Newbie Training Session

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GreenSpiderDesign's picture
Start: 
2009-04-07 18:30 - 20:30 America/Chicago
Event type: 
Training (free or commercial)

Following the success of last night's Austin DUG meetup, I would like to know if there is interest in our group purchasing the Lullabot series of video tutorials (there are 2 @$75 and 1 $30) to view as a group. Please let me know if you are willing to participate. The total # of participants will simply pay proportionally for the cost of the videos.

Alternatively, if anyone knows of any good free video tutorials we could use let me know.

I'm hoping there is enough interest in having separate educational meetups outside of our DUG monthly meetups. Is that too much?

Comments

Excellent Idea

anneeasterling's picture

I think having separate educational meetups would benefit everyone. Newbies can get content that addresses their needs without monopolizing the time of more experienced participants.

Anne Easterling
www.anne-easterling.com

Anne Easterling
www.anneeasterling.com

yes, I'd participate

selwynpolit's picture

Sounds good to me - I'd be interested in chipping in a few bucks. Always up for learning something new.

Selwyn

Screencasts / Reference

brianpkennedy's picture

Here is a collection of some screencasts that can help you out. I found some more helpful than others, and some of them may be outdated (drupal 4 or 5), but the concepts should be about the same.

http://www.minezone.org/blog/2007/11/01/45-screencasts-to-get-you-kickin...

There are some good professional reference books as well, my general rule is to look at the O'Reilly ones first because I think they're the best. You should be able to glance over the reviews on amazon to see which one would be best for you.

i can't believe mollom

brianpkennedy's picture

i can't believe mollom thought that might be spam

Mollom seems to think I'm a spammer ALL the time

Walt Esquivel's picture

I don't know what I did to tick it off, but Mollom gives me a hard time 99% of when I'm trying to post something on g.d.o.

I have no idea why but am starting to wonder if I've been blacklisted. ;) And I'm this group's manager!

Are others on here having similar problems posting, or do you sail right through with your posts with no problems at all?

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)

EDIT: Yep, 1st time I tried posting the above, this is what I got:
"Your submission has triggered the installed spam filter and will not be accepted."

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Thanks Brian!

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

These do look useful - hope they update for 6 in the near future! I think there is value in new Drupalers understanding things at even the D4 or D5 level as these concepts do carry forward for the most part into D6 even if some of them are less exposed moving forward. Certainly gives a greater appreciation for the advancements into 6!

Though I do have to say I think it is important to not get too deep into things that are no longer relevant. Sort of like studying Grady Booch, Ivar Jacobsen, and Jim Rumbaugh; learning each of their methodologies to understand the Unified Method of OOP rather than simply learning UML itself. (Showing my age a bit with that analogy me thinks! :)

Group pricing?

shiva7663's picture

You might want to check the fine print. Does the price you quote cover group showings?

I don't see any fine print

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

Do you? If so, please post a link. Otherwise, I've submitted a question to Lullabot asking them if there are any such restrictions.

Thanks for the forethought.

Happening?

chrowe's picture

Were the discs ordered?
Is this happening?

Thanks,
Chris

Chris Rowe
CTO - ole.org
Austin, TX

Training

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

I did get a response from Lullabot, and they are supposed to contact me tomorrow to give me a download link for the series. They aren't even going to charge us! I asked whether there was an additional charge for group showings, and they agreed to donate them to us! They do hope that some of the members who view them will purchase them for reference tools.

I'll update again tomorrow once I have made contact with them again and have the tutorials in hand.

I need to get with the library to reserve space - does everyone still want to shoot for Tuesday?

Penciled it in on my calendar

Walt Esquivel's picture

Thanks Terry!

I've penciled it in on my calendar and will wait to hear back from you as to your luck with the download link.

As soon as you find out, please post the update here and at the same time you might also want to consider sending out a "Signup broadcast" to let everyone know. If you don't have that "permission" than let me know and I'll do it for you as the Group Manager.

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Update

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

Okay, so the end result is that Haley wasn't able to comp the videos after all. She gave us a Discount code for 10% off - DUG_AUSTIN_0409 - so we will need to collect money tomorrow at the meetup.

I'd like to see a hard count on how many people will be there if possible.

Also, Walt, who usually reserves the space? I'm in meetings until 4pm and can't even call to see if the space is available for tomorrow evening. If anyone has a chance to do so before then, great, if not I'll call at 4pm.

Thanks everyone!

*CARVER BRANCH* room reserved & video thoughts

Matt V.'s picture

I just called the Terrazas Branch library and the meeting room there is already booked for tomorrow (and is regularly booked on Tuesdays). They suggested the Carver Branch library, so I called and reserved room #3 there tomorrow from 6:30 - 8:30 pm. The room seats ~15 people and has a white board that the librarian said should work okay as a screen. The library does not provide a projector though. The Carver branch is just off 11th street, east of downtown.

I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to make it tomorrow. If I'm not there, someone will need to fill out a registration form for the group, taking responsibility for the room. Group registration is apparently on a per-branch basis, so the paperwork I filled out to use the Terrazas Branch doesn't carry over to Carver. The main thing the Carver librarian asked is that the tables and chairs get put back the way they were found.

