Redwood City, CA Ð After two years as a part of NeXTedge, NeXT's after-market products organization, the NeXT training group has been moved into the company's software division.
While NeXTedge will continue to be the marketing and fulfillment organization for training that NeXT offers directly, the training group will now focus on curriculum development, creating alternative media and providing direct input to NeXT's software engineers. To help trainers spend more of their time working on these projects, NeXT said it plans to authorize more third parties to offer training.
The popular Developer Camp, which is run by the training group, will be revamped in 1993, offering a Boot Camp for new NeXT developers, a core Developer Camp that concentrates on the niceties of NeXTSTEP, and advanced courses that address developers' specific interests, such as DBKit. Most of these courses will now be offered by third parties as well as NeXT. System-administration and end-user courses will be similarly revamped.
NeXT plans to get the word out on its technology in other ways, including a possible videotape series and interactive CD-ROM instruction.
Kathy Novak will oversee the training group, in addition to managing NeXT publications and documentation, including on-line help. "The main benefits for users will be that software engineers will get direct input from trainers who work with real customers, and trainers will get more say in the early development of products. This will make our products even more user-friendly and intuitive," Novak said.