Hi,
3 minutes is unbelievably short. However, since you asked for suggestions, here
are some things that would be good to get across:
- programming in Sage is programming in Python; no need to learn some arcane
custom-built language in order to use Sage and contribute to it
- the development model is extremely open and built around excellent
Python-based tools: mercurial for version control, trac for bug reporting and
tracking, sphinx for documentation (work in progress)
- Sage puts together and uses tens of open source packages for mathematics and
computer algebra, but also gives back to them by testing, reporting bugs and
contributing bug fixes, and offering a user-friendly interface to them
Again, you won't have much time. Under the circumstances, I agree with Harald's
idea that you should tell them to check out the Sage webpage, where they can
find out more *and* try it live. It might also be good to tell them that there
are two Australian mirrors:
http://echidna.maths.usyd.edu.au/sage/
http://freethemes.mirror.aarnet.edu.au/pub/sage/
One specific comment about your slides: while the car picture is very nice, the
URL in the upper right corner should be changed to the current www.sagemath.org
BTW, I moved to Melbourne about a month and a half ago. Unfortunately, I'm not
sure I can make it to this event on Saturday -- I wish I had known about it
earlier. I'll do my best, and if I manage to make it there I'll try to bring
some supporting material.
Best,
Alex
Minh Nguyen wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Saturday 20 September 2008 is Software Freedom Day (at least in
> Melbourne, Australia). Further information about this event can be
> found at
>
> http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melb
>
> I'll be volunteering to help out during the day, in collaboration with
> the Linux Users of Victoria group. Throughout the day, there'll be a
> number of talks on free and open source software. There'll also be
> various 3 minute "lightning talks"; that is, should there be time in
> between the longer talks. I've put my name down for a 3 minute
> "lightning talk" on open source computer algebra systems (CAS), in
> particular, covering Maxima, Pari/GP, and Sage --- hence their
> respective logos. My notes so far for this mini presentation can be
> found at
>
> http://nguyenminh2.googlepages.com/2008-09-20_software-freedom-day.pdf.gz
>
> My current plan is to cover the above three CASes from a pedagogy
> perspective, then talk about Sage as a CAS that assembles together
> under a common interface the power and functionalities of other open
> source CASes --- hence the Sage car logo. Further suggestions about
> Sage specific things to cover during this 3 minute talk will be
> greatly appreciated.
>
--
Alexandru Ghitza
Lecturer, Pure Mathematics
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
The University of Melbourne
Parkville, VIC, 3010
Australia
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