Study Groups?

[Chris]

I personally am a bit of a butterfly when it comes to studying. I
spend more time reading book reviews on Amazon and downloading books
on P2P than I do actually reading the books. I tend to start off well
but then get bored by the book and start only reading the chapters
that interest me, then do the same with another book on the same
subject and so on.

My ethos has always been to read about a lot of technologies to find
out what is possible, then when I come across a problem which a
technology which I've 'skimmed' previously could solve I go back and
study in more detail. The result is that apart from my core
technologies which I use every day, I know a little about a lot rather
than a lot about a little. So now I've decided that I really want to
learn some technologies more thoroughly and approach my study in a
more studious manor even though I haven't yet got any real world
problems for them to solve.

For this I would be interested in forming a small study group, which
would work something like this:

Group chooses a technology
Group chooses some quality book(s) and tools
Get the books printed
Members commit to reading Chapters X Y and Z before the next meeting
Members meet for an hour or two over lunch or on a Sunday morning at a
cafe or someones house (A time with no beer and a time limit) to
discuss the chapters.
Members implement a small project or test case using the technology
(Something that would take days not weeks or months)

I imagine the course of a study groups would run for somewhere between
4 and 8 weeks depending on the length of the book(s) and complexity. I
would also expect it to be a little more formal in structure and
commitment than our weekly PPPPkh meetings.

I personally am interested in building on my knowledge in the
following:

Python
XML + XSLT, xPath, xQuery
Web Vector Graphics (SVG, VML)
J2ME

I am already familiar with some of these technologies to various
degrees, but would be happy to start from the beginning if any of you
are interested in studying any of these with me in a structured way.

Please reply if you are interested in forming a study group for any of
the above technologies or if you have a technology you are interested
in learning as others might be interested also.

Thanks

Chris

[Khou Suylong]

Yep Chris, You got a pretty good idea in forming the study group. For me it works best when there is discussion on particular topic rather reading books on my own. So I'm in with this study group. The technology that I would prefer is some sort of relates to JAVA, especially the J2ME but I also would like to get my hand touch with some .net if some one willing to share and discuss. regarding the time I think should let others to suggest and decide later.

[Chris Brown]

Another one for the list that I forgot to add:

Offline Web App Frameworks: Google Gears, Air, Prism

Still not much feedback on the idea of study groups, not popular?

--
Christopher Brown
Aruna Technology
Research and Development Director
H/P: (855) 012 315 302
Tel: (855) 023 215 231
Fax: (855) 023 215 234

[Miika Makinen]

Busy busy busy...

The idea is great, just have to find time. Personally, I can't really find time to study tech that is not directly related to my work. Right now, might change later....

My interests are lot in distributed applications world, not so much tech as concepts.

Miika

[Chy Vorleak]

Hi Chris,

I would like to study this tech so much, it's so great for me if I have a chance like that but the problem is that time. I expect we will find the topic that share to everybody are interested in and can learn together as well.

I personally would like to study application into tiers.

Cheers,
Vorleak,

[chhun samnang]

Hi Chris,

You got a great idea for study group. For me, I really like to study tech so much. I couldn't find the free time during work day, but for weekend is ok. I'm so interested in the following:

• Design enterprise application
• .Net
• J2ME

Cheers,
Samnang

[pang yem]

Hi Chris, it is really such a good idea to create this group. For me I would prefer to learn
Offline Web App Frameworks: Google Gears.Air, Prism But I just wonder if different people like to learn different thing. How should the decision made?

Cheers,
Pong

[Chris Brown]

I think we wouldn't do it with the whole group on Tuesdays, we would choose another time and place and only those that are interested in the subject attend. I think for studying smaller groups of no more than four are best.

[Tim]

Hi,

I am cerainly interested in participating in a special interest group,
though I need to make up my mind in which group I'd like to
participate. Personally I am interested in learning any other language
than C# and VB.Net, especially any dynamic language. Anyone interested
in studying Ruby (just had to pick one)?

Secondly i would like to know if anyone is interested in studying
methodolgies and the related project management side of it? I am
thinking of the following topics:
-Comparison of well known methodologies (XP/Agile/Unified etc.)
-Project Management aspects: (risk assesment, time/cost estimation,
resource assignment etc., )
-Tools (MS Project, Excel, TFS, Sparx EA, UML in general, reporting
tools, etc.)
-Planning (bug rates, issue severity, resource usage, regression etc.)
-People (staff, customers, other project stakeholders)

If anyone is interested please let me know. Feel free to add more
topics.

