Tech Day for Socially [Media] Challenged

Tech Day at the Richland Library

Last Sunday dawned bright and sunny and instead of taking a walk in the park, I headed over to the Richland Library for a “Tech Day” designed to help bring the IT-challenged into the age of social media mania. The BCDCC Communications Committee organized the event; DeNomy Dage, Kendall Miller, Micki McKinley, Bonnie, Andy, Jenni, Jessica, Heidi, plus assorted volunteers. We are gratful to them all.

The exercise was meant to help the “resistance” use the power of social media to concentrate forces, and aid in focusing issue activism. Of particular importance was teaching trainees how to set up a Facebook account and follow event planning on sites such as:
Democrats of the Mid-Columbia
Democrats of the 8th Legislative District Washington
Indivisible Washington State 4th Congressional District
Love Not Hate Tri-Cities
March for Science Tri-Cities
Tri-Cities Citizens Climate Lobby

There was also a discussion of how to use Facebook and Twitter to “share” meaningful articles and dialogue, whether in our local Tri-City Herald, in the New York Times, or on the Daily Kos, etc. Any digital site worth reading will provide sharing logos for Facebook and Twitter, as well as Google+ and email. Click on the logo and the article is shared. Check the very bottom of this post and you’ll find those symbols and a few others.

Jessica Gonzales showing how to use Google Docs, with an assist from Kennedy

Jessica did a presentation on Goggle Docs, showing how to create and share documents, as well as how to create Goggle forms, which is useful for a number of things, including collecting information for volunteer organizations and/or events.

Bonnie Kendall, a recent devotee, did a presentation on Twitter and discussed how simple and straightforward it is to craft a quick, but meaningful 140-character message using hashtags (#) and the ‘at’ [@] symbol to share and direct a ‘tweet.’ She suggested “following” at least 20 people/sites, and “lurking” a bit once a Twitter account is set up in order to learn the ropes. You can start by following Bonnie (@BonnieKendall6).

After the presentations and general discussion, help stations were set up, with Mickey McKinley pushing tables all over the room, and one-on-one help was provided to those seeking additional instruction.

It was a great occasion. We should do it again.

Ann Fraser trying to talk her dad, Steve into actually using the Facebook account he set up.