Billionaire to Fund Free Net U

WASHINGTON -- Internet software billionaire Michael Saylor plans to donate $100 million to launch a free online university that could reach hundreds of millions of people worldwide, his company said on Wednesday.

MicroStrategy spokesman Michael Quint said Saylor would announce his cyber university plans at a philanthropy conference in Washington on Thursday. America Online chairman and chief executive officer Steve Case will also be at the meeting.

"The idea is to create a higher learning center online for hundreds of millions of people throughout the world, which will be classified as top class," Quint said. "It's fairly hazy at the moment as to how this will work and the university is in its infancy stage."

In an interview with The Washington Post published on Wednesday, Saylor said he anticipated online courses that would include lectures from the world's "geniuses and leaders." The interviews would be videotaped at a studio to be built in the Washington area in the coming months.

Saylor said he did not plan to offer payment to those who lectured online, pointing out that people lined up to get onto television shows.

"I think they'll fight to get into the studio. It gives a great calculus teacher the chance to teach 100 million people," he said.

The Post said that eventually, Saylor wanted his nonprofit university to become a "cyber Library of Congress."

"Done right, this will impact the lives of millions of people forever. Done wrong, it's just noise in a can," said Saylor.

The Post said Saylor owned 44 million shares of software marketer MicroStrategy, with a paper value of about $13 billion. He planned initially to donate $100 million to the cyber university charity.

"I'll contribute more over time until it's done," he told the Post. "Other philanthropists might want to come on board. If not, I'll do it myself," he added.

Saylor is the latest hi-tech billionaire to donate some of his wealth to educational charities. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has the wealthiest charity in his class and has pledged more than $1 billion in scholarships to minorities.

Saylor told the Post the idea to have an online university came to him over the New Year's holiday when he was sailing a yacht off St. Bart's in the Caribbean.