This is a power point with tips and suggestions for how people who are not necessarily tech savvy can become more comfortable and knowledgeable with learning new tools and technologies
1. Tech Tips for Non Techies
By: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah
May, 2014
2. Who is This Non â Techie Tech Lover?
⢠Communications Specialist - African Womenâs
Development Fund.
⢠Co-Founder of Award Winning Blog
âAdventures from the Bedrooms of African
Womenâ.
⢠Writer â published by The Guardian,
Chimurenga, This is Africa, Feminist Africa,
Open Democracy etc
4. Adopt the attitude - Tech is fun!
⢠Donât be bamboozled by the âexpertsâ. A lot of
tech today is user friendly. Experiment with
new tech.
⢠For e.g. many years ago I taught myself how to
create newsletters using Constant Contact.
Today you can use tools like Mail Chimp for
free. What stops you creating your own
newsletter?
5. Have a learning attitude
Pick up tech skills from people, places and
spaces.
⢠Joining Blogging Ghana in 2008 encouraged
me to start a personal blog.
⢠In 2010 David Ajao encouraged me to move to
a Word Press blog. That skill helps me manage
WP based websites in my job today.
6. Life Long Learning
⢠In 2013, Rose Afriyie urged me to start Google
hangouts for Adventures, and sent me a âHow
toâ PDF.
⢠Take advantage of âoptional tech clinicsâ at
conferences â In 2014 at the Association of
Progressive Communications meeting on
âGender, Internet and Sexualityâ I learnt about
digital security and open source tools I had no
prior knowledge of. Priceless!
7. Learn from random places
And not so random placesâŚ
I get great tech tips from:
⢠New Organizing's âTip of The Dayâ (H/T
@HakimaAbbas).
⢠Subscribing to Fast Companyâs newsletters.
⢠Magazines - some of the best tips Iâve seen
recently have been from âwomensâ and in flight
magazines
8. Make a note of useful tech tips
I keep a folder on my computer called âGood
Examplesâ where I store useful PDFs, great
reports, innovative templates etc.
If you have a smartphone make full use of all
that technology. Take pictures of tech tips in
magazines, use your memo function and voice
recorder to capture notes.
10. APC Digital Security Tech Tips
⢠Use an open source browser like Firefox.
⢠Use complex passwords and a tool like
KeePass so you never need to remember
another password.
⢠Change your behaviour. Itâs politically
important to try out open source tools.
* My key takeaways after participation in the APC âGender, Sexuality and Internet Meetingâ, April 2014,
Malaysia
11. Tech tips from Glamour
⢠Delete applications you donât use (inc. from Trash).
Restart computer.
⢠Clear browsing history and cookies. Digital security
training taught me that this can be specially relevant
for activists, and people living in ârepressive regimesâ.
⢠Check for viruses. Recommended: Avast Free
Antivirus
⢠Test your broadband speed.
* UK edition. June 2014. 'Laptop running S-L-O-W' page 54
12. Tips from a variety of sources
⢠Check out www.archiveguide.witness.org for
useful tips on documenting.
⢠Save documents in the Cloud. Try Dropbox
and Google Drive for e.g.
⢠Tag and manage your pictures with Aperture
(Mac users)
⢠Bookmark useful websites
⢠Back up your computer ď
13. Staying safe online
⢠Password protect your computer and phone
(use a complex password)
⢠Do not save usernames and passwords as a
default. Use a tool like KeePass instead.
⢠Do not use the same password across multiple
platforms and accounts.
⢠Spread the knowledge â youâre only as safe as
your network in social media spaces.
14. You can never be too safe
⢠Do not give out your data unnecessarily. Do
you really need to give a 3rd party application
access to your Facebook profile and by
extension all your contacts?
⢠Consider whether you really need to have
your geo tagging feature activated. A potential
pro and a con
15. Online safety squared
⢠Do not give people access to your passwords,
and when you need to, change passwords
afterwards.
⢠Decide which of your social media accounts
are for keeping in touch with âreal friendsâ and
which are useful for meeting people outside
your network.
16. Case in point
⢠I use @nas009 on Twitter in my personal
capacity. I tweet what I like and rarely self
censure.
⢠My Facebook used to be strictly for people I
considered friends. However, my FB has
recently become an extension of work so Iâve
created a 2nd account for âclose friendsâ.
17. Learn More About Tech
Useful websites to check out to learn more:
⢠www.takebackthetech.org
⢠www.securityinabox.org
⢠www.tacticaltech.org
⢠http://www.openspaceworld.org
18. The Best Way to Contact Me
⢠Tweet me @nas009 â by far my preferred way
for anyone to get in touch with me.
⢠If 140 characters are not enough then drop
me an email me via nana@awdf.org