May 9th, 2007 Alan Gutierrez
Next week, I’ll be conducting workshops at the Trinity Community Center in Hollygrove. You’ll have to bring your own laptop in order to participate. I’d like to get started with a publishing strategy for CHAT, so that I don’t have to be the one to publish, and also, so that when I do, you provide things to me in a format that doesn’t require a lot of clean up on my part. Tuesday, March 15th, 2007 at 6:00 PM at the Trinity Christian Community Center at 3908 Joliet St. Who’s in?
April 30th, 2007 Tom Henehan
The Road Home solution to non-existant checks: everyone gets 15 minutes in front of a green screen.
When we talked about a response to the Road Home television ad campaign, I agreed that getting on TV would be the obvious first choice, but that internet video would be an OK alternative through whcih we might gain “second-hand” access to the public airwaves if and when TV journalists saw the stuff and put it on the news. And then I went on to assert that top-notch video production tools are much more widely available and affordable today than before, allowing anyone with talent, a bit of experience, and some relatively affordable PC-based tools to produce quality product.
But since then I’ve been thinking about the part of message that Susan Steward-Barre wrote where she says:
Trouble is most folks lost their computers in the flood. I know it is and may be hard for us to realize that there are some people who have not been able to replace their computers and also hard for us to realize that THE WHOLE WORLD IS NOT COMPUTER LITERATE.
This has always been an important and obvious issue, as far as it goes, for CHAT. We have all been very aware, all along, that our zero-budget operation more or less limits our outreach to the community of wired-up computer users. But I think, for myself and probably for others as well, that it’s kind of surprising how many folks we’ve been able to reach through the internet.
I don’t really think there are very many people at all who had a computer before Katrina, lost it in the flood, and have still, at this late date, neither replaced it nor found some other way to connect back to the internet. To fall into this category, a person/household would either have to be extremely deprived financially, or belong to the population that had never really gotten very interested or involved in the internet in the first place.
We have plenty of correspondents, not just within CHAT/FoCHAT but also participating in forums like Gentilly After Katrina, Rebuid Lakeview, etc., who are checking in once or twice a week, or even daily, at a public library or by using a friend’s or relatrive’s computer, etc. Pretty much everyone who was accustomed (addicted?) to web access before Katrina has found a way to hook back in by now, periodically if not constantly.
Sure, there are plenty of flood victims, including many of the poor as well as plenty of older folks of all income groups, who never developed any computer literacy and are now in a position where they are not about to develop any new hobbies. We’re well aware of this as it impacts all of our efforts (e.g., getting out surveys, etc.), not just the propect of producing and promulgating a video message.
Also, keep in mind that CHAT’s constituency is propertyowners ~ an essentially middle-class group. Yes, there are poverty-stricken flooded-out homeowners, people who had inherited their homes, but the vast majority of Road Home applicants were able to afford mortgage payments before the storm hit, meaning that they do not belong to a destititute underclass. Just because a family can’t afford a six-figure rebuilding project without substantial help doesn’t mean that they haven’t been able to buy replacements for various basic home-furnishings (inlcuding PCs) during the last 20 months.
September 1st, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
It has long been a wish of mine to create a workshop for email. I’d base it on the writings of Merlin Mann and the 43 Folders blog. He has a series of articles called Inbox Zero, which talk about how you get your email inbox empty. There is also a great reference in Getting Things Done with GMail which I apply to my GMail inbox.
August 14th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
There is a lag time between the creation of a new site, and the point at which there is enough content in the site to make it self-perpetuating.
The most challenging part of the Web Publishing Workshops is holding people to the course of publishing. Until they have enough readers, they’re liable to lose interest and wander away.
Who amoung you, is willing to help me, by working with people one one one, in person or on line to get new web sites off the ground?
Could someone assist me by helping to post articles while a new web site is learning the ways of WordPress? Could someone assist me by making themselves available, in person, online, or over the phone, to answer questions regarding WordPress and web publishing?
