Idaho Falls Technology Users Group Proposed
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I was recently listening to Leo Laporte’s podcast of his weekly radio show “The Tech Guy”. One caller was a lady dipping her toes into computers. She enrolled in a Microsoft Office class, and wanted advice buying her first computer. Leo immediately observed her “newby-ness”, and suggested she should first spend some time with a local computer user group. His reasoning was that she was going to need help and advice in running her computer, so she should find out the experiences of her local “volunteer tech support”.
This got me thinking about our area, and that an Idaho Falls computer user group could be beneficial. There used to be a local Linux user group, but I don’t think they meet anymore, and Linux is still a bit advanced for most folks. I think it would be more interesting to have a general technology user group (anything with a chip in it) rather than just a Windows or computer group.
I thought of starting this myself, but encountered some obstacles. I would be willing to participate in this group, but do not see myself able to launch or run it. Let me explain some of what I’ve generated and see if anyone else wants to pursue the idea.
I think the purpose of this “Idaho Falls Tech Users Group” would be to share and build collective technology savvy. (What do you know, iftechusers.com is available at godaddy! Maybe a .org is more appropriate?) I foresee this group meeting once a month, offering 5-10 minute technology presentations, and finishing up with a “Beat the Geeks” Q&A session.
The tech presentations would be folks who get up and describe a technology subject. For example, one could describe their new iPhone, how to monitor your kids’ online searches, a website someone found useful, how to reinstall your system, software choices in a particular category, what net neutrality means to us, what technologies are available to help the disabled, local broadband options, what kind of router home users need, etc. All sorts of tech subjects could be presented in this fashion, and if someone does not like the subject, a new one will be given in just a few minutes.
I think these presentations should be limited to 5-10 minutes to respect attention spans. It can be boring when one person goes off on a tangent and the whole room gets bored and leaves. If a subject appears popular, the person can present another aspect of the same subject next month.
These 5-10 minute presentations could go on for 30-60 minutes. The “Beat the Geeks’ part would feature a line of questioners going up to a table of geeks. The geeks would ideally each have laptops and projectors, so the line of folks could see each geek’s screen on the wall behind the geeks. A person asks a tech-related question, and the geeks all try their own ways to find the answer or best solution. Nobody has all the answers, and each geek has their own unique experience and skill set, so I think this style would provide the best learning experience for everyone involved. Perhaps it can be made competitive with a tip jar, and the geek who gets the most best answers is awarded the tip jar that night.
Here are some drawbacks I encountered while investigating this idea. One thing to watch out for is not becoming a “free tech support” source, as some people will try to take advantage. I see the “Beat the Geeks” roundtable as important to helping others with their tech questions while avoiding the “free tech support” syndrome. Make it clear that none of the geeks will do any tech support beyond what is presented in the group, unless they are being paid. Asking about a virus on your computer is perfect, asking someone to come over and reinstall your entire computer for free is out of bounds.
Another drawback relates to organization and money issues. Every piece of advice I read on starting user groups debated whether to charge membership fees or not. User groups do incur some expenses, related usually to providing simple refreshments, managing newsletters, paying for a website, or buying raffle prizes. When a group involves money, they usually need to become a legal non-profit entity, involving a charter and officer elections. This becomes much more time-intensive, involving more meeting times for the officers, and it just adds a level of bureaucratic complexity that can kill the spirit of this idea. Charging membership fees has the effect of turning away many people.
Unfortunately, forming as a non-profit can be the only way to secure free meeting space. I had the idea of running it privately, by getting a website, putting my own Google ads on it, and using the small proceeds to pay group expenses. The newsletter expenses could be replaced by the free website RSS feeds, and freeware email newsletter programs. I foresee the user group website as publishing an article (and video) from their monthly event, and also publishing interesting tech articles throughout the month. The best comment questions each month could provide jump-start questions at the next meeting. Of course the problem with running this group as an individually responsible effort is that you are not considered non-profit, and incur heavy fees for meeting space. There are probably also stupid legal issues like if someone gets hurt accidentally in your meeting. I don’t know the solution to this organizational challenge. Any ideas?
I strongly believe this kind of tech users group would benefit our area by making citizens more tech-savvy, encouraging more locals to try new technologies, encouraging locals to increase their tech skills, providing a venue for tech-oriented people to volunteer their unique skills, and providing professional technology contacts. If the organizational challenges can be overcome, this could be a bright jewel in Idaho Falls‘ crown.
What do you think?
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0 ooooookay, I guess not such a great idea!
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whew, slow day, time to all start commenting again!
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One other thing, I read that these groups can sometimes get space from schools or businesses. The university campus or Idaho Falls High School are probably better options than a commercial space, and hopefully projectors could be “borrowed”.