I came across a post on the Second Life forum (Link) this morning that starts to touch on a part of the lecture and critique system I mentioned in yesterday’s post (reLink) dealing mostly with the protoSat build in Second Life. Here are excerpts from the post by avatar Nyx Divine:

I see ‘auctions’ for people, from time to time in ‘events’, most for love or companionship and some, rarely, for charity, since I am currently STARVING for knowledge I’d like to set up and help host an auction that sells knowledge.

I know there are some absolutely wonderful places to take classes in SL (TeaZers, ASL, NCI, just to name the ones I know) but this would be different. This would be those of you that have the time and the inclination, as well as the talent, to auction yourselves off to the highest bidder. BUT……you would, prior to bidding time, outline in a notecard exactly what you would be ‘WILLING’ to do for the winner of YOU! And for how long. So the bidders know EXACTLLY what they are bidding on.
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My ‘ideal’ is that the proceeds of this would go to a worthy cause in SL and NOT to the teachers….so altruism would be the word of the day.

And here’s my response:

I’ve been dancing around a similar idea as part of my protoSat build (which I discussed in a rather long blog post yesterday). This might sound anti-social, but allowing the teachers to set a variable percentage of how much they receive and how much goes to some other cause will, I believe, allow for more flexibility and eventually greater success. When I became vegetarian, I built in exceptions to the rule specifically so I would be able to deviate without failing; recognizing that transition would be difficult. It worked. I think the same applies here. Giving teachers the option to deviate from 100% charity without failing to be charitable (you could set a lower limit – say 25% to charity) gives them additional incentive. If they choose to give all of it, that’s great. If not, there’s nothing wrong with being compensated for their time.

Actually, I’m more into the idea of a system that works at the classroom level in order to reach a greater number of people who can benefit from the knowledge. Basically a teacher (manufacturer – I tend to think in terms of RL production) can auction off their services to a middleman (distributer/retailer) – or a group – who then sets up a class for a fee. The teacher is the altruistic one in this system. The middleman buys their talent, a portion of which goes to charity. The middleman then sells classes (after all, everything in a vw is information) and keeps the profit (the motivation to organize and advertise).

I’ve not had time to pursue this, but if you set up a system and there is a need for a space to conduct classes, I might be able to help. I wouldn’t charge because there’s more to the overall system that compensates a facility owner (I never considered Dwell since I’m uninterested in artificial life support) … which is still an issue for me tbh. Part of that issue is having a system that keeps the facility busy (in manufacturing, machines that aren’t cranking out product are bad). For that one needs a pool of motivated instructors.

Anyway, whatever you do, best of luck. I’m big into teaching people (and learning from them) so if someone gets this going, it’ll have my support regardless of whether or not I’m involved.

Sure, I could have kept my mouth shut and continued working on my way of developing a virtual school system. Thing is I want someone to do this. Whether it’s me or someone else, it doesn’t matter. Truth is, I have too much on my plate and if someone develops this system I can still get involved in a number of ways. Besides, I give away ideas all the time (like the “Mouse Trap” dating concept I gave to some new resident building a golf course sim). I’d rather do that than let them gather cobwebs in my mind.