Blogging Talk for Senior Citizens goes International

Wow, I had a kick when I discovered our talk -- the one Chun See and I would be conducting in a week's time -- had been mentioned at this Dutch language blog hosted in the Netherlands called LibraryLingo.

Try this translated page to read the page in English (note: the word "web-unwieldly" means "blog"; that's the best the translation software can do). The translation is far from perfect. I have no clue what the paragraph on Chun See's blog meant. Can anyone translate this passage from Dutch to English?

Hij schrijft een weblog, 'GoodmorningYesterday' vol met verhalen van vroeger toen hij een klein jongetje in de kampong was. Misschien ga ik dat ook maar doen. Lekker mutsen over echte catalogi met kaartjes, toen je nog geen zoekmachines en webgedoe had en je gewoon in een kaartenbak en een encyclopedie een antwoord moest zoeken. Wait and see...

Preetam very kindly shared these two 'senior citizen blogs'/ blog posts he's come across in this region (explanations are from Preetam):

• BruneiResources.blogspot.com - A grandfather in Brunei who writes about all things Brunei
• www.fusionview.co.uk/2006/11/memories-of-malaya-the-japanese-occupation/ - This person just started guest blogging on his daughter's blog.
• DonToEarth.blogspot.com - A 92year-old Canadian blogger

Chun See and I had a quick phone discussion over preparations for the talk. He wondered how many people would turn up. I shared that it's usually hard to tell, especially when such a talk has never been conducted before (i.e. less chance of word-of-mouth publicity). Also, being conducted in the English language would also mean a narrower pool of participants.

Publicity posters have been put up at other library branches. My colleague from Programmes & Events Management would have alerted the usual print media (if they find the event interesting, they'd list in their activity section). I'll also ask if the folks from Yesterday.SG would help give a plug for this event in their blogs (if they find it relevant). Apart from that, we'll have to see who turns up.

There's no benchmark for what is a "good" or "poor" audience turnout, other than average attendances. So I'd consider a good crowd to be 25 people and up.

But whether it's an audience of two or 20, I'm not too concerned. Personally, I think having such a talk for seniors being organised at the library is, by itself, a step in the right direction. If the turnout is poor, we'll review the reasons why (like how we tend to review all new programmes conducted). Sometimes, the audience just isn't ready or there's no demand. We'll know only after we try.

I don't expect the participants to start their own blogs after attending this talk. It's really about sharing personal experiences and perspectives of using blogs, so that the participants can make their own informed decisions.

Blogging for Senior Citizens
Date/Time : 25 November 2006 , 3.00 pm to 4.30 pm
Venue : Queenstown Community Library - Programme Zone
Subject : Education & Learning (English)
Presenter : Mr Lam Chun See and Mr Ivan Chew
Admission : Free admission

Blogging has become tremendously popular among young people in Singapore in recent years. Unfortunately there is a misconception among the older folks that blogging is technically very difficult is thus is only suited for the young and internet-savvy. The main aim of this talk is to explain what is blogging and to share with you the fun of blogging. You will also see a demonstration of how easy it is to start and create a blog.

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