Thursday, 16 March 2000
© 2000 The New York Times
A 35-year-old software billionaire said yesterday that
he would spend $100 million to realize his vision of 21st-century
higher education: a giant, free Web site providing access to the
``10,000 greatest minds of our time,'' in lectures and interviews
recorded especially for the venture.
Michael Saylor, the chief executive of Microstrategy, a technology
company in northern Virginia, said in an interview that his goal
was ``free education for everyone on Earth, forever.'' And he
envisions his institution granting degrees in numerous disciplines,
based on final exams administered once a month in convention halls
around the world. Grading would be done by computer whenever possible.
Saylor is an unabashed self-promoter who rented the Washington
Redskins' stadium in January for a Super Bowl party for his employees
and friends.
But he is worth enough money - $11.7 billion at the close of stock
trading yesterday - to make it difficult to immediately dismiss
his idea, however grandiose.
Saylor intends to make his donation in the form of cash and stock
to his foundation. It comes when almost every American university
is developing online offerings of its courses - each one chipping
away at the notion that a university must have bricks and mortar
and a physically present student body to be effective.
But with students at Saylor U. - he hasn't come up with a formal
name - requiring nothing more than a computer to enroll, his effort
would take online education a step further, undermining a university's
very franchise in charging admission for access to knowledge and
expertise.
At his online university, Saylor imagines Bill Clinton teaching
politics, Warren Buffet lecturing on investing and Steven Spielberg
demonstrating filmmaking - all in 30-hour video packages, with
questions anticipated, and answered, in advance. So far, he hasn't
recruited a single instructor, but he doesn't intend to pay them
a dime. He says they will be drawn to his television studio by
the opportunity to make their thoughts available to the world
for eternity.
``It's a work in progress,'' a spokesman said yesterday.
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