I’m still unsure if I think the work of DonorsChoose.org is great for the educational system, or papering over the more fundamental problem of under-funded public schools.
But I am convinced that their open data site is simply cool!
It’s also a great demonstration of what you can do with scale. We’ve had similar ideas at www.ewb.ca, but we just don’t have the staff or volunteer capacity to put this kind of product out there.