Smalltalk Programming Competition

>>
>>
>> SergeStinckwich wrote
>> > Ok, the subject is completely different and maybe his topic is sensible
>> > for a lot of people but the concerns are the same. At the end, you need
>> to
>> > convince people to give you money.
>> >
>> > What is your budget ? what kind of competition you will organize ? how
>> you
>> > will convince schools/university to participate ?
>> > How you will reward people for their participation ?
>> >
>> > Sorry to say, people will not give money just because you wrote a
>> > half-page statement.
>>
>
>
> On 21 June 2018 at 23:52, horrido <

> > wrote:
>
>> I hear what you're saying. Here's my rationale...
>>
>> #1. As far as I know, I'm the only person on the planet who has worked
>> full-time and without pay as a programming language advocate for nearly
>> four
>> years. Did I mention full-time and without pay? So I think you can trust
>> me
>> to deliver, come hell or high water.
>>
>
> I applaud your commitment, but there are many people giving free time to
> Pharo
> (although more technical oriented than pure advocacy)
>
>
>
>> #2. For the past four years, I've shown my marketing skills in promoting
>> Smalltalk. If you believe I've done a good job, then you can trust me to
>> convince schools and the media to stand behind the competition. If you
>> don't
>> believe, then ignore me; I cannot convince you otherwise.
>>
>
> Its not just marketing skills that are important here, but logistics.
>
>
> #3. It is not my style to plan everything in advance and in detail. I do
>> things by the seat of my pants, relying on my organizational skills,
>> communication skills, and intuition. (That's how I develop software,
>> too.)
>> I
>> can picture the whole competition in my mind and I trust my vision. I'm
>> asking others to trust it, as well. If they don't, then this whole thing
>> dies with me.
>>
>
> But that vision is just in *your* head. So its easy for you to trust your
> plan,
> while we don't get an opportunity to trust your plan, we only get the
> choice to trust you,
> and while I don't doubt your intent, I'm not clear on your ability to
> deliver.
> You've got no *demonstrated* experience in this area of geographically
> dispersed competitions with kids,
> so naturally that affects people's confidence in your ability to deliver.
>
> Now if you could team up with an organisation like CoderDojo
> and leverage their proven experience running the logistics to motivate
> kids
> to program
> and also their existing network of kid programming teams and mentors,
> I'd be much more interested.
>
> My assessment comes down to direct personal experience (the ultimate root
> of trust)
> where in my town of just 5000 people (Collie) two hours south of
> the most remote capital city in the world (Perth, measured as distance to
> next closest capital city)
> there is a CoderDojo group that my kids got involved with for a while
> (before work took me away from home a lot).
> Typically about 30 kids at a session each week.
>
> I think you'll have more success tapping such a domain specific market
> than
> generic high schools.
> From their 2017 annual report, they have 1542 active dojos in 92
> countries,
> regularly engaging 55000 young people with 8000 champions and mentors.
> http://kata.coderdojo.com/images/b/bc/CD_Annual_Report_2018_%28Digital%29.pdf
>
> Coderdojo has a well established governance structure and "proven"
> reliability dealing with donated money.
> One or two teams from each dojo could make a very successful competition.
> In such a case I don't think it need to be as much as $2000 prize for an
> individual (indeed that seems quite rich to me).
> These kids are already programming "just for fun" and probably care less
> about which language.
> A good approach would be half the prize going to the winning team and half
> to their dojo.
> A secondary benefit is that the dojo mentors get exposed to Pharo, many of
> whom are IT professionals.
> The ultimate result would be Coderdojo picking up Pharo as one of their
> regular languages.
>
> The downside of Coderdojo would be the average age of kids being late
> primary school level,
> might not match your vision (but 10 is the the age I taught myself Basic
> from books).
> Such a sponsored competition could entice back past members who faded out
> after "popularity" hit at high school.
> Coderdojo could advise.
>
> Now since the younger kids program in Scratch, perhaps there could be
> synergy with a junior prize using Phratch,
> particularly if its paired with the IoT activity with Pharo - maybe
> creating some kind of dynamic art installation.
> And some mentors might contribute to Phratch and come to Pharo through
> that
> path.
>
>
>
>> In the final analysis, all I can do is my very best. I am who I am.
>
>
> I'm sure you will give your best.  But success needs much more than
> intent.
> A big question is... what is the "challenge".  I would imaging that is a
> very important
> component of a successful hackthon.
>
> Perhaps another way to achieve similar results with less risk is to
> piggyback
> a series of existing hackathons.  Offer smaller sub-prizes for the best
> solution using Pharo.
> Then you don't need to provide a first, second and third prizes that
> accumulate to a large cost,
> and all of the other logistics are taken care of by the existing
> organisation.
>
> cheers -ben
>
> P.S. Don't let our detractions discourage you. Adapt and overcome.... :)

