Mark talks about the constraints that schools system has with funding being cut etc. I think we have to re-evaluate the way we run schools or how we design them. Major part of the funds go into actual facility maintenance and logistics. We must start looking at distributed and shared campuses, the city as a school and systems such as tutorvista.com for regular subjects. Sourcing tutors from somewhere faraway might not be acceptable to some but I would argue that it helps the students work with a different culture and that is a good thing.

On Nancy’s question of prioritization, I don’t think multi-membership is a big problem. People will prioritize based on their needs. We have some experience in South East Asia where people have no choice but to learn via such informal groups as no formal alternatives are available. People are able to pick and choose the community depending on their needs. Also the breadth and depth of learning depends on your project or need at the moment. If you have a good basic understanding of a concept and you know where the experts you can tap on are, then that is a good start.