FreeLists / openbeos / [openbeos] Re: Waltercon 07

[Bryan Varner <bryan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

> If we can do a WalterCon @ BeGeistert in Europe then I'm sure that would be successful. 
> I'm not sure whether there are enough core developers in the US to be able to deliver the 
> "teaching" experience quite as successfully.
>   
A lot of the topics wouldn't require someone who is currently a 'core' 
developer. I think just about anyone who's written code for BeOS could 
teach (with a few weeks of preparation for themselves) a roomful of 
people how to write Replicants, implement effective Node Monitoring, 
utilize File-System Attributes, write a simple driver, port a few *nix 
apps, etc. It's not like this stuff is -difficult-. You just need to 
know what to do, and why you're doing it.
With that in mind, I'm certain we have enough devs in the US that could 
handle something like that, the problem is that over the last three 
years WC hasn't proven to be beneficial for those individuals, and now 
they're not attending. To get them involved again, you'll need to 
convince them that WC07 will be worth their time.
Even if we only had two or three people that could teach, they could 
each cover multiple topics in different sessions that run fairly long. 
Longer sessions would probably encourage more in-depth practical 
application of the topic. This is not a bad thing. If there were only 
four or five sessions over the course of two days, taught by two or 
three people, then I think WC07 would have some -serious- value for 
developers that want to -learn-. I'd pay money to attend, and I'd offer 
to teach something if I could make it.
-Bryan