Penny University – A peer-to-peer learning community | Hacker News Reader

Penny University – A peer-to-peer learning community

5 pointsJnBrymn4 comments

In Nashville (and growing elsewhere) we started a community around self-organizing, peer-to-peer learning called Penny University (http://www.pennyuniversity.org).

It's very rudimentary and grass roots at this point. (I mean.. we're a Slack Team, a Google Forum, and a Google spreadsheet of mentors.) But the idea is that everyone has things they want to learn and thing that they can share. Penny University serves as the community for people that want to make In-Real-Life connections to learn new things.

* It's self-organized - mostly it's individuals asking to learn something and then setting up a coffee chat or a lunch conversation. * Occasionally the conversations grow to larger groups (say 10 people). * Often the conversations are one-off meetings to help get someone further along with their understanding of a topic. * Sometimes meetings (Penny Chats) form into longer-term mentorship or topical-groups or reading groups. * We encourage face-to-face meetings, but occasionally the meetings are online and recorded - like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czy7bgDd7Hc * The topics can be anything, but trend technical - especially Python and Data Science.

Check it out. I'd love to hear feedback.

Oh and if you're interested in the history of the name "Penny University" - read the description at the top of our page http://www.pennyuniversity.org

This looks great and sorry you didn't get more traction on your idea here.

First I'd like to say you have a really good idea that's culturally important. Even though growing up I really hated group work, and still do to some extent, a lot has been written about the focus on self-development today is leading people to alienated lives. Essentially the huge focus on the self and self-growth requires so much focus and energy we can't sustain relationships. This focus on the self, isn't really narcissistic, it's necessary if anything considering the decline in social resources and the automation of jobs (don't think it will continue forever but still very bad). Anyway this is a great way of harnessing the desire for increased growth and learning, while still helping with relationships.

Second, good job with the focus on small groups as wel. The problem with Facebook a lot of people point out, like Micki Mcgee from Fordham, is that the groups are just too big. Instead of friends we get audiences. This becomes performance instead of personality. Smaller groups, kind of like AA if anything, are probably the way forward. The NYTimes actually wrote an article about 3 weeks ago on the rise of private groups on Facebook and how the company is now endorsing them.

Anyway again wish you had gotten more posts here. Most books on marketing are terrible, but highly recommend you look into "Traction". Very simple, low cost way (I've recommend it to nonprofit groups as well) to do marketing and a framework (this is so important) for how to think about it.

Thanks for your feedback. Which "Traction" book are you referring to? There are two on Amazon by different authors that could fit your description.

Sorry about that. Traction: How Any Startup Can Achieve Explosive Customer Growth

Does this actually work? I feel I need to have a subject matter expert in the study group like a TA, at the least

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