Comments like yours are a little annoying because you're telling me off for making assumptions without providing alternatives to those assumptions. What else would the end game be? Then we can have a discussion about whether that's reasonable, and whether you can get there from here.
Yes, I apologize. I wasn't telling you off, I wanted to succinctly point out that there's more to the idea. To address your semi-rhetorical question, this model is easily adaptable to anything that you want to casually learn (excluding what I'll call "traditional education spheres"). That is to say, right now it's incredibly difficult both to offer to teach a cooking class in your community and to find a cooking class to take. Thinking about Niroka as a way to connect people with skills willing to teach to people interested in learning new hobbies is better than thinking about it as a place to go to learn (blank). If they grow and expand in this way, Niroka would become the starting point if you're interested in learning a new skill that can't easily be absorbed through what's currently available on YouTube or printed on the web (this also presents people who do offer some of these services that way an easy way to monetize). In a similar vein, it can also be easily adapted to handle scheduling for small businesses dedicated to teaching schools (in exchange for a cut, they maintain the schedule of classes and provide a large potential audience for say, a local pottery place or yarn store, etc.) The harder market to tackle would be traditional education where topics can require highly specialized knowledge and fall prey to bad teachers.
hugh3|14 years ago
Comments like yours are a little annoying because you're telling me off for making assumptions without providing alternatives to those assumptions. What else would the end game be? Then we can have a discussion about whether that's reasonable, and whether you can get there from here.
schmittz|14 years ago