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As an IT consultant, I once got a completely non-technical client using SVN for all their documents. With a little guidance on the use of TortoiseSVN, they soon

As an IT consultant, I once got a completely non-technical client using SVN for all their documents. With a little guidance on the use of TortoiseSVN, they soon came to love it. Years later, they're still using it. SVN isn't just for developers!

joezydeco 17y ago
I would guess the hardest part is teaching non-technical types the concepts of version control, especially one like subversion. Were there any tricks in doing that kind of teaching?
- bensummers 17y ago
  Introduce it slowly! Make sure the language you use matches the language of the problems they're trying to solve. And write a document which explains how to do the common tasks, click by click. Once you've got the basics sorted, progress to showing them tricks, like fishing out old versions. And whenever you do stuff to help them, always show them what you did. Nothing helps learning like a pressing need to get something done.
dschobel 17y ago
I've had similar reactions from Project Managers after I showed them some versioned Excel files. They were blown away by the ability to go "back in time without having to manage copies". The revision graph totally floored them. There's an opportunity here somewhere... take TortoiseSVN, remove all ability to branch/merge and anything beyond taking a file forward and backward in a timeline, make it stupidly simple and use words that non-technical people understand. And then sell it as the "time machine for files". For recurring income, make it a DVCS (so start with TortoiseHG instead of TortoiseSVN) and offer to back up their files for $5/mo and make the "backup" a `hg push remote` I'm telling you, it's amazing how few people who work with computers and digital files all day long have _no_ idea about cvs,svn,hg,git, etc. They think that if it's not handled by the display application (Excel, Word, etc), it's not possible. They have no conception of doing stuff on the file level.
- bensummers 17y ago
  The GPL license may be an impediment to this plan, and the DVCS concepts will probably be far too complex when dealing with non-technical people who just want to work together. My experiences suggest that the money would be in setting up and training, rather than a product as such. I did think about it carefully and design something (easier tools, server side search), but really it didn't seem worth it.
- DougBTX 17y ago
  Dropbox is trying to do this, they seem to be making some progress.

joezydeco 17y ago

I would guess the hardest part is teaching non-technical types the concepts of version control, especially one like subversion. Were there any tricks in doing that kind of teaching?

bensummers 17y ago
Introduce it slowly! Make sure the language you use matches the language of the problems they're trying to solve. And write a document which explains how to do the common tasks, click by click. Once you've got the basics sorted, progress to showing them tricks, like fishing out old versions. And whenever you do stuff to help them, always show them what you did. Nothing helps learning like a pressing need to get something done.

dschobel 17y ago

I've had similar reactions from Project Managers after I showed them some versioned Excel files. They were blown away by the ability to go "back in time without having to manage copies". The revision graph totally floored them. There's an opportunity here somewhere... take TortoiseSVN, remove all ability to branch/merge and anything beyond taking a file forward and backward in a timeline, make it stupidly simple and use words that non-technical people understand. And then sell it as the "time machine for files". For recurring income, make it a DVCS (so start with TortoiseHG instead of TortoiseSVN) and offer to back up their files for $5/mo and make the "backup" a `hg push remote` I'm telling you, it's amazing how few people who work with computers and digital files all day long have _no_ idea about cvs,svn,hg,git, etc. They think that if it's not handled by the display application (Excel, Word, etc), it's not possible. They have no conception of doing stuff on the file level.

bensummers 17y ago
The GPL license may be an impediment to this plan, and the DVCS concepts will probably be far too complex when dealing with non-technical people who just want to work together. My experiences suggest that the money would be in setting up and training, rather than a product as such. I did think about it carefully and design something (easier tools, server side search), but really it didn't seem worth it.
DougBTX 17y ago
Dropbox is trying to do this, they seem to be making some progress.