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.
I'm keen to hear your ideas. What do you do to manage the different levels of achievement of those in your community? Do you have content? What would you like to see?
One thing that I think a lot of new users will find helpful is "short story" format tutorials and videos, covering one task such as adding a compute node, adding ssh keys, or whatever, which the more advanced users take for granted. There is, of course, a lot of such content scattered around, but having it consolidated and organized by topic, as well as in some kind of logical progression, would be very helpful to someone getting started who doesn't really know what they're looking for.
Having scripts (slide decks, notes, examples, etc) that someone can use to present to a beginning user group is also a great way to organize thoughts, while getting content out there that can help bootstrap new groups. Something like OpenStack Cookbook (ISBN:1849517320) may be a good place to start with ideas for that kind of content.