Charro

I remember exactly where I was when I first tried spotify - I was in a taxi in Mexico City going by a bar or some such place that was called "Charro" - which I remember only because I like watching even the goofiest of Westerns and remember Elvis Presley's "Charro".

I asked someone what the word meant.  "It's like a guy who tells a woman he loves her and will be back but she knows that he won't come back."  Well, there are for sure quite many other ways of defining it, and maybe Elvis didn't play that sort of character but come to think about it, maybe he did.

In the taxi I had been playing with my phone and had just opened the spotify app.  I had distractedly gotten it all set up in the hotel room along with a few other apps, and there I was ready to try it.  But I distinctly remember thinking, "this probably rips a huge chunk of data out of the network..." Like a gun blast sending a bullet to high heaven to rip through flesh, data flies with a vengeance.  I hesitated.  I looked out the window and saw The Word painted on the side of a building.  I turned off the app.  That was my "first try".

I've been hearing a phrase "spotify for education" being thrown around by various people.  It's a great concept.  For instance, a space "where anyone's songs of knowledge can be found. where teachers are learners and learners are teachers".

Interesting how fast this term has moving into this space of use.  Not as common as Band-Aid but moving fast.  Yes, a great concept, browse, listen, create, share, be shared, join together...  Mobile education does not have such a common shared and sharing space at the moment.  There is much that is separate, and separated.  It would do well to bring some more togetherness into the picture.

But IMHO the Charro syndrome should be avoided.  Something like: try not to go into a space, bring promises, money, technology, plans, partnerships, predilections, predictions, presumptions... and then have things fizzle when the well of whatever philanthropic groundwater stream dries up.  This should not be about corporate social responsibility or any of the other tangents of well-intentioned initiatives with agendas hidden or not, clear or somewhat muddled policies and strategies that push and pull like that Dr. Doolittle creature...

And it should all be for the ultimate benefit of children who can grow, and thrive and learn and teach onwards.

And it shouldn't end up ripping into huge chunks of data?

And it shouldn't end up haggling about DRM?

And it should allow "the experts" their voice in all relevant forums even if  "those other experts" do not recognize them as experts?

And it should, as a tool,  be able to be reverse engineered, chewed up, improved, re-shared around  and possibly even presented out into a free space of onwardly good action just like any good open source tool with good open source manners brought to any wondrously good open source feast of something quite akin to paying it forward might potentially do?  Jeez I have to admit that I really do love run-on sentences:)