Gaia Interactive
Developer FastStart
Rudolph Jakob Heuser
MIST Capstone
iTCD @ CSUMB
July 29, 2006
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

What is Gaia?
• Social Community
• Gaming, Networking, Chatting
• Just Recently Funded
• Massively Hiring
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Growing How Fast?
• October 2004: 9 employees
• October 2005: 25 employees
• July 2006: 40 employees
• Dec 2006: 80-100 employees (projected)
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Finite Resources
Gaia
Mentor New Dev
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Training? Yeah, Right
The Fruits of 2 Mentor’s Efforts
Your New Developer Your New Developer
(Week 1) (Week 4)
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Self Training Failures
• Paper-Based - Got Lost
• Online “Intranet” - Kludgy To Use
• Gaia “Wiki” - Even Kludgier
• Mentoring System...A “Long Tail” Approach
(They’ll get it eventually, right?)
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Problem Source?
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

They Think Different
Resource Work
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Really Different
Resource Work
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Get In The Workflow
1. php.net
2. Google
3. “Sneakernet” and “Meatspace”
4. E-mail
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

The “Must Have”s
• In Browser
• Searchable
• Practical Answers
• Current
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

FastStart
Tutorial For Programmers
(And all the challenges that entailed...)
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Dokuwiki
• http://wiki.splitbrain.org
• File Based
• Collaborative Tool
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Instruction via Wiki?
• Linear tutorial
• Searchable reference
• Resource beyond
week 2
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

FastStart Tour
http://www.felocity.org/tmp/capstone/devs/developer_faststart
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Challenges
• Lack of time for testing, development
• Used new developers as guinea pigs
• Lack of time for SME review
• Practical Testing. Material should work.
• Code changed seven times
• Get software installed quickly, let SME update
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Successes
• Wiki so successful
it became new
Intranet
• Contributed to
Open Source
Project
Has lessened new developer curve (4-12 days)
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Going Forward
• Improve FastStart based on feedback
• Support Gaia Intranet
• Educate SME’s on content process
• Self Maintaining Documentation
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

References
• Sierra, Kathy. “Creating Passionate Users”. Retrieved from
http://headrush.typepad.com
• Katherdante. “Attention span of 3 squirrels”. Retrieved from
http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/35870171/
• Wikipedia.”Wiki”. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Wiki
Thanks
Derek Liu, James Cao, John Loehrer, Kathy Sierra, Rosalie
Strong, Eric Tao, iTCD Faculty and Staff, Gaia Interactive,
splitbrain Dokuwiki mailing list
Rudolph Jakob Heuser

Questions
All graphics © 2006 Gaia
Interactive unless noted.
Rudolph Jakob Heuser Used with Permission.