Allowing for short lectures is a nice idea. The Lightning Talks event we had was a big success (thanks to the seriousness of the lecturers). As I have seen, it is not always like that, since people tend to not take seriously the preparation of a 5-10 minute talk. The outcome may be a two hour event full of not prepared lectures. Another problem with lightning talks is the tendency if certain computers to require the projector (barco) to be hooked in when they boot, or they refuse to display.
So in order to have a good lightning talk event, we need to have the slides, if used, uploaded IN ADVANCE to the net/ presenting laptop. Of course, no slides - no need to upload in advance. This still leaves the problem of unprepared lectures, but in light of the serious approach to Haifuxers to this matter in the past, I think we can deal with this problem if it arrises. Scheduling half-lectures, that is lectures of length in the range of tens of minutes, is not a problem. They will be treated as regular lectures, regarding preparation (slides ahead of lecture, may I remind you), but will not be scheduled alone. This means that scheduling is much more fixed. A person who finds out several days before the lecture that s/he does not have slides, does not have time to prepares them, or does not have time to be in his/her own lecture, and asks to re-schedule, will be a lot less tolerated, and may be postponed for a long time. <rant> BTW, this sort of event seems to be happening too often in my opinion, and its outcome is usually that people complain that I (who announce the replacing lecture) and the replacing lecturer, who has volunteered to fill the gap at a short notice, do not behave properly as we do not announce the new lecture long enough time in advance. </rant> So, in light of the things said above, please feel free to propose shorter lectures, of the same fine quality we are used to in Haifux. On Wed, 15 Mar 2006, Ohad Lutzky wrote: > Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2006 18:55:27 +0200 > From: Ohad Lutzky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Eli Billauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: Haifa Linux club <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Haifux] Honey, I shrunk the club > > Hear hear for more lectures, shorter lectures, 'check it out, here it is, get info here here and here' lectures. Now, specifically, not ALL lectures... some lectures do deserve the full two-hour span, but not all. Now, the question is does this mean more lectures (because they'd be easier and more attractive to write) (always good), same amount, or less lectures (because we'll be running out of subjects)? In the third case, will we have Orna coming up with a gavel and asking if there's any new business? On 3/15/06, Eli Billauer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Erez Hadad wrote: > > >OMG people. You sound like its time to close the shop and go home. > > > > > Noone wants to close the shop. But we need to find out why the sales go > down. > > I didn't answer my own question, by the way: I have found myself coming > less, simply because I know much more about Linux than I did six years > ago. Guy's lecture about GTk opened my eyes to a tool I couldn't dream > of, at the time. But this has happened less and less, as time went by. > > And let's face it, guys (and girls): This shop has been open for seven > years, and has kept more or less the same format. Time to open our eyes, > and realize that the world around us has changed? For example: > > 1. Linux and open source are not small and unknown movements anymore. > 2. Most computer-competent people are not afraid of installing Linux > (technically). > 3. The amount of information about Linux on the web has increased > dramatically (answered questions in forums and "survival" guides in > particular) > ...etc. > > One of the outcomes is that it becomes less and less relevant to cover a > subject completely, top to bottom. The info is all in the web. If you > know that a tool exists, and you know a few keywords to google for, you > have all you need to get going. > > The Perl community has realized this a long time ago. They have > lightning talks. We had one such session, and I think we all agree that > it was a success. > > But rather than forcing people down to 5 or 10 minutes, I would > encourage people to make short talks about those things that are too > small for a two hours lecture. How many times have you found yourself > discovering something, saying to yourself that you have to tell everyone > about it, but realized that you'll have to work too hard to develop that > into a full lecture? > > So I think we should try another format: Several short talks for each > lecture. "Short" could be anything from five minutes to one hour, if the > subject is cool enough. With or without slides, with live demonstrations > whenever possible. > > Show the point. Share the main pieces of wisdoms. Links and google > words. Thank you. Next. > > It should be less of a bother to prepare a lecture, and less of a > headache to listen to it. > > And if not anything else, several lecturers assures a minimal number of > participants. ;) > > What do you think? > Eli > > -- > Web: http://www.billauer.co.il > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Haifa Linux Club Mailing List (http://www.haifux.org) > To unsub send an empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > -- To necessity... and beyond! Ohad Lutzky ��h�������X�����m���� !j'�Ɗ�N�����zwZ�驷)��Ơz�!j'���칻 �&ޅ���+ Orna. -- Orna Agmon http://ladypine.org/ http://haifux.org/~ladypine/ ICQ: 348759096 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Haifa Linux Club Mailing List (http://www.haifux.org) To unsub send an empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
