52 The Lawns, Home of Hackney Silver Surfers.

Screenshot of the ITV Player website, showing a close-up of the Hackney Silver Surfers website.

Hackney Silver Surfers who wish they had not missed ‘Internet - My Life’ (possibly featuring you) can relax. The program was shown on ‘Tonight’, Thursday 4 March — but is available on ITV Player until the beginning of April.

Here is the link to watch the episode online: http://www.itv.com/itvplayer/video/?Filter=125611 .

And here is the Tonight blurb to introduce it …

Jonathan Maitland investigates the importance of the Internet, and looks at what some of the 10 million Britons who have never been online might be missing.

Rio Cinema logo.

A message from Jemma Buckley, Rio Cinema …

Agewell in Hackney logo.

Agewell Computer Club, 1 March, 2.30 - 5 pm.

At this workshop we will look at some of the things you might want to do after you have taken your digital photographs. This will not be a workshop about how to use your camera, or about photographic techniques.

Here are some questions we anticipate …

• How to transfer digital photographs from a camera to a computer hard disk or to a flash drive.
• How to see what the photographs look like.
• How to manage and organise thousands of digital photographs.
• How to backup and preserve important photographs.
• How to convert photographs to a format and size suitable for email and web sites.

Cartoon frog points a camera at you.

Please bring your own questions to the workshop.

ACC members can reserve places on these workshops by sending an email to acc@lawns.org.uk (if you don’t trust your own email skills, please ask for help).

Note added 23 February: this workshop seems to be almost fully booked — perhaps one or two places available.

Other Agewell workshops.

There is more information about future workshops on our Agewell Computer Club workshops page.

See our main Agewell Computer Club page for more information about our Monday afternoon activities.

Agewell in Hackney logo.

Agewell Computer Club, 8 February, 2.30 - 5 pm.

At this workshop, we will show you how to use Irfanview — the default image editor and viewer at the Agewell Computer Club (that means it is on all our computers, and easy to find if you are logged in as ‘agewell’).

About Irfanview …

• It’s free (for personal and educational use), highly-regarded, has been around for years, and has a large user base.
• It’s used for viewing digital images, and performing basic image editing tasks such as cropping, rotating and resizing — all of which it does very well.
• You can download it and install it on your own computer at home.
• There is a ‘portable’ version which you can put on your flash drive.
• It has a simple interface to scanners — you can scan directly into Irfanview.

Screenshot of a photograph displayed in Irfanview.

Things we would like to do.

• Help you understand digital image file formats.
• Show you how to use Irfanview on our computers at The Lawns.
• Show you how to download Irfanview from irfanview.com, and install it yourself.
• Help you install Irfanview on a flash drive (don’t forget to bring a flash drive if you want to do this).
• Show you how to scan new images from our scanners directly into Irfanview.
• Show you how to process photographs to make them suitable for email and World Wide Web sites such as Facebook and Internet dating sites.
• Demonstrate Picasa — a free Google program for organising and editing images, and a good choice for anyone who has a lot of digital photographs to manage.

Things we might not do.

• Discuss email attachments — that it is one of the topics of the 15 February workshop.
• Discuss how to transfer digital photographs from your camera to a computer or other storage media — that it is one of the topics of the 1 March workshop.

Virtual Revolution (BBC).

The Virtual Revolution is a BBC TV series about how the World Wide Web is reshaping our lives.

Rio Cinema logo.

A message from Jemma Buckley, Rio Cinema …

East London Dance logo.

A message from Emma Kerr, East London Dance …

Documentary Filmmakers Group logo.

Make your own short documentary film.

When you look at old photos from a hundred years ago, do you want to know more? Why are they dressed like that? What were they doing before the picture was taken?

‘What’s Your Story’ is a way for older people to pass on their stories. Professional filmmakers will teach you how to use a video camera and make a short film about your story or someone else’s. The course will take place January to March 2010.

