For example, Mercedes-Benz is using some European cities as a testing ground for its Citaro F-Cell buses:
A total of 30 Mercedes-Benz Citaro buses will have been delivered in groups of three vehicles to ten European cities up to the end of 2003. This far-reaching programme of testing will be spread over two years and should provide detailed information on the scope for improvement in the vehicle technology itself, as far as the infrastructure is concerned and in terms of the necessary maintenance, service and support. [source]The way you iron out the kinks in new technologies is to put them to work in tough circumstances, but with adequate safeguards. You need people with a pioneering spirit who will take risks. We could recruit ex-military, plus provide alternatives to the military.
The Geek Channel is just a puzzle piece in this vision. Take the high level media arts on display in Sesame Street, along with the community-building themes, and adapt these to impart information about TCP/IP, SQL, CPU architecture, web site design, XML, ecommerce and so on.
I know an 8th grader working with a sax parser in Python to reorganize his instant messenger contacts. His school teachers aren't up to speed on this stuff. But if they watch my channel, they soon will be.
Followup:
Or maybe you'd prefer to watch the military channel?
