Urban Permaculture Design Course - San Francisco Summer 2008

(under construction - just like the website - subject to change for the better)

Business Plan for Getsmartmoodle

Global Education through a Sustainable GetSmartmoodle.org

“There is nothing new under the sun; everything has been written, said, and done.”

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainability

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collaboration

http://www.partnershipresourcecenter.org/resources/partnership-guide/appendix-b.html

http://www.schwabfound.org/sf/SocialEntrepreneurs/Whatisasocialentrepreneur/index.htm

Definitions: 

Collaboration is a process where groups that disagree, often significantly, come together to identify common interests, define common problems, and seek solutions that reach beyond what any one of them could accomplish on their own...

Collaboration is [also] a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — for example, an intellectual endeavor that is creative in nature — by sharing knowledge, learning and building consensus. Collaboration does not require leadership and can sometimes bring better results through decentralization and egalitarianism. In particular, teams that work collaboratively can obtain greater resources, recognition and reward when facing competition for finite resources. Structured methods of collaboration encourage introspection of behavior and communication. These methods specifically aim to increase the success of teams as they engage in collaborative problem solving. Forms, rubrics, charts and graphs are useful in these situations to objectively document personal traits with the goal of improving performance in current and future projects.

Social Entrepreneurship drives social innovation and transformation in various fields including education, health, environment and enterprise development. They pursue poverty alleviation goals with entrepreneurial zeal, business methods and the courage to innovate and overcome traditional practices. A social entrepreneur, similar to a business entrepreneur, builds strong and sustainable organizations, which are either set up as not-for-profits or companies.

Sustainability, in a general sense, is the capacity to maintain a certain process or state indefinitely. In recent years the concept has been applied more specifically to living organisms and systems. As applied to the human community, sustainability has been expressed as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

In so much as the word sustainability means the above; this business plan wishes to apply the same definition to itself, to Getsmartmoodle.org, and the website (all three non-human entities) serving the human community as an means to an educational end. 

Autonomy (Greek: Auto-Nomos - nomos meaning "law": one who gives oneself his / her own law) is the right to self-government. Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it refers to the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, uncoerced decision. In moral and political philosophy, autonomy is often used as the basis for determining moral responsibility for one's actions. One of the best known philosophical theories of autonomy was developed by Kant. In medicine, respect for the autonomy of patients is an important goal for doctors and other health-care professionals, though it can conflict with a competing ethical principle, beneficence. 

Education encompasses both the teaching and learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency. It thus focuses on the cultivation of skills, trades or professions, as well as mental, moral & aesthetic development. ...The right to education is a fundamental human right. Since 1952, Article 2 of the first Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights obliges all signatory parties to guarantee the right to education. At world level, the United Nations' International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights of 1966 guarantees this right under its Article 13.

GetSmartmoodle.org's members are autonomous and each has the right to self-government. Autonomy is a concept found in moral, political and bioethical philosophy. Within these contexts, it refers to the capacity of a rational individual to make an informed, uncoerced decision. In moral and political philosophy, autonomy is often used as the basis for determining moral responsibility for one's actions. Getsmartmoodle.org is at liberty to develop into whatever it can become and still remain under the protective umbrella of other non-profit organizations; as long as, Getsmartmoodle.org is providing a service to the other organization. Getsmartmoodle is presently existing in the United States and also has to participate in the rules and regulations put forth by the USA and the state of Virginia. Virginia is not only a Commonweath, but an "at will" state. One may make use of the services of Getsmartmoodle.org as those conditions be met. Or as they apply to the requesting service agency that is being provided said service. Getsmartmoodle.org hopes that it will become self-supporting and is able to decline outside contributions. 

An organization that is presently in a start-up period of development; additional functionality is being added to its infrastructure. GetSmartmoodle is a computer applicaiton that is at liberty to be utilized by and develop alliance’s and associate with individual(s), group(s), organization(s), business(s), educational institution(s), government(s), or nation(s) who agree to cooperate in developing and achieving a common sustainable and global educational goal that will not include a brain-drain on the participating individual, community, organization, city, state, government, or nation. This business plan for Getsmartmoodle.org has the ability to change its prerogatives and direction. There is nothing etched in stone about this business plan and this plan can change as new and reasonable information is acquired and developed along the way. This business plan is meant to give life and creedence to an otherwise intangible idea. 

GetSmartmoodle.org mission is:

To establish that there are no dues or fees for membership in this organization... 

To attract an audience participation interested in online remote access via Synchronous and Asynchronous class activities; both educator and student alike.  To attract an exchange of teacher (professor, instructor) knowledge and an online learner (student) population. GetSmartmoodle.org is not an accredited school, college, or university; nevertheless, it is an online teaching tool utilized to assist and provide an affordable education and allows educators to perform their specialized job descriptions and teach. Primary, secondary, k-12, university, college, and corporate educators are welcome to participate.  

To enlist a diverse and educated range of teachers that are motivated to teach, create class curriculum, and provide services; regardless of initial payment to them. As membership is free at present and for an undetermined period of time, or until GetSmartmoodle.org is capable of becoming fully self supporting and sustainable; declining outside contributions. Upon achieving full program functionality there will be no charge for the use of GetSmartmoodle.org or staff services until there is marked improvement in its own ability to be self-sufficient. Then slowly introduce a low cost and extremely affordable education allowing a large and diverse population to participate in close relationships based on similar objectives or characteristics will be developed based on the region and area that is interested in making use of GetSmartmoodle.org services.

The creation of a sustainable and prudent reserve and the ability to pay its monthly or yearly hosting fees or any other reasonably based fees – such as salary(s) or additional programming support; based on the ideal achievement and not if GetSmartmoodle.org  actually ever realizes its potential capacity of supporting 200,000 end-users.

Again, this document is a work in progress and so is its author .. it is being changed constantly and reworded to try to find its proper wording and audience .. so, please bear with this organizaiton ..

Thank you for your patience ..