Reminder: this is a definitely intended to be a discussion welcome page. Please junmp in and contribute.

For background info, see MeetingProgramIdeas. For suggestions and volunteering specific to the upcoming meeting, see the MeetingAug10 page.

MiniPresentation .. is that a good name? Other suggestions?

• MiniPresentation: easy to remember, I guess
• ExpressHowto: I don't really like this anymore (jgs)
• BlitzSomething: too cute? too in?

What and Why

Need (some) meeting content that will better hold the interest and attention of:

• newcomers to Linux
• other than professional-geeks (sysadmins, programmers).. that is just ordinary users

KPLUG general membership rumblings of meeting presentations being:

• too specialized
• too detailed
• too geeky, cmdline, Unix-ey
• (add more here)

My opinion (jgs) is that this is a valid gripe. I blieve we have probably had a large number of people who came for one or two meetings, and then went away because of the above reasons.

A kindofaweaselexcuse-remark might also be in order: It's hard to deliver a introductory or simplified or tightly focused presentation! It's much easier to jump into something somewhat deep or complex, and ramble around a bit, because the people who can follow tend to tolerate (compensate?) a lot.

How

This is possibly where most of the brainstorming is needed. The idea of MiniPresentations means:

• answers a simple question, like a FAQ, or simple recipe or limited howto.
• avoids unnecessary alternatives and esoteric details or complications
• can be explained in a few minutes and (ideally) demonstrated with a real example
• can be explained to an audience without specific expertise in this subject area

Administrative thoughts

We should allow and encourage anyone to contribute. There are lots of people capable of teaching an expert something he didn't already know! However, I am convinced that short presentations are hard, and think we should require someone to give some evidence of forethought prior to giving one.

One suggestion is that a short document ought to be required (published? on wiki?, circulated via email?, handed-in before the meeting?). Instructions might look something like:

  Draft a short summary, bullet-list, cheatsheet, outline 
  (anything, any format, one short page is fine) that conveys
  the idea of the basic topic/question, and shows  some (simple
  but realistic) examples that illustrate your point or solution.

Neil has suggested that we might even turn this idea into a "right to present"; anybody who shows he has something to say can get his 15 minutes, just by claiming it.

Topic History

There was some email discussion, in which I summarized my thoughts on (see http://www.kernel-panic.org/pipermail/kplug-steer/2006-April/002655.html and link to presentation-outline example link, and message threads). I now think that the sample presentation (http://www.kernel-panic.org/pipermail/kplug-steer/2006-April/002655.html) is still too cmdline-oriented for a mini, but perhaps would be useful as a "further information" doc. I'm currently trying to work up some gui examples of zip/tgz manipulation, hopefully for Aug 10.

In the past, other suggestions have been offered for delivering more value to a broader cross section of members, or to those new to Linux, or to those with unsophisticated computer skills, generally.

• separate meetings -- this has the benefit of concentrating on the needed value, but suffers from possibly losing participation of the more knowledgeable members who might be needed to provide the value. Organizational cost is also large.
• parallel meetings -- this has even been (half-heartedly?) tried a couple of times, including at the InstallFests?. in my (jgs) opinion, it didn't work because I didn't want to give up either venue for the other. Also there seems to be the same (or greater) incremental organizational costs as for separate meetings.

comments:

how does "add a comment" work --testuserjgs, Thu, 10 Aug 2006 11:48:16 -0700 reply
Just testing the add a comment box, that shows at the bottom of pages when logged-in.

• So, how does it show up?
• Does it honor markup?