would a weekly podcast on introductions to tech stuff help people?

[theduchessesduke]

I'm probably preaching to the converted here...

I'm the CTO of a consumer web 2.0 website (woome.com - go take a look) and I've noticed that mum's often have trouble keeping up with the changes in technology, especially as it is so fast these days.

I'm considering doing a weekly podcast (that's a computer based radio show that you listen to on your computer or mp3 player) trying to explain stuff like flickr or blogging.

What do people think?

What would be the questions that you would want answered?

i'd want something on using open source, but i don't know if thats your area?

Its a good idea, I think but a website with bullet points/ simple instructions would be helpful. Like a tutorial.

I'd need one on itunes

Yes, I think its a good idea, especially for mums of teens. Technology and social networking has moved on in an incredibly short space of time - I have two stepsons of 22 and 17 and even since they became teenagers at 16 things are so much different.

I think it's also good for mums to keep up with what's happening and be aware of the risks to children surfing, and to be educated - eg don't let them surf in their rooms, use filters, teach children that people aren't necessarily who they appear online etc.

I think a number of mums would also like to be able to create their own blogs.

A podcast aimed at mums would be a very different thing to a general tech podcast. There are mums of small children looking for sites like poissonrouge.com and there are mums of teens who are using social networking sites (and possibly scary sites like the pro-ana ones etc). I'm sure a lot of people have no idea what's out there, but you can be very sure that the teens know.

There are also some very tech-aware mums, and those who can manage online chat & forums but have no idea beyond that. It's a difficult demographic and hard not to be patronising to the many who can (I built the whole SMS network in the Netherlands and rolled out 3G in many countries, so I feel very patronised by techs most of the time )

luminar - don't mention 'open source' to the
Duke. You'll never shut him up.

@arfishy you sound like just what I need! I hate being patronized too... it's pretty difficult not to be I guess if you're trying to keep it clear for the genuine newbie.

Would you be interested in getting involved?

I'd want to see some more examples of real querys before I attempt this... I was thinking of just a Q&A style podcast backed up by the occasional screencast for very specific things like "how do I create a blog?"

I'd imagine this being done monthly or something.

I speak to quite a few mums who seem bemused and a little frightened by online stuff. And certainly there are dangers that they should be aware of.

I'm not aware of any satisfactory effort to address this problem.

podcasts are a good idea.. however simple weboages with line by line instructions are probably simpler to follow from my own personal experience of dealing with the end user community...

You gonna do a podcast to tell people how to access podcasts

.... just kiddin with ya

Sounds interesting Duchess, tell me more.

I've always enjoyed sharing tech actually. Many moons ago I used to train admin staff, secretaries etc how to program. They all got such a buzz out of it because they thought it was completely impossible for them to do. I loved seeing them just see the potential for automating a lot of their stuff with a little bit of programming.

podcasts coupled slides/downloads are probably the most helpful. It's nice to listen to someone explain something but it's always nice to be able to follow some instructions or look something up quickly. Like any kind of training, a human to explain things and handouts to refer to - always nice.

Thanks for your answers. I'll remind the Duke that he has a thread here...

Thank you dear.

A screencast is always usefull... but there's a bunch of tech associated with that.

I am pondering all this.