Local Community Outreach

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

My first community presentation will be around the first week of February.

Due to scheduling and room availability, the presentation is now set for March 10, 2010. Initial presentation at 12 noon, with the encore at 7PM. w00t!

[Melesse]

Re: Local Community Outreach

valkyrie,

That's just a wee little pipe dream in the back of my head, I'm happy to be starting small right this moment. My area is too rural and small for anything of size.

Mel

[valkyrie]

Re: Local Community Outreach

My first community presentation will be around the first week of February. I pitched the idea to the local Business and Professional Association (i.e. "chamber of commerce") for co-sponsorship, and they loved it. Of course, the fact that I'm a member of the board probably didn't hurt. My business and the association will be the co-sponsors. The presentation will be geared toward the small business owner in the area, but home computer users will be welcome, too. One of the local banks has even offered to hand out fliers to all their SMB customers.

The presentation will be in a meeting room at the local town offices, and the town is waiving the use fee, since this will be open to the public. It looks like we'll do two sessions on one day; one at around lunchtime, and the other in the evening.

I'm still working on the details of the slide show, so if anyone has any further suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Thorn --

Absolutely delicious! I wish you much success on your presentation and may you be asked back for more. I know you to be a thoughtful and relevant speaker.

You asked for ideas or further suggestions so here we go:

I have been giving community presentations regarding personal information/internet security to local groups for close on to five years now. The public library system here is awesome and when it was pitched to them they fell in love with it (APLS provides free internet access at many locations for job seekers, etc.) I tiered my presos - basic, intermediate, advanced. I have tested several student level presos (elementary, mid-school, high-school) in the past 18 months.

My best suggestion to anyone embarking on an endeavor of this nature is not to get caught up in the weeds. Present the basics and give plenty of room for questions, as you mentioned you will do. Oh, and don't do what I did the first year (and the second year, and part of the third...) and attempt to "be all things to all peoples." Mr. Google and the library are your student's friends. :-)

Melesse: for the training you envision, sounds like you are talking about a hacker space or JC that will allow you to use their lab and that will probably take some negotiation on your part. I don't know what to suggest to you regarding that. You seem creative, so you will figure it out. :-) Start out slowly and grow it.

Regards,

Valkyrie
_____________________________________
sapere aude

[Melesse]

Re: Local Community Outreach

Right after I decided to start this, I got sent on a work trip to Colorado Springs, and another to Tennessee. *sigh* I'll be home for three weeks though over xmas, so I'm hoping to get mine done over that time. I'd love to compare notes though, when I'm finished.

I would love to do a more hands on approach like that, but resources, resources. Want to bring that whole thing over to the East Coast and let us get our hands on it?

And man, Shmoocon one month, PAX East the next, NotACon the next (I'm going this year, I bailed at the last minute last year due to financial issues), gonna be a busy spring!

Mel

[Club81]

Re: Local Community Outreach

Very cool. We do something very similar for area high school students. We have a "mobile lab" with netbooks, switches, FTP server, Wireshark, and some other goodies that we take into willing high school classrooms to talk about general computing security. We use it as a way to recruit interested students into our degree program, but everybody gets a dose of security best practices out of the deal.

Let us know how it goes!

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

Busy week, Shmoo is that week too. (hope you didn't forget about that)

Nope, I didn't forget. It may be the night before I leave. Depending on which meeting room is available and my schedule it might be the week after, too.

[streaker69]

Re: Local Community Outreach

My first community presentation will be around the first week of February. I pitched the idea to the local Business and Professional Association (i.e. "chamber of commerce") for co-sponsorship, and they loved it. Of course, the fact that I'm a member of the board probably didn't hurt. My business and the association will be the co-sponsors. The presentation will be geared toward the small business owner in the area, but home computer users will be welcome, too. One of the local banks has even offered to hand out fliers to all their SMB customers.

The presentation will be in a meeting room at the local town offices, and the town is waiving the use fee, since this will be open to the public. It looks like we'll do two sessions on one day; one at around lunchtime, and the other in the evening.

I'm still working on the details of the slide show, so if anyone has any further suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Busy week, Shmoo is that week too. (hope you didn't forget about that)

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

My first community presentation will be around the first week of February. I pitched the idea to the local Business and Professional Association (i.e. "chamber of commerce") for co-sponsorship, and they loved it. Of course, the fact that I'm a member of the board probably didn't hurt. My business and the association will be the co-sponsors. The presentation will be geared toward the small business owner in the area, but home computer users will be welcome, too. One of the local banks has even offered to hand out fliers to all their SMB customers.

