Saturday, March 2, 2013

Olympics' canopy: WUAS's Business Plan and Conversation, World University and School's online bookstore / computer store ... http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2013/03/olympics-canopy-wuas-business-plan-and.html ...



On Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 4:10 PM, Scott MacLeod <worlduniversityandschool@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi David,

Here's World University and School's wiki, Business Plan, subject page - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Business_Plan - and I'll try to dig out some more number-oriented Business Plans from the 2 HP Open Innovation grants and the 2 MacArthur HASTAC grants WUaS has written, but didn't get. 

In thinking through a current business plan with a 3-4 year horizon - a helpful process - to respond to your question, I wouldn't yet include the following in WUaS's business model:  
... MIT has around 1,000 faculty members (not including researchers, let alone staff), and neither has a Law School, nor a Medical School, both of which WUaS is planning online. (And Harvard has almost 500, full Professors, earning nearly $200,000 per year each). And WUaS would like to become the MIT / Harvard of the Internet and, after the WUaS in English, begin with the U.N. languages, and then develop a wiki-school in each of all 7,413+ languages (each a wiki page to begin) and an online university in each of all 204+ countries. I also wouldn't include that WUaS plans to become a major, academic job producer for universities in many of the 204+ countries and wiki-schools in all 7,413 languages. ... 

What I would include in an updated business plan is
- accreditation costs over 3 years, through December 2016, with matriculating bachelor (first in 2014 of up to 2,000 students, then in 2015 and 2016), Ph.D. (in 2015 of up to 500 students and also in 2016), and Law classes (2016 of up to 3,000 students), as well as an International Baccalaureate I.B.) Diploma (accrediting on online MIT OCW High School beginning probably with the first online class in 2015 of 500), and in English, but not the first, Medical School class (first matriculating in 2017), all in English,
- the hiring of an Executive Director, a Director of Fundraising/Development, a Director of Information Technology (perhaps even first as interns), and especially interns (hopefully MIT / Harvard graduate students to facilitate the conference method as graduate student instructors, earning to start $11.50 / hour for 8-12 hours per week), and eventually faculty, beyond these MIT OCW videos - http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/audio-video-courses/ - with these MIT faculty as our first professors, as well as, and importantly,
- the beginning of an online bookstore / computer store (e.g. $2,500 for the Quickbooks POS Multi-store software, with support for at least the 6 United Nations' languages, and $500,000 in other startup costs, including the purchase of inventory). 

I'll try to get the figures into a spreadsheet, and itemize a few more aspects, as well.

Diversifying our grant-seeking strategy, beyond governments, companies and philanthropic foundations/organizations, is one answer to your last question, and then to overseas' governments and companies, as the bookstore / computer store begins to generate revenue streams. 

Creative Commons' licensed MIT OCW creates interesting financial challenges for a startup, CC, MIT-centric University that is WUaS. 

More later, 
Scott




Hi, David, 

Thanks for your good ideas ... Are you writing WUaS / me as an investor? If so, perhaps we should talk more explicitly about the WUaS online bookstore / computer store, for which we don't yet have students for purchasing and start us off, but which WUaS is planning eventually for all 7,413 + languages and 204 + countries, initially for intellectual / musical resources for WUaS's students. As a nonprofit 501 (c) (3) charity, WUaS isn't seeking investors, - rather donors and contributors, - but we eventually would like to grow large WUAS's online bookstore / computer store - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/Bookstore_/_Computer_Store_(New_&_Used)_at_WUaS. 



On the MIT OCW-centric, Creative Commons' licensed side of World University and School for free, C.C., university degrees, baby steps have been the emergent process with WUaS for years now, with tortoise-like successes, with CA incorporation (in 2010), federal 501 (c) (3) tax-exempt status (in 2011), - which is very important, and competitive, especially in a fund-raising sense, - and just in the last, few weeks, WUaS has begun the accreditation process with 3 accrediting agencies ... The WUaS business plan is part of this process. 

Besides the wiki, WUaS business plan (and I'll incorporate some of your thoughts there), business models/plans, in general, seem especially appropriate tailored to a specific foundation or organization, and it makes sense to me to focus on finding such organizations, (which have been thus far surprisingly few and far between, but sometimes when it rains it pours), when the philanthropic organization, per its web site, states its goals clearly for what it wants in a business plan. 

Startup universities take time, especially those that aspire to become the online MIT / Harvard of the internet, as WUaS does ... And most colleges have track records ... WUaS accreditation first/next ... Still wondering how to get our first $100,000 within a month ... 

With some challenges, Jimmy Wales has been successful with Creative Commons' licensed (C.C.) Wikipedia/Wikimedia, now in 285 languages and with millions of co-written articles, seemingly through his own, very visibile promotion of it to start, as well as with fundraising ... For example, they hired last year eight, German Wikimedians to build the C.C. Wikidata database/repository, which WUaS is planning on using, and are hiring them again for the next year. 

And Creative Commons' licensed MIT OCW has its mothership of MIT itself and a $4 million / year annual budget - and what a trove of courseware for learning and sharing - and 10 year plans for the future ... 

What I also appreciate about the WUaS, open, hour-long, monthly, business meeting process (in the manner of f/Friends/Quakers) is that WUaS has a governance process, with nearly two years of business meeting Minutes, and the process is fair, equal, transparent, listening- and reason-oriented (and Quakers have been around using it for 350 years, and many of the Quaker colleges are more than 100 years' old using a form of this) and it involves communicating with each other from a kind of centered place ... 

WUaS is really looking for some startup monies / a foundation / an organization with the right criteria for WUaS: Here's the foundation page, with our mission and board - http://worlduniversity.wikia.com/wiki/World_University_Foundation. 

WUaS would love to hear of any organizations as good fits, possibly with a web site, for which we could write a crisp, business plan. And if you'd like to explore becoming a financial resource in the WUaS bookstore / computer store division, we would also bring a proposal to WUaS monthly, business meeting. 

In WUaS's patient (yet I personally, like WUaS, very much need monies), business plan approach, I think developing the right networks (such as via Reed College, and the state of California) in diversifying, to reiterate, our grant-seeking strategy, - eventually with governments, companies and philanthropic foundations, - is one answer to your last question, and then turn toward overseas' governments and companies, as the WUaS bookstore / computer store begins to generate revenue streams. 

I think governments and companies, as well as foundations, around the world will greatly appreciate MIT- and STEM-centric, free-to-students (because C.C.), online, university degrees in their countries, - and accreditation is another step in this direction. 

Thanks for your thoughts, and I'll further develop WUaS's business plan. 

Looking forward to further conversation. 

Regards, 
Scott


*

Hi, David,

Thanks ...  key things about WUaS, which will inform our business plan ... 

1) MIT OCW - centricity which is Creative Commons' licensed (C.C.), and thus can't be charged for ... 

2) Wiki (Wikidata is also C.C.) - editable web pages - for an all-language, knowledge conversation ... 

3) accredited Creative Commons' licensed degrees (which is different social contract with governments and companies than the current U.S. university model)

Just wanting to clarify ... in our business model conversation ... 

The MIT-centricity is far-reaching ... 

MIT, Wiki, Free, C.C. ... 

More later, 
Scott






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Scott MacLeod 
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