Yesterday was spent at the Petaluma Senior Center for two ICT-related meetings. In the morning, it was the Petaluma CyberCity Roundtable, and in the afternoon, the monthly get-together of the Senior Computer SIG (Special Interest Group). There was a call for “Help” from one of the SIG members, so another hour was spent working on his home computer.He’s a “smart” person and was one of my students in the first “computer literacy” course taught at the Petaluma Family Computer Education Center several years ago. For some reason, he wasn’t able to connect to the Internet. I don’t remember exactly how we solved the problem, but we did – workingtogether.

Together – that’s a word I wish to focus on today. If you check your dictionary, you might find this definition: an adverb indicating that people are with one another, or that something is done with anther person or other people.Then, there are ten additional sub-definitions listed, such as: collectively\, by joint effort, and integrated coherent structure. That’s getting a little more complicated than I thought.

Bottom line: about a half-dozen people, representing various non-profit community-benefit programs “came together” to meet in order to discuss potential Information and Community Technology-related projects that could be initiated “collaboratively.” Here’s another word I like, too: collaborate. What does it mean? To work together with another person or group in order to achieve something. Bingo! That’s simple enough. It’s stated in plain English and “hits the nail on the head.” (It sounds like another Hammerhead blog might be in the works.) In any event, stay tuned for what the PCCR might do – collaboratively – with projects related to emergency communication systems, Wi-Fi education, and electronic Neighborhood Conference Boards or networks.

At the afternoon Senior SIG, over 20 participants “gathered together” for a presentation about Skype. No, you won’t find that word in the dictionary, but you will find it in the current NorthBay biz Journal (August 2006), as the subject of Michael Duffy’s “Tech Talk” column. For those readers who travel in Cyberspace and use Our Information Highway to communicate with others – anywhere in the world – Michael’s article is filled with valuable information about Skype. For example:

• Skype turns your computer into a phone.
• If you add a microphone, speakers, and a Web camera, you can have picture phone conversations – for free.

There is more detailed information in the article about how to get started and how to enhance your setup. Check out http://www.skype.com

P.S. The Petaluma Senior Computer SIG is a great place to keep up to date on what’s happening in Our Cyberplace. It meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month from 1:30-3:00 p.m. at the Senior Center, 211 Novak Drive. Please contact this blogger if you wish to have your name and e-mail address added to the list of participants. I’m sure that Bill Soberanes would approve because it’s a great place to mingle and to meet people.

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