[Baypiggies] newbies night newbies

[Alex Martelli]

On 4/21/07, jim stockford <jim at well.com> wrote:
>
>
>     as to the definition of "newbie", we have a couple
> of immediate data points:
> * the guys who showed up for the April meeting
> ("came on the wrong night"). They looked and
> smelled like coders to me.
> * the February email re newbies night in which a
> few postings were from self-proclaimed newbies
> who were clearly sophisticated software engineers.
>
>     My experience (taught programming for a few years,
> tho' not python) is that people interested in coding
> and languages have a leg up in some fashion. Even
> if not, as another teacher once mentioned, "it's good
> for them to hear the words".


Very good points indeed, and if we can indeed communicate that this "newbie
night" is suitable for people who already do have coding experience in other
languages (not for newbies _to programming_), I think that may be
sufficient.

    It seems to me that Alex M's 50 page outline is very
> good fodder for newbies night, and given that he's
> willing to present in May, that's my vote.
>     'S okay with you all? Would let us get to soliciting.
>     Given his claim that it's a 90 minute or more
> presentation, there'd be no time for intros, but I think
> that's okay (again, your tho'ts?).
>     If there's not quite enough time to get through it
> all, well that seems okay too. Brings to mind the
> possibility of two nights, part one and part two, with
> time for meaty Q 'n' A.


A two-parts presentation could indeed be made more effective: the first
part, 60 minutes, could focus more on meat and potatoes, omitting some
advanced stuff and barely mentioning library issues, while the second part,
another 60 minutes, would touch on some advanced stuff and go much deeper
into library stuff.  Each part would have reasonable time for Q/A and/or
more examples, etc.

There's one hitch though: I probably can't make it to the June meeting -- on
June 9 and 10 in Firenze, Italia, we're running the first ever Italian
Python conference, "Pycon Uno", and I'm scheduled to present the keynote and
2-3 shorter talks -- so I'll probably be in Europe for about 10 days around
that weekend (taking the opportunity to visit family & likely some European
Google office too), which more likely than not means no BP for me in
June...:-(  So, I'm not sure about when a "second part" could sensibly be
scheduled (if I were to present it).


Alex
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