Every one of you knows how to do something that none of us don’t. It might be a certain technique of book binding, a trick to find good apartments in NY, a secret pumpkin soup recipe that your grandma taught you or a way to melt your boy/girl-friend’s heart and make him/her less angry at you. Well, it’s time for you to share all that valuable information. In the next few weeks you will prepare a tutorial – a set of instructions that would teach us how to do that certain thing that you are so good at.
Let’s make some rules:
- Running through the tutorial and following its instructions cannot take more than two hours.
- The tutorial should be inclusive and cannot require equipment that is beyond the grasp of any of the students in class (when in doubt consult me).
- The tutorial cannot be dependent on the presence of the tutorial’s creator or of any other individual more informed than the person following the tutorial.
- The tutorial cannot be digital! Yes, the first assignment in the open source design class will not be using digital media but will focus on the idea and practice of sharing information and documentation of process. The subject itself can be technological though, i.e. “Build your own robot in two hours” is legit, but the instructions should be handed to us manually. (print media is legit)
Let’s break some rules:
- The tutorial doesn’t have to look like any tutorial we’ve ever seen.
- The tutorial doesn’t have to include text or words or images or anything (but it obviously can).
- The tutorial should teach us something, and achieve it’s goals by any (preferably legal) means necessary.
You should expect to actually carry out these tutorials in the following week, so let’s make it be a fun assignment. (Don’t worry, there will be tons of technology next week) enjoy.
Next week
Since I am heading abroad tonight and will be gone next Tuesday, we will have a shortened version of the class next week in which I will join you through iChat, with the helpful assistance of _______. In that class we will go over the tutorials and will be making progress but will not be having a frontal class. I will still awe you a class further in the semester which we will schedule later on.
