Tutorials + idea

[Richard Gaskin]

Wolfgang M. Bereuter wrote:

> On the list are some great german speaking rev/MC gurus and/or malt
> drinkers;).. so if one of them could help a bit than maybe we get a
> great thing to learn rev...
> 
> Just an idea; what do you -everybody here on the list is invited to-
> think about it..?

While I don't speak German, I do appreciate a good malt. :)

I would love nothing more than to spend half my working hours crafting
learning materials for scripters, but alas I have yet to come up with the
business model to make that practical.  I've asked my landlord if he would
consider offering open source housing, but he doesn't seem quick to jump on
that bandwagon.  :)

My limited experience with printed books supports what most tech authors
will tell you:  given the effort and materials needed to produce a good book
they rarely deliver enough revenue to break even, with most publishing
houses relying on a few great sellers to subsidize the majority of their
catalog.  For the writer, unless a book hits a second printing they will
usually make something that beaks down to being close to minimum wage.  And
in the tech world, where new software versions give a shorter shelf life to
tech books than nearly any other genre, it is extremely rare that a second
printing will occur.

I have no doubt that as Rev's audience continues to grow by leaps and bounds
the opportunities for publishing will grow right along with it.

But for the near term, while printed books have many advantages, it seems
more worthwhile focusing on electronic learning materials.  In addition to
being more enviro-friendly than a dead-trees version that lives only a few
months, along with that comes a much lower production and distribution cost,
and the work can be delivered piecemeal rather than needing everything done
at once.  Fortunately the production of such things is something Rev is
particularly good at.

To encourage this sort of thing I've added a "Tutorials" section to the
RevNet Stacks listing.  I've begun work on a simple shell project that can
be used for tutorials, and will be a tutorial itself -- on how to make
tutorials. :)

But we needn't wait for that:  if any of the readers of this list have
insights to share with newcomers, please consider making a tutorial stack or
a Web page to share that knowledge.  If you're a consultant, I can tell you
that, judging from my hits logs, there are definite benefits to having
Rev-related materials on your site -- seems RunRev's marketing is raising
interest in Rev rather well, as I see a month-to-month increase in hits from
search engines for Rev-related searches.

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge 2.1: Publish any database on any site
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