Signups for Drupal SANDcamp 2013 now open!

Hi,

The main SANDcamp event occurs on Friday and Saturday January 25 and 26 at the UCSD Price Center. There will be numerous sessions (all included in your $10 registration) on both days, running from 9am to 5pm each hour. The sessions will be tagged with their level of expertise and a track. Right now the sessions are still being submitted by volunteers, you can see the current list here:
https://sandcamp.org/program/sessions/proposed.

There are also four paid programs, you can find the details here:
https://www.sandcamp.org/pre-camp-training2

If you are new to Drupal, you might want to take the Drupal 7 Bootcamp class offered on Thursday for $79 (truth in advertising here, I will be the presenter):
https://www.sandcamp.org/drupal-7-bootcamp

OR if you are new to Drupal I have proposed a session I called "From blank to live in 45" which is a quick intro to all of the Drupal basics you need to get started with site building. I build a live site in 45 minutes. Vote for this session at the following URL by clicking on I Plan to Attend This Session (you have to be logged in and registered to do this):
https://www.sandcamp.org/d7-bootcamp-blank-live-45

Hope that helps! See you at SANDcamp. Douglas C. Hoffman

Hi os_pilgrim and welcome to the wonderful world of Drupal!
I too have been confused by some of this terminology in the past so I feel your pain.
A sprint is not meant specifically for learning, it is more a place for doing. But I found I have learned a lot by participating in a sprint, because I learn the most from doing!
That being said, the point of a sprint is to bring developers, or people who want to write documentation, together to write documentation or focus on fixing(writing code) issues in the issue queue for core issues, a particular contrib module, or a distribution like COD (Conference Organizing Distribution). This can be done with a group of people who have gathered in person at a camp or con or virtually or a combo of both. It's organized this way because it helps those involved achieve some focus and organization and can be an effective way to get a lot done in a short amount of time.
Beginners are welcome as there are what are called "novice" issues or documentation that can be written. However, it would be good if you could familiarize yourself with the particular subject of the sprint beforehand so that you can be the most helpful and not slow things down too much with needing unnecessary hand holding from the more experienced people of the group of sprinters who will be focused on working through their issues. It's called a sprint for a reason ;-)
There are "learn sprints" now that are associated with the Drupal Ladder (see drupalladder.org for more info). These are meant to help you learn how to become a core contributor and indeed, will help you be ready for participating in sprints! Note, just completing a couple of the bottom rungs of the Drupal Ladder will get you ready for working on the novice issues so you won't have to do much to be ready for sprinting.

Hope that helps!