These are NOT projects that are already set up as part of the
program. We just brainstormed for a couple of minutes about the sorts of
things that we thought were possible. (The list also reflects Thad's view
that the multi-media world has already progressed to the point where small
developers need to think about addressing niche markets.)
Information services -
HTML guide to the Evergreen State College for viewing with Mosaic/Netscape
- Campus Information Server, get systems in place for staff to provide,
maintain and distribute information on the network.
CD ROM to introduce the Wind River Forestry Canopy Crane Research Site to
users and prepare them for visits.
Education -
Our Smalltalk case study materials on CDROM, with digital video of
interviews, quizzes, exercises, etc.
Natural history database and kiosk software for Evergreen or public
schools. (This would need to be a project with some programmers too, I
think.)
Curriculum for public schools -
Local Math - CDROM based on video interviews with people in
Western Washington showing how they use math in their lives and jobs,
accompanied by curriculum and exercises based on those uses.
Western Washington Natural History CD for kids in school.
Environmental issues in Western Washington curriculum - spotted owls,
salmon on the Columbia, etc. With interviews, text, etc.
Hypercard front end for local history videodisk that the State of Vermont
made and distributed to each school in the state. (They ran out of time
and money, so it has no support materials beyond a minimal table of
contents.)
Art or entertainment -
This depends a lot more on other talent than some of the previous projects
- but conceivably stuff like The Manhole or a small piece of Myst.(Myst
took a couple years and several hundred thousand, so people should be clear
what's possible with the available time and resources if they want to try
something like this...).
There's also a local software company that already has developed the
tools to build animated programs for children - working out some sort of
collaborative arrangement with them might be another possibility.