Would anyone be interested in a twice a week live screencast teaching you how to build websites?

[noahgelman]

Basically, it would be a twice a week live screencast teaching you how to build websites starting from the very beginning (as in you have never even seen html/css before) and going onto more complex topics like building wordpress themes, javascript plugins, wordpress plugins, ajax, etc.

You would be able to ask questions and have them answered live. You would be able to discuss and learn about html/css/javascript/php.

Thoughts and opinions?

[Dami]

While I’m not sure I could fit in two screencasts a week, your subject matter sounds very intriguing. Would they be available to view at one’s own leisure?

[Anonymous]

Sounds cool but i’m subscribed to CSS-Tricks redesign video library for 12$ per month. It has over 150 videos and its the redesign of this very website.

[noahgelman]

@Dami, yes, they would be archived. You could go watch any past videos you want.

@Jarolin, yeah, the video library is cool, and lots of great vids. This would just be a different kind of service. Live instead of pre-recorded. You can get questions answered immediately instead of pondering over them. And it would be completely free. Plus you can meet and interact with other people who are also just starting to learn.

[TheDoc]

I think it would be really cool, but you’d probably have to do the same class multiple times because I think two per week is really ambitious and would be difficult for people to be able to plan around.

[chrisburton]

I’ve been watching @AndyHowells create screencasts on http://codeboxers.com/videos.

With all due respect, the only dislike I have with his screencasts is that they’re not long enough (p.s. thanks for making me want to learn SCSS, Andy). Not to mention, I think he will eventually run into problems when doing more of these. The way it’s going, I bet it will end up being 20 parts for each subject matter. This is why I really love @chriscoyier’s approach to them. They’re very informative and long (in a positive way). This may be something to take into consideration. Make them long enough to where the person watching has time to let the information sink in before cutting it off. If I were to create screencasts solely on web typography, I would be willing to sacrifice 30-45 minutes (at least) per video. And not all videos need to have the same time limit.

[TheDoc]

For web stuff, I definitely don’t have a 45 minute attention span. I’d prefer to watch three different 15 minute videos that are related than watch a single 45 minute video.

[Frantiq]

I agree with TheDoc about the 15 minutes vs 45. But I don’t like the idea about wordpress themes, it’s not professional enough for me. If I could choose topics, it would be: RWD with graceful degration, jquery, ajax and accessibility.

Thanks

[chrisburton]

I could understand that if there is a lot of rambling and pausing the development to talk about a subject in depth. That sort of thing should be saved for an article. However, if it’s straight coding while talking, I prefer longer videos.

[noahgelman]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I’m taking it all in. I planned to have 30-1hr casts. Time to cover the topic and answer questions.

As for the content, It’ll be very diverse.

@Frantiq, Not just WP. I plan to show a lot of HTML/CSS (basics, stylings, typography, responsiveness, fluid widths, sass/comass) and definitely a LOT of javascript (basics, jquery, javascript plugins from scratch (sliders, accordions, and tons of other useful web apps that would help the viewer build knowledge), parallax, etc.). Pretty much a very broad range of topics.

I’m in talks with a few other people and plan to launch with a variety of languages with the scheduling to be at least 1-2 shows available a day. Topics like c++, node.js, java, php, etc.

I want it to be a place of learning (live casts, free resources, articles, etc.)

[chrisburton]

As long as you’re educated in all those areas, I’d say go for it. I know that some people think typography is just grabbing a few webfonts from Google’s library and slapping them onto a site (*cringe*).

[noahgelman]

@chrisburton

_double cringe_

[Andy Howells]

@chrisburton – No worries! Appreciate the feedback. I’ve settled on about 15 minutes now as a base. I appreciate theres a demand for lengthier videos but theres a few reasons for keeping them short. Namely to make it more accessible to people who want to jump in and out, but also because it already takes about an hour to do the video, edit and then about 2 hours to upload.

So if I did a longer one of 45 mins or maybe an hour it would take a lot more time to create and upload. Plus I feel that only some would reach the end so may get lost during a video or want to come back later.

What I have on the list alongside the development screencast is to do an application guide for all the stuff I use that covers the ins and outs, like Sublime/Codekit/MAMP etc.

[Paulie_D]

As long as you give equal time to Windows users and don’t do everything on Mac only apps.

[Andy Howells]

Hmm, the only App I use that is on Windows is Sublime really, but that will be a pretty long tutorial anyway. MAMP & Codekit for example are obviously Mac only.

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