[Edu-sig] OT - Disney Learning - again

[Brent Burley]

ART wrote:
> ...
> A new ad/announcement for Disney Learning
> Partnership with a URL ref - www.disneylearning.com
> 
> December 10 - Dr. Alan Kay.  It was December 10, *1999* -
> and is an *upcoming* event on the schedule.  Probably
> in fact the one I looked at some time ago.
> 
> *Today* they spent serious money promoting this
> hopelessly neglected site. What is the agenda here???????

First let me say that I don't speak for Disney and I have no direct
information about disneylearning.com.  

>From what I understand, Kay was recruited 5 years ago specifically to
promote Squeak and computer education for kids.  This was probably part
of Disney's big Internet push back when it seemed that everything and
everyone was going online.

According to a New York Times article on 6/13/2001, Alan Kay is leaving
Disney and taking the Squeak group with him as "Disney has scaled back a
number of its ambitious Internet plans."  Kay and his team reportedly
volunteered for the recent company-wide layoff.  

I'm not sure what relationship Kay had with disneylearning.com.  It
seems the advisory council is made up entirely of people outside of
Disney and primarily from various universities.  They seemed to have
made a number of grants in 1999 but nothing since then.

Curiously, squeak.org hasn't had much attention since 1999 either. 
Witness the link "Entering 2000" at http://squeak.org/about!

	Brent