[SWLUG] Lightning Talks

[Telsa Gwynne]

On Thu, Aug 18, 2005 at 09:54:59AM +0100 or thereabouts, Kris Zani wrote:
> linux programming workshops.
> 
> starting with the basics in either C or C++.
> maybe even bash.
> 
> since linux is really about community driven development the more people 
> who can program the better!!

This is a really really large undertaking. Teaching programming
involves teaching both the concepts underlying programming and 
the specific language. There's a reason some programming languages
were specifically designed to be teaching languages. 

It's a lot more ambitious that lightning talks. 


[lightning talks]
> what would perhaps be best here is to set up a forum or such where users 
> can request talks and then other users can say - yep I know about that - 
> so I'll give the talk.  That way you only get talks on stuff people want 
> to hear about.

We have tried this before. We have asked people in person. We have
asked people on the list. We have passed pieces of paper round at
meetings. The results are in the archives, and the upshot is that 
very very few people want to volunteer themselves. 

Lots of people have ideas on what other people should speak on,
but until more people are more accustomed to speaking and are
willing to do it, this will have to wait. For now, I think we
should stick to what people are willing to talk about.

And if you are not used to talking in public, even the idea of
speaking without interruption and holding people's attention for
five minutes can be terrifying. Let's start with five minutes
about a topic close to the heart before we go on to programming 
tutorials. 

Telsa