On 09/01/2013 08:01 PM, Tom Fifield wrote:
With the massive growth of OpenStack, so too have our user groups grown. Not just in number, or attendance, but also in their skill at delivering material at varying levels of complexity.
With this, I felt it was high time we started a discussion on how best to continue to support those attendees just beginning their OpenStack journey while satisfying the needs of the burgeoning number of more advanced users.
In talking with the user group leaders around the world, I've heard many different techniques. From running simultaneous parallel topic streams, alternative monthly sessions, or having a 'n00b' hour prior to the start of the main event.
One problem with splitting the streams is that the advanced folks forget what it's like to be a beginner, and the gap widens. But, of course, you also don't want to bore people with stuff they mastered ages ago. It's a problem with many user group communities.
Something I've found very effective in the past is hands on "help the newbie" sessions, where the advanced people are able to help beginners through common tasks. This has many benefits, including getting more people involved in the mentoring process. Of course,
not everyone is going to be interested/willing to do that, but having a chance to show off your chops is motivation enough for a lot of people.
This is one of the thorniest problems when driving new technology adoption. The benefit of having new users work with the experts/mentors is two-fold.
1. Naturally the new users get the benefit of learning from someone more experienced in OpenStack.
2. The experts get the benefit of seeing OpenStack through the eyes of a new user. One of the most crucial aspects of this is that the expert feeds that experience of seeing OpenStack for this first time back into the community.
For example, instead of the expert giving the new user a link to some document, have them initially search for what it is they want to do with OpenStack. If they can't find the appropriate material in a minute or two then something isn't optimal with respect
to how the information is organized. Feed this back to the community.
Regards,
Everett