Community Training Initiative

[swatts]

Hello Lovelies (and potential volunteers!)

For me the punk ethos was not ever really about anarchy (although some may think me an anarchist!). It was more about if something needs to change, anyone can change it.

As if I haven't got enough on my plate I'm starting something else, and I might need your help.

I described the LabVIEW eco-system in an article last year (Nov 2022), and in the last CSLUG meeting I explored where the gaps were.

And it was clear that there were gaps in the early stages of a LabVIEW career. Some of the discussions from that has got me to thinking about having some form of community based training. So here's a plan, and it might be getting some traction...

The Vision

I want a person to be able to train a group of new users and not be put off by set-up and equipment costs. I want anyone in any country to have access to LabVIEW training.

I want trainers to be able to make a living with this training. 

The Execution

IDE

LabVIEW Community Edition for Linux is the key here, we can make a downloadable image that can be loaded into a Virtual Machine. VirtualBox and Linux are free.

Action: Need NI to confirm LabVIEW Community Edition is OK for Training.

Training Material

There is an awful lot of hands-on material in NIs archives and elsewhere, it would be nice to get this open-sourced and modified for our use. A mechanism for uploading new/modified material should also be available (see Hosting).

Action: See if we can free up and modify existing training material, see if anyone else want's their training material as part of this.

Hardware and Emulation

Any hardware should be inexpensive and use standard communications. I suggest a limit of $30/seat

All hardware should have a free to download emulator.

Derrick B has much more ambitious plans for this!

Action: Let's think about training hardware!

Hosting 

A website should be available that allows trainers to download/upload materials and images.

Some form of community hub for trainers to compare ideas and build new courses. Discord will do this.

Action: Do all the work on this!

In my normal fashion I'm talking to lots of people about this and one of the key ideas for me is 

"I want anyone in any country to have access to LabVIEW training."

I always think access to all of this is easiest for the people who need it least. I also see this removing some barriers for individuals to put on training. I also think this could help re-open the door to LabVIEW in academia.

So if anyone wants to help, has ideas etc etc give me a shout. The feedback from NI has be very positive, obviously there are corporate battles to be fought, but it's encouraging.

Lots of Love