I think the biggest hurdle for CAR neophytes in learning how to use a database manager is the translation of English into computer-speak.

This point became crystal clear in October while I helped IRE and NICAR co-Training Director Jaimi Dowdell teach a bootcamp in Minneapolis. We had spent the morning introducing them to Microsoft Access and the SQL language (the bootcamps teach SQL rather than the grid view), and by lunchtime we had a room full of people with deer-in-the-headlights expressions on their faces.