Re: Burrokeet presentation

Ross Gardler wrote:
> Anil Ramnanan wrote:
> 
>> Allan Samaroo wrote:
>>
>>> There was an initial gathering of a few CIS members and guests 
>>> yesterday to
>>> begin looking at ways to present the burrokeet to a non-IT audience.
>>> Unfortunately I couldn't stay as I had an impromptu meeting that same 
>>> night.
>>>
>>> How did things transpire after I left?
>>>
> 
> ...
> 
>>
>> I think that perhaps we should put less emphasis on the tool and more 
>> on it's application. 
> 
> 
> Very wise. So what is its application in the domain you are looking at?
> 
> or in Anil's original words...
> 
>> We should approach it from the standpoint of identifying a problem 
>> that needs to be solved and then proposing a way of employing 
>> Burrokeet to solve it.
>>
>> In terms of a secondary school, I believe we should focus on something 
>> simple at first. After the discussion, I think that the most important 
>> point that came out was the fact that the schools would want something 
>> that would involve as little work on their part as possible. With this 
>> in mind, we need to find a problem that we can solve with Burrokeet 
>> that will not involve too much work that they might be scared off.
> 
> 
> It is no good starting from the point of "here is a solution, now lets 
> find the problem". If you don't have a clear understanding of a problem 
> before you start then there is nothing to start. I find it quite strange 
> that CIS seem to have had a meeting about how to present Burrokeet 
> before even deciding what it is CIS are going to do with it.

Not strange at all.  The CIS, in a facilitating role, is simply helping 
Anil to develop a suitable presentation on the Burrokeet software for a 
non-IT audience.  I support Anil in his effort to get the Burrokeet 
project installed in a live environment (target: Lakshmi Girls' High 
School).  However, for a number of reasons, it will not be easy getting 
the approval from the school and this is the problem identified.  The 
solution is to develop a presentation/proposal that will make them want 
to Burrokeet.  The plan is to have Anil meet with as much non-IT folk as 
possible, preferably teachers, and through a series of dry runs, have 
them "fix" the presentation.  That said, we've already had one meeting 
and from Anil's briefing it went reasonably well.  I was especially 
pleased to meet a classmate of Shiva's who coincidentally is married to 
a teacher at the target school.  We now have three people on the inside, 
which helps to make our task easier.

As far as I know, there are no immediate plans to use the Burrokeet in 
any CIS project.  With regards to the website project, I haven't made it 
official yet because I haven't the time to drive it.  However, I do 
mention it to the few teachers I've met to hear what they say about it 
and they've never said no.  The Burrokeet software is definitely going 
to be used to fulfil part of that project but I have not yet considered 
it a core component because it is currently too technical to use.


<snip>

> I think CIS needs to clearly define a problem before wasting time 
> deciding how to "sell" Burrokeet (or any other tool) to schools.
> 
> The process should be:
> 
> Problem identification -> solution identification -> plan -> people
> 
> CIS seem to be doing:
> 
> people -> solution -> problem -> plan
> 
> Spend time on the problem *before* spending time on the solution. I have 
> to admit that I thought you already identified the problem, but it seems 
> that Anil is trying to get agreement on that in this email, thus 
> implying that it hasn't been done before.

</snip>

See above.


Allan.

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