Last week the Dutch magazine Computable published an article of mine about how we should use new media to reach the new generation of software testers. In this article I express my opinion about how we can use the internets functionality, to teach a new generation of software testers.

• You can read the article here (this is in Dutch)
• Thanks to Google for translating complete pages to read it in English. I guess not everything is translated correct but the message is still there.

Some software testers like to read books, but I know a lot of them don’t read any, especially the young generation (< 25 years?). What I see with my colleagues is that a very low percentage is reading blogs and articles on the internet. But a lot of them aren’t learning every day. New media is the language of these people, why not using them more and more?

There are already a lot of video`s available. You can not only stream conferences but also with create demonstration videos, like Jon & James Bach and Pradeep Soundararajan did. These videos are not only fun to watch, but also have a message. My goal for 2010 is to make some videos about test design techniques and make them available for everyone.

Fortunately we are at the start of 2010, so I still have enough time to realise this goal.

There is just one question left and this question came up in a discussion I have had with one of my colleagues: Richard Enthoven.

“How can we make sure that people, which are interested in this information, still have the overview of this information? There are so many resources available and so many blogs, wiki’s, articles to read. What is the truth? What’s the best fit in my situation?”

Or do we loose our time by searching on the internet to find the best approach, the best techniques, the best …? Do we spend our time with gathering information without practicing it? I think these things are the pit falls for the new media.