SICP on MIT’s OCW anyone?

Update: I’ve signed up six people for the study group, and I’m capping the size of the group there.

Hooray for acronyms. How else could I fit all that information into my post’s title. To unpack the question — is anyone interested in joining me in taking the MIT course 6.001 Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, via the MIT OpenCourseWare site?

I propose to consume the materials — lecture notes and readings — and produce the output — exercises and projects — on a schedule that matches the pace of the spring 2005 course, which is the one listed on the OCW site. I’m used to self-study at my own pace, but I think I’ll really benefit from the schedule. Besides, I don’t want to get to the end of 2007 without knowing Lisp. Not if 2008 is going to be all about Erlang and Hadoop.

I also propose to have company. I need help, and I need to talk things over with other people, and I think I can help those other people too. That’s the best way I learn. So I’m looking for volunteers to come along.

I will set up a project on Basecamp, set up all the milestones, post notes and source code there, and we can collaborate on exercises and projects, just as if we were undergrads struggling together with one of the courses that drove hard-ass Joel Spolsky to comment “The difficulty of these courses is astonishing.” Come on, doesn’t that sound like fun?

Everything, including the Wizard Book, is available online: readings, notes, and more. There are even videos of Abelson and Sussman talking about what computer science has in common with magic. And talking about Lisp too.

We start Wednesday September 5 and finish December 12. Who’s with me?

If you’re interested, email me at mh (at) this domain — it’s made out of my name: michael harrison dot ws.