Posts Tagged ‘web skills’
A Georgetown Social Media Cafe?
Posted on: August 5, 2009
- In: General
- 2 Comments
We’ve got a week and a half left on this project and we’re starting to think about what we’ll be leaving behind.
As it stands, two community groups, a group of teachers and a bunch of young people will be left with a grasp on some basic web skills – image editing, website design, blogging and good content. We hope that the community groups and teachers will be able to pass their new skills on to others.
What else?
I taught myself web skills. There are enough tutorials out there on the internet that if someone wants to learn something they can (although tutors speed the process up a lot and provide a framework for learning). What might be useful now would be to create the right environment and networks in which people can work, learn and meet others.
Back in England I organise the monthly Birmingham Social Media Cafe. It was set up by Joanna Geary last year and was based on a similar gathering in London called the Tuttle Club.
It’s a chance for people interested in social media (blogging, sharing media, social networking, etc) to come together to talk shop, make contacts, receive support and be part of a larger group. We attract 40-50 people a month even though it takes place during the working day and we don’t really advertise.
I think a Georgetown Social Media Cafe would be a useful. It’s a low cost solution – all that’s required is a venue (we use a coffee shop) and someone to send out reminders for the next one (we use email, a Facebook group and a WordPress-based website).
The Guyanese web scene seems to be in its early stages but in the past few weeks I’ve seen plenty of proof that there are people hungry to learn and develop their skills.
Team intros – Hugh Reilly
Posted on: July 17, 2009
Hi, I’m Hugh. I also heard about this project through an email forwarded from the station manager at Resonance FM, where, like Matt, I volunteer as a broadcast assistant and programme maker.
The opportunity to travel and share my skills in a far-flung locale sounded really exciting and after doing some research – yes, I Googled Guyana – I applied. I was intrigued by the fact that the country is thought of as part of the Caribbean yet borders Brazil and Venezuela. The ethnic split of Indian and Afro-Caribbean also piqued my interest. (I’d always wondered why cricketers of Indian descent like Shivnarine Chanderpaul – who, by the way, has a street named after him here in Georgetown – ended up playing for the West Indies. And now I know. And, while we’re on the subject, other famous Guyanese include Eddy Grant of The Equals and Electric Avenue fame, cricketer Clive Lloyd and, er, Shakira Caine, wife of Michael Caine and Miss Guyana 1967.)
My web development skills aren’t as technical as the other members of the team but my experience working as a journalist, often online, and a youth worker nicely compliments the other talents we bring.
Back in the UK I’m based in north London. Most of my writing is for the arts and culture section of thelondonpaper and I’ve also worked as a subeditor and in online production for clients including The First Post and the BBC. Since last September I’ve volunteered as a youth worker for east London charity Toynbee Hall, working with 13-14-year-olds on the Aspire project on radio workshops, citizenship and outdoor activities. This has recently led to paid sessional work with a charity called Headliners, which works with young people to produce journalism, where I start working after I return from Guyana.
This week I’ve been helping Matt teach basic animation with the Flash programme at local NGO Merundoi, who produce a highly entertaining and hugely popular twice weekly radio soap which promotes Aids awareness. See Matt’s previous post on how the course has gone (very well).
From next week Matt and I, plus Pontus and Chris (who arrive in the wee hours tonight), will be doing workshops with school pupils, teachers and youth groups on a variety of web skills. The workshops I’m leading focus on photo editing with the open source Gimp programme and what makes good web content and design, plus specialisms which will look at these areas in more detail.
Expect to see many more posts from the four of us in the coming days and weeks.
Team Intros – Matthew Gaffen
Posted on: July 16, 2009
Greetings, I’m Matt Gaffen and here’s my introduction.
I’m afraid a picture isn’t available at this juncture, but I’m sure you’ll catch sight of me at some point soon. Here’s the face of some kind of frog person I drew before coming out here instead;
I caught wind of this project through Resonance FM (London’s first art radio station, don’tcha know?) at which I volunteer doing a variety of small jobs to help keep the station running. An e-mail from the station mentioned this fantastic opportunity teaching web design and animation in Guyana. I had experience in both fields and thus replied to it right away.
I am the animation specialist of this course and have come out a week early with Hugh (the our teams’ fourth member) in order to teach a concentrated four-day ‘slab’ course in Adobe Flash (animation software). More details to follow
As for who I am and what I do; I’m an art student studying at Chelsea College of Art and Design. My degree is in Graphic Design Communication. I’ve been using flash for about five or six years and have a fair amount of experience animating exclusively on personal projects.
