The mailing list at my LUG has been kicking around the idea of some sort of Linux reading group or study group.

The idea is that we would agree on some subject that everyone wanted to learn about, find a book on the subject, then discuss it online. This would make it easier to wade through dense documentation, because you would be working with a group of other people at roughly the same technical level, all trying to wade through the text at the same time.

The trouble is that all but the largest LUGs will be too small to make this work well; our interests are too diverse. The obvious solution would be to do this in an on line forum that gets a lot of traffic.

I think that this would dovetail nicely with LinuxQuestions.org, because people working together in a reading group would tend to get to know each other, and that's got to be a good thing in an environment like this.

The best way to implement this right away would be to decide a topic, pick an appropriate document and post a thread about it in Linux General. Then see what replies you get.

TG

Put a tag in the topic so that these threads are easy search for

Thanks, TG, Esetebru.

I've taken both of your suggestions; I started out using a poll to find out which book people would be interested in studying. Check here for details. Unfortunately the "this idea is stupid" option in the poll currently has 50% of the votes.

That's OK. I think that this is a good enough idea that someone's going to implement it sometime, even if I can't get it running here and now. [People pay thousands of dollars for computer classes after all, and I'm guessing that you'd be able to pack just about as much learning and interaction into a reading group like this].

why did you put in an option for "this idea is stupid"? it appeals to people's idiot side- it is a valid option to not respond to the poll, you only want interested people to respond, right?

TG

Edit: you should get a mod to move that thread out of General and into Linux-General? General isn't where I would have put it. Or maybe even into Linux-Newbie. (report your thread to do so.)

In retrospect, I wish that I hadn't put that there. I was hoping that those people who didn't like the idea would at least have the decency to leave some constructive criticism... I guess that I tend to underestimate people's idiot side...

It hasn't any more More than 80% of the voters seem to think it's a good idea. So do I.

Hehehe... I'm the same way.

Quite frankly, I like seeing that option in polls, but only to see how many people are ignorant enough to vote for it. Had I not appreciated the idea/liked any entries, I simply would not have voted, but rather, posted a friendly "I think [this idea] would be better."

Cheers

I also Feel the same way. It's not always easy for me to get out, but to be able to have a chat online with a group? That'd be awesome. I know personally I'd enjoy that. if you decide to do it, you should make a post, As you can see, A few of us agree

The poll in my other discussion thread finally closed; I've opened a thread for discussion of Bash Guide for Beginners here.