[Wylug-discuss] Two Ideas for Meeting Sessions

[Nick Moulsdale]

I think it’s a brilliant idea. I struggle with Linux on my servers because I have to try and remember where logs are, what to look for etc. I find that I know a little about quite a lot, but cannot decide where to go next. Anything that gets me to try new programs, ideas etc is excellent. Guinea Pig, no problem.

It’s the enormous amount of stuff that’s out there that’s daunting too. If I need to do XXX there's a tool or utility to do it, but where do you start? Google sometimes, but often it’s a call to my friendly Linux Guru.

A thought. This "Ask the audience" could be first so it doesn't impinge on drinking time?

Best wishes

Nick (with Flu)

N.G. Moulsdale FCA
Group Finance Director
Ebi Manufacturing Co Ltd
Sandhill House
82 Meanwood Road
Leeds LS7 2RE
United Kingdom
*        44-(0)113-243-2448
Fax      44-(0)113-243-0504
*  Nick at ebi.ndo.co.uk



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Fisher [mailto:wylug-discuss at davefisher.co.uk]
> Sent: Tuesday, October 11, 2005 7:47 PM
> To: WYLUG
> Subject: [Wylug-discuss] Two Ideas for Meeting Sessions
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> Phil Driscoll wrote to me earlier suggesting that we run an 'ask the
> audience'
> slot.  The idea's been raised before (by me among many others) and I think
> it's
> something we should actively consider implementing soon.  When speakers
> are
> sparse, it could replace an 'empty' session, but it could also have a
> regular
> slot in a lengthened half-time break.  What do you think?
> 
> These are Phil's thoughts on the matter:
> 
> > How about a regular (i.e. every meeting) slot which is just an 'ask the
> > audience' session.
> >
> > I often find I'd like to ask around to see if anyone has any better
> ideas than
> > Google on some issue (last night, I would have liked to know if anyone
> had
> > had a play with IP video cameras as I've been tasked to set something up
> for
> > our neighbourhood watch). However, the time to bring up such matters
> always
> > feels like it should be after the speakers have done their stuff. The
> problem
> > is that that is precisely when people are itching to go to the pub. The
> pub
> > is probably a good place to ask the question, but some of us can't get
> there
> > due to family commitments etc, and there's always going to be less than
> a
> > full house anyway.
> 
> Along similar participatory lines, I wondered if anyone was brave or
> reckless
> enough to consider running mini-usability tests during the odd meeting?
> 
> I was inspired by today's reference to the Better Desktop project
> (http://betterdesktop.org/blog/) on slashdot.
> 
> It occurred to me that many of the non-programmers among our membership
> would
> be quite capable of running a 15-30 minute test on a popular application
> that
> we all use or would like to use.
> 
> It also occurred to me that many inexperienced or 'newbie' members might
> enjoy
> being test subjects, e.g. being able to contribute to the improvement of
> open
> source software without being expected to reach 5th Dan in shell-scripting
> first ... or merely being able to test drive an application with help at
> hand?
> 
> I also thought that this might be a 'sneaky' way of getting people to demo
> apps
> in a way that that doesn't require them to pose as experts and face being
> shot-down by know-it-all members of the audience.
> 
> We might even film the tests and send the videos off to relevant project
> teams.
> 
> Of course, I realise that such tests would be completely 'invalid' and
> 'unreliable' by academic criteria, but I don't think we need to bother too
> much
> about that.  Providing the audience can restrain themselves from
> interrupting
> the course of the test itself, we aught to turn up some interesting/useful
> results.
> 
> In my experience, multiple 'cheap, quick and dirty' tests are just as
> likely
> to turn up the 'big issues' as one very rigorous (i.e. expensive) test and
> (more importantly) will do so at a sufficiently early stage to affect the
> overall direction of a development project.
> 
> So how about it?  Is it just a mad-cap idea with no intrinsic merit at
> all, or
> could we make something of it?
> 
> Dave
> 


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