps WUaS could even get the .edu suffix soon, having graduated our first class and thus become fully accredited. (Tanya is in WUaS's first matriculating undergraduate class, as you may know).
2) Shahbaz S: majoring in English (need to plan a 4 year course of study for this degree - hypothetically in edX)
3) Edward G: planning to major in Engineering (need to plan a 4 year course of study for this degree - hypothetically in edX)
I also think Shahbaz in India could become a way for WUaS with edX to think through how to seek reimbursement from its Department of Education, whether state or federal. (And similarly with Tanya in Florida and Edward in Tennessee - and could these states (counties even) help reimbursement WUaS via edX? What does edX have going in these regards?)
Thanks so much for your email, Lee.
Sincerely, Scott
PS
(And if I were to draft the BPPE application and head to Sacramento as early as on W March 13, 2020 for a BPPE workshop, this would give BPPE enough time to process the WUaS application to begin matriculating students at licensing WUaS in August or September of 2020).
Sincerely, Scott
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