The presentation will be in a meeting room at the local town offices, and the town is waiving the use fee, since this will be open to the public. It looks like we'll do two sessions on one day; one at around lunchtime, and the other in the evening.

I'm still working on the details of the slide show, so if anyone has any further suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

[sintax_error]

Re: Local Community Outreach

I've approached the organizers of a local "computer expo" that rolls into town every so often on doing something along those lines. Turns out they have someone do it already, the guy is as monotone as you can get and really seems to think that Norton is the only thing you need. I've come to the conclusion that telling average Joe User otherwise is a somewhat futile attempt, they just don't want to hear it.

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

Thanks Thorn. Looks like exactly the same thing I'm trying to do, but with a different slant. It's in a lot more detail (and thus correspondingly longer) at 55 slides. I'd say that probably ends up an hour and a half or so long, assuming questions (and there are always questions). Still, there are a couple of things that I didn't think of. For example, kids on the internet. That would definitely be worth at least a slide.

I am now sorely torn. I had wanted to keep it down to 45 minutes for the reasons of attention span and scheduling (easier to fit into a busy night, therefore more people likely to come), but now I want to include more detail and lengthen it. Nah, my original reasons were good I think. I almost think there is too much detail in there for one single presentation. It's good detail, and I like the examples used. But I'm thinking back to the glazed eyes of students in class, and fighting off my own boredom in 85 minute classes back in college. It's hard to stay focused for that long.

I don't see how it would be possible (in terms of equipment), but if I wanted to do a presentation of that length and detail, I would prefer to do it in a computer lab, starting with stock images of a windows install, and then install firewalls, av, etc with everyone at the same time so as to give them a little experience with it. I can't imagine anyone locally allowing a bunch of strangers that much access to their systems or willing to donate the time to reset a bunch of computers, then make them useful to themselves again.

Mel

You're welcome. I was thinking that the general content was applicable to what we'd been discussing here, and possibly adaptable to different "local" audiences such as small businesses, general home users, and families with children.

You're right about the length. I always shoot for 45-50 minute sessions tops, no matter what the subject. Even if it's multiple hours long, you must break it up or the audience will either become catatonic or they'll revolt.

[Melesse]

Re: Local Community Outreach

Thanks Thorn. Looks like exactly the same thing I'm trying to do, but with a different slant. It's in a lot more detail (and thus correspondingly longer) at 55 slides. I'd say that probably ends up an hour and a half or so long, assuming questions (and there are always questions). Still, there are a couple of things that I didn't think of. For example, kids on the internet. That would definitely be worth at least a slide.

I am now sorely torn. I had wanted to keep it down to 45 minutes for the reasons of attention span and scheduling (easier to fit into a busy night, therefore more people likely to come), but now I want to include more detail and lengthen it. Nah, my original reasons were good I think. I almost think there is too much detail in there for one single presentation. It's good detail, and I like the examples used. But I'm thinking back to the glazed eyes of students in class, and fighting off my own boredom in 85 minute classes back in college. It's hard to stay focused for that long.

I don't see how it would be possible (in terms of equipment), but if I wanted to do a presentation of that length and detail, I would prefer to do it in a computer lab, starting with stock images of a windows install, and then install firewalls, av, etc with everyone at the same time so as to give them a little experience with it. I can't imagine anyone locally allowing a bunch of strangers that much access to their systems or willing to donate the time to reset a bunch of computers, then make them useful to themselves again.

Mel

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

The Vermont Infragard Chapter did a project they called "VT INFOSAFE: 'Information Security Awareness for Everyone'" in 2004 and 2005. While some of the info is a bit outdated, the presentations may be of interest to people involved in this thread.

http://www.vtinfragard.org/vtinfosaf...entations.html

[AgentDarkApple]

Re: Local Community Outreach

I really like your idea. Maybe it will catch on and you will be asked to continue it at several locations. I wouldn't mind doing a presentation like that at the local library as well.

[streaker69]

Re: Local Community Outreach

I too have considered it from time to time, now I just don't have the time.

[Thorn]

Re: Local Community Outreach

I, for one, would be interested in seeing and hearing how this goes. I've toyed with the idea of doing something similar for the local community.