I saw these guys present a few years ago when they were a subscription service for corporate R&D groups. They would send a regular shipment of materials, tagged with very simple descriptions ("this could be good for..."), and longer data sheets.
The idea was that they wanted to put the material in someone's hands in order to spark creativity.
Since then I've wanted to see a similar service for software. There's a lot of friction in evaluating new technologies--money and trust. On the trust angle, it's hard to trust the documenation and claims, and it's hard to trust that the installation experience is going to be easy. But you could package things up on a Knoppix DVD with everything pre-installed, with sample code, and with simple exercises to get you going.
For example, I'm aware that there's a lot going on in NoSQL technologies, but I don't have any pressing needs forcing me to understand them. But the right presentation could probably spark my imagination.
I think this would be a really fun company because it's basically all learning and brainstorming.
Interesting website, kind of irritating that the whole thing is using HTTPS; they should only implement that for logins/ecommerce, not for general browsing.
The idea was that they wanted to put the material in someone's hands in order to spark creativity.
Since then I've wanted to see a similar service for software. There's a lot of friction in evaluating new technologies--money and trust. On the trust angle, it's hard to trust the documenation and claims, and it's hard to trust that the installation experience is going to be easy. But you could package things up on a Knoppix DVD with everything pre-installed, with sample code, and with simple exercises to get you going.
For example, I'm aware that there's a lot going on in NoSQL technologies, but I don't have any pressing needs forcing me to understand them. But the right presentation could probably spark my imagination.
I think this would be a really fun company because it's basically all learning and brainstorming.