We are a network of people from the University of the Third Age, Canberra, Australia (U3A ACT Inc.) and the PC Users Group, Canberra's computer club. Our network meets monthly on the first Thursday morning, Canberra Irish Club, Parkinson St, Weston.
Open to all comers who are seeking people-friendly information about computers.
Come as you are – and ask any question you like. Beginners welcome.
Where:
function room of the Canberra Irish Club, Parkinson St, Weston, not far from Cooleman Court, close to Namatjira Drive intersection.
When in 2009: –
first Thursday of the month, that is, 5 March, 2 April, 7 May, 4 June, 2 July, 6 August, 3 September, 1 October, 5 N0vember, 3 December. No meeting in January or February. Arrive for coffee around 9.30am for 10am start. Meeting closes 11.30am. Stay on for a chat afterwards and also for lunch, if you like. Menu and order list will circulate during meeting. Light meal from (approx) $8.
Cost:
Associate Membership of Irish Club, $3 p.a. You become a member of the nongeeks network by simply coming along and joining in.
PLUS
$1.50 per head fee to the Irish Club per meeting for provision of tea and coffee.
RSVP :
It would be appreciated if people attending for the first time would contact the convenor by email or phone to advise your likely attendance. This helps the Irish Club with their catering arrangements.
Convenors: Philip Bell Email: <non.geeks@gmail.com> Phone: 6251 5837; Janet Johnson, email jjkjaj@gmail.com and Julian Flynn, julianhelen.flynn@gmail.com,
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Please note - Newbies who want to learn how to use the Google tools used by the nongeeks network should go to the link below.
http://tiny.cc/notesfornewbies
Graphical intro to a computer chat group
For a brief photo essay on how Canberra's computer chat groups work, have a look at the link below to a Picasa web-album "Chatting about computers".
http://picasaweb.google.com/philip.bell/ChattingAboutComputers
How the nongeeks network works
The network centres around an informal monthly meeting with an open agenda, where people gather for a coffee and to chat about computers and the internet. The key is openness, friendliness and sharing. All participants are encouraged to wear name tags - and to make an effort to get to know each other. This can be greatly enhanced if people stay on for lunch together at our very welcoming and pleasant venue, the Canberra Irish Club.
Outside of the monthly meetings, the network operates through two important networking tools:
1. the contact list, and
2. the googlegroups email list.
Notes for Newbies
People wishing to join in with the activities of the network will need to get access to our online tools, namely, our online contact list and our group email and private website. These are explained on a separate webpage. Click here. Or
copy and paste the following web address into your browser address box and click Enter.
http://non.geeks.googlepages.com/yourpage%27stitle
The contact list
The contact list (in the form of a spreadsheet) contains names and contact details for everyone who joins the group. One joins the group by coming along and joining in.
The contact list consists of a Google online spreadsheet containing everyone's contact details. But it is a private list, only available to members of the group. In order to access the online list, you will need to hold a (free) Google account - and to receive an invitation to "viewer" status for the online list. You can then access it through the "Documents" or "Docs and Spreadsheets" service of your Google account.
You will need to let the organisers know when you have organised a Google account, so that they can issue you an invitation to "viewer" status for the group contact list.
The Googlegroups email list
The group email list is our electronic mailing list tool for keeping in touch with each other and sharing information between monthly meetings. This newly developed tool from Google is modelled on the longstanding and widely used tool called variously "newsgroups", "list servers", "email groups" etc. These tools make it easy for people to communicate with a group while still maintaining privacy of email addresses and even personal names. Many people use an alias or nickname within an email group. Because email addresses are not disclosed in the group's communications, these group email arrangements minimise a major aspect of email abuse - namely, spam propagated by the spreading abroad of email addresses.
In order to communicate with the nongeeks group once you are a member, all you need to do is to use the email address:
When you write to this address (provided you are a verified member of the nongeeks Googlegroups), your email goes to every other verified member of the nongeeks group.
Via our group list, you can put a question or share helpful information with the whole group at the touch of a button - and without having to worry about maintaining an email list of group members. Google is our friend and does all this for us.
It is assumed that if you come along to our meetings you wish to become a member of the group.
There are 3 steps required to enable you to be able to post to the group email nongeeks@googlegroups.com and to receive email posts from other members.
