Newcomers Workshop
by Dick Gabriel

My group, which met in the Arts and Crafts area, got through a curriculum mostly designed by Jim Coplien and Bob Hamner, which I tweaked in various small ways.

On the first day, we reviewed/learned about patterns and, more importantly, pattern languages. With Neil Harrison, the group discovered and outlined a pattern. After this exercise we realized that the group was actually quite advanced and so we let them loose to write up either a pattern or a small pattern language on the first afternoon and evening. With only a small amount of advice, each of the group members came up with a good pattern or pattern language, and we spent the second day workshopping the work. In the morning either David Delano or I moderated the workshops, and in the afternoon several of the group members served as workshop moderators.

In the early afternoon of the second day, Bruce Anderson's group came in and observed one of our workshops. On the last day we talked about the patterns culture and how to use and spread patterns in their organizations.

In short, this group really didn't need to be in a newcomer track, and the three days actually served the purpose of giving them sufficient confidence in their abilities to head out on their own.

The members of my group were:

Ernie Frey 303-538-4842
Richard Gabriel 650-988-0975
Todd Gamble 918-590-4222
Ron Howe 800-992-5350 x7886
Michael Kelly 503-231-5616
Gary King 508-888-4964
Lee H. Lee 303-538-4648
Brian Schuth 207-853-7134
Blaine Wishart 206-323-5344