> On 22 Jun 2018, at 14:38, horrido <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> I do not diminish the efforts of open source contributors. I applaud them.
>
> My point was that, as a Smalltalk advocate, I worked on average 8 hours a
> day, every day of the year, for nearly 4 years. That is a tremendous burn
> rate, and I can tell you I am totally exhausted.
>
> Imagine if I had a *real*, full-time job. This effort would've literally
> killed me. And this is exactly why no one else can do the job.
>
>
>
>> I hear what you're saying. Here's my rationale...
>>
>> #1. As far as I know, I'm the only person on the planet who has worked
>> full-time and without pay as a programming language advocate for nearly
>> four
>> years. Did I mention full-time and without pay? So I think you can trust
>> me
>> to deliver, come hell or high water.
>>
>
> I applaud your commitment, but there are many people giving free time to
> Pharo
> (although more technical oriented than pure advocacy)
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>

> Hey guys - lets just try and give this some support - I’d like to see
> something useful come out of it that hopefully can be applied to other
> countries. I’d really like to see some kids enjoy programming.
>
> I once met one of the original participants of the Parc experiments who
> was ~14 at the time (he was much older when I met him). I commented that
> it must have been amazing, and he was a bit reflective and interestingly
> said that it almost ruined his life because while it was cool at the time
> - when they had to take it all away, he couldn’t code in the way he had
> enjoyed for a further 10 years….
>
> Of course now we have an amazing environment, that not enough people
> actually know about, or take seriously enough - even though its produced
> most of what they take for granted today, AND is still busily pushing on
> things they will take for granted in another 1 years.
>
> Richard - give it a shot and inspire some kids (and inspire me with some
> interesting problems or setups that you think might work)
>
> I also notice that Kent Beck gave some support  - thats pretty cool!
>
> Tim
>
>> On 22 Jun 2018, at 14:38, horrido &lt;

> &gt; wrote:
>>
>> I do not diminish the efforts of open source contributors. I applaud
>> them.
>>
>> My point was that, as a Smalltalk advocate, I worked on average 8 hours a
>> day, every day of the year, for nearly 4 years. That is a tremendous burn
>> rate, and I can tell you I am totally exhausted.
>>
>> Imagine if I had a *real*, full-time job. This effort would've literally
>> killed me. And this is exactly why no one else can do the job.
>>
>>
>>
>>> I hear what you're saying. Here's my rationale...
>>>
>>> #1. As far as I know, I'm the only person on the planet who has worked
>>> full-time and without pay as a programming language advocate for nearly
>>> four
>>> years. Did I mention full-time and without pay? So I think you can trust
>>> me
>>> to deliver, come hell or high water.
>>>
>>
>> I applaud your commitment, but there are many people giving free time to
>> Pharo
>> (although more technical oriented than pure advocacy)
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>>

