Skip to main content

Linux Upskill Challenge

This has now been running for three months!

Some background:

Last year I had great plans to re-purpose my  Linux sysadmin beginners course as a paid product marketed to IT managers. The plan was for them to use this to train, but also evaluate, their staff. I still think the concept was sound - but it did require a full-on "funnel" process to get in a steady flow of new participants, and there was quite a bit of infrastructure needed to get it fully automated.

However, late last year I got a bit of a "rude awakening" from a doctor regarding my health - and so I've "pivoted" to simply providing the course as a not-for-profit service.

It has a website at:

    linuxupskillchallenge.com.

...but the course is mainly run via a "subreddit" on reddit.com:

https://www.reddit.com/r/linuxupskillchallenge/

That might seem a bit odd, but it has some advantages:

* There are already some very active related subredits (r/linuxnoobs, /r/linux etc.)
* Good threaded discussion with upvoting etc.
* I can "sticky" the most recent lesson, and delete the oldest.
* There are no costs, so I can happily run a lesson every month.
* With the API, I should be able to automate the daily tasks.

On the downside:
* I can't tell how many are actually fully doing the course.
* Should probably have a "backup" moderator.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Health status

My health is not the best. Two and a half years ago I was diagnosed with myeloma after finding myself suddenly very breathless when doing strenuous exercise. The myeloma had in turn caused amyloidosis - which in its turn had severely affected my heart, causing heart failure. Not cool. Two years ago, after six months of prep chemo I had an autologous bone marrow transplant. Now, two years on, and I'm doing pretty well all considered. I'm not disabled in any way really - apart from not being able to easily walk more that about 500m! However, I don't have sufficient heart capacity to cope if I were to be hit by a bad flu or COVID-19... As you can imagine, I'm keeping pretty strictly to the lockdown procedures...

"Succession planning" for the LinuxUpskillChallenge"

The current "Linux Upskill Challenge" course was designed as a commercial course, and was run that way from its launch eight years ago. As outlined in my recent "Health status" post here, I've now pivoted to a not-for-profit approach running on Reddit ( r/linuxupskillchallenge ). This has been pretty successful so far, but it depends on a level of care from me that's not sustainable long term. (I get monthly visits from a palliative care nurse, have a Do Not Revive notice on my refrigerator - you get the picture!) So I need some little helpers, to fill the following roles: Posting the daily lesson If the lesson hasn't been posted by me before 12:07 am UTC, then assume I'm not able to - and someone else will need to do so. The source of the lessons is in publicly available in my  Github, so anyone can do this, and it will appear at the top on the topics when viewed in "New" order. If you're a "Moderator", you can and sh

How can you support LinuxUpskillChallenge.org?

How can you support LinuxUpskillChallenge.org? I'm often asked how "students" of the LinuxUpskillChallenge course can support it, or show their appreciation... Patreon? No, I don't need the money, and the project itself has only minimal costs for website etc.  My small team are happy to pay for this for now. Spreading the word The major way you can help is by "spreading the word" so that as many people as possible are aware of the course. It's not always the best option - but at the moment most people are unaware that it even is an option. It's also the case that the more we have signed up for each class, the more interesting, dynamic and informative the comments in the subreddit are. Send them to:  LinuxUpskillChallenge.org Join "the team" The course material itself is a bit of a living document, needing a  constant stream of small tweaks and updates. Developing a "Part II" will take a lot of discussion and work. Managing the s