Technology Roadtrip

I have a dream I would like to share.

I want to take Robotics and Technology based workshops all around Australia to Promote Engineering and Technology to young people (Or at least promote why Maths, Science and Technology are important in High School). There could also be a focus on careers. I worked with the Robogals team to start Robogals UTas; have run quite a few Lego Robotics Workshops and I know I can take it further.

Alongside or before this road trip I want to create a website to support Technology based videos/workshops and release them under a creative commons licence so people can change them and create their own. The website could be similar to http://www.drgraeme.net/ but have an updated look and feel like http://www.codecademy.com/ . The video workshops probably could start as a youtube channel.

Now I would love to do all of this work for free but unfortunately I need some modest income to live off. So I’m currently looking into funding options. I will even look into a kick starter-esk crowd funding campaign to see what I can source there. There will also be lots of applications for grants and many conversations to be had.

This is where I am asking for your assistance: are you able to provide any advice, ideas, assistance based on your experience in the fields of media, business, education, intellectual property or websites.   What do you think would be the advantages and disadvantages about this idea? I am looking for constructive criticism as well as support to ensure I don’t develop unrealistic expectations.

I’ve got many options. E.g. I could run it under Robogals and name it the Great Australian Robogals Roadtrip (GARR) for short but being a non for profit may cause some issues with crowd funding. I could potentially do the workshop component of the project as an honours project. I could run it as my own business or under another organisation. E.g. some people from ThoughtWorks and the Python Software Foundation might be able to help. I can’t start all of these conversations myself though, so any help spreading the word would also be greatly appreciated. I’m thinking of engaging my old college to help with media. I want the focus of my efforts to be on education and open technologies.

When I’m ready to start it looks like I may spend up to 6 months in Tasmania working on developing Robotics Workshop ideas and potentially an extra 6 months testing and improving them while in Tasmania before taking a polished product Australia wide. Do you know of any other similar initiatives?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated ^_^.

 

I look forward to hearing from you soon. If you’ve read this far maybe check out my post Idea Evolution

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