Posted by kusno mudiarto at July 5th, 2006

I have a dream. Currently have nothing to prove for it, but I decided that I have to start sometime, so why not now :-)
The background
First a bit of my background. I am from Indonesia, but currently working in U.S. I got the advantage learning computer & develop software since pretty early age, and loving every minute of it. Now I’m a software developer, working on making a web browser for mobile phone; one that (I hope) can match other big name in mobile phone industry.
The problem

Currently (2006, and has been like that for several years), Indonesia has a lot of problems, economy, politic, etc; and I hope that I can do something (maybe only a very small way) to help make Indonesia a better place.

The dream
My dream is to build a high school / college (mostly concentrated on software) where student can learn for free or even get some money, and work experiences. I hope it will help person who doesn’t have financial support to go to regular school.

How does it work ? I saw some of the new paradigm and technology that can support this, mainly:

  • Open Source
  • Extreme Programming ~ mainly pair programming
  • Ruby On Rails (other framework might do that also)

What’s the relation between all of them ? You see, the school will be a cover up for a software development center (think X-Men school ;-) ); which mostly working on developing, customizing and supporting open source code; The teacher are software developers, which will work together with the student (in pair orr 1:2) to develop the code.

The advantage of this :

  • Produce cheaper, but higher quality code: supported by extreme programming & pair programming methodology
  • Produce high quality software developer: teach them to make software the right way; already teach them the right methodology & real working environment and experiences.
  • Give the student real working experiences, so they don’t have to start from the scratch, and have something to show in their resume.
  • Give the student some salary, maybe not much, but hopefully it can cover the school tuition, and maybe even some additional cash to bring home.
  • Provide job market for alumni. When a company buy / customize the software, they don’t have to find difficulty to support the software; They already know where the find the person that are familiar with the software / tools used. It is good for the company, and it is good for the alumni also.

And where is “ruby on rails” in all of that ? I think ruby on rails, with their well designed framework will really help to build software cheaper and faster, and it is also easy for someone who is not familiar with the software but familiar with the framework to adapt quickly.

The path

I have set my destination, and I’m currently working my way to go there. So please wish me luck ;)
If you have same dream, are interested in my dream, has some thoughts / comments; feel free to email me at : kusno_at_mudiarto_dot_com