[pydata-outreach-staff] Clarifying the "workshop & sprint"

[Vid]

Hi,

I had to answer this ...just this before I leave :)

On Sun, Dec 9, 2012 at 7:41 AM, Asheesh Laroia <asheesh at asheesh.org> wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I was looking over the schedule at
> https://github.com/svaksha/PyData-Workshop-Sprint/wiki/2012-NYC and was
> wondering what the difference was intended to be between "Guided group work"
> and "SPRINT time."
>
> Is the notion that in the "guided group work" time, people are strongly
> urged to work together in small groups, and then at 3 PM, they're encouraged
> (if they wish) to work solo?

Yes, I assume Chang would like people to pick out bugs (even
documentation bugs are fine) from the tracker and work on them - it
being a  workshop for newbie contributors, we can learn to do bug
triage, documentation and other smaller level tasks.

Some background: Earlier, I had attended John Resig's JS workshop
(just to move out of my comfort zone - I dont code in JS) and I loved
the way he walked people through the language with examples etc.. Even
if I dont code in JS, I could easily pick up the logic and at the end,
he built a small app with the bits that he had walked us through
during the day. I like his approach to learning and building things.

I dont know if the same approach will work with Pandas - the usecase
is entirely different, but my main goal was to make it easier to get
started - nicer when all in the same room than chatting over irc or
email, not that they are ineffective but when you are new,
face-to-face communication saves time and its faster to just ask
questions, etc..


> We'll probably want to be sure to reserve some suitably substantial tasks
> for the 3 PM portion -- not so huge as to require huge amounts of Pandas
> knowledge, but not so small that one person can just do it by themselves.
>
> I'm a little confused that the "SPRINT" time repeats the
> beginner-friendliness as if new people are expected to arrive just for
> sprint time. Presumably we're not intended for more people to arrive at that
> time, we're just re-iterating our commitment to make it a great experience
> for beginners?

I am not sure I understand the question.

>
> Thanks! I'm impressed with the level of forethought that's already gone into
> the event.

Thanks !

Regards,
Vid  ॥ http://svaksha.com ॥