August 14th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
When you attend the Web Publishing 101 you will learn how to maintain your own web site. The web site employs a content management system, so you don’t have to learn HTML.
Because the web site is in a newsletter format, adding new content is as easy as writing an email message.
When the Workshop is over, you’ll get your own web site with your own domain name, or you can transfer an existing domain name if you like.
You can join neighborhood organizations like Touro Boluginy, Xavier Triangle, and Kenilworth New Orleans who are using their web sites to reconnect their neighborhoods.
Please RSVP to workshops@thinknola.com, and bring a wireless laptop if you can. Desktops are available, but limited.
1832 Felicity St.
Cost: There is a suggested donation of $75.00, but no one is turned away.
[Web Publishing 102]
- What: Add images to your postings, and orgainze postings into articles.
- When: Thursday, August 17th, 2006 at 6:00 pm.
- Where: New Orleans Housing Resources Center at 1832 Felicity St.
- Cost*: There is a suggested donation of $75.00, but no one is turned away.
The suggested donation allows you to retake the specific workshop over and over, until you are familiar with the course material.
July 30th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
When you attend the Web Publishing 101 you will learn how to maintain your own web site. The web site employs a content management system, so you don’t have to learn HTML.
Because the web site is in a newsletter format, adding new content is as easy as writing an email message.
When the Workshop is over, you’ll get your own web site with your own domain name, or you can transfer an existing domain name if you like.
You can join neighborhood organizations like Touro Boluginy, Xavier Triangle, and Kenilworth New Orleans who are using their web sites to reconnect their neighborhoods.
Please RSVP to workshops@thinknola.com, and bring a wireless laptop if you can. Desktops are available, but limited.
1832 Felicity St.
Cost: There is a suggested donation of $75.00, but no one is turned away.
[Web Publishing 102]
- What: Add images to your postings, and orgainze postings into articles.
- When: Thursday, August 3rd, 2006 at 6:00 pm.
- Where: New Orleans Housing Resources Center at 1832 Felicity St.
- Cost*: There is a suggested donation of $75.00, but no one is turned away.
The suggested donation allows you to retake the specific workshop over and over, until you are familiar with the course material.
July 24th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
This week we are having Open Door Workshops and Web Publishing Workshops, both the 101 and the 102. The Open Door Workshops are on Tuesday, July 25th and Thursday July 27th from 1:00 to 5:00.
The Web Publishing 101 Workshops will be held on Tuesday, July 25th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the New Orleans Housing Resource Center at 1832 Felicity St.
The Web Publishing 102 Workshop will be held on Thursday, July 27th from 6:00 pm to 7:30 pm at the New Orleans Housing Resource Center at 1832 Felicity St.
Please bring a wireless laptop if you have one. We have desktops available, but they are limited.
To sign up, send email to workshops@thinknola.com or leave a message in the comments section of this article.
July 20th, 2006 Alan
There will be another Web Publishing 101 Workshop for community groups, non-profits, etc. on Tuesday, July 25 at 6:00 PM at the New Orleans Housing Resource Center, at 1832 Felicity St. Please bring $10 to cover material costs. Otherwise, the workshop is free.
A Web Publishing 102 follow-up workshop will be held on Thursday, July 27 at 6:00 PM at the New Orleans Housing Resource Center. This workshop is open to anyone who has attended a 101 Web Publishing workshop, and there is no additional cost.
July 19th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
Hollygrove Neighbors will be reporting on the happenings in the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans. Where is this neighborhood? How much damage did it suffer in Katrina? How far along it Hollygrove in the recovery process? These are the sorts of questions that are answered by a neighborhood web site. If you’d like to help out a neighborhood in New Orleans, stop by Hollygrove Neighbors and show your support. If the Hollygrove Neighbors have questions about their new web site, ask them here and we’ll answer them as best we can.
July 19th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
I’ve spoken at length with Patricia Jones of the Neighborhood Empowerment Network Association about her plans for a neighborhood center in the Lower 9th Ward. We are launching a new neighborhood web site. This is a post where you can ask questions about the new NENA web site, while we play with the bubble wrap.
