How to get new people use IRC?

[Gabor Szabo]

Hi,

I am involved in a project where I am trying to get some people who
never used IRC or participated in any open source project, and some
of them have never programmed to teach them some programming and
to get them involved in an open source project.

I encounter several issues in how to get them to use IRC.

One of them is that they don't find the IRC clients intuitive for them.

The other one is that they seem to be afraid of talking on the main
project channels. I know it is difficult to wonder in a room full of people
and start talking. It is difficult if the channel is silent and it is difficult
if people are already talking. The newcommer can feel that
s/he is making noise or interrupting the conversation.

So I was wondering how to try to solve this?

We have our own channel for the project where they started to talk
a bit. That's a good step. I was wondering if we should setup a

#projectname_babytalk or #projectname_kindergarten or #projectname_newbies
channel in the hope that people can start talking there first?
If so what name would you suggest?

What other strategies do you suggest?

Gabor