Geekin’ Out

So what is it I do anyway? Lots of different things. For example: Today I’m leading a faculty workshop on Firefox 3.5, so here’s a mix of awesome cyber-geeky pop tunes.

And here’s sneak peek at the slideshow I’ll be using.

(I’m still working on this so it may be a little unfinished in places.)

I thought this would be a good program to offer faculty because the web browser is emerging (if it’s not there already) as the most important application for more and more people. We can do more and more via the web, and the browser is the main tool we use to interface with the web. But many people have only a very basic operational understanding of what a browser is and how it works. They can accomplish simple tasks, but may become befuddled if things get complicated, and they don’t know how to work efficiently. A browser like Firefox has a lot of features that are probably unused by most people. There’s a lot of power that remains untapped.

For example, I’ve noticed that when I’m working with faculty, I can often find information we’re looking for on the internet much more quickly. This is not because I’m smarter than them — it’s my privilege to work with very intelligent people — but rather because I’m more comfortable and conversant with the tool we’re using. A basic understanding of web architecture and search technology helps, of course, but those are fodder for other workshops that I’ve done in the past or plan for the future.

I’ve never done a straight-up browser workshop before. It’s perhaps so obvious that I simply overlooked it. As for which browser to promote, Firefox was the obvious choice. It’s my preferred browser, and I recommend it often. Here’s hoping the workshop is helpful.