Re-doing the Three-Minute Pitch

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

It's time to revise Software Carpentry's three-minute pitch. Here's what I think I need to say; as always, comments would be welcome.

Opening slide: large logo, the title "Computing Skills for Scientists and Engineers", and a small block at the bottom with the date and license.

Our mission is

• to help scientists and engineers be more productive...
• ...by teaching them basic computing skills

The problem is

• that scientists and engineers spend 40% or more of their time wrestling with software...
• ...but more than 95% are largely self-taught...
• ...so they spend hours doing what should take minutes...
• ...reinvent a lot of wheels...
• ...and still don't know whether their results are reliable or not

Our solution

• combines short, intensive workshops...
• ...with self-paced online instruction...

The benefit is

• more confidence that computational results are correct
• and significant increases in productivity...
• ...a day a week is common...
• ...and 10X isn't rare

Our workshops cover

• the core skills a researcher needs to know in order to be productive in a small team:
• using version control to manage and share information
• basic Python programming
• how (and how much) to test programs
• working with relational databases
• using the shell to do more in less time
• Basically, everything you should know before you tackle things with "cloud" or "peta" in their name

Our online instruction

• goes into these topics in more detail...
• ...and continues with:
• program design and construction
• matrix programming
• using spreadsheets in a disciplined way
• data management
• development lifecycles

Our content is

• all available online...
• ...under a Creative Commons license...
• ...so you are free to re-use and re-mix it

Our work is supported by

• The Sloan Foundation
• The Mozilla Foundation

And has been supported in the past by

• Michigan State University
• Indiana University
• Microsoft
• Queen Mary University London
• MITACS
• SHARCNET
• The Software Sustainability Institute
• SciNet
• The UK Met Office
• The MathWorks
• The University of Toronto
• Enthought
• The Python Software Foundation
• The Space Telescope Science Institute
• Los Alamos National Laboratory

We also depend on contributions from people like you, who

• give us feedback...
• ...create lessons and exercises...
• ...and organize and deliver workshops

For more information, to get involved, or for help organizing a workshop, please

• visit us online at {{site.baseurl}}...
• ...follow {{site.twitter_url}} on Twitter...
• ...or email {{site.contact}}