[OSDC Israel] OSDC::Israel::2007 Milestones

[Steph Fox]

Hi Guy,

> well, hearing a lecture is much easier for all of us then having a
> workshop (where we need to actually write something). and expecting
> people to "follow up" is too much. just take it that the ratio of
> developers-to-users in a project such as PHP is so low, that you'll have
> to give the workshop to several hundreads of people in order for two of
> them to actually join the development.

True.

> but what you are ignoring, in my opinion, are two facts:
>
> 1. people who saw something one day might come back around to it a year
> or 3 later. the knowledge was lost - but not the getting over some
> psychological barrier.

It's been three years, so I think we can discount that idea, nice tho' it 
be...

> 2. some of those people perhaps got a better understanding of the
> technology as users (that is, as people writing PHP code, not writing
> the PHP engine or PHP modules).

Heh, that's probably why they stayed away :)

> so sometimes the benefits are indirect (sometimes very indirect). it is
> harder to measure those effects - so i think you should instead just ask
> people how they felt after the workshop (well, next time around). if it
> was interesting, or they had fun, or both, or it was though-provoking,
> or it helped them understanding something about how their car works (by
> association) - then you did a good job.

The feedback was quite good at the time, but I don't think it shook 
anybody's world somehow. Actually when it comes to 'giving back', a lot of 
people look at it in terms of resources as much as in terms of putting in 
any personal effort. We had a couple of offers of mirror hosting from people 
who decided they didn't have time to learn C.

> --guy
>
> p.s. where's andi? back to the german-speaking motherland? ;)

Erm... as far as I know he's from here :)  But no, he's working in the 
States since last year. (The company expanded.)

- Steph