The TTI Membership

Our asynchronous courses will always be available for free. However, in our mission to continue to elevate the level of education in the technology sector, we are also offering live classes through the TTI Discord. Because these live classes expect a deeper level of engagement from both instructor and learner, we are asking for a small investment to participate in these intense sessions.

The TTI membership, at any level you choose, will grant access to live class signups, private discussion channels, and upon completion of the training, certificates reflecting the hours of training, which you can use for continuing education credits.

How it Works

Membership is being offered through our Discord. Because Discord is weird about mobile payments, we strongly recommend you sign up using the desktop or web version of Discord. This may be a bit annoying for those of you who primarily use the app on your phone, but the courses will require a computer anyway.

There are three tiers of membership: $2.99/mo, $4.99/mo, and $9.99/mo. All three tiers offer the same benefits, as they are about willingness and ability to contribute to the mission; they are not about access.

FAQ

Does this mean you (Taggart) won't be streaming anymore??

I will still stream when I can! We're trying to provide a new kind of teaching that streaming does not afford. Deep learning requires a connection between teacher and learner, and this is an attempt to cultivate that kind of connection, even in a remote learning environment.

But I still love streaming, and will do it whenever I can.

Why are you of all people charging money for courses?

I know, it's a bit strange. Here's my thinking: I want to compensate instructors (not me) for presenting high quality instruction through TTI. I can only do that if the courses self-fund. This model allows instructors to receive a reliable honorarium for their time and effort.

A subscription model makes sense because it levels the playing field for varying degrees of interest in any given class. We believe good teaching is valuable regardless of the "market appeal." An instructor delivering quality education to five learners deserves no less compensation than one delivering to twenty.

Also, since we want the participants to actually participate, we suspect a little financial investment will motivate folks to show up and do the work.

What kind of classes will be offered?

These are not intended as 100-level introductory courses. These will be focused offerings on specific aspects of technology or security. An example is "Incident Response with Jupyter," or "Sliver for Red Team Operations." So some prior experience is going to be useful.

How are class signups handled?

When a class is announced, a signup form will be made accessible to members. Classes will have a cap set by the instructor. Registrations will be on a first-come basis, but we will try to open registrations at a time that is fair to our global community.

How will classes be conducted?

We will use the Discord platform to conduct courses. Classes will have a set start time, and learners will be expected to have done any requested work in between sessions. There will also be a dedicated chat/support channel for the course. Course sessions will be recorded and be made available to members

How often will classes run?

We're still figuring that out, but the objective is at least one course per month. Any more and it would really be too much for any learner to consume along with other obligations.

How long will each class be?

That will largely depend on the instructor, but we're targeting no more than 6 hours across 2 weeks. For example, 6 one-hour sessions, Monday-Wednesdy-Friday-Monday-Wednesday-Friday. Or for more intense labs, 3 two-hour sessions might make sense. The schedule will be posted with course announcements.

Why don't higher tiers come with more perks?

Do you want a T-shirt? A pony? A podcast? The reason for the membership is to support the instructors, not to gain some higher level benefit for yourself. Additionally, we believe that you will be more motivated to engage with the course material if you are literally invested. But the investment is at your level of ability to give and generosity, not your demand for perks.

Can I sign up for a month for a course I like, then cancel?

You can, although I really hope you won't. Remember that the membership is about supporting instructors, not access.

Can I gift someone a membership?

At the moment, that's a bit tricky. We're working on a plan for gifted subscriptions, but it's not quite ready yet.

I really want to participate, but I can't afford it!

I understand and empathize. It's a difficult thing to ask for a financial investment from learners, and we're really trying to keep this small. We may do some scholarships/other opportunities in the future to make this somewhat easier.

What if I want to give more?

What?! Wow, okay you crazy diamond. Well first, thank you. I deeply appreciate the support for TTI's mission. Although I do not like asking for more than I think is fair, if you really want to further support TTI, I've set up a Liberapay page for lunatics like you.