every so often, i am bothered by a nagging feeling that there is a significant failure at p.g. to recognize the potential out there. i got it again today, when i read this article from "wired":
stanford put a class online, in the form of videos and more, for the public at large, and tens of thousands _completed_ the class. (originally signing up were _160,000_ people, but the class was on the subject of artificial intelligence, and it wasn't all that easy, so it's not surprising that the vast majority of 'em "dropped out".) also mentioned in the article is "khan academy", which has been featured in a segment on "60 minutes", and is also outstanding, hosting thousands of online video tutorials, covering matters in science, math, and economics, with a million students worldwide. the _reach_ of these projects is staggering, in my humble opinion. and again, it gives me a nagging feeling that project gutenberg -- with its alignment to the "great books" type of philosophy -- could be doing _so_much_more_... i have no suggestions, and i certainly wouldn't want to have to "defend" that nagging feeling as being "accurate", because i fervently hope i'm wrong about it... nonetheless, it haunts me... -bowerbird