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09/24/2006 Archived Entry: "Cyberworkshop 2 - The Way it Goes?"

Cyberworkshop 2 - The Way it Goes?

Shipman Centre 1.30 pm, 23.09.06

Staff
Gavin, Spike, Sulthana,

Members
Zavier, Giovanni, Sylvan,Tanguy, Jaya, Nishant, Abdul, Danielle

After last week's turnout of 17 members, this session's turnout of 8 members was a little disappointing. But here's the way that it went:

We summarised the goals of the group as stated by people the previous week:
The group should:

• work as a team to help the community, take on "huge projects" and receive awards
  
• work well together
  
• build and refurbish computers,
  
• go out on trips
  
• create forums
  
• have gaming sessions
  
• be a good working group and have fun
  
• work well together and not "screw up"
  
• have people be given responsibilities that they can handle
  
• help popularise NYPO, develop it into a larger organisation
  
• introduce NYPO games
  

Gavin said that the first "huge project" could be to work on creating a cyber cafe at Winsor Park Centre. Suggestions for trips could be discussed on the group really got started and we had enough people to commit to any trip. Gavin and Spike will be talking to the managers of Winsor Park about this.

Gavin reminded people that although we will be focusing on learning more about computer systems in the first few weeks, the Cyberworkshop is not just about computer maintenance. It is also about working together to manage NYPO and to create 'products'. There is funding available to support activities such as trips and residentials if we can get our act together in time to meet the deadlines. This is why it is really important to get people coming to the sessions. It is why it is really important to have a good turnout at the next session because we will be discussing plans for future work and activities and getting the money to carry out these plans.

Gavin said that we may also have a visit from someone from the Duke of Edinburgh Award team to discuss how we can be an award group.

We also went through a 'refresher' on our understanding of computer components. Spike gave out some worksheets on which people could jot down what they knew about computer parts. Sulthana collected these for later inclusions in individual portfolios that will lead to awards.

As a piece of homework group members were asked to find information about the specifications of their own computer systems. Spike recommended the website www.belarc.com which can give a profile of your system if you install their free software.

At the end Gavin asked for feedback. Nishant said that the session was good but he would have liked more 'practical stuff'. He also asked if the time could be extended as sometimes two hours may not be enough to cover all we need to do. Gavin said that the group could consider this. As a final exercise he asked group members to give a one-minute talk on any subject of their choice. This went well.

That's the way it went. How well it continues to go depends on you, the people who do or do not support the projects' development.