| tutorial materials [message #3882] |
Mon, 31 January 2005 15:14  |
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Originally posted by: pmac.nospam.tensilica.nospam.com
There are 2 tutorials at the same time that i want to attend. Will i be able
to buy the materials for the one that i can't physically attend?
TIA
PMac
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| Re: tutorial materials [message #4386 is a reply to message #3882] |
Thu, 03 February 2005 00:12  |
 Bjorn Freeman-Benson
Messages: 75
Registered: July 2009 |
Member |
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I thought I would explain a bit about what we are doing with tutorial
materials and our reasoning for doing so. We have asked all the tutorial
presenters to release their slides under the EPL (or the CPL). The slides
that are released under either of those licenses are being posted on the
conference website for downloading by anyone, attendee or not. Go to the
tutorials page (http://www.eclipsecon.org/tutorials.php) and look for the
"Download presentation" links. The presentations are trickling in to the
operations office and are posted as soon as they arrive (which is a polite
way of saying "please don't ask us when tutorial N will be available because
we don't know when the presenters will send us the material").
Judging by the email I have received, this decision has surprised people, so
I thought I would explain a bit. One line of reasoning goes:
(1) "People might choose not to attend a tutorial if the presentation is
available on the website for free."
I admit that this is a possibility, but I counter with:
(2) "The Eclipse Foundation is not putting on EclipseCon to make money -
we're putting on EclipseCon to promote, foster, enhance, and celebrate the
Eclipse community." If fewer people take tutorials, that's not a problem.
If more people get to learn more about Eclipse topics, that's a benefit.
Thus EPL'd slideware is a good thing.
(3) "People might choose TO attend a tutorial if the presentation is
available on the website." and "Having the slides ahead of time is like a
super-extended abstract." They could look at the slideware and say, wow,
this is great stuff, I want to learn more, and then sign up.
(4) "For sold out tutorials, those who could not get in will at least be
able to get the slideware." A number of the tutorials are sold out already,
so having the notes online is a good side-effect.
(5) "If the only thing that the tutorial attendees are receiving for their
money is a set of slides, they will be very disappointed." There is
obviously something more the attendees are receiving than just slides. I
believe that they are attending for the interactive experience of learning
from expert(s) and for the ability to ask questions and guide the tutorial
in a particular direction. Thus making the slides available online does not
give away the contents of the tutorial - actual attendance still has value.
Another line of reasoning is:
(1) "People will read the notes ahead of time and won't pay attention during
the presentation"
Again, a possibility, but I counter with:
(2) "It takes just a few seconds to read a slide on screen." Thus unless
the slides are being played like a movie, letting the attendees have the
content a few seconds earlier is not going to prevent them from being bored
if the presenter is naturally boring. Furthermore, we are handing out
printed copies of the slides to the attendees, so they'll get the whole
slide deck at the start of the presentation anyway, and they could quickly
read it all then, so why not let them have the slides a day or a week or a
month early? Hopefully, we have chosen presenters who are exciting, dynamic,
and interesting speakers that one would want to listen to with or without
slides.
(3) "The audience can print and annotate (or use a tablet PC to annotate)
the slides as they listen to the talk." They can even pre-annotate the
slides with questions they have about the topic, thus allowing them to get
more value from the tutorial than if they didn't get the slides until the
last minute.
To repeat what I said at the beginning, this decision was made because the
goal of EclipseCon is to enhance and support the Eclipse community - the
whole community - the users, the committers, the plug-in developers, the
strategic members, and the ecosystem. I felt that, as an open source
project, we should make the information open and available and that this
would "enhance and support the Eclipse community". I would be interested in
hearing feedback from others in the Eclipse community about this decision.
Thanks for listening,
Bjorn Freeman-Benson
EclipseCon 2005 Organizing Chair
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| Re: tutorial materials [message #4456 is a reply to message #4386] |
Thu, 03 February 2005 09:51 |
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Originally posted by: ekkehardREMOVE_NO_SPAM.gentz-software.de
I like it to have the materials before attending:
1. I can prepare better to get most of it
2. its easier to follow after first reading it,
esp. if english is not your native language
3. I was interested in more then 2 tutorials and
so I can look at the material of these tutorials, too.
but its of course no replacement for attending personaly.
regards
ekkehard
(hopefully there will be more tutorials available then now ;-)
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| Re: tutorial materials [message #4525 is a reply to message #4386] |
Fri, 04 February 2005 01:43 |
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Originally posted by: pmac.nospam.tensilica.nospam.com
Thanks Bjorn
I think that's a great decision. Clearly interactive attendees will get much
more out of it, but there are a lot of good tutorials in the same time
slots, so those without a pocket time machine will have to make choices ...
Ciao
PMac
"Bjorn Freeman-Benson" <bjorn@superboy.org> wrote in message
news:ctsbr6$agb$1@www.eclipse.org...
>I thought I would explain a bit about what we are doing with tutorial
> materials and our reasoning for doing so. We have asked all the tutorial
> presenters to release their slides under the EPL (or the CPL). The slides
> that are released under either of those licenses are being posted on the
> conference website for downloading by anyone, attendee or not. Go to the
> tutorials page (http://www.eclipsecon.org/tutorials.php) and look for the
> "Download presentation" links. The presentations are trickling in to the
> operations office and are posted as soon as they arrive (which is a polite
> way of saying "please don't ask us when tutorial N will be available
> because
> we don't know when the presenters will send us the material").
>
> Judging by the email I have received, this decision has surprised people,
> so
> I thought I would explain a bit. One line of reasoning goes:
.... <snip>
>
> Thanks for listening,
> Bjorn Freeman-Benson
> EclipseCon 2005 Organizing Chair
>
>
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