Got my act together this time, and sitting down quickly to write up the notes of the meeting which saw three guests attend – Tony Baines (the Vice-Chairperson of Cardiff U3A), Matthew Lloyd (on his last day as South East Programme Manager for Digital Communities Wales) and Jenny Phillips (their Wales Volunteer Co-ordinator).
We started the meeting as normal by reviewing the Notes from the previous meeting and what had been on WhatsApp. I advised the group that there was now a link to the Thought grazing Flipboard “magazine” under the Computer Group tab on the website; I mentioned that I’d put some links to Which? articles on Black Friday on WhatsApp and would copy them into a Forum on the website asap; I’d written an article for the website on Purchasing a Laptop – copy’n’pasted from Which?; Paul had posted a screenshot of Google many years on, reflecting on how things had changed – Where is the Advanced Search these days???
John had sent me some links in an email re. Surge Pricing which was something I’d not heard of before linked to Smart Meters. I also said I’d check whether there was anything on Which? about this issue. There isn’t. However, it seems to be an issue that emerged in 2018 (mainly in right-wing press, it has to be said) and all has gone quiet since then. There’s an interesting (and perhaps useful) discussion on the Smart Meter roll-out in this article, which also explains what Surge Pricing might mean and involve, as well as discussing where we are with SMETS 1 and SMETS 2 meters.
I also reported in response to Anne’s query at the last meeting that I’d installed the Java Runtime Environment on my iMac and LibreOffic Base (their database) was then able to run.
We noted Phil’s letter in “Age Matters” and Don had been having difficulties in wiping a Hard disk clean. [This was resolved by Don taking the machine to Neil and “donating” it to him on the basis that he’d wipe the disk clean as this was an issue with the version of XP (Home Edition) which was on the machine which didn’t allow a Format.] I also reported that I’d posted articles on URL shortening and Taking Screenshots on the website.
David H thanked Phil in his absence for providing a second Linux USB stick and he’d tried to install it on an old laptop, but the keyboard had failed for some reason. They will return to visit the issue when they can meet in person. [Just a thought – it’s not something as obvious as US vs UK keyboards in the Linux setup???] However, they had received wonderful service from Curry’s who had delivered a new full-size iPad within a couple of days of ordering and he was most impressed at how easy it was to transfer everything from their old iPad Mini to the new machine. Renee confirmed it was a very straightforward and simple operation.
Mike told us that he had been in conversation with TalkTalk re. his poor internet reception and had managed an upgrade to Fibre65 and had reduced his monthly charge from £32 to £42, Threatening to leave is an unfortunate but essential tool in the armoury of the consumer.
Owen encouraged to read the reports and vote on the AGM motions on the Cardiff U3A website.
Jim was still in the process of deciding on a laptop and wanted to get a 15″ one with audio input/output, HDMI and USB. It was suggested that he perhaps looked at: a) a smaller (and cheaper) laptop and using an external screen; b) getting a small desktop – this is what Marilyn had done last year – instead of a laptop if it wasn’t going to be needed outside the home; or even c) get a MacMini and use it with a large TV screen or external monitor. [Guess who suggested the latter, fired-up by the new Apple M1 MacMini launch the previous week.]
Stella informed us that you needed to renew your iPlayer account every two years – I hadn’t realised that – and that she had experienced some fun and games in doing that before she managed to do it from her phone – Voila, she said!
Christine had decided to go for a laptop rather than a tablet, and this now enabled her and her husband to play online games, or quizes (??) separately; she also advised us about disabling Face Recognition in Facebook. [Note to self: I think we ought to have an annual session on Facebook settings as well as the Google account one I committed to last time.]
Don recounted his issues with scrubbing his hard disk (mentioned above); had been writing a report on church matters and had been playing online chess with his grandson.
Renee cheered me up by saying that she’d been reading the meeting notes and had downloaded bit.ly; taken screenshots and was now using Brave and LastPass – makes my ramblings so much more worthwhile when someone follows up on things. Thanks.
Paul had suffered from problems with his BT Home Hub Mesh setup and after not being able to fault resolve over the phone; the engineer (from the North East of England) had arranged the dispatch of replacement units – which were now working well. He also brought us up to speed with his look at Cardiff County Council’s website for Digital Inclusion (referenced in the last set of meeting notes.
This was a good introduction to Fred and Jenny bringing us to speed on what they’d done (mainly referenced in my late set of meeting notes from last time) and which then led into a general discussion on how we would handle our guests who joined the meeting at about 3:00pm. I admitted Tony Baines to the meeting first and he explained his role (mainly concerned with Cardiff U3A strategy) and he described how we could see things in either an out-facing (to non-Cardiff U3A members), or in-facing (exclusively to Cardiff U3A members) – this was a useful distinction to bear in mind as we admitted Matthew and Jenny to the meeting.
I gave a brief introduction about the Group, introduced Tony, and handed the meeting over to Matthew who presented through some slides. These are embedded below. He handed over to Jenny who described her role as helping, facilitating, training Digital Champions within communities and organisations. I believe that was the activity that she felt that DCW could offer to Cardiff U3A were we to identify some Digital Champions who would be working with Digital Companions who themselves would be alongside our members who felt they needed assistance to get online, etc.
In questions they asked us to think how best they might get their message out; we identified the issue of “digital poverty” – the removal of a bus service and the replacement with an app to summons a personal bus on paper seems a good idea, but not if you’re not digitally aware, or confident.
After they left the meeting we had a brief discussion on “what’s next” and asked Tony to consider whether in-facing digital awareness should be part of Cardiff U3A’s strategy for next year; I encouraged members of the Group to feed back to me their thoughts; and whether they could be digital champions, or digital companions. You can do that either through WhatsApp, or by email to me.