When I signed up to attend, I was thinking of the Do It With Drupal session videos, but I now realize that it's probably the CCK and Views videos that you were talking about. Personally, I'd be more interested in going in on the Do It With Drupal videos, since I'm already very familiar with Views and CCK; plus, the DIWD sessions offer more bang for the buck (40 hours of content for $95). Not to mention the fact that the majority of the DrupalCon DC videos are available online for FREE and there are plenty of those I wasn't able to attend or watch yet.

Definitely Should Go For the No-Cost!

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

I am glad you mentioned the no-cost DC videos. Has anyone viewed them to see how solid they are? I think we should go ahead and get the DIWD videos if they offer 40 hours for $95 since the Lullabot videos are only about an hour or so each. Do you know if it also covers Views and CCK?

Can someone bring a projector? I really don't want to fork out another $75 + tax like I did last time. :)

Walt Esquivel's picture

Terry,

I just called the library and its one and only conference room is reserved on Tuesday evenings for tutoring. Based on the fact that you do not have a solid location, I recommend that you reschedule. That's just my suggestion and you are free to go ahead and have it tomorrow as you originally scheduled but you would need to find a new location and I doubt many people would show up based on the approximately 24-hour (or less) notice.

As of 11 am this morning, only four (4) folks have signed up and this leads me to another issue. Can you please provide what the total cost is going to be with the 10% discount? Per my rough calculations:
2 videos @ $75 and 1 video @ $30 = $180.
$180 - 10% discount from Lullabot = $162.
$162 / 4 attendees = $40.50 per person.

Is that right? Sorry, but I'm not willing to pay anywhere near $40 to watch the videos. $10 would be more like it. If we can get 15 people to show up, that would work out to about $11 per person which I think is a lot more reasonable.

So...

Can we perhaps watch the videos at a future Austin DUG meetup? I don't think we have enough people for tomorrow to bring the price down enough (for me anyway) and it's very short notice (around 24 hours) Not everyone is subscribed to receive posts via email, meaning they only come on here every once in while and probably have no idea about your most excellent efforts to obtain the videos for us.

Also, do you know how long the videos are in terms of viewing time? Of course, this is assuming we don't rewind anything when people like me don't understand what the heck they're talking about! I might have to watch 'em twice! ;)

Normally, the person planning the meetup is responsible for coordinating meetup logistics, including space reservations.

Anyone else care to comment?

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

Walt - see Matt's and my previous post

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

Apparently you posted that just after I posted my comments -

I'm flexible - whatever the group wants to do is fine by me. I definitely agree the DIWD 40-hour series makes more sense than the Lullabot series since we just finished covering CCK and Views anyway.

GreenSpiderDesign's picture

My apologies everyone - here is my promise to the group - in the future I personally won't schedule a meeting until all of the details are in place in terms of training materials, location, time (with reserved spot), etc. I fully realize that doing so hurts the credibility of the group and don't want to negatively impact future attendance.

Once we have these things in place and a solid agenda for a training session I'll reschedule this. If someone wants to go ahead and schedule the next monthly DUG meeting we might be able to add something to that agenda.

Thanks!

No worries! Thanks for the good effort Terry.

Walt Esquivel's picture

I find that posting an event here in the Who, What, When, etc. format as found on past Austin DUG events might help.

Example: http://groups.drupal.org/node/20015

I usually don't post an event until I have the necessary event info locked down, with date, time, and location probably being the more important (speakers, topics, & presentations can always be shifted around on an as-needed basis).

Why don't you go ahead and give it a shot setting up an event for late April, perhaps 4/29? That would give you plenty of time between now and then to find a place, a projector (forget paying $75!), and the videos you think others might benefit from viewing? It would also give folks time to make suggestions and to even sign up to attend.

Thanks again Terry!

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)

Walt Esquivel, MBA; MA; President, Wellness Corps; Captain, USMC (Veteran)
$50 Hosting Discount Helps Projects Needing Financing

before booking anything else. . .

Matt V.'s picture

Just to let everyone know, when I called Terrazas this week about booking the additional meeting, I also confirmed our reservation of the meeting room there through the end of the year. I have the room reserved for the last Wednesday of the month through December (with the exception of November when the last Wednesday wasn't available and I settled for the nearest available day):

Wednesday, 4/29 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 5/27 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 6/24 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 7/29 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 8/26 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 9/30 6:30 - 8:45pm
Wednesday, 10/28 6:30 - 8:45pm
Saturday, 11/28 2pm - 4:45
Wednesday, 12/30 6:30 - 8:45pm

I was waiting until this event came and went before making the event post for the 4/29 meeting, to avoid any confusion.

Let's talk at the meetup

Cliff's picture

Sorry---I've been so engrossed in the details of earning a living and building a volunteer site on the side that I haven't kept up with this thread.

Let me do some looking between now and this Wednesday. I have at least one of the Lullabot DVDs and might have the DIWD series. (I know I meant to download them.)

I would be more than happy to share them with a group learning venture, as I have found that I do a lot better myself that way.

See y'all 4/29!

Cliff