On the right side of this web page you will also see:
So this nongeeks webpage has three links (urls),
1. Sign in to Google Groups
2. Contact the owner
3. Contact owner to join.
Try each of these links in turn to see if you can negotiate verification of your membership of nongeeks at Googlegroups.
Meeting notes
For a record of the monthly meetings of the non.geeks network, go to:
http://non.geeks.googlepages.com/meetingnotes
Background: PCUG and U3A member Gloria Robbins set up the original (computer) Coffee ‘n Chat Group for Canberra's computer club in 1991. This has become the club’s most successful and popular Special Interest Group, growing from fortnightly meetings of around 20 people in the early 1990s to weekly meetings of 40 to 60 people today. This PCUG chat group is based on the same formula, proven over 15 years – but oriented more to beginners and the non-expert.
Below we see the PCUG geeks chat group gathered around the white board at the Irish Club, coffee in hand, before the meeting when questions are posted.
Here is the geeks weekly coffee and chat group in action (our "geekly weekly"), with John passing the mike from person to person to discuss questions raised.
How the chat group meeting works: Before meeting start, members may list any question or topic on a whiteboard. This list becomes the meeting agenda. We pass the mike around our group so that we can all join in the putting of questions, the passing of comments and the raising of laughter. After the meeting, our questions and topics are emailed around the group with invitation for further comment, particularly from those who raised them. Experienced PCUG members have offered to attend meetings and contribute to email discussion until the "non geeks" group develops its own skills and confidence in finding information on computers.
Both PCUG and U3A (University of the Third Age) members will be attending the chat group.
Other activity: Outside of meetings, chat group members may also raise other questions or post matters of interest dirent to the group's email list, using the one simple address <nongeeks@googlegroups.com> . Others may respond.
How participation in the computer chat group may help us with computing.
There are 3 ways that the computer chat group may help us: 1. Meeting and talking things over with others in the chat group will give us confidence to try new things on our computer, new software, new "tips and tricks", new approaches to using our existing software - that is, confidence to give it a go. As Sir Francis Bacon remarked: "Reading maketh a full man, conference (maketh) a ready man, and writing an exact man." Getting together with others, conferring and talking things over will get us good and ready to go and try something new. We will know that there is nothing to fear except fear itself. It is very difficult to damage a computer by just trying things out. What we need most is the get-up-and-go to get started. This is what our regular meetings may inspire us to do. 2. The chat group will help us acquire new skills to find almost any information we need on the web and in other internet sources, chat groups, newsgroups, web forums etc.Remember always GIYF - Google Is Your Friend. When in doubt, we ask Google. If confused, we ask Google define: If we still can't get the picture, we look up Google images. If we want to make sure we are up with the latest on the topic, we go to Google News. There are many other Google tools too. The world of information is at our fingertips 3. The chat group will give us a personal network - so that whenever we are stuck, there will always be someone, in fact quite a few people, to email, to phone or to call and see to have a chat about what to do next.
Likely questions at the chat group:
* What do I do next when I don't know what to do next - to get my PC to behave?
* How much should a PC cost if I want to use it just for email and some web browsing? Where’s the best place to buy?
* My children have offered me their 5 year old computer. Is this okay or do I need a new one?
* How much will it cost to connect to the internet – and which provider should I choose?
* What’s the best way to keep viruses off my PC?
* I sometimes get mysterious and alarming messages on my computer screen, such as "You have performed an illegal operation". How should I respond?
* How can I keep spam out of my email in-box?
* How can I find information I need on the web? My Google searches give me millions of results, mostly irrelevant and trying to sell stuff.
* How can I get my husband to switch off his computer and go get a life?
* How much should a PC cost if I want to use it just for email and some web browsing? Where’s the best place to buy?
* My children have offered me their 5 year old computer. Is this okay or do I need a new one?
* What’s the best way to keep viruses off my PC?
* I sometimes get mysterious and alarming messages on my computer screen, such as "You have performed an illegal operation". How should I respond?
* How can I keep spam out of my email in-box?
* How can I find information I need on the web? My Google searches give me millions of results, mostly irrelevant and trying to sell stuff.
* How can I get my husband to switch off his computer and go get a life?