[tpm] Meeting feedback and suggestions.

Mike Stok mike at stok.ca
Sat Feb 6 13:14:28 PST 2010


On Feb 6, 2010, at 8:27 AM, Kartik Thakore wrote:

> Hello Mongers
> 
> On Mon, Feb 1, 2010 at 9:11 PM, Mike Stok <mike at stok.ca> wrote:
> Thanks to everyone who showed up at January's meeting.
> 
> Some ideas about meetings which were mentioned:
> How many people would be interested in hackathons?  Last year Kartik mentioned he might be able to do a game hackathon In February.  
> If there is an interest in the hackathon I would need a heads of on the format people are expecting. I was thinking along the lines of :
> 
> - A brief overview of what SDL perl is and where it is going:
> 
> Format A:
> 
> - I walk through a simple game (arcade style coding) code with SDL perl
> - Then we hack each our games either in groups or individually?
> 
> Format B
> - I walk through a simple game (arcade style coding) code with SDL perl
> - We make some of the classics in a collaborative fashion
> We make tron, or asteroids or .... 
> 
> What do you think? This is my first time preparing for a hackathon so any help is appreciated.
> 
> Kartik Thakore 

I think we need to have an idea of what we want to get out of it - understanding the technology, getting a simple game going,  getting started on something with the intent of carrying on - so that we can make good use of the time we are together to do coding and learn stuff rather than doing administrative tasks we could do on the list.  Not having looked at the Perl SDL bindings I don't know what can be accomplished by a noob in a short session.

One question which seems open is whether to do this in a regularly scheduled monthly meeting which is usually 90 minutes or so (I don't know what the official kicking-out time is at Nexient), or if we want to arrange a space and time where we can have a longer period to work together.

If we want to do it at a Thursday evening meeting then we'd need to consider how much time is left after the walk through, what resources we need (for example a network connectivity...), and what people might expect to get done before we have to vacate the room at Nexient.

If it realistically takes three or four hours to get something going then maybe you could do a brief overview of SDL Perl and a walk through of a game at a Thursday evening meeting, and we could see how many people were interested in a hacking on some game and organise some space for a weekend day soon after?  Knowing the schedules, locations, and numbers of interested people might help us arrange a venue for the working session.

Is there any preparation participants could usefully do before the meeting (for example "make sure you have version x.y.z of the Perl SDL binding and its demos working before the meeting)?

Those are some of my off-the-cuff thoughts, what do other people think?

Mike

-- 

Mike Stok <mike at stok.ca>
http://www.stok.ca/~mike/

The "`Stok' disclaimers" apply.




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