I have missed having Weekend Testing Events. It's been awhile since I've been able to participate in one. First it was due to my accident and then I was out of town for the AST Board Meeting. But now I'm mostly healed, mostly ambling, an it's time to get back in the saddle. Only this time, I will be riding shotgun.
It's with great pleasure that I am able to hand over the active reins for some of these sessions to Albert Gareev, another dedicated tester who has gamely stepped up to assist an facilitate Weekend Testing sessions. For the past year, the sessions that happened did so because of my schedule, so the hit and miss nature of them was entirely due to when I was around. Albert has been an active contributor and has gamely learned the ropes so that he could be another active facilitator as well. this makes it possible for us to offer a more flexible schedule.
One of the benefits of being a facilitator is that, since you are the one running the show, you get to run the show at a time that is convenient for you to do so. Others come along for the ride if they want to, or don't. When I do sessions, it's typically at 11:00 AM Pacific Time, and then everyone else around the world adjusts their schedules so they can participate (I feel somewhat sorry for the testers in India when they participate in our sessions; that means they are online at 12:30 PM their time). Since Albert's the facilitator, he gets to choose the time he wants to present, so he has chosen 12:00 PM Eastern, which translates to 9:00 AM Pacific this coming Saturday, November 5th, 2012.
This weekend's session is meant to be a group training session, and Albert has asked that we come prepared with Mozilla Firefox installed and also to install the GroundSpeed Add-on. What will we be doing? Well that's typically kept close to the vest by the facilitator so as to not tip their hand or give too many people the chance to "study up". One of the biggest general benefits of Weekend Testing is that most testers come in with the same information at the start of the session, meaning they may know the general idea of what they will be testing, but they don't know the specifics. When we announce the specifics, everyone then starts from the same point and can help inform each other. Veterans can help newcomers, and sometimes newcomers have an edge on veterans depending on the mission and charter. All this is a fancy way of saying "I don't know what Albert has planed, but I expect it will be cool, and I'll expect you might want to come check it out" :).
So how can you do that? It's simple.
1. Add “WeekendTestersAmericas” to your Skype contacts if you haven’t already.
2. Fifteen minutes prior to the start of the session this coming Saturday, message “WeekendTestersAmericas” and ask to be added to the chat session. Once we see you, we will add you to the session.
You can also send an email message to WTAmericas@gmail.com and ask to be aded to our mailing list, so that you can be one o the first to receive an announcement for upcoming testing sessions.
We hope to see you there :).
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