[IndiChix] [RFC] Introduction to Linuxchix India - presentation slides

[Hassath]

Hi.

On Feb 6, 2008 8:23 PM, Runa Bhattacharjee <runa.misc at gmail.com> wrote:

> Please find the presentation slides for a talk on Introduction to LinuxChix India here:
>
> http://runa.randomink.org/misc/linuxchix-india-introduction.pdf
>
> It is also linked from the wiki in the following page:
>
> http://linuxchix.org.in/wiki/index.php/Speakers_Corner

That's quite helpful, thanks. A few points:

Slide 3: Either all the points should start with 'To', or none of them
should (I recommend the latter). Also, 'Support' and 'Knowledge'
should start with lower case, so that the case is consistent with the
other slides.

Slide 5: The sentence is hard to understand (and grammatically
incorrect). I suggest something like this:
"LinuxChix India seeks to facilitate the participation of Indian women
in various aspects of FOSS. This includes helping them to:
- learn about and use Linux
- contribute to projects in different ways
- participate in events
- volunteer, mentor and help each other"

Slide 6: The title should be 'How You Can Help', or 'How Can You
Help?' and not 'How can you help'.
"Contribution!=only code" might work for Ankita's talk at IIT Kanpur,
but it demands that the audience know the C '!=' notation. For a less
technical audience, this should be spelled out.
Points 3 and 6 are written differently from all the others- they list
tasks, while the others start with verbs. Also, Point 3 could be
clearer. I suggest: "Write documentation for projects" and "Help with
administration e.g. list management".
Also, "Write content" in itself sounds rather vague.

>
> The above page can be used as a placeholder for resources that speakers can (re)use for talks at
> various events.
>

Yes, that would indeed be useful .
Also, people could share their experiences after giving such a talk-
their observations on what worked well, the kind of questions which
were difficult to answer, and if there are some commonly asked
questions. This would help more of us to learn from the experiences of
some, and more people might feel prepared to give a talk in the
future.


On Feb 6, 2008 10:53 PM, Atul Chitnis <mail at atulchitnis.net> wrote:

> However, I'd strongly suggest some more structure to the talk -
> "Discussion" is the trap that many sessions like these fall into, and then
> nothing comes out of it.

I don't think the problem lies with discussion per se. It has a lot to
do with the skill of the speaker, the specific situation, and the
style of the individual speaker. Some people can do very well with a
loosely structured talk.

> Every talk MUST have a clear agenda -
>
> - This is what I am going to talk to you about
> - This is what you will learn

Gosh, that sounds like we're back in school.
There might be some situations where one needs to keep things very
tight, but in a general introduction, it's fine for a speaker (if she
so wishes) to lead the talk somewhere depending on what area of the
subject the audience expresses an interest in. Yes, it's good to be
prepared for various things, but what to focus on is sometimes best
left to be judged by the audience response.

 > As usual, it is important to ensure that the concept of contribution not
> being just code is understood, but remember that every journey starts with
> the first step - in this case usage.

True. And we need to let people know, more often, and more clearly,
where to look for help. When they want to know something about
usage/installation, or face a problem with something, they should know
that they can ask very basic questions on this list without being
flamed or told to Google or RTFM (which is the most common response
they will get on many fora, including LUGs).

Hope that helps.
-- 
- Hassath