Hey, how about this? I've been discussing this off list with Erik and  
Naomi and this is what we came up with (I also added it to the wiki):

This is a proposal for several pre-conference sessions that would fit  
together nicely for people interested in implementing a next-gen  
catalog system.

1. Morning session - solr white belt
Instructor: Bess Sadler (anyone else want to join me?)
The journey of solr mastery begins with installation. We will then  
proceed to data types, indexing, querying, and inner harmony. You will  
leave this session with enough information to start running a solr  
service with your own data.

2. Morning session - solr black belt
Instructors: Erik Hatcher (and Naomi Dushay? she has offered to help,  
if that's of interest)
Amaze your friends with your ability to combine boolean and weighted  
searching. Confound your enemies with your mastery of the secrets of  
dismax. Leave slow queries in the dust as you performance tune solr  
within an inch of its life. [We should probably add more specific  
advanced topics here... suggestions welcome]

3. Afternoon session - Blacklight
Instructors: Naomi Dushay, Jessie Keck, and Bess Sadler
Apply your solr skills to running Blacklight as a front end for your  
library catalog, institutional repository, or anything you can index  
into solr. We'll cover installation, source control with git, local  
modifications, test driving development, and writing object-specific  
behaviors. You'll leave this workshop ready to revolutionize discovery  
at your library. Solr white belts or black belts are welcome.

And then anyone else who had a topic that built on solr (e.g.,  
vufind?) could add it in the afternoon. Obviously I'm biased, but I  
really do think the topic of implementing a next gen catalog is meaty  
enough for a half day and I know people are asking me about it and  
eager to attend such a thing.

What do you think, folks?

Bess

On 12-Nov-09, at 4:10 PM, Gabriel Farrell wrote:

> On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 02:47:42PM +0000, Jodi Schneider wrote:
>> If you'd be up for it Erik, I'd envision a basic session in the  
>> morning.
>> Some of us (like me) have never gotten Solr up and running.
>>
>> Then the afternoon could break off for an advanced session.
>>
>> Though I like Bess's idea, too! Would that be suitable for a  
>> conference
>> breakout? Not sure I'd want to pit it against Solr advanced session!
>
> The preconfs should be as inclusive as possible, but I'm wondering if
> the Solr session might be more beneficial if we dive into the
> particulars right off the bat in the morning.  There are only a few
> steps to get Solr up and running -- it's in the configuration for our
> custom needs that the advice of a certain Mr. Hatcher can really be
> helpful.
>
> You're right, though, that the NGC thing sounds more like a BOF  
> session.
> I'd support that in order to attend a full preconf day of Solr.
>
>
> Gabriel

Elizabeth (Bess) Sadler
Chief Architect for the Online Library Environment
Box 400129
Alderman Library
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904

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