On Sat, 2010-12-04 at 16:06 -0800, John Jason Jordan wrote: > I recently gave a presentation on Scribus to a local Linux User Group. > Like many LUGs the group is sort of amorphous, but there are ~600 on > our e-list, of which probably 75% live locally. The presentation was at > our monthly general meeting, which are usually attended by 15-30 > people. There were nearly 30 in attendance for my presentation, which > surprised me. > > More surprising was how little any of them knew about DTP basics. Few > had heard of CMYK or knew how a printing press operates. Attempting to > explain how to avoid banding in a photograph by either increasing the > resolution of the output device or lowering the linescreen was met with > amazement. Mentioning typographic issues like "professionals know that > 'am' and 'pm' are to be set in small caps" was something that had never > occurred to them. I had brought my copy of Bringhurst to pass around > and they were stunned that typography was truly an art. > > I had only an hour and a half, but I could have gone on for three times > that long, just with the material that I had prepared for the > presentation. Several commented that they wished I could give > additional presentations. Attending my presentation opened their eyes > to how little they knew of how to get their work from the computer to > the press. > > This has led me to ruminate on the possibility of classes to teach > these things to people. However, the problem of formal classes is that > there are few desktop publishers even in the large cities. Getting > enough together for a class could be difficult. > > It occurred to me that a better venue might be the web. In fact, if a > class could be developed, it could be something that people sign up for > whenever they want - like a correspondence course. Lessons could be in > the form of projects, each designed to teach a particular concept or, > in the case of teaching about Scribus, designed to teach how to use a > particular feature. > > Instructors would be Scribus volunteers, who would have the task of > correcting and commenting on the homework, as well as answering > questions. Instructors and others could also develop the lessons. > > I realize the above is very nebulous and needs discussion and polish. > But I think the idea has merit. Or am I dreaming? Or has someone > already done this? >
It's not just DTP/printing. There are an awful lot of people out there writing, who have no idea how to write. I'm a freelance journalist, and as more traditional work dries up, I've been considering giving tutorials/seminars on things that seem basic to me, but exotic to others. Basic public relations skills like how to write a press release, aimed at community group PROs; DTP for groups producing small magazines & leaflets, even the basics of putting a news story together. There's definitely a market for it, and more than enough people in need of instruction to go round. > _______________________________________________ > scribus mailing list > scribus at lists.scribus.info > http://lists.scribus.info/mailman/listinfo/scribus -- Gerard Cunningham Journalist Kildare, Co Kildare
