[IAEP] [DESIGN] Ideas and questions on SL.o

[Martin Langhoff]

On Sun, Dec 27, 2009 at 7:33 AM, Luke Faraone <luke at faraone.cc> wrote:
> This would include things like:
>
> Download Sugar (Sends them off to the [[Try Sugar]] wikipage)
> Explore teaching resources (needs authoring)
> Solve a problem ([[Sugar help]])
> Get involved

How you set things up in that homepage will shape what newcomers do.

If you say "get software, get content, get documentation" first, then
that is what people will do. If you say "join our user group" first,
you shape things in a different way. If this user group is welcoming,
and gently mentors newcomers into the available resources and social
mores; then you have a good nurturing space for an excellent user
documentation & teacher resources wiki.

Programmers and other geek types will mostly fend for themselves ;-)
Put a link somewhere for developers and we'll find it.

For example, moodle.org used to draw you into the user group ("Using
Moodle") as the answer to almost everything (except download and CVS
checkout ;-) ). And so it was. Gradually, a documentation wiki got
added, and as it's been growing in quality, it has taken more and more
prominence in the homepage. Same with other resources.

Nowadays, newcomers grab a complete, stable, documented product and
explore databases of available content and plugins, with little or no
community engagement. Perhaps some opportunities for participation are
missed. But the community is large, strong, and self-sustaining (and -
as Kevin says, puts a gigantic amount of work on the maintenance-heavy
resources like the wiki).

cheers,



m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
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