DFG (The Documentary Filmmakers Group), the leading training provider for professional documentary filmmakers in the UK, with support from the Transformation Fund is partnering with Age Concern Hackney to offer training on this special pilot project. Similar DFG courses cost £1000.

Sessions will run for four hours a week on a Monday morning in Dalston. Fifteen participants will be chosen to learn filmmaking skills and to produce a video art work.

To find out more about how to apply, come and meet us at:

• Made In Hackney,
  Screening of New Short Documentary Films.
• Saturday 28 November, 1 - 3.30 pm.
• Hackney Museum (Ground Floor),
  1 Reading Lane,
  E8 1GQ .
• Light refreshments will be served.

This is the first public screening of the best of DFG graduates’ short documentary films about Dalston people including:

• Anthony - Street Cleaner and Philosopher.
• The Grave Digger’s Story.
• And several films about Ridley Road market stall holders.

To find out more details about this event and book your place, please email amber@dfgdocs.com , or phone Amber on 020 7249 6600.

Snapboard animation clip art.

This event will start Tuesday afternoon, 2.30 pm, meeting at The Lawns.

Have you ever wondered how to use the video functions on your mobile phone or digital camera?

This will be a really good way to learn how — artist Larisa Blazic and Emma Jones from Hackney Co-operative Developments will lead the group around the most interesting places nearby — and help you make short (typically 1 to 2 minutes) videos of what you see.

After the walk, your videos can be added to Larisa’s unique project that records and documents the ways in which people see the world around them. Larisa has been working with local community groups to capture images of Dalston and share them through a new website that acts as a collaborative, living archive curated by local residents like yourself. Later this year the videos will be displayed on a huge screen in Gillett Square.

Back at The Lawns, we will show you how to transfer your videos to a computer, and then upload them to a website.

You don’t need to book for this event — just come to The Lawns on Tuesday a little before 2.30 pm — and please remember to bring your phone or camera.

Rio Cinema logo.

The Rio, Hackney’s last remaining cinema, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an ambitious new community project that will make archive film more accessible to local audiences.

As part of the project, the Rio is especially interested in any home movies local residents may have hidden away. These films are a rich source of memories, and key to unlocking and accessing our pasts.

Towards the end of the year the Rio will be hosting a special ‘Home Movie’ screening day, where residents will have the opportunity to bring along their film reels and view them on screen. Furthermore, the Rio is able to digitise this material — so it can be played and enjoyed again and again at home on DVD.

If you have any old film footage at home, or would just like to know more about the project, please contact Jemma at the Rio …

• Email: jemma@riocinema.org.uk .
• Phone: 020 7241 9419 .

Rio website: http://www.riocinema.ision.co.uk/ .

Impossible Pictures logo.

A message from Kim Lask, Impossible Pictures …

Photo of the wall of a half-demolished building, seen through a wire fence.

Do you want to be part of an art project that documents Dalston during this period of change?

Join artist Larisa Blazic and add your view to Mezzo Moderno, Mezzo Distrutto (Half Modern, Half Destroyed), a unique project that uses mobile and digital technologies to record and document the ways in which people view and interpret their built environment. Larisa has been working with local community groups to capture images of Dalston and share them through a new website that acts as a collaborative, living archive curated by local residents. Larisa invites you to take part in this project and, as she looks at the area, share your thoughts and ideas with some of the residents of Dalston. Bring your camera or mobile phone to capture your views and record of the area, then upload your work to the project’s website and see it evolve into a unique portrait of a diverse and characterful area.

Project Events on Wednesday 5th August.

Walk with us.

Larisa will be leading two walks around the area on Wednesday 5th August starting at 2.30 pm and 4.00 pm.

Meeting place for both walks is The Ochre Works Café, Gillett Square, N16 8JN (underneath the Vortex Jazz Club). Bring your camera or mobile phone.

N16 8JN Googlemap / N16 8JN Streetmap.

Talk with us.

Larisa and software programmer Startx will be presenting and explaining the project, the website and the software behind it at a special presentation at Studio 5,  Arcola Theatre, Arcola Road, E8 2DJ, at 6.00 pm.

