Perhaps it is a bit late for someone at their mid-thirties to realize their purpose. But before you judge me, let’s be clear that I am happy with my life living in one of best cities together with the people I love. I work as a lecturer in the University of Auckland for more than 10 years and I enjoy teaching both inside and outside classrooms. I know I am not a very good listener, but maybe that is an additional reason why I like to teach so much. I have worked on my PhD research on open source innovation for the last 4.5 years, and it changes my thinking towards the world more than I could imagine.

One of such side effects is the decrease of affinity towards my institution. I am grateful to many people here but most colleagues are afraid of change. Maybe that is just human nature and so if they could teach a course the same way for a decade they would just do that. In comparison I look like a troublemaker all the time, but at last I compromise. Only I find out later that my heart has never given in: I still want to do something different or I am meant to be.

Then I read about open education and also Udacity by chance: two Stanford professors give up their jobs and dedicate themselves to democratize education to the world. That is the most perfect marriage between open source and teaching that I can ever dream of. Finally, I feel I am at the right place; finally I feel everything make sense by connecting the dots backward.

So, I need a plan.

Of course I also need to finish my study first, but I have to think really hard how to approach this. What are the major qualities that organizations like Udacity are looking for besides from passion? Would it be even possible for my institution to consider something like that? What are the chances for me to start my own organization to do that? What impact would this have to my future research focus?

No matter what, I know very certain this is my purpose. I need to get ready!