Notes from the User Feedback Session
====================================


[7 pre-assigned participants reported bac followed by a general discussion;
 mostly speakers agreed to the points of the previous ones and hence this
 document has to be read as a whole]


Group #1:
- high noise level in Council room because of several tutorial groups 
  running parallel
- unzipping (sub)packages wasted too much time
+ there were some basic & advanced versions
suggestion: common setup for all tutorials

#2:
- program & material was distributed too late
suggestion: give intro/summary at beginning of each tutorial 
  rather than just a lecture on a separate day
- software coordination required
- council room: distractions
+ conference desk very well organized
+ very competent tutors fixing problems quickly
suggestion: software installation session at beginning by OS: Mac, Linux, Windows

#3:
VOTable, Registry, SIA/SSA tutorials easy to follow
ADQL+ DCI tutorials ran out of time
UCD: difficult to follow for those unfamiliar with Eclipse IDE
GWS: too much stuff
- distribute material earlier; especially for those who need to organize a laptop
hint: default setting for IPv6 on Linux Fedora 4 conflicts with JDK 1.4

#4:
- need tutorials a month earlier (admittedly people will wait for the last moment)
+ multi-platform support is impressive
+ got exactly what is needed
suggestion: more detailed tutorials but provide choice which ones to attend
suggestion: profile tutorials towards individual target group, 
  e.g. developer, manager, end user
suggestion: have a session for end users (science)

#5:
- couldn't follow all tutorials depending on the required background
+ it can be positive not to coordinate tutorials too much
  one gets to see things from slightly different angles and this 
  eventually helps to understand

#6:
- no single pre-configured Tomcat package across tuts, 
  but many different conflicting ones
- sometimes meaning and purpose of commands wasn't explained enough in walkthrough
- need to highlight better the status of standards & tools 
  (draft, stable standard, prototype, ...)
- it was simply too much for some group members
+ CD-ROM release
+ multi-platform support
suggestion: assign students with similar skills to the same group
suggestion: tutors move and students stay in one place instead the other way round

#7:
- Tomcat, ditto
- difficulty level was too high for some
- Eclipse IDE was not known by some
- mysql: does clash in case of another local installation
suggestion: use DB server local to tutorial station but off individual laptops
  [not sure I did get this point right]

Discussion:

- scope: technical vs. science
- some tutorials are too vague regarding what exactly needs to be done: 
  actions need to be deduced from free text
suggestion: need more guidance for 'unstructured' session on Fri morning
suggestion: define checkpoints to ensure participants don't get left behind
suggestion: test server to reproduce tutorials
suggestion: define homework; tell me what to do when coming back 
  to home institution


Markus Dolensky, Marco Leoni