[clug] Member Moderation - Bryan Kilgallin

[Bryan Kilgallin]

Thank you, Elena:

> There is a lot to fear, but in this case the group is fundamentally 
> deeply technical.

Many things are technical. Accounting is a technology, for example.

> This is not negotiable, this is the nature of this 
> user group.

I'm faintly amused. Check out my rare personality type.

{INTJs are idea people. Anything is possible; everything is negotiable.}

http://www.typelogic.com/intj.html

> Undoubtedly you're an intelligent bloke and this is clear to 
> you.

I recall reading that there were some seven intelligences. So I met a 
gardener, who said that his reading age was twelve. Yet he designed and 
welded an industrial-scale sieve for recovering expensive perlite.

> I actually have a question to you: if this deeply technical part of the 
> group is not where you are currently finding fulfillment here and the 
> way the material is presented is causing consternation or even 
> unpleasantness for you, what is your main interest in CLUG?

I would like to be correctly informed. Saying that a topic is wow, easy 
and cool, so everyone should come and bring friends--confuses the hell 
out of me, when it turns out "check your PhD in at the door"!

> It's about what makes us feel good, and what your describing doesn't 
> seem to be making you feel good, whereas there are surely other avenues 
> that could.

I am a member of NRMA. So rarely I get my sick car fixed-up by them. And 
they insure it. So for reasons of security and cost, I use Ubuntu. But 
occasionally something collapses! Therefore I try to understand the 
technology that I'm using, and reach out for help when it breaks.

> We are so lucky to live in this amazingly connected time!

A burglar can find out when you're not home. And a scammer can fleece 
you from far away!

> By 
> looking just now for a couple of minutes so many groups that would be 
> more amenable to the nature of things you talk about, such as art for 
> example, and mental heath and retirement:

Long ago, I visited a university, enquiring about study. I wanted to do 
information technology policy. But the Computing Department chief 
exclaimed that this was politics. Whereas the Politics head wrote-off 
the concept as computing!

I appreciated your list of events, and have entered a movie launch into 
my diary. Many events are listed for mornings. Whereas I tend to 
sleep-in, preferring appointments from say 1 PM. And these days, on 
medical advice, I try not to go out say shopping in the evenings.

> If it's social interaction you're being advised to pursue, perhaps there 
> are other communities where your wealth of creative ability and 
> experience could be better appreciated than it currently is being among 
> us technology-obsessed (particularly the highbrow stuff) over here.

I had worked in information technology. So for example learning PROLOG 
while seeking employment. Similarly though I am in an art group, I am 
the only one there using electronic media!

> Honestly before all of this I'd looked an Brendan's slides and thought 
> they were great and wished I'd attended, altough I come from a place 
> of living and breathing technology and the slides looked as though it 
> was an even-handed, interesting high-level overview.

Whereas I am coming from education. Suggesting finding out about the 
learner audience, and what they can and cannot do. Identifying gaps in 
knowledge and designing for that. Breaking down a big concept into 
chunks, and say arranging small group discussion of those. And 
projecting a small number of large items, for the benefit of a guy 
wearing bottle-bottom glasses at the back of the room! Illustration is 
also recommended, as not everybody is verbally-oriented. Inductive 
learning is about finding out on one's own, or in a group, by trying 
things out. Then there's evaluation, checking up afterwards how people 
were or weren't improved by the experience.

{I am Master of this College,
  What I don't know isn't knowledge.}

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balliol_rhyme

> It makes me feel 
> terrible that he was made to feel bad for delivering this presentation, 
> because this is the stuff that CLUG is about.

Delivering content, is a mistake in adult learning! It's like dumping a 
lump of concrete on someone, and expecting them to eat it.

> As said previously I care about CLUG (from a distance) and I'm on the 
> (Billy-Joel-)Don't-Go-Changing side of defending what CLUG is about and 
> everyone essentially doing what's right for them and where they're at 
> and what they're looking for.

Argument from tradition: different people used to be tied up and burned 
alive! Why change? And that's about as close as I get to a rhetorical 
question.
-- 
members.iinet.net.au/~kilgallin/