[mdlug] Future presentations.

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Wed, 2012-01-18 at 07:10 -0500, Robert Citek wrote:
> On Mon, Jan 16, 2012 at 11:46 AM, Garry Stahl <tesral at wowway.com> wrote:
> >> Yes. Thank you for the presentation.  We'll have to think of more topics like this.
> > I can think of one, but I'll be damned if I can think of an adequate
> > presenter.  Linux education.  As a newbie slowly crawling out of that
> > state I have noted that most help is not very helpful
> Unfortunately the term "Linux education" does not give me a clear
> picture in my mind of what you are looking for.  It's like asking
> about "automobile education."  Does that mean ...
> From the context of your post it sounds more like you are interested
> in the topic "How to educate people: a case study using Linux."  Or
> might it be something else?

I booked nearly weekly presentations for KLUG in it's halcyon days; for
4+ years.  The bugger is that you are catering to a self-selecting user
community.  As a rule intro-level/101 style presentations were the most
poorly attended.  A user community is just naturally composed of people
at the 200+ level.  Also, since most presenters are volunteers, they
present primarily on things *they* are interested in.  General-IT-ed
stuff just isn't that interesting - and the information is abundantly
available elsewhere.  I've watched numerous efforts by enthusiastic
well-meaning people to organize "LINUX 101" courses.... all floundered
and fizzled.  The topic is too broad, the target audience very illusory,
and... making decent teaching materials is *hard*, especially when the
personal payback to anyone qualified to make them is also very low.

LINUX 101 is essentially teaching to the LPI.  I've studied for an
passed the LPI.  But it is *B*O*R*I*N*G*.  Unless someone is paying me I
can't see myself taking hours out of all my other projects, work, and
recreation to organize to teach that stuff.  Any my [unhumbley] ample
experience tells me just about everyone qualified to teach it feels the
same way.

A user community is what it is; it isn't a help desk, and it isn't a
school.
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