A quick update

[Carmen Ferrara]

Hi folks,

It has been a little quiet around here, but I wanted to provide an
update on some recent developments. Over the past several weeks a
small group of die hard Railstutor folks (http://groups.google.com/
group/railstutor/web/team-bios) have been collaborating to help
rejuvenate the project. We've been communicating via Skype chat -
brainstorming ideas, setting goals, and assigning tasks for helping to
jump-start things.

The Railstutor project got off to a great start last year - we have a
great mission, great people involved, and a solid foundation. Now,
it's a matter of moving the project forward. We'll definitely get
there.

Everyone is encouraged to help out, anyway you can. We are always
looking for folks to contribute an article or tutorial. If you need
editor access to the site's wiki or if you'd like to participate in
our bi-weekly chat sessions just me know.

Thanks.

Carmen-

[Karmen Blake]

What is the direction now? Near goals, far reaching goals?

I was contributing to the Rails Tutor tutorial. Are we still pushing for that?

Thanks.

Karmen

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[curtismchale]

I'm willing to work on the design again if no one has taken that
aspect on.

[Dana Jones]

I would add that Douglas Campos (whose bio is not yet on that team-bios page) has also been instrumental in helping the new push forward. Now, on to Karmen's questions. :)

Short-term goals include:

  * Continuing to add more content to the existing wiki

  * Flesh out the courseware outline

  * Begin the re-design of the Rails Tutor site. This design would not only be a better way of delivering our message and materials, it would be an open source example/illustration of the concepts in the courseware itself.

  * Review options for a new content management system for the courseware

Medium-term goals:

  * Branding/swag/promotion of the site

  * Switch to a new CMS

Long-term goals:

  * Partner more closely with Rails Mentors to help carry people along into more productive development

  * Add more courses on different topics

  * Become the go-to place for locating documentation on a variety of Rails topics.

So Karmen if you meant you were contributing to the beginners course, then yep, we're definitely still pushing for that to get completed. If you meant something else, I'm afraid I'm being dense and not sure what you mean. :)

If you look at that team bios page, you'll see a couple of new names. Michael Jabbour first approached me about getting involved with Rails Tutor, as it in many ways mirrored something he was already planning to do. Synergy, and all that. :) He owns the company that employs Sherrod Faulks, and they have so far done the lion's share of the work since we began talking (thanks, guys!). Please join me in welcoming them to our little family.

So as it breaks down, the following people are roughly in charge of the following topics (though we're still leaning pretty heavily on building consensus for the big decisions):

1) Marketing and PR - Michael Jabbour

2) Site re-design - Carmen Ferrara and Sherrod Faulks

3) Review of new CMS software - Sherrod Faulks

4) Team administration/management - Michael Jabbour and Dana Jones

5) Content Outline - Sherrod Faulks (anybody can contribute actual content, just like before)

So if you see something that piques your interest, just ping the person or persons listed and ask what you can do!

Have a wonderful weekend, everybody.

Dana

[Karmen Blake]

Dana,

All good. Thanks for the thorough reply. :)

Looking forward to helping where I can.

Karmen

[Michael Jabbour]

Hi Dana,

Thank for the thorough update to the community. Minor correction, Sherrod and I both partners in Soft Illuminations and he is our engineering and design lead while I am business development/analysis, and project management lead.

We are definitely looking for folks to contribute so if you have a particular skill or interest (most especially in content development), please post here or get in touch with us.

The team is working in 2 week iterations and practicing in an agile-like manner in case anyone is curious. We are hoping to build a strong foundation for Rails Tutor with the Dana, Doug, and Carmen while creating a solid bridge to Rails Mentor.

Take care all,

Michael Jabbour, CSP, MS, LAc
Mobile: +1 (347) 879-5777  Fax: +1 (631) 995-1045

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