[Discuss] Meeting Presentations

[Patrick]

On Sat, 02 Feb 2008 14:44:17 -0800
John Blomfield wrote:

> As the newly minted Membership Director I have been talking to Larry 
> (VLUG meeting presentation coordinator) about the content of our 
> presentations and the possible influence on meeting attendance and 
> membership.  Larry has already compiled a challenging list of possible 
> presentation titles and several members are volunteering to give talks 
> in the coming months.  Larry has asked me and I have agreed to give a 
> talk in the area of programming Linux applications but I am uncertain as 
> to the level at which to pitch my talk.  The question is whether to 
> assume the majority of meeting attendees would like:
> 
> a) How to get started programing Linux applications, with a review of 
> possible languages to use, the tools, interpreters, compilers etc. and 
> some simple examples in Python, C, C++ and KDevelop, or,
> 
> b) A more focused talk on developing applications using C, C++, Qt and 
> KDevelop, assuming a basic knowledge of the languages.
> 
> The thinking is that a) would appeal to "newbie programmers" and b) 
> would appeal to those with some programming knowledge and an interest in 
> hearing about my use of the above specific tools.  The other thought is 
> that b) might attract people that might not normally attend meetings 
> because the topics have been mainly for newbies but on the other hand 
> might b) bore newbies and discourage them from attending.

I don't know.  If you can touch on the introductory stuff in
the introduction, then get more interesting as you go along,
maybe you can do both.

Yes, it's hard to describe technical details without resorting to
technical jargon [because it's so succinct, and says *exactly*
what you need it to, in one word], but too many undefined terms
would leave me in the dust.  Once I know the words, though, the
ideas usually make sense.

Then again, too much explanation, or too many long phrases where
you could have used a short one, would slow you down a lot.  Not
to mention boring the people who already know this stuff.

So I still don't know.

Maybe it's just me.  I tend to avoid `beginner tutorials' because
they're sometimes oversimplified, and can get repetitive...  A
natural tendency to skim past the repetitions often means I'll
miss important new info along the way, so it's almost as bad as
not reading anything.  Not that diving in the deep end is such a
great idea either; involves a lot of time spent looking up
definitions.

It's those words again...  I ♥ foldoc.org .



That didn't answer any of your questions, did it?

Thanks for the poll.  ;-)

> 
> To help resolve this dilemma, I thought it would be useful to conduct an 
> un-scientific poll of the readers of this mailing list but rather than 
> add some specific questions to the end of this particular email I am 
> going to send out a separate email to which you may respond if you 
> wish.  Stay tuned!
> 
> John Blomfield

Patrick.

-- 
Hummingbirds never remember the words to songs.