> On 22 Jun 2018, at 15:29, horrido <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Yes, I was totally pumped about Kent Beck's support! With a few more
> contributors like him, I am certain the campaign would take off. Star power.
> (Cross my fingers.)
>
>
>
> Tim Mackinnon wrote
>> Hey guys - lets just try and give this some support - I’d like to see
>> something useful come out of it that hopefully can be applied to other
>> countries. I’d really like to see some kids enjoy programming.
>>
>> I once met one of the original participants of the Parc experiments who
>> was ~14 at the time (he was much older when I met him). I commented that
>> it must have been amazing, and he was a bit reflective and interestingly
>> said that it almost ruined his life because while it was cool at the time
>> - when they had to take it all away, he couldn’t code in the way he had
>> enjoyed for a further 10 years….
>>
>> Of course now we have an amazing environment, that not enough people
>> actually know about, or take seriously enough - even though its produced
>> most of what they take for granted today, AND is still busily pushing on
>> things they will take for granted in another 1 years.
>>
>> Richard - give it a shot and inspire some kids (and inspire me with some
>> interesting problems or setups that you think might work)
>>
>> I also notice that Kent Beck gave some support  - thats pretty cool!
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>> On 22 Jun 2018, at 14:38, horrido &lt;
>
>> horrido.hobbies@
>
>> &gt; wrote:
>>>
>>> I do not diminish the efforts of open source contributors. I applaud
>>> them.
>>>
>>> My point was that, as a Smalltalk advocate, I worked on average 8 hours a
>>> day, every day of the year, for nearly 4 years. That is a tremendous burn
>>> rate, and I can tell you I am totally exhausted.
>>>
>>> Imagine if I had a *real*, full-time job. This effort would've literally
>>> killed me. And this is exactly why no one else can do the job.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> I hear what you're saying. Here's my rationale...
>>>>
>>>> #1. As far as I know, I'm the only person on the planet who has worked
>>>> full-time and without pay as a programming language advocate for nearly
>>>> four
>>>> years. Did I mention full-time and without pay? So I think you can trust
>>>> me
>>>> to deliver, come hell or high water.
>>>>
>>>
>>> I applaud your commitment, but there are many people giving free time to
>>> Pharo
>>> (although more technical oriented than pure advocacy)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>>>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>

> On 23 Jun 2018, at 11:07, horrido <[hidden email]> wrote:
>
> Alan Kay contributed to my campaign!!!!! This is so frickin' amazing!
>
> Can we spell S-T-A-R P-O-W-E-R, boys and girls?
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>

> So far, we've raised CA$2,400 from 18 generous contributors. Not bad for
> the
> first two weeks of the GoFundMe campaign:
> https://www.gofundme.com/smalltalk-programming-competition
>
> I've lowered the funding goal to $25,000. So we're now about 10% of the
> way
> to the target.
>
> Meanwhile, I've been busy preparing for the competition. Here is the
> competition website, currently rigged as a demo:
> http://smalltalkrenaissance.pythonanywhere.com/JRMPC/default/index
>
> When it goes live, the proper sponsors will be displayed, and the database
> will be scrubbed clean.
>
> I've also design T-shirts (swag) for the competition. Here's the main
> design:  &lt;http://forum.world.st/file/t128560/T-shirt-x.png&gt; 
>
> Here's the alternate design:
> &lt;http://forum.world.st/file/t128560/Hot-Air-Balloon-x.png&gt; 
>
> Everything is lining up, ready to go.
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html

> It's been one full month since the GoFundMe campaign began. We've raised
> C$3,080 from 25 generous contributors. It's a good start, but we're still
> a
> long way off. In order to make the goal more attainable, I've lowered the
> funding goal again, this time, to C$20,000. And for the last time. You
> see,
> C$20,000 is necessary for the MVC (not Model-View-Controller, but Minimum
> Viable Competition). Anything less and we don't have an impactful
> marketing
> event.
>
> Please spread the word on social media. Please make use of your email
> contacts. Let's reach as many people as we can. I will bet dollars to
> doughnuts that not every Smalltalk fan in the world is aware of this
> campaign and programming competition. It only takes about 1,000 people
> giving a paltry $20 each to make this happen. How hard can it be?
>
>
>
> horrido wrote
>> So far, we've raised CA$2,400 from 18 generous contributors. Not bad for
>> the
>> first two weeks of the GoFundMe campaign:
>> https://www.gofundme.com/smalltalk-programming-competition
>>
>> I've lowered the funding goal to $25,000. So we're now about 10% of the
>> way
>> to the target.
>>
>> Meanwhile, I've been busy preparing for the competition. Here is the
>> competition website, currently rigged as a demo:
>> http://smalltalkrenaissance.pythonanywhere.com/JRMPC/default/index
>>
>> When it goes live, the proper sponsors will be displayed, and the
>> database
>> will be scrubbed clean.
>>
>> I've also design T-shirts (swag) for the competition. Here's the main
>> design:  &lt;http://forum.world.st/file/t128560/T-shirt-x.png&gt; 
>>
>> Here's the alternate design:
>> &lt;http://forum.world.st/file/t128560/Hot-Air-Balloon-x.png&gt; 
>>
>> Everything is lining up, ready to go.
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html