Comments on: code4you?

By: The Corporate Librarian

The Corporate Librarian — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:43:25 +0000

Web Services for Libraries…

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By: Robin Hastings

Robin Hastings — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 00:21:57 +0000

I know that at the end of the Social Software Showcase, there was some talk in the room about doing the showcase as an all-day social software-fest, perhaps with presenters in shifts, so that people could come and go as needs/desires dictate. Something like that, attached to a larger conference, might be a workable idea. Combining the all-day Social Software Showcase with Tom’s idea for a more technically minded program might be an excellent “all-day-workshop” at something like IL or CIL…

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:58:32 +0000

Perhaps a workshop at a venue like CiL or IL where experts in certain areas give overviews of what a given technology does. An “if you want to do this then you need to use x” approach. The speakers would exposed themselves as the experts they are and the attendees would then have people they can contact with questions.

I agree that it would be tough at a conference to be able to impart enough that people would walk away with the skills they need, but I think a lot of people are unsure what skills they need. This would give them a chance to match a problem with a solution.

That said, I did attend an all day workshop in PHP that was quite helpful.

By: Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:10:26 +0000

Thanks for the new infusion of comments and ideas–many, I expect, prompted by Dorothea’s links here from her post Finding tech training’s middle ground. There has also been some talk about these ideas in other places recently, so perhaps we can get something off the ground in the next 12 months.

I don’t think every new comment needs a response from me, so I’ll just say two things: I find it touching that people are trying to get ALA to go this way, and I’ll gladly shake your hand when you succeed. And, Ed, I’m guessing you are the only one here who has attended code4lib, so if you’d like to share some experiences with us, that would be great.

By: Ed Summers

Ed Summers — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:45:23 +0000

Interesting discussion. I’m wondering how many people involved in this thread have actually been to code4lib.

By: Aaron the Librarian

Aaron the Librarian — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:43:36 +0000

The BarCamp model works well, having just come back from BarCampOhio, though mostly I see these as having more of a local/regional draw than the more structured conferences.

Would a half- or full-day addition to a more structured conference with heavy attendance work for enough of us?

There are several conference options where I think something like this could work. Just to name a few, CiL, IL, Code4Lib, LITA Forum, maybe ACRL National, ALA Annual (prolly not Mw, tho)

I’m on the 2009 ballot for LITA Board, so hopefully I’ll be able to keep a repeat of @Griffey’s BIGWIG experience from happening again to anyone.

PS Jason, let’s go windmill-tilting with that pre-modified project – I’m game to try to get it on the 2009 Annual and/or Forum program (even though (especially since) it’s “too late”) :)

By: Dorothea Salo

Dorothea Salo — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 12:52:52 +0000

Well, part of the point of BarCamp is that learners and teachers are often the very same people… and us “middle-grounders” exemplify that experience if anyone does. I can teach some markup, heck yeah. I can’t be teaching PHP.

Also, learners learn from learners, not just teachers. That was ALL OVER 5Weeks, and I’ve found it so in other environments as well. That you don’t learn from books (I don’t either; they’re great for reference and helping me over humps, not so great for starting from square one) doesn’t IMO mean much about how you’d do in a BarCamp environment.

Steven, GoToMeeting looks pretty good, though we’d probably want the paid variant, as 15 is a very small number. But $99 isn’t a big hurdle!

Jason, I am so very very not surprised. Disappointed, but not surprised. However… consider that AALL is doing a 5Weeks variant for its membership (spearheaded by a colleague at MPOW), and keep your chin up!

By: Jenny Reiswig

Jenny Reiswig — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:30:08 +0000

(Sorry for the double post – I sure come off as a Little Ray of Gloom there, huh!)

By: Jenny Reiswig

Jenny Reiswig — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:29:30 +0000

Speaking only for myself, I know I learn better in a face-to-face environment although I would be willing to give a webinar a try. I’ve got access to all the books I can carry on these topics and have I ever sat down and tried to muddle through them on my own? Nooo. I like the idea of barcamp, but it sounds like there’s mostly learners and not so many teachers, so I’m not sure that’s quite the right model. I would SOOOO love for LITA to figure out how to make this kind of thing happen, but I can’t see how it fits into the very structured ALA programming process.

By: Steven Kaye

Steven Kaye — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 03:38:18 +0000

Dorothea (or anyone, really): What do you think of GoToMeeting as a webinar solution? I know people in AIIP like it a lot, you can have up to 15 attendees in a given meeting, and a monthly plan is available (so presumably you could pay the $49 for a month and be done).