The Turning Point
By Bill James October 2004
I think it is fair to say that personal computers have become household appliances. According to a recent Harris Poll, the number of adults who are online at home, in the office, at school, library or other location continues to grow steadily. It is estimated that 156 million (73%) adults in the U.S. are now online and 44% of them have broadband connections.
In research among 2,003 U.S. adults surveyed by telephone in June and August 2004, Harris Interactive® found that 73 percent of adults are now online, up from 69 percent in late 2003, 67 percent in late 2002, 64 percent in 2001 and 63 percent in 2000. When we first began to track Internet use in 1995, only 9 percent of adults reported they were online. This growth in Internet penetration is a result of increased Internet access at both home and work. The proportion of adults who are now online at home has risen to 65 percent, up from 61 percent in 2003 and 57 percent in 2002. Those online at work have risen modestly to 34 percent, from 31 percent in 2003 and 28 percent in 2002.
What this means is that there are a lot of folks using PCs who probably need help in a variety of areas. They need to know how important it is to keep their computers safe and free of viruses. They need to know how to do some basic troubleshooting when they run into problems with their hardware, or even how to install new hardware. Hence, the need for computer clubs who are in a unique position to offer assistance. Our club is a good example – we offer many study groups that can be of help to people that want help or information on how they can use their computers for other things and not just accessing the Internet. Take for example our Imaging Study Group. This group provides participants an opportunity to explore the power of preserving those precious moments digitally rather then remaining in fragile photo albums. Genealogy is another area where computers can be used to trace ones ancestry. Online music is becoming big business with consumers. It’s no longer necessary to have racks of CDs, cassette tapes and phonograph records when with broadband your favorite music can be downloaded and stored on a hard disk. You can then record your favorites on a CD with you making the choices of what tracks you want to record. Our club at the beginning of the year began offering Basic Courses for new computer owners. These classes have been very popular. We hope to continue to offer these classes as long as there is a demand.
The problem with most computer clubs is that their existence is not well known. We as members of a computer club need to spread the word by letting our friends and neighbors know that such clubs exist in our community. Our club needs also to be flexible enough to offer study groups and hands-on classes to attract members. Each month our club has a General Session that focuses on a variety of topics. Our Vice President of Programs, Troy Segler, works very hard to find programming that is of interest to our members and the computer community. This is an excellent way to introduce prospective members to our club. It is a wonderful thing to have new members who want to be involved with sharing their ideas and suggestions to make our club prosper. So I encourage each member of our club to be a sales representative. Our club offers something for just about everyone – from seniors, beginners to the advanced users. You know what you get out of being a member so share that experience. If you do, the turning point for the Computer Club of Oklahoma City will be that we remain true to our mission: to facilitate the understanding and use of computers for the community and our members by study groups, technical support, education, training, socialization, fellowship, and speakers and our motto: Computer Users Helping Computer Users.
Bill James is President of the Computer Club of Oklahoma City. Bill can be reached at james@qns.com