You have a lot of really good comments and ideas, I think many of them would have been discussion starters on their own :) What you describe (as I understand), the website would work
sort of as a directory of resources in content that is published by a
foundation, while promoting the FLOSS/FOSS software that displays it.
What would happen if going this direction was a success beyond all
possible imagination - the foundation did well, and big publishers
started making changes to create their own similar distribution
systems (seems like they would adapt rather then adopt.) SchoolForge could make something off of the skim, and the results
could back into promoting the community - not a bad deal. It could also
extend the use of open source software in schools.
Another thing to look at is how FLOSS has and will shape the 'how' as far as the perpetuation and growth of proprietary resources going into the digital age. Not that proprietary is always a bad thing, but looking back, is this a direction that has made the materials any more affordable or globally accessible? Now consider open source software/FLOSS, its affordability and accessibility, and the momentum it has picked up.. it seems like there is so much contrast here that it's an unfair comparison.
For now, the plan is to get some things going with the website. We have a pretty good outline of what resources can be made available through SchoolForge that would be valuable to both developers and users that would serve to promote & bring more people to see the efforts of SchoolForge members. For example, I've been thinking about a banner
system that would rotate coalition member 'ads' (randomly) along the right hand border of the page.
After considering some of these ideas, and about ways that SchoolForge could bring people in, and if there were a banner system that
promoted member efforts, would the idea of a sort of voluntary co-op for ads to be presented on larger networks be desirable? That led me to think, well, instead of chipping in to get advertising,
maybe that would be a good reason to allow some advertisements on the
website - it could go into a pool that would be used to further promote
member efforts. Hmmm..
So there you go, sort of full circle.. :)
Justin