July 19th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
This is a place where we can work on launching Faith Like Jesus, the web site of Pastor Bruce Davenport’s St Johns #5 Baptist Church. Pastor Davenport may ask questions here, where anyone who has an answer can help out. Please, show your encouragement.
July 18th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
Think New Orleans will be hosting an Open Door Workshop at the New Orleans Housing Resources Center tomorrow, Tuesday, July 18th, 2006 from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm. This is the sign up sheet for the Open Door Workshop. Last week four of us worked together on various neighborhood web sites. Feel free to bring your laptop, and drop by, but if you know what you want to get done, please give me a heads up. What do you want to accomplish at the Open Door Workshop?
July 18th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
Last week, I got a call from Karen Gadbois that cut my Geek Lunch short. Not short so much as it made it less than interminable. Calvin Lopes was there to take delivery of his web site, Kenilworth New Orleans. James Smoak was there to place some photographs on his web site, Touro Bouligny
In response to Karen's questions, I wrote some documentation on bullet lists in the Textile markup language. While I deployed Calvin's web site, Calvin extracted photographs from a PDF for James, and sized them for publication. It was what I'd hoped an Open Door Workshop would be. A couple hours of collaboration and neighborhood talk.
For future Open Door Workshops, I am going to create a sign up sheet. It will be right here, in this web site. I am going to ask that people let me know what they want to get done in advance. Look for one for tomorrow’s Open Door Workshop.
July 10th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
The first Xavier Workshop took place last week. The second Xavier Workshop covered the Web Publishing 102 lesson plan.
It was, once again, a successful workshop, despite some on-the-fly changes to the lesson plan. The 102 lesson plan assumes that everyone has a brand new web site. This is no longer guaranteed. I’m now encoutering people that are joining existing sites as contributors, as well as people who are simply auditing to learn what Think New Orleans is about.
I’m going to roll my tweaks into the lesson plan along with the administrator requirements for the client machines, since the Flickr Uploader needs to be installed.
Update: Bart Everson attempted to share a photograph of the workshop, but my comments wouldn’t let him post a photograph. Here it is.
July 8th, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
The next Web Publishing 101 will be for small businesses and professionals that wish to communicate with their customers through their web site. Attendees will learn how to become their own web master using a web site based on the WordPress content management system.
The web site takes on newsletter format, one of the oldest marketing tricks in the book. Keep your customers in tune with your business by sharing information with them. The web site makes it easy for your customers to ask questions and give feedback. It’s hybrid web site and web forum, with an email newsletter version of the site to boot.
- When: Monday, July 10th, 2006 at 1:00 pm.
- Where: New Orleans Housing Resources Center at 1832 Felicity St.
- Cost: The workshop is $60.00 for businesses. The web site has a $60.00 materials cost.
- Requirements*: A Wifi enabled laptop is not necessary, but workstations are limited.
Remember, when you take this workshop, you’ll recieve your very own web site at a domain name of your choosing.
If you have questions, you can ask them in the comments of this post, or you can email alan@thinknola.com.
July 3rd, 2006 Alan Gutierrez
Think New Orleans is helping neighborhoods rebuild by providing them with practical lessons in Internet use. We show people how to use the Internet as office software, how to use the Internet to create your own social media campaigns, how to get your message out into the world.
In doing so, we encourage people to publish publicly, so that other neighborhoods and nonprofits can learn form their experience.
Workshops include.
- Web publishing.
- Calendaring.
- Collaborative authoring.
- Mailing lists.
- Email overload.
For a full list of workshops and times, see the Internet Workshops page of the New Orleans Wiki.
To follow up on the lessons learned in the workshops, Think New Orleans offers open door workshops. At an open door workshop, you can practice the skills taught in the focused workshops, ask questions, and work through specific issues. Attendees at different levels of ability can learn from each other.
Workshops are a great way to connect with other citizens who are working to organize and rebuild New Orleans.
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