Grady Booch, an IBM fellow and esteemed software engineer is working on a project to bring a series to television and the web which will approach Computing the way Carl Sagan approached the universe.
Daryl Taft has written an excellent article explaining the project and its goals.
They will use Kickstarter to fund the initial startup (that comment papers over the fact that Grady, his wife Jan and a number of others have been working on the project for four years).
The part of the project I particularly love, beyond the fact that Grady is a great storyteller and the subject is endlessly interesting, is the fact that they are going to try to make it accessible and exciting to middle school kids. That's important, because if you don't start taking classes in computing and math at that stage, you'll fall behind and probably decide not to look at math, science, engineering, or computing as you enter college and the job force. This is particularly critical for girls and minorities, who often are not urged to take the initial steps that will later qualify them for careers in the sciences.
Personally, I can't wait to see the results (scheduled for 2014), but in the meantime, I think that hanging out at the Kickstarter site will help inform us of the progress to date -- and let you make a small donation to speed it on its way.
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