Long explanation, but context is important.. Considering my side project (studycity dot org) involves helping children gain knowledge and confidence through "encouraging" them to visit education sites, detecting the points earned, and rewarding them by granting another hour of entertainment sites... For me, it makes sense to also offer a way to help others overcome the dreaded "we can't hire you because you don't have enough experience" response. One person said she has submitted over 200 resumes and heard that line dozens of times.
I can easily think of 20 open source projects that a team of interns could work on. In addition, it wouldn't matter if new interns worked on something that had already been solved because the point is not to ship what they build, but provide a way to learn and gain experience. As long as the new interns don't discover the previous interns work, the same projects could be repeated allowing the mentor to step away and push the more experienced interns to become the mentor.
I imagine a stackoverflow type "cooperative" where the end goals are all understood by the group and jerks are not tolerated. Maybe this already exists or is a stupid idea. If this is stupid, I blame all the songs I listened to in the 80s and 90s that seem to have brainwashed me to try to help people and make the world better.
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Looking back, I now realize in 1985, when all those famous celebrities sang "We are the world" to raise money for the starving children in Africa I probably saw the images of hungry children and heard that song on the TV or radio 100s of times. As a curious 8 or 9 year old, it obviously influences the choices I make now that I have some $$ I can spend each year without incurring debt.
</end enlightenment> #SNLDeepThoughts
