Garrison Keillor notices my birthday
Yesterday I turned 41, and I got a zillion “happy birthdays” in various locations, more than I got on my 40th birthday, which I thought was very strange. I finally did some poking around online and figured out why. I was mentioned, again, by Garrison Keillor, this time on “The Writer’s Almanac” (brief MP3). To have your birthday marked by Garrison Keillor — and why should anybody notice anybody’s 41st birthday? — is a bizarre experience.
Unfortunately, Citizendium and WatchKnow aren’t mentioned. I’m afraid I haven’t worked much at all on the former, because I’ve been spending almost all my time lately on the latter. We’re up to 3,600 educational videos for kids, put into a wiki-style directory. We’re deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first impression — launch should be early this fall. Expect some really cool, and innovative, new software. I don’t know if it will be “the next big thing.” Considering how everybody’s trying to make the next big thing, it seems unlikely. But I do hope it will be really useful to school kids, teachers, and parents. That’s the aim.
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/06/science_wants_to_reward_good_o.php
“If you’ve been building a site for science education, you’ll want to looking into this: The Science Prize for Online Resources in Education (SPORE).”
Comment by Anonymous — July 18, 2009 @ 4:24 am
WatchKnow is a fantastically cool idea!
Is it done by the Citizendium Foundation or a separate entity? (Not relevant to anything, just curious as to which and why.)
Comment by David Gerard — July 18, 2009 @ 10:16 am
[...] a repository of CC by-sa educational videos for school children. The official big splash launch is set for autumn — they’re building it up in preparation for [...]
Pingback by David Gerard » Blog Archive » Educational videos for kids: WatchKnow. — July 18, 2009 @ 10:24 am
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids — July 18, 2009 @ 7:51 pm
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids | UpOff.com — July 19, 2009 @ 12:04 am
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids | google android os blog — July 19, 2009 @ 2:50 am
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids | DodaPedia — July 19, 2009 @ 3:19 am
It’s funded through the Community Foundation of Northwest Mississippi–they tapped me to organize the thing. You could regard it as a partnership of the Citizendium Foundation and the Community Foundation.
Note that it is not just CC-by-sa videos. It’s any free-to-view educational videos for kids. But we’ll be holding contests which people with CC-by-sa videos can enter.
Comment by Larry Sanger — July 19, 2009 @ 6:02 am
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids | eMediaOne — July 19, 2009 @ 8:06 am
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids - Programming Blog — July 19, 2009 @ 6:14 pm
[...] to executive director Larry Sanger’s blog, WatchKnow is “deliberately flying under the radar now, because we want to make a big first [...]
Pingback by WatchKnow Brings Educational Vids (Plus Games & More) for Kids » SteamWorx — July 20, 2009 @ 12:21 am
“Unfortunately, Citizendium and WatchKnow aren’t mentioned. I’m afraid I haven’t worked much at all on the former, because I’ve been spending almost all my time lately on the latter.”
When are you going to start working on this site again? I haven’t seen any real initiatives or leadership on this site for a year, at least-everything that has happened has been authors contributing on their own with no real guidance, and if you look at the graph on the statistics page, the article creation rate and the rate of new author sign up have stagnated or dropped. You and the other leadership need to actively provide direction and promote this website-most people at the University of South Carolina (I’m a student there) don’t even know we exist or why we’re better than other online encyclopedias like wikipedia. Could you please take a more active role in leadership here, or appoint someone else willing to do that? Otherwise, I’m afraid CZ is headed into obscurity.
Comment by Steven Bennett — July 21, 2009 @ 3:16 pm
Them thar youngins may larn sumthing from this here video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7iQRFP_e90
Comment by Tor Hershman — August 21, 2009 @ 11:48 am