(1) Make your own internet television production. Find out how here.
(2) Learn to program in Java. Make cool programs that can either stand alone
or run on the web on your own web site. Here is an example of one by
Paul Lutus' Here is Yijun Ding's Solitaire. (3) Form a science fair discussion group. You can make a polymath web page
to discuss science fair ideas. Here are a couple of links:
Science Hobbyist
(4) Help create free web sites for non-computer people. Show them
how to gain access using a public library computer. You need to set them up with a free email account first, as an email address is required to
set up a web page. A popular one is netaddress.com. See Net Freebies for list of many free e-mail and web page hosts. You may significantly boost the local economy and even lower the crime rate. You may get in the newspaper or even on TV.
(5) Set up a physical web server and provide free web sites to members.
Setting one up using the Apache Web Server is an interesting and
educational project for kids. Exploring new operating systems, such as Linux,
is what youth has time for, or creating the next one. This will cost you
some money for a permanent internet connection, but you could raise this
from the small businesses you help make web pages for.
(6) Provide mentor and tutor services. The best way to learn is to teach
others. Mentors can be contacted via the internet and also on a local
community level. The idea is to bridge the generational gap to provide
encouragement to young polymaths, many of whom have no real local
models or anyone they can talk to on an intellectual level. Afraid you can't
answer the questions? No worry. Our
Arts and Science Forums have
all the answers.
(7) Organize field trips to book stores, having raised money for everyone
to buy something. Book ownership is essential to polymath self-identity.
Libraries are nice but they teach a short term attachment to books. Also,
a book that is free is not so highly valued, and not so completely read.
The atmosphere of the book store is vastly superior to that of the
public library. For polymaths, reading in a book store is the meaning of
life. Today there are a lot of big book stores, and some have coffee shops
where you can get together for your Polymath Society Chapter meetings (great excuse to get your mom
to take you to the bookstore).
(8) Establish local Polymath Resource Centers in existing non-profit
organizations. You could put books, computers, and art materials there
for people to use. Members can provide instruction and hold meetings
at such centers. There are many existing facilities that are under-utilized
for lack of staff ad interest. The main problem in organizing is people
not money (don't waste time trying to raise it--it will come
if you are really doing something). Focus on energizing people,
organizing people to do things. This is probably the best educational
experience you could. It will give you confidence and be useful to you
throughout your life. Where do you get the computers? A lot of large
companies have old computers in storage and like to give them away for tax
purposes. Visit you local computer stores too. As my cousin in NY used to say, "As long as you have a mouth, you won't get lost."
(9) Organize a polymath chess club. A polymath chess club is different
from an ordinary chess club in that polymaths play several different
kinds of chess and the game of "go" simultaneously. In NYC I had a lot
of fun setting up my Chinese chess board in the park in Chinatown and
taking on the old men, who I would otherwise not have been able to
communicate with. Get to know some Chinese university students who can
teach you and download the software from the Chinese Chess Home Page for
practice.
(10) Run a computer lab, or extend its hours for member use and meetings.
Bill Gates and friends got started in their own polymath society, now
called Microsoft, by hanging out in computer centers, begging or borrowing
whatever computer time they could. What we have on our desks today is
so incredibly better than what they had to work with. The opportunities for
making new things is just incredible! Unfortunately, the
distraction of playing with what already exists is also high. There are
plenty of people who only surf and never write. The point is not to just
learn to use existing software but to be creative on our own, to make
new things. Polymaths make new things.
(11) Hold lectures and/or meetings that are totally not concerned with
organization and bureaucracy. Never waste your time in long meetings
unless you are learning something at the same time. Detailed organization
is better carried out by committee, by delegated responsibility for a
particular area.
(12) Disseminate information on local resources available, like how to get
computer access, e-mail, and web pages, even if you do not own a computer. For example, many libraries, universities, and computer clubs offer such resources. Most resources are under-utilized because the people who would benefit do not know about them.
One of the best web based free e-mail providers is
usa.net. Also see
Making Your Web Page.
(13) Engage in scientific, socially minded, and entrepreneurial activities,
interfacing with other information age businesses and programs of
intellectual advancement. Encourage members to participate in such
advanced programs.
(14) Make reproductions of famous art works and sell them to raise money.
See some of the early efforts of Monsieur Lacey. It is both fun and educational. Renoir said that one learns to paint in the museums.
(16) Organize your own software company. Learn about
how to develop and market software. There is always room for more software.
because nine out of the programs are still a waste of time and money. An easy
way to start is as a developer for an existing software technology. You only need
to talk the company into donating a development kit to your Polymath
Society Chapter, not impossible because it doesn't really cost them
anything. It is in their own advertising and software standards interest.
Also contact local software companies for assistance and possible
internships for members. They can help you get development kits for free. You
can also get a lot of free stuff on the web. Always check out the limits of
what is free first. You don't want to pay for something (and spend time on
it) only to find out that a better technology was available for free.
There is a trend towards free information as an advertising vehicle. This
is part of the dynamic of the modern (market driven) information age. Some
people also give sotware away to spread their ideas. Got a message
(or a medium) for the world. The best way to publish it is a a good
piece of freeware. Be good though. It's "gotta be good." An example
of a very successful freeware (now shareware) medium is IRC chat.
What can local Polymath Societies do? Here is a list of possible activities.
Orbital Gravity Simulator.
Bizarre Stuff You Can Make in Your Kitchen
Weird Science -- Dave Barry
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