MooTools Videos Repository for Great Justice

you know what i really think MooTools beginners, muddlers, enthusiasts, and geeks all could get benefit from? The actual developers of MooTools doing an online repository of live videos of their presentations, informative tutorials, latest updates, etc.

it doesn't necessarily have to be hosted solely by MooTools itself. it could be a series of videos uploaded on YouTube and simply orderly embedded on some central web site. it could be done with whatever method, as long as it could provide useful information from the actual developers themselves, which beginners could go to for learning and experts could return to for reference.

not that i don't want to pressure the MooTools developers into this. besides, i really think they are already doing their best at what they are doing and will be doing more if the proposed JS 3.1 become standardized. what i'm basically trying to say that it is possible and would be totally helpful for the community. needless to mention, apart from MooTools' already awesome documentation, the videos would definitely beef up the "support" many MooTools people would like to see that comes with this great JS library we know and love, or at least try to.

i mean, add to their documentation, YUI's got a theater. if you google jQuery's Chief Ninja John Resig, you'd some of his videos presenting JavaScript principles and jQuery. i guess i'd be really exciting to see and listen to Valerio Proietti, Aaron Newton, David Walsh, and the gang. Come to think about it, i really bet the videos wouldn't be bad at all. i mean, Valerio's good-lookin' and all, just enough to be presentable on a video (i even think it's a terrific coincidence that almost all of the MooTools developers are) .

the idea came to me when i finished watching a video in YUI theater of Doug Crockford talking about the future of JS. because of that, lately i've been searching for videos of MooTools stuff and i saw just a few. and mostly those that i found are about some plugin, done without voiceovers, only capturing the screen while some simple captions are shown somewhere. not that those videos are bad at all. i guess, i was hoping to see at least one of the MooTools contributors to have some sort of a serious series of videos about the library's core, tips and tricks, interesting features, competitive implementations, which are all easy for human consumption, just like drinking a glass of milk.

i guess this is in line with the fact that many of the people who ask for help in the MooForum has some certain pattern as to the errors they commit, or things they omit, which, in turn, causes their demise. it's just been less than 2 months since i've become a moderator and i've observed that frequently, many people tend to get problematic on the same kinds of issues. so much so that i reckon it would have been really helpful if there were at least one video to deal with those common problems, like something as simple as understanding the domready event.

though i would love to have this as a project, since i also teach MooTools to students in some universities here in my country, i am afraid i can't commit to this endeavor since i am lacking in equipment and, though i might write in English confidently, i am admittedly bad at talking in English in front of a video cam (as i haven't done that myself ever in my entire life). i guess, it would've been fine if i could use my native tongue and you all would understand it.

what do you guys think? i would like to petition this but i don't know how to, and honestly, i don't want to look demanding and all to them. i guess i'm just shy even to ask them, or give a hint about it. looking at their lighthouse makes me think that they're already burdened with bug reports here and there, making me think that if i wanted this thing to happen, it should be coming from me.

sound like an ambitious plan...

I mean it's definitely a good thing and if you have some task I could help with you can count me in. However I would not know where to start. So if you have any plan on what should be on the videos that would be great. I'm not a native English speaker as well but I'm quite comfortable speaking it.

If you want really easy videos you could just use
http://screenr.com/. It's fast and you don't need to setup anything but you can't edit the content yourself.

If you want more "professional" videos where you can insert custom stuff and cut/edit it you could use
http://camstudio.org/

For something in between I would suggest
http://www.jingproject.com/

If you want to edit your video afterward you will also need some good video editing software... currently can't think of an open source solution.. ?

And maybe you want some royal free background music? a commonly used intro/outro? Hmm yeah...
maybe a guide on howto get started would be great..

pfff yeah.. don't know just my thoughts

when it comes to a workable "lesson plan" i already have them ready up my sleeve. originally, my talks take a whole day, so basically i fit many MooTools topics into 2 seminars: one is a crash course to MooTools basics just so they can animate stuff using Element shortcut methods mostly. the other one is an advanced MooTools seminar where i teach OOP in JS, then proceeding to MooTools classes and how they basically connect to almost everything about MooTools.

but it appears it would be better if i mince them into smaller, more comprehensible portions. for example, i'd make a short video pertaining solely to the things a beginner should know and do before actually doing code. in that video, some simple topics may be included, such as downloading MooTools core and more from the net, including it in the HTML, where the API is, understanding the domready event, and some basic "hello world" alert. hahaha. other stuff that would supposedly follow could be on other videos.

what i'm worried about is that i am teaching stuff as how i "muddled" through the topic. it means that though i could teach someone as to how something is done but i might have a different, possibly an incorrect, idea as to how that exactly works on the inside. because of that, i might get "attacked", so to speak, by the MooTools community about it and it would be my undoing. hahaha. that's why i always thought that it would be better if the MooTools developers themselves did the talking.

actually what i was thinking was that someone would take a vid of me while i was doing a talk on some school... so it'd be like what their purpose is in YUI theater. but the thing there is that i don't have a video cam... nor would i speak in straight English, because the students i handle usually prefer me teaching at our local language, of course.

by the ways, if you guys could help me plan out on what topics should i collectively talk together in one movie, i'd gladly appreciate it. i hope you give in your suggestions... from there i guess i'll try to muster my courage to make my first video. hahaha.