I suspect that one of the reasons for a lack of contributions to the body of knowledge is people feel rather vulnerable offering opinions in writing on a public forum. Committing your untested view to writing can be a daunting prospect, especially when you lack confidence in your ability to clearly express yourself in writing and your audience is well informed and apparently well established on the forum/site. I know I’d benefit greatly from such a forum, even though I contribute to blogs and forum debates now.

While it is satisfying to exchange ideas in forums or through blogs, it is not quite the same as a more real-time interactive session. There is simply no substitute for sitting down in a relaxed informal environment and talking over a subject that interests you. Things like the ALM Expo help but I think they are still too formal and often little more than a series of marketing pitches by vendors, which is not what I’m looking for. I want a sort of ‘watercooler’ or ‘drinks in the bar’ exchange of ideas.

I want to move away from a stultifying formal environment, where we feel our every word is being judged and consequently we feel the need to be ‘professional’ at all times, into a more relaxed environment where we can have a proper conversation.

To this end I have looked at a number of possible mechanisms for sharing and interacting in real-time.

One obvious method is the webinar. Most webinars I have seen get the format horribly wrong (or rather, they corrupt the format into something so far removed from a webinar that it’s unrecognisable). A webinar should be like a face-to-face seminar (a host makes a short presentation on the topic at hand to stimulate participation, followed by an extended period of dialogue between participants). Most ‘webinars’ that I have attended are little more than a marketing pitch in which the host presents their product (sometimes thinly veiled behind some more general question) followed by one or two selected questions. This format is more like a lecture but would be more accurately described as ‘ad-inars’. Completely useless for what I want, which is a dialogue, an exchange of ideas—in other words, what I would expect from a seminar/webinar.

Then there are broadcast forums such as BlogTV. Again, while this is primarily a broadcast medium, the interactive chat available to all viewers does provide the audience with a means to direct the ‘show’ by asking questions and challenging the presenter. So, perhaps a little more of the dialogue I am looking for; a chance for people to ask questions and challenge the host’s views. BlogTV also has the opportunity to co-host, allowing for the interesting possibility of debates, interviews and the like. BlogTV’s non-commercial nature also, in my opinion, makes it more relaxed and less formal than some other formats.

Another interesting possibility is the chat room style interaction offered by services like Stickam or YouCams. These allow several people to interact via audio/video links while others contribute in chat format. People can “step up to the mic” when a slot is released, making for a fairly dynamic interaction.

These five modes (blogs, forums, webinars, broadcast, and video chat-room) each has merits and shortcomings. I already participate in most of these formats but only the first two in a professional capacity. I find myself dissatisfied with the interactions provided by the forum and blog formats (it’s like having a conversation in slow motion and it takes too long to write the post and then spend time clarifying and resolving misunderstandings that could be cleared up in seconds face to face). So, what about the other formats?

Well, the most obvious problem with each of the other three is precisely their real-time nature. At what time should I offer to take part in them? I have good conversations with people in India, Europe, and the US and these cover a wide range of time zones. To cover all of them would require several sessions. Then there is the matter of when people can take part. Some of you can access audio or video at work, others cannot. Some are willing to take part in these sorts of conversations in your spare time, others are not. To reach as wide an audience as possible, to discuss the topic with as many people as possible and benefit from different viewpoints means running multiple sessions but obviously I want to make each session as relevant and accessible as I can.

How many people want to spend their spare time talking about their profession? When I first thought about this my reaction was ‘not many’, but then I thought, ‘but you want to, there must be others like you’. But maybe I’m just strange? We shall see.

All of this musing lead me to the conclusion that the only way to proceed was to ‘give it a go’. So, over the coming months I will be setting up some open webinars, doing some BlogTV, and coordinating some video chat-room sessions. Some will start with a specific topic, others will be more open-ended. I will try to run sessions at different times in the hope you can join in at least one of them.

If you are interesting in making your own presentation at a webinar (I want people willing to present a 10-15 minute introduction, a well framed question would make a good introduction, to stimulate dialog—no vendor style ‘ad-inars’), or you want to co-host a blogTV session, then contact me and we’ll sort something out. If you want to participate but cannot find a suitably timed session then contact me and let me know your time zone and when would be a better time for you (no promises, I do have to work and sleep too ).

Oh, and if you have any suggestions for topics for these sessions, let me know and I’ll see what I can do.

I will blog, tweet, post to the CM Forum, and announce on the ITSLM Body of Knowledge web site all of the sessions.

Whether I continue with these will depend upon whether people are interested in participating (there’s no point in them if people don’t take part).

I hope to speak with many of you in the near future.

First, complete the Subversion Guru training course. There’s been a lot of interest but most people are deferring the buy option until the course is finished. I understand this position, so I shall now work to finish it (well, perhaps it would be better to say complete it because I suspect it will never be finished as Subversion continues to develop and I continue to find new ways to use it).

Second, and no less significantly, I shall finish the Subversion Guru book. I am now in the ‘grind’ stage of editing, formatting and indexing (although I still find much to be added and equally much to refine).

Both tasks are perfectly possible and with no distractions I see no reason they cannot be completed on schedule.

Right, back to it.

The first course represents only a part of the whole project and focusses on the Subversion command line client. Although there are still a number of video demonstrations to be completed for the client course, I am comfortable that those that I have completed, along with the extensive web site content, make a good value proposition and deal with all the major client commands.

So, by the end of November 2009 I should be launching the Subversion Command Line Client Training course. This course will be available for a mere £25. I feel sure that this is the most comprehensive, and certainly best value for money, course currently available for the Subversion client.

Not only that but this course will continue to be updated as I complete the final editing of the videos that did not quite make it in time for the launch. Anyone buying the launch version will automatically receive all of these updates without any further charge.

Also, I intend to launch the larger Subversion Guru course at the same time. This is a much larger training course that will ultimately cover all aspects of setting up a Subversion installation (client, server, repositories, usage and administration). Because this is a Beta version of the course (and therefore will not contain all of the final material in this first release) I will be making it available at a massively reduced rate. Users purchasing at this reduced rate will continue to receive all updates as the course matures, at no extra cost.

The initial Beta will be available for only £35 (the final course will be £75). That’s under half price, but the course contains much more than half the final content. As material is added I will increase the price to reflect the increased value of the course.

You’ll want to watch this full screen and in HD to get the best view.

This video is part of the upcoming Subversion Guru training course.

I’ve recently started a Frequently Answered Questions (FAQ) for Subversion on my main site.

Also, if you have a question that’s not on the FAQ, feel free to contact me. I can’t promise to answer all your questions, but I’ll try to answer as many as I can on the FAQ.

Also, keep an eye on the Subversion Guru training course. Progressing slowly, but there’s loads of great stuff packed into the course so far and I’m putting more in every week!