[Charlug] Tuesday night meeting?

[C. Michael Pilato]

Leam Hall wrote:
> C. Michael Pilato wrote:
>> Leam Hall wrote:
>>> 1. The Charlotte Python group seems run by Dinesh the recruiter and some
>>> porn stuff.
>>
>> Huh?  (Can you say this again with different words?)
> 
> Sure:  http://groups.google.com/group/charpy

Ah.  I see.  (Thanks.)

> My theory, subject to facts, is that the localized *UG community can
> operate in personable ways to support our existing project folks and
> inspire more of us to grow in capabilities and competence.
> 
> Here are some examples:
> 
> 1. Subversion pizza party. We skim a few tutorials, show up with some
> pie, and gets a hands on course in putting something honking big into
> subversion, making changes, etc. All those things you need to do in real
> life at work to show the tool's awesomeness.
> 
> 2. Use SVN and SQLite in local stuff so we get more hands on with it,
> and can then evangelize the unwashed masses. Mentor junior geeks where
> appropriate, publish stuff as learning and marketing.
> 
> That make any sense?

Sure.  Certainly I have reason to believe that Subversion is present, if
only in small, not-sanctioned-by-the-CTO-type installations in a majority of
organizations of all sizes.  So, in theory, there's a potentially huge
audience of folks who would appreciate face-to-face contact with someone who
is as closely tied to Subversion's use and development as I am.  But
Subversion also has a pretty flat learning curve.  Do you think a
"Subversion pizza party" would find success and bring real value to its
attendees?  Are people struggling with how to make this tool work for them?

Maybe I overestimate how easy it is to become a Subversion expert, and
underestimate the level of general interest in Subversion as a discussion
topic.  That's the flip-side of being "on the inside" of the community, I guess.

I am always willing to speak about Subversion, demo it, and field questions
about its use, strengths and limitations.  I guess I've been assuming that
talks and events aimed at Subversion newbies (covering the basics) would be
mostly wasted for lack of newbies, and that talks and events aimed at
growing new Subversion experts are just hard to organize because once you're
at that stage, the types of things one person cares about learning could
vary wildly from what the next guy cares about learning.

Thoughts?

(Interesting side note:  as of the soon-to-occur 1.6.0 release, Subversion
now uses SQLite for some of its storage.  Fancy that.)

-- 
C. Michael Pilato <cmpilato at red-bean.com> | http://cmpilato.blogspot.com/