In a recent social media update, we have shared this banner. But what does it really mean?
Well, the best way for us to describe it is that OLS is much more than just a learning platform that is dedicated to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering or Mathematics individually. In fact, we are so much more than that. At the very core of our vision and mission is the goal of being able to bring all of these fields together in various combinations, and then investing effort to explore some of the real-world examples, use-cases and potentially problem-solving solutions.
Looking at the Real World
Let's first acknowledge one simple fact about the world we live in - though there are many different applications of the various subjects within each of those individual fields, things often rarely work on their own. Reality is that there will always be some form of synergy between them.
Let's consider the field of Bioinformatics for example. It's basically a combination of different subjects within the fields of Life Sciences & Technology. As a simple example, during my final year of polytechnic, I was given the privilege of actually building a Java-based software application that would decipher the genes and proteins that are available within a particular peptide. Back then, we never heard of things like Big Data or Data Mining because technology was still in the midst of maturing.
But now that the technology is available, we can start thinking about mining large amounts of scientific data (biological data) and then using it to intelligently determine certain patterns, or identify the presence of certain proteins that are present in foods.
Fact is, there's just so many applications that we have yet to explore and discover.
Personally, I enjoy watching Sci-Fi & Crime Solving US TV drama, because there would be times when our imaginations can be expanded to think about some of the things that could be possible.
Coming back to the ground, all of those projected possibilities and imaginations is also what drives us to constantly push the boundaries of innovation.
Exploring Potential Real-World Solutions
This can easily be one of the most important aims of having OLS.
More than just looking at the use-cases of a particular product, or the products from a particular brand, we want to explore the potential solutions that these products can be used to solve.
With the world wide web, there isn't a lack of information online. However, the challenge that we are facing right now is the abundance of it, and how we can make sense of it. Another potential challenge we face is, with so much information available online, how do we effectively know if they are reliable and trustworthy? The truth is, we don't.
I think having a learning platform like OLS will help to address those potential challenges.
Being a non-profit platform that doesn't get paid a single cent by our brand partners, we promise to deliver learning content that is fair and honest. By making the strengths and weaknesses of those products known to the potential end-users, we also increase our reliability and the chance of them trusting our platform as a source of information.
We are never paid to say anything that isn't true about the products that we are featuring.
Learn Only What is RELEVANT
Another really powerful thing about the kind learning content that we want to deliver is their relevance to the future.
Why is that so?
Because over the course of history, we have seen many different real world stories of how certain companies refuse to evolve and adapt their product designs, and as a result of their unwillingness to be responsive to the industry's needs, they become obsolete.
For many major companies, or even makers and professionals, It is critical for them to always know which brands of products they can really trust to continue supporting them during the entire lifecycle of their product design, development and deployment.
At OLS, we are dedicating to making sure all the content (brands) we are sharing is always relevant/up-to-date.
Building Real-World Solutions
I believe that learning about the potential use-cases of particular brands are only part of the learning process & experience. It is also very important for potential end-users to understand how they can implement it for themselves.
To put it simply, knowing is one thing, doing it is another.
With OLS, my mission is to take the learning experience and content one step further than what most educational institutions are willing to go. And that is to actually experiment and build real-world solutions. Well, ofcourse to some degree, we may not be able to practically and realistically engineer a real-world solution in-house, but what we can do is to create each prototype & proof-of-concept with each of those products, and then sharing them on DesignSpark to help explain how those solutions and ideas can be implemented.
By sharing those proof-of-concepts or even ideas for potential real-world solutions, my hope is that it will help to spark innovation from others. Sometimes, what people really need is just a spark of inspiration and they can take that idea and turn it into something far more amazing.
For me, it's not about trying to take credit for what I have designed or created, but I do hope that I can take all of those ideas I have inside my mind, and turning them into reality, sharing it with the rest of the world.
What I care about is pushing the boundaries of innovation, not for profit, but based upon the basic idea that some of the most prominent inventions of our century doesn't even make any money or profit. It's really all in the name of innovation.
And I like to do the same.
How Are We Going to Make All That Possible?
This is possibly the most important question of this blog entry.
In order for me (and OLS) to realise those visions and mission that I have created for her, we have to first raise the funds we need to materialise the learning platform into what it can potentially be. We will need the necessary hardware setup required to create the necessary learning content and online e-learning experience.
With everything that we want to achieve, it is sometimes a little too bold and outrageous for some people to even comprehend. For them, they can't seem to picture or imagine what OLS can become and through the platform, the potential impact that it can have on the world. That's the truth.
To some people, they will only see OLS as a fraction of what it can do. Some will recognise it as a technology-based learning platform, some might only see it as an engineering-based learning platform.
And that is what the title of this blog is for. We are more than meets the eye.
Because by nature OLS is 100% non-profit and I don't make any money from what I am doing right now, I have to rely and count on donations and support from people like yourself.
Which is why I have created two crowdfunding campaigns (there's three actually) which I will consider as the most important campaigns that will affect the continued growth and progress of OLS.
Those campaigns are as follows:
Raising $9,800 for our operations (website creation, video content hosting and video production equipment)
Right now, we honestly are facing a challenging situation. We want to deliver the kind of learning content & experience that we are promising to the general community of potential learners (viewers). But without the hardware setup and tools we need, we won't be able to deliver the level of learning experience that we have promise.
What we lack is not the source of learning content because we have the brand partners for that, but rather the means to deliver the content online like I have promised.
But with your help and support, we will be able to turn those visions and goals into reality, and we will be able to effectively carry out our mission.
We hope that after reading this blog, you will be willing back us in each of those two campaigns that we have listed above.