5 <blockquote>Learn how make ideas into reality, inspire people to imagine a different development model, plant trees under whose shade we intend to sit.
8 ==== Concrete capsule summary ====
10 * mentoring/coaching, teaching/training, software/technology/knowledge development, deployment, incubation of projects, project consulting
11 * ... and hosting a network/platform/market for other people to do the same, using free software and other free technologies!
13 ==== Relationship to the Free Technology Academy ====
15 * During the “Master” course at FTA on software development, students can do practical exercises with the tools that the community uses, and then redistribute improved versions.
16 * More generally: FTG should eventually include FTA as a “subset” of the services offered (in particular, those services related to teaching/training).
18 ==== Problems/challenges to solve ====
20 * Limited time and resources at the outset: we are currently doing this as "volunteers", and although there is a proposed business model, we are not yet making income. So, among other things, we have to decide how much time to put in building infrastructure. We're hoping we can make a "rapid prototype" on the FTA site using some Elgg plugins. The estimated budget for that work is quite small ($5000), or we might end up getting a really basic version done in our spare time.