Cheers,

Tim

[Chris Brown]

Would you be interested in looking at Python rather than Ruby? They are both
extremely similar in terms of language constructs, the only problem I have
with Ruby is that it's all about the MVC framework Rails. I'm sure Rails is

cool otherwise it wouldn't receive the support it does, but personally I
would rather study a dynamic language outside of the web app paradigm. I
just do web stuff all the time and think I would enjoy studying something in

a different context and there seems to be a lot of well received books which
go through making cross platform desktop apps in Python. But like I said if
no one is into Python I would also be interested in Ruby, especially if we

were looking at the actual language rather than Rails.

On 01/03/2008, Chris Brown <chris...@arunatechnology.com> wrote:

Would you be interested in looking at Python rather than Ruby? They are both extremely similar in terms of language constructs, the only problem I have with Ruby is that it's all about the MVC framework Rails. I'm sure Rails is cool otherwise it wouldn't receive the support it does, but personally I would rather study a dynamic language outside of the web app paradigm. I just do web stuff all the time and think I would enjoy studying something in a different context and there seems to be a lot of well received books which go through making cross platform desktop apps in Python. But like I said if no one is into Python I would also be interested in Ruby, especially if we were looking at the actual language rather than Rails.

--
Christopher Brown
Aruna Technology
Research and Development Director
H/P: (855) 012 315 302
Tel: (855) 023 215 231
Fax: (855) 023 215 234

[Tim]

Agreed all arguments, and in particular on the rails thing, which can
almost be considered more of an automation task than a programming
skill. So my vote is now for Python.

On Mar 3, 8:35 am, "Chris Brown" <no.reply.mails...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Would you be interested in looking at Python rather than Ruby? They are both
> extremely similar in terms of language constructs, the only problem I have
> with Ruby is that it's all about the MVC framework Rails. I'm sure Rails is
> cool otherwise it wouldn't receive the support it does, but personally I
> would rather study a dynamic language outside of the web app paradigm. I
> just do web stuff all the time and think I would enjoy studying something in
> a different context and there seems to be a lot of well received books which
> go through making cross platform desktop apps in Python. But like I said if
> no one is into Python I would also be interested in Ruby, especially if we
> were looking at the actual language rather than Rails.
>

> On 01/03/2008, Chris Brown <chris.br...@arunatechnology.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> > Would you be interested in looking at Python rather than Ruby? They are
> > both extremely similar in terms of language constructs, the only problem I
> > have with Ruby is that it's all about the MVC framework Rails. I'm sure
> > Rails is cool otherwise it wouldn't receive the support it does, but
> > personally I would rather study a dynamic language outside of the web app
> > paradigm. I just do web stuff all the time and think I would enjoy studying
> > something in a different context and there seems to be a lot of well
> > received books which go through making cross platform desktop apps in
> > Python. But like I said if no one is into Python I would also be interested
> > in Ruby, especially if we were looking at the actual language rather than
> > Rails.
>

> Fax: (855) 023 215 234- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Chris]

Ok cool, so that's two of us interested in Python. I will start a new
thread for the Python study group so this one doesn't get hijacked.

Also I've found out that there is some misunderstanding about the idea
of the study groups so I will try to make it more clear. The study
groups are not instead of the Tuesday night patterns meeting or a
replacement for that meeting, they are an extra meeting that people
can also attend if they choose, The Tuesday night meetings are mainly
about 'methodology' rather than 'technology', this makes them good for
all programmers whatever language they are familiar with. The study
groups will do a similar thing but will focus on a technology rather
than general methodology, another difference is how long the groups
last, I imagine the Tuesday night meeting will go on for a long time,
maybe forever?! Whilst the study groups will probably last for a month
or two each. No one decides what study groups are started, if you want
to start your own study group then just post your idea here then if
someone else is interested then you can begin studying together. I
hope in the future there will be many study groups running at the same
time and covering many technologies, as group learning is always very
beneficial for me.

[Khou Suylong]

oops, sorry chris I didn't see your previous post regarding the study group, so let fix with it, study group is all about the technology not the methodology. so let start with it.I'm still in