> I'm currently participating in a seminar on [Software Foundations]... No university required!
Take Software Foundations as an example. The tool it's written about, the logical foundations underlying that tool, and generations of pedagogic experimentation in explaining those idea that led to Software Foundations would not have been possible instances of the modern Research University in at least a half dozen countries (but most notably France and the US).
Even the human inputs to such a seminar probably require a university more often than not. The number of self-taught programmers who could work through Software Foundations is certainly miniscule.
There is certainly a viable community-building model here, not dissimilar from the Community Church or Hackerspace models! Just want to call out that it's sort of (virtuously!!!) grifting off of the spoils of research universities.
BTW: I'd love to see a Computer Science "Great Books" Curriculum. TAOCP, SICP, Cinderella, Dragon, Foundations, ... what else?
I worried a bit about the phrasing when I was writing that -- I definitely did not mean to say "no university required (to create Software Foundations)", just "no university required (to benefit from Software Foundations)"!
* create a small seminar of your own for an academic or quasi-academic text or topic that interests you, and meet and discuss it
I'm currently participating in a seminar on
https://softwarefoundations.cis.upenn.edu/lf-current/index.h...
and some people I know are running their own read-through of Plato's Republic at the moment. No university required!