APL Wiki...
Strategy
This is essentially why are we doing this? What is the intended audience & the objectives of this meeting?
- for IT decision makers - why should they choose an APL solution?
- We are attempting to raise the awareness of APL
Improve all our web sites & links with the intention of rasiing our search engine profile - an example was "Student X" typing APL into Google & practically the only thing he could file was an APL joke...
- we must define the commercial attractiveness of APL
High End concepts. We discussed the existing APL Idiom library & the notion of building a set of APL software libraries, but the most important idea was an "APL Concepts library" - not code snippets but how you approach problems in APL, so we don't have C programmers writing C in APL
education tools: what do we need to provide for those wishing to learn APL? There is more available than some people thought ("All I could offer was a 20-year old copy of Gilman & Rose"), we should promote the resources we have. Chris mentioned Graeme' Robertson's book & Mike praised Eric Lescasse's APL tutorials. Dick commented that a number of the recent postings on comp.lang.apl showed the need for this material and probably the need (or at least desire) so separate this from other APL discussions, so as to make the materials easier for students to find
- Assumptions about the level of Knowledge
Tactics
"Feed" the APL wiki Wiki That is populate it with anything we have which we fell is of good quality and belongs there. Use it both as a repository for educational & illustrative materials and (since it has a very open, flexible structure) as the hub for our other activities, but
- Feed our own websites to. We must make casual readers (and automated web spiders) aware that this isn't a community based around a single web site: that there is in fact a lot of APL activity and APL related material out there. Some materials will be better placed on our own sites rather than the wiki
- link our sites . HMW should links to Optima and so on. If you fell an article is better off on your own site, rather than the wiki, still put a link on the wiki to your web page.
- Chris Paul volunteered his "student X" as a guinea pig for our efforts (we shouldn't mention his name until he's agreed to take part). If he, from the point of view of a complete APL novice, feels our material is useful then we are doing something right.
- Announce a monthly "what are we up to?" on comp.lang.apl and possibly our own sites (remember Google likes fresh content, so that can only help all concerned), but move the discussions to a new google group (to be set up by Stephen), so we don't clog comp.lang.apl
- Direct Newbies on C.L.P to an answer source, be it the wiki or somewhere else. This is really the same notion of "clogging conversa". If there
To coordindate our activities we should use Google Groups Docs & Calendars as a start point: other tools only as the need arises and we agree to use. them
The Venue
A quote from Ellis: "The venue and organisation were both fit for the purpose, thanks everyone. We were able to meet, talk, use computers, eat, drink, split up into smaller groups, then get back together again with no formal or intrusive direction. I did most of what I had hoped to do."
That being said, or next meeting is in Combination with the ex-IP Sharp employees, so it will be at a different location. We will probably return to the Edgar Wallace in January 2009