I’ve been out in Guyana now for nearly a week with Hugh and am having a great time, having got over the mosquito bites and spouting blood from my nose at every opportunity. Most of the locals are friendly and one of my students has just introduced me to Ultimate Frizbee, which in case you didn’t know is just about the best team sport. Ever.
After being worried a little about course expectations on Monday at Merundoi, the first day went swimmingly well. The students are all engaging with the material, being creative with it and learning the concepts at a fairly impressive pace. Above all they seem happy and some students are actively showing a lot of excitement, so I believe that they will take what they’ve learned further. It has been a really exciting week with a group who could not have been more of a pleasure to teach in any way. To summarize, I feel very satisfied with the work today and with any luck the course will proceed at a similar speed and level of quality.
It’s quite odd being an art student and suddenly being in my tutors’ position. By no means is it not enjoyable though, in fact it sells teaching to me a bit.
I have brought two types of malaria medication; Lariam and Doxy. I was asked to bring Doxy in addition to Lariam, which I’d already started at the time, because of it’s incredible side effects which could possibly include hallucinations and a desire to kill oneself! I am still on Lariam, but apart from some enjoyable, vaguely psychedelic dreams I am experiencing no side affects.
One day left of the course now, I shall provide some more details some time tomorrow when it’s all over.
Going to the sidewalk café tonight to listen to live jazz. Hopefully will get at least slightly drunk for the second night running. Am starting to grow a real appreciation for the local rum.
You can check out my personal blog at http://www.mattsdeadcat.blogspot.com. Expect to see most of this copy-pasted there soon.
G
Video background to project
Posted on: July 16, 2009
Just thought I’d post the video that got us all involved:
Team intros – Pontus Westerberg
Posted on: July 16, 2009
Hi, My name’s Pontus and here’s my introduction.
I first heard of this project through Twitter (where else) via @podnosh who retweeted an invitation by @timdavies for interested potential volunteers to get in touch. I love volunteering overseas – I have previously done it in Kenya and Zimbabwe – and thought this would be a great opportunity to share my skills, meet new people and experience a new culture.
I’m focusing on HTML and CSS skills and have developed an introductory HTML course which centres around creating an online CV. It will cover:
- How to set up an HTML page in notepad
- HTML elements and attributes
- Links, images etc
- Inline styles and some basic CSS selectors
- FTP, domain names, hosting
- External style sheets (depending on how far we get)
About me – I’m the Web Editor for Futurebuilders, the UK’s largest social investor, and have previously worked with online and offline communications for several charities. Last year I spent six months as a volunteer for Leonard Cheshire Disability East and North Africa in Nairobi, Kenya, designing its website and developing other communications materials.
I’ve also helped with online communications for the Sanitary Pad Programme in Kenya, a campaign for Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday for Action for Southern Africa and the Centre for Accessible Environments and do a lot of online volunteering through the UN Online Volunteering Scheme.
I normally blog over at Eatanicecream (although I’ve been very lazy lately).
Team intros – Chris Unitt
Posted on: July 15, 2009
- In: The team
- 2 Comments
Hi there, my name’s Chris Unitt and I’m one of the team who’ll be teaching the Web Skills course out in Guyana. I leave in just over 36 hours and the anticipation levels are rising!
I first heard about this project in January when I got chatting to Tim Davies of Practical Participation at the Tuttle Club (London’s weekly social media get-together). It sounded like a fantastic opportunity to challenge myself, improve my training skills and share what I know with people.
The part of the course that I’ve developed centres around the use of WordPress – an open-source blogging platform that’s very simple to use and easy to adapt to the purposes of most websites (this blog uses it, for example).
I’ll post details of this part of the course later on, but the plan is to spend a day showing the students how to set-up WordPress on a server, how to tweak it’s appearance and functionality and then getting everybody to start publishing their own content.
In addition I’ll be helping to run Friday drop-in sessions (to be modelled roughly on the Social Media Surgeries held in Birmingham) and also offering short specialism around advanced blogging skills and the basics of ecommerce.
A little about – me I’m ex-lawyer turned blogger/social media consultant for the arts and cultural sector. My company is Meshed Media and I’ve worked with the likes of Maverick TV, Channel 4, Apples and Snakes and Birmingham Hippodrome.
I also organise a film competition called Film Dash and help run a (very) small record label called Culturedeluxe.
As well as posting updates here, I’ve also been asked to guest post over at My Place Or Yours, so please have a look over there.
Digital Guyana 