The Idea of:
The Google University.
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(This is a fictional piece for consideration by Google and this site's readers - The Google University does not exist at Mojo City or anywhere else).
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February 24 , 2008 - a comment by Cody Barstow, Ph.D.
What if Google created a university? What would it be like?
Read on.
Give me the next 6 paragraphs to to set things up. Don't fear, they're short.
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Here's what we're looking at (I'm a professor at a state university so I have a fair idea of what I'm talking about).
Most state universities exist to ensure that the current state of knowledge continues. A shortsighted, but noble mission.
As a general rule, state universities do not attempt to nurture brilliant ideas that are outside the mainstream. That is why private enterprise exists. And most professors in state universities come from yesterday's thinking, not today's. And certainly not tomorrow's way.
Most state universities teach yesterday's ideas, not even today's realities.
Original ideas are killed by a process of slow peer-review which means that ideas proposed may only show up in print for consideration two years later, long after their use is already in place.
This kills the incentive for creative, smart thinking not only because of the time-lag, but also because innovative ideas are not readily accepted by traditionalist-peers, who ultimately may reject papers for publication because they cannot think beyond their limited, often outdated box.
Enter, The Google University.
The Google University (TGU), located here in Mojo City, was established to move smart ideas into practice, and encourage the development of more brilliant and creative thinking.
What TGU does is something most universities cannot accommodate - the quick incorporation of new ideas that build on originality and usefulness.
[Here is a fact woven into this fictional consideration of TGU within the fictional Mojo City - online advertising is expected to reap $50 billion by 2011. Now, we're back to likelihood - with that $50 billion in mind (about 20 % of overall ad spending in the U.S. at that time), how many state universities have online advertising as a course in their advertising majors, or even a syllabus entry? Probably not more than one in 50. I haven't done the research to know - I haven't had the heart to deal with the disappointment of state universities universally failing to prepare the freshmen they are now taking into their fold.]
In fact, TGU is unique in that it encourages ideas that break the mold and speeds the process of development and use by society. Most universities and most thinking is designed to build on established ideas, while failing to recognize that the very foundations of those old ideas have been swept aside.
What the Google University Does.
The Google University is both a virtual university, and a real-world expression of what a university should be.
As a virtual university, TGU has moved beyond the original Google mandate of dispersal of information through its search and advertising capabilities, and moved to also accommodate the opposite direction - the incorporation and development of information in a single location.
What the Google University Does with Ideas Submitted.
Google has established an efficient process of reviewing ideas submitted by independent thinkers, and proposing the development of ideas it can support.
The worthiness of ideas is not limited to those which will show a profit. This review and evaluation process is designed to identify ideas we, as a culture, will need to consider as we move into the coming years. A simple example would be the development of a plant which could endure harsh environments, for use by developing countries.
NOTE: Google has protected itself against lawsuit for infringement of ideas (which cannot be copyrighted in the first place, but can cause real headaches in frivolous court filings) through an innovative use of and more detailed system-use of the screenplay registration system used by the Writer's Guild of America.
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(This is a fictional piece for consideration by Google and this site's readers - The Google University does not exist at Mojo City or anywhere else).
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What
the Google University Does
as a University.
(the Google Scholars Program)
Likely more important than the immediate Return On Investment (ROI) perspective of the nature of ideas submitted, is The Google University itself.
The Google University is based on the idea that interpersonal contact among people of similar interests is critical in developing innovative, groundbreaking ideas. While the Internet has tremendous potential, it cannot replace the casual conversation over a beer and the sketch on a napkin that leads to the "aha!" instant.
As a result, TGU is located in a vast number of locations throughout the world (e.g., Boulder, Colorado, and Saigon, Vietnam (AKA; Ho Chi Minh City). The university has created locations where small groups of people of similar interests can congregate.
For example:
This "bringing together" of various but related areas of study and creative development are part of keeping faith with university notions of gathering diverse fields of study, but placing them within a specialized environment (comparable to the idea of a business school, or a school of mass communication in a university setting) which is conducive to the expansion and actual use of their skills and creative output.
Note also that this is quite in keeping with Richard Florida's notion that one of the functions of a vital growing city is to congregate creative talents of similar ilk. You can review Florida's quite convincing response to his theory's critics here.
There is another aspect of The Google University which is unique to TGU. Each scholar, to be accredited as a Google Scholar and to reap the benefits of that title, will have the opportunity to attend a week-long summer or winter creativity seminar in Aspen, Colorado.
This creativity seminar is in keeping with the Google culture in that it provides tools and experience in creative thinking and is designed to help each individual scholar reach the heights of creative thinking in their field.
Google Scholars' thinking will be distributed to others in their field through e-mail and the Web, and their work will be quickly peer-reviewed within two weeks of submission. The work will not be kept from publication on the official site if it is not approved by peers (though NDAs and other agreements may preclude publication):
It is a guiding principle that the most creative thought tends to not fall into accepted canons of thought, and that peer-review may well kill the best, most innovative, and most important thought. Therefore, while a work by a Google Scholar may not be accepted by peers, it will be published, but with the notation that it was not accepted by those peers.
Why Google?
Good question. But the answer is actually really quite obvious.
The very brand name "Google" has become synonymous with creative thought and innovation. There is no brand better suited to trade in on brand recognition and meaning than Google to embark on this earth-changing enterprise.
This brand recognition will serve well in recruiting the talent needed for this kind of venture, which encourages really creative thinking, rather than just developing support for old and stale ideas as do so many other think tanks.
Google has money, and can pull this off.
And when Google pulls it off, and solves at least part of the problem of malaria in Africa, improves communication and economic development in Vietnam, and encourages a more competitive and vibrant university system in the United States which will develop a far better world than the one we're heading into ... there's going to be both an emotional and hard-cash Return On Investment beyond anything currently imaginable.
Because the future is really unwritten only for those who refuse to be controlled by history.
And Google has never been about history.
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(This is a fictional piece for consideration by Google and this site's readers - The Google University does not exist at Mojo City or anywhere else).
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It's too damned late.
The weather sucks.
Sunset.
Final curtain.
Google University.
An entire new way of creating our society, our Web, our lives.
And an unabashed attempt to garner Google's attention for a brilliant new idea.
