[pm-h] Upcoming Technical Meetings

[G. Wade Johnson]

On Fri, 11 Sep 2009 20:34:19 -0600
Mike Flannigan <mikeflan at att.net> wrote:

> 
> G. Wade Johnson wrote:
> > At the social meeting tonight, we discussed ways to bring some
> > interest back to the technical meetings. Based on an idea that
> > worked successfully in another programming group, we'd like to try
> > a book review sort of approach.
> >   
> 
> That's a pretty good idea.  I like it.
> 
> It's almost something you could do by e-mail, or
> blog, or whatever.

A large part of the technical book review-driven presentation has to do
with a good discussion that draws out information that the presenter
has learned. Sometimes others have similar experiences that can help
everyone's understanding of the topic.

I can see that more with email than a blog. Email just seems more
interactive to me.

Maybe we can continue the discussion on the mailing list after the
meeting. (I guess that means that I'll need to get the meeting on the
list a bit quicker and more regularly.)

> I just ordered a book through the library on
> Perl and CGI.  It's a 2007 book.  I might try
> some other books on Catalyst and a few
> other topics later.  I really don't know much about
> a lot of things, except I do know CGI already a bit.

One of the great things about this idea is it helps the presenter get
more out of the book. There's nothing quite as useful for convincing
you to dig into a topic than knowing that people are going to be asking
you for more detail.

Depending on the book, we might be able to have more than one person
lead on different chapters/sections depending on the amount of material.

Any interest in leading a discussion on your Perl and CGI book? (You
don't have to answer now, just think about it.)

G. Wade
-- 
Trying to outsmart a compiler defeats much of the purpose of using one.
                                 -- Brian Kernighan and P.J. Plauger