For further information please contact Emma Jones, Arts & Events Development Manager for Gillett Squared (phone: 020 7993 3644, email: emmajones@hced.co.uk).

Screen shot of YouTube website.

YouTube.

YouTube is a ‘video sharing’ website — a place where anyone can place short videos that they have made themselves, to be watched by anyone else. It started in 2005, and is now huge (more than 6 billion videos viewed in January 2009). The best way to find something that might interest you is to use the site Search engine (at the top of each YouTube page).

URL: http://www.youtube.com/ .

We found some ‘silver surfer’ videos, and have embedded them on our own pages for you to watch …

• Silver Surfers.
• Silver Surfers’ Day 2009.

Screenshot of a photograph displayed in Irfanview.

Irfanview, images and email attachments – Monday 6 July, 10.30 am - 1.00 pm.

Irfanview is a highly-regarded free program for viewing digital images, and performing basic image editing tasks such as cropping, rotating and resizing. It is the default image editor for the Monday afternoon Agewell Computer Club. Email attachments seem to be a perennial source of frustration. At this workshop we will try to get you started as an Irfanview user, and help you understand how to handle images — including preparing them for email.

Things we might do:

• Show you how to use Irfanview on our computers at The Lawns.
• Show you how to download Irfanview from irfanview.com, and install it yourself.
• Help you install Irfanview on a flash drive (don’t forget to bring a flash drive if you want to do this).
• Show you how to scan new images from our scanners directly into Irfanview.
• Show you how to process digital camera photographs to make them suitable for email and World Wide Web sites such as Facebook and Internet dating sites.
• Help you attach images (and other files) to your email.

By the way:

• Monday mornings are for special workshops and events only — there is no general drop-in.
• The Lawns will close at 1 pm, and re-open later for the Agewell Computer Club.

Digital camera clip art.

At the next Agewell Computer Club (Monday 15 June, 2 - 4.30 pm) we will have two workshops in one session.

a) How to upload files to a server.

Practical help in uploading files — for example, sending digital photographs, video clips, documents — from a computer, mobile phone or digital camera to the World Wide Web.

Why?

Because it is something we need to do often. It’s what we do when we attach a photo or a document to an email, if we want to upload photographs to photo-sharing sites like Flickr or TinyPic, or to Facebook, or one of the many Internet dating sites.

Uploading a file is a key World Wide Web skill — and it is really quite easy, yet many people believe it is something highly technical. In fact, we only need two items of information — the name of the file and where it is. If you know that, there is not much else to do. So at the workshop, we will try to crack this persistent problem.

Also, because it fits in precisely with the project we have started doing with Hackney Co-operative Developments. Participants in the project (‘Mezzo Moderno, Mezzo Distrutto’) will be uploading short video clips to a special website (code name: Dalston YouTube). We need to prove to them that the uploading is easy. People not involved in the project will also learn something very useful. The second workshop (see below) will be help and advice on using the video capabality of you mobile phone or digital camera.

What to bring to the workshop.

Mainly yourself.

If you would like help with uploading directly from your mobile phone or digital camera, please bring it — and all the cables that came with it in the box. If you need help uploading from a flash drive or CD, bring those too.

But you don’t have to bring your own files to join the workshop. We have plenty of practice files for you to work with.

Where will we upload to?

We have set up a temporary file upload area on this web site — a place where you can upload any file, and then see for yourself that it has been uploaded. If you have digital photographs of your own, we can get you started with TinyPic (it looks simple, it’s free and you don’t have to register to use it).

Clapboard animation clip art.

b) How to use the video functions of your mobile phone or digital camera.

Most digital cameras, and possibly most mobile phones too, can make short video clips. It’s not difficult to make a short video like this — but very few people know how to do it properly.

If you would like help on making an interesting video with the very simple controls on your camera or phone, this workshop is for you.

Larisa Blazic and Emma Jones (from Hackney Co-operative Developments in Gillett Square) will be here to help us get started.

We hope participants will be inspired to join in Larisa’s ‘