[Axiom-math] Re: Axiom marketing and funding (was APL, J, and Axiom documentation)

[Ted Kosan]

Tim wrote

> As for funding Axiom from anywhere by anyone... sigh.  The only hope I
> see for funding is if
>
>  (a) Axiom is deeply documented,
>  (b) Computational Mathematics becomes its own department in many schools,
>  (c) Axiom gets picked up as the canonical teaching platform.
>
> A fully documented Axiom system would teach people how to read, write
> and understand computational mathematics as opposed to the current
> "trade-school" mentality which teaches how to use Mathematica, Matlab
> and Maple. Of course, by the time these conditions occur a fair portion
> of the documentation work will have already been done. I doubt that
> the NSF or INRIA have any interest in allocating grants for teaching
> computational mathematics as a separate discipline. Instead it seems to
> be viewed as a stepchild of either the Math or Comp. Sci. departments.
> Curiously, this is exactly where Comp. Sci. was when I went to school.
> There were no Comp. Sci. departments or majors. You learned it from the
> Math (Fortran), Business (COBOL), or Engineering (Fortran) departments.
>
> Maybe in 10 years...

I worked for over 6 months coming up with funding strategies for the
Sage project and these strategies were starting to work.  I was able
to get $1000 of funding for the Sage project and I was in the process
of arranging to have significantly more funding sent to the project
just before they decided they wanted to focus Sage on research instead
of education (I was forced to cancel a $5000 purchase order for Sage
enhancements on the day the Sage team made their announcement).

The funding strategies I came up with for Sage should work for Axiom
too.  In fact, they should work even better because the strategies are
education-oriented and Axiom's commitment to excellent documentation
and education supports these funding strategy very well.

I would welcome the opportunity to help with Axiom marketing and
funding, but I must warn people that my strategies are unconventional
and so it may take some time to explain them.  I am willing to discuss
them, however, if anyone is interested in pursuing this further :-)

Ted