[pgh-pm] Making meetings more beginner friendly: some starting points

[Tom Moertel]

Pittsburgh Camelfolk,

During one of our discussions on reaching out to a wider audience, we 
considered giving talks of a more introductory nature.  To move forward, 
maybe we ought to work on a list of beginner-friendly ideas.

To get things started, here are some thoughts.

Introductory talks of any kind are good.  Even better are talks that --

- emphasize helpful Perl features that might not
   be obvious to people coming from other languages
   (e.g., closures, dynamic scoping, live symbol table)

- show how to take steps from Perl beginner to Perl journeyman
   (e.g., how to create packages, contribute to CPAN, test
   effectively, become a part of the Perl community)

- demonstrate solving interesting problems that Perl is uniquely
   suited to solve quickly, easily, and/or elegantly  (e.g.,
   log-file analysis, spam protection, one-liners)

- show how Perl can be used to kick butt in problem domains
   where people might not think it fits  (e.g., statistics,
   finance, video editing, online poker, etc.)

Some of our past talks have touched on these areas before.  Maybe we 
should revisit them?

Some of these areas we have not covered much, if at all.  Seems like 
easy pickings must be in there somewhere.

Other ideas for beginner-friendly meeting features:

*Coding Rumble*  At each meeting (and on the mailing list) we pose a 
small yet interesting programming problem and invite people to submit 
solutions in Perl.  Then at the next meeting, we take a look at the 
solutions, highlight the interesting bits, and extract useful tips and 
tricks.  We might even pick a winner and offer a prize of a free beer or 
something.

*CPAN Update*  A regular feature where we select a recent offering or 
two from CPAN and show how they can be put to good use.

*Itchy Scratchy*  We invite people, at meetings and on the mailing list, 
to submit problems.  Then we select an interesting submission, solve it 
with Perl, and talk about it at the next meeting.


PLEASE HELP!

OK, now it's your turn.  Do any of these ideas sound good?  Can you add 
anything?  Can you think of a concrete step we can take to move any of 
this stuff closer to reality?

If you are a lurker on this mailing list, we especially want to hear 
from you.  Want do you want out of Pgh PM?  If you don't come to 
meetings, why not?  What can we do to change your mind?  Please let us know.

Cheers,
Tom