Portslade's e-community

On Monday the 16th of February members of the Portslade Community Forum met at Hangleton library for a workshop with Peter Day. The session was intended as an introduction to Portslade Community Forum.net, so that members could start posting their own news articles, stories, events, pictures, etc.

Peter introduces the community website

The purpose of the workshop was to familairise members of the Portslade community forum with the new community website and to encourage creativity by teaching them the basics of how the Portslade Community Forum.net website can support community communications and promote community activities and action in Portslade.

In attendance were:

1.    Peter Day - University of Brighton

2.    Robin Hurst - Portslade Community Forum

3.    Christine Kavanagh - Portslade Childrens Centre

4.    Saskia Wesnigk-Wood -

5.    Adetoun Ajibade - University of Brighton

Furthermore, it is hoped that these training sessions will prepare members of the community the opportunity to be able to place information and updates about themselves and their businesses for advertisement purposes without having to wait ages for it to get done for them.

Peter explaining the website to Saskia

The group were taught how to create profiles and upload pictures on their pages; they were also taught how to create events using the calendar on the forum. Amazingly, after a few minutes of learning these basic internet skills, attendees were able to have a go at the website on their own. They uploaded information about themselves and some activities that they are involved in. It is hoped that other community members will want to take part in similar sessions, which are designed to stimulate and promote community learning.

The group had so much fun learning about the website and were excited throughout the session. The sessions were easy for even those with very limited computer experience to follow and the group were surprised how much they learned in a short space of time.

Christine working on her profile.

It just goes to show that the Internet is an essential part of our everyday life that needs more attention from us. Reflecting on the session, Christine Kavanagh commented that the website has "so much potential and there's so much you can do with it".

While it is not expected that every member of the community will turn out for these training sessions, it is hoped that those who do will teach members of their family and community groups what they have learnt.

Training can be offered to any organisation or groups of individuals who are interested. Sessions are free and open to everyone from the forum.

Robin Hurst exploring the community website

Chatting with workshop participants, Peter Day suggested that a community website can support the work of the forum in many ways and that he's looking forward to working with the Portslade community to support future events and activities.

If you are interested in exploring how the community website can support the work of your group, put your name down for a place on the next session ASAP. You know what they say; it's better late than never!

Contact;

Lyn Strong - Chair of Portslade Community Forum 

stronglyn@hotmail.co.uk