I Have been playing with my BeagleBoneBlack for the last couple of
week and have been exceptionally pleased.
The biggest stumbling block has been related to documentation. The
product has been progressing faster than the volunteer writers. I was
wondering if anyone had considered working on a coordinated set of
tutorials. My first exposure to this category of devices was
https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorial/AIK/ARDX-EG-SPAR-PRINT-85-REV-10.pdf
. We had a great time working through the exercise over the course of
a couple of week 
If anyone has a suggestions for BBB tutorial topics and a place to
host them, I would be happy to help organize this project and write a
few of the articles. There are already a lot of great stuff out
there... it can just be a little hard to find or a little out of date.
David
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but I think there is a wiki site already David. eewiki.net I think.
elinux.org is the main wiki for beagleboard stuff.
There are several useful books out there. They aren't free, but
that's because writing useful documentation is hard.
Go to amazon.com and search for BeagleBone Black in Books.
Interesting. I had not come across that resource before.
I have spent most of my time on:
http://elinux.org/ for general reference.
Derek Malloy's videos on youtube.
and the tutorials at https://learn.adafruit.com/category/beaglebone .
For books, I have Simon Monk's....
I requested an account from elinux. I'll start by updated
http://elinux.org/BeagleBone_Community#Home_site_and_Community . If
anyone has any good references please add them to this thread and I
will add them to that page.
Good luck! I think the community needs more easy-to-succeed beginner
level tutorials. You might want to keep an eye on the Bone101 GSOC project:
http://elinux.org/BeagleBoard/GSoC/2014_Projects#Project:_Bone101
...it sounds like it could work well with what you're wanting to do.
I've been working with minimal and "alternate" architecture Linux
systems (PPC, MIPS, & Alpha) since the mid-1990's, so the BeagleBone was
easy for me to start using, but I realize it's pretty foreign for a lot
of new users.
I am probably the opposite of Charles above. I have been “toying” with Linux ( Debian ) since the mid 90’s, and have been building desktops about as long. I picked up programing as a hobby in the late 90’s starting with quick basic on dos, and rapidly moving through ASM, C, C++ and many higher level languages.
Prior to owning a BBB though I had zero hands on with embedded Linux, and had never written a program for Linux. The only semi related experience I had was writing software for a Rabbit Semi “web device” and the MSP430 Launchpad. The latter here actually helped me a lot towards understanding how the GCC toolchain needs to be setup, while the former used a proprietary language called “Dynamic C”, and IMHO is a nightmare.
Anyway, we picked up out 2 BBB’s right at release last year, and you can bet I was in over my head. However, even then with less information around I was able to find information on everything I needed. Mostly through google, but also from people like Robert Nelson for working to get Debian running on the hardware, and answering the occasional question.
MY point is, if I can learn how to get done what I want on the BBB, anyone else can. BUt they need to be serious, and having no experience with Linux is going ot definitely be a hindrance for them. So . … learn how to use Linux FIRST.
Has anyone looked at the Embedded Beagle Class work that Mark Yoder
has done at http://elinux.org/index.php?title=Special%3AAllPages&from=e&to=&namespace=0
?
That looks like at very good starting point for a set of general
purpose beagle board tutorials.
Has anyone looked at the Embedded Beagle Class work that Mark Yoder
has done at All pages - eLinux.org
?
That looks like at very good starting point for a set of general
purpose beagle board tutorials.
Indeed, this is excellent material.
If you find any out of date articles please email the authors and inform them. They can then put a warning on the article with some version information.