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Dear Google,

We ( http://www.plml.org/ ) use many of your API services for our tools. Recently, we had to switch from the Google Search API to Bing's Search API due to the new fee-for-access system. Bing works, but does not yet deliver the same quality of service that teachers and students expect. We hope they improve, but so far, have seen little action from their API team.

With respect to the Google Search API: While our sites (for instance, http://www.boolify.org/ ) do utilize more than the maximum number of hits per day for the free API access ( with Search, it's just 100! ) we do not have the ability to pay the fees associated with the usage we incur.

Nonetheless, it is our mission to continue to provide free access to the educational tools we develop (there are many others like us), and struggle to continue to provide tools that schools expect to be of high quality, while balancing that ability with what we can provide within existing technological services.

The other grant programs you provide to nonprofits are essential (AdWords, Apps Enterprise, etc). We, and many others, make use of these grants daily, if not every minute, of our operation.

So, as you roll out additional fee-for-access programs, we humbly ask that you extend the grants program to cover these services as well. A little leeway on your part will go a long way toward helping us deliver on our social mission!

Many thanks,

Staff @ Public Learning Media, http://www.plml.org./

Dear Google,

We ( http://www.plml.org/ ) use many of your API services for our tools. Recently, we had to switch from the Google Search API to Bing's Search API due to the new fee-for-access system. Bing works, but does not yet deliver the same quality of service that teachers and students expect. We hope they improve, but so far, have seen little action from their API team.

With respect to the Google Search API: While our sites (for instance, http://www.boolify.org/ ) do utilize more than the maximum number of hits per day for the free API access ( with Search, it's just 100! ) we do not have the ability to pay the fees associated with the usage we incur.

Nonetheless, it is our mission to continue to provide free access to the educational tools we develop (there are many others like us), and struggle to continue to provide tools that schools expect to be of high quality, while balancing that ability with what we can provide within existing technological services.

The other grant programs you provide to nonprofits are essential (AdWords, Apps Enterprise, etc). We, and many others, make use of these grants daily, if not every minute, of our operation.

So, as you roll out additional fee-for-access programs, we humbly ask that you extend the grants program to cover these services as well. A little leeway on your part will go a long way toward helping us deliver on our social mission!

Many thanks,

Staff @ Public Learning Media, http://www.plml.org./

Megacorps aside, the interview process has changed significantly in the past few years. We're a small nonprofit devoted to building complex educational designs. While we're keen on building a lithe workforce during out startup stage, and while we're compensating only at the stipend level, our interviews are meant to bring in the best individuals we can find.

What does that means? It means that in addition to the interview itself, we discuss cases and, in many cases, ask for a code sample and/or add a programming challenge. The process isn't meant to be dispiriting in the least; but it is meant to bring in the most compatible, most visionary young people we can find, and, in our case, to help them get a significant boost onward toward their dream (read: visionary) career.

So, the arduous selection process isn't just a part of big-megacorps; it's becoming a part of many smaller (but highly innovative) organizations as well.

--Dave

Elaborated response: http://www.plml.org/node/93

Technologies are only part of the solution - not at all the entirety!

However, to avoid digressing from the topic of your question, my answers are several:

First, there is simply not the same incentive to create educational technologies as there is to create faster processors or larger hard drives. The benefit of a faster computer is clear and immediately actionable. The results of improved educational opportunities don't become clear for quite some time - 20 years or more.

Second, and more importantly, the comparison of Moore's law to education is inherently incorrect. Would your supposition be that the human cognition must double its... processing capability?... every few years, guided by increasingly powerful educational technologies?

If there is an opportunity, it's the opportunity that we're trying to capitalize upon: that armed with an understanding of how people learn, and coupled with the low costs of producing high-quality educational technologies, we can begin to make a difference.

The most important thing, in making that difference, is that technologies are used in such a way that they add something valuable to the experience of learning - whether it be visualizations with an explanation beyond what a teacher can reasonably provide; or equity; etc. Otherwise, the time required to set computers up, train teachers to use, develop lessons, etc., simply detracts from the educational potential of schools.

If anyone here - LAMP volunteers, especially - would like to become involved in making that happen, please let us know! But, in the meantime, please don't use Moore's law as a point of comparison.

Cheers,
--Dave

p.s. in response to a couple questions, yes, please, come one, come all - just send a note through the contact form on http://www.plml.org/ and I'll get back to you with some next steps. Thanks & cheers, --Dave

Would you like to help develop the project? It's PHP and CodeIgnitor - and needs some interested people to help start it back up! We had created a lot of connections to mine as supports once it's minimally supported... --Dave, http://www.plml.org/

Hey there, We created Codekindness, http://www.codekindness.org/ a site that links volunteer programmers and other techs with nonprofit organizations. Interestingly, the project itself needs some support, and so if you (or anyone else) who reads this would like to take it over, please contact me (through the contact form on http://www.plml.org./ The site has been successful in the past, but there simply isn't a time to run it now - despite that the need is greater than ever. Want to make a difference? It's an open project! Cheers, --Dave