From colin.wright@denbridgemarine.com Wed Dec 23 05:12:22 2009 Received: from mailgate.denbridgemarine.com ([83.104.25.50]) by chain.digitalkingdom.org with esmtp (Exim 4.69) (envelope-from ) id 1NNR0i-0000sJ-NK for lojban-beginners@lojban.org; Wed, 23 Dec 2009 05:12:22 -0800 Received: from strontium.elements (support.denbridgemarine.com [83.104.25.51]) (using SSLv3 with cipher EXP1024-RC4-SHA (56/128 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mailgate.denbridgemarine.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id BCF5F6049F2; Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:12:14 +0000 (GMT) From: Colin Wright Organization: Denbridge Marine Ltd To: lojban-beginners@lojban.org Subject: Re: Site for beginners was: vlatai and logflash Date: Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:12:13 +0000 User-Agent: KMail/1.9.1 References: <230918.3024.qm@web88005.mail.re2.yahoo.com> <27513e550912221954g8553b15t2447129b7cce0caf@mail.gmail.com> <915587.54171.qm@web88003.mail.re2.yahoo.com> In-Reply-To: <915587.54171.qm@web88003.mail.re2.yahoo.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200912231312.13521.colin.wright@denbridgemarine.com> > This exchange of emails is a good reminder to us all about > how carefully we will need to communicate to our intended > audience through the intended beginners website. > I may not have ever have written a line of code, but I have > worked many years in IT companies (sales, marketing, marketing > communications). Many beginners will be even further removed > from the the world of IT. Part of the problem is that preparing software for a non-programming audien= ce=20 is at least ten times harder, possibly 100 times harder, than hacking out=20 something that's useful to those willing to learn a bit about how these=20 things work. People who don't work in programming have no inkling as to th= e=20 efforts needed to convert something a hacker can use into something the=20 general populace won't instantly break. My parents, for example, would nev= er=20 be able to use any of the lojban tools. My wife, although non-technical, c= an=20 follow most of the instructions, but needs coaxing through some of the more= =20 obscure parts, and if something goes wrong she doesn't know what to try nex= t. I have perhaps a dozen tools that I use daily, and colleagues use daily, th= at=20 would take months if not years to turn into consumer products. > By the way, what's KDE?=A0 I suspect something American.=A0 Well, > I'm not an American and I assume we want non-American beginners too. This is part of the problem. Did you try using Google? http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=3DKDE Top hit: " KDE is a powerful graphical desktop environment for Unix workstations. " In my version of an IT world people would at least try checking Google befo= re=20 asking a question like that. My wife would, my parents wouldn't. While I'm extremely happy that you're enthusiastic about lojban and clearly= =20 interested in helping, I have no insight into the mindset of a person who=20 wouldn't use Google to research that sort of question before coming straigh= t=20 back out and asking. Without people like you this project will forever remain an obscure, cultis= h,=20 techie-only backwater. You're absolutely right that for lojban eventually = to=20 expand and become more mainstream, it's people like you we need to cater fo= r. =20 But I have no idea how to do that. mi'e kolin. =2D-=20 Dr C.D.Wright, Director of Innovation and Engineering Denbridge Marine Limited, Cammell Lairds Waterfront Park, Campbeltown Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, Merseyside, CH41 9HP. Tel: +44 (0)151 649 4080 =46ax: +44 (0)870 051 8953 Mob: +44 (0)7980 57 22 96 Denbridge Marine Limited may monitor email traffic data and the content of email for the purposes of security and staff training. Denbridge Marine Limited. Registered in England and Wales, Company Number 4850477 Registered office: DSG, 43 Castle St, Liverpool. L2 9TL.