Does one organization need to be *the* representative for grants, financing etc developing this learning system?
This is a somewhat interesting question. The obvious answer is no, of course, there needn't be one representative for grant. And setting up a consortium doesn't imply there will only be one.
However ... I have decades of experience in the non-profit world, including stints when young at one of the largest science musuems in the West, and fifteen years on the board of the second largest Audubon chapter in the country ($2M/yr budget).
While there doesn't *need* to be a single representative for funding, there's no doubt in my mind that it helps. Take the issue of old growth forest protection in the western Pacific Northwest. A large foundation supported the campaign to the tune of a $300K-$400K a year. While there was no formal consortia of regional conservation groups, there's a lightweight governance body that's been around for about 25 years now, and there was a cohesive plan among the eight or so non-profits who worked together to get the grants. Without that cohesiveness and without the Oregon Environmental Council's ability to set priorities and the outline of the conservation agenda for all major conservation organizations in Oregon chasing funding for this cooperative campaign would've been much harder.
A more formal example relates to how I learned to program in the first place. Early computers were expensive and few districts could afford them. Several Oregon districts formed a formal organization called the Computer Instruction Network. The organization applied for and got grants, and was able to buy an IBM 1130, a van to put it in, a PDP-8, and support staff to ship them around the schools and educate teachers and students.
Could the individual schools apply for grants? Did there need to be an organization of schools? Um ... care to guess what they did before forming CINET? I know that afterwards I tried hard to get my school funding for additional equipment and it was impossible.
The point is that something like the consortium being discussed isn't necessary for funding. However ... it opens the door to funding that would otherwise be unavailable.
Of course funding is just one issue to consider but I do believe it's an important one if our goal, as mentioned in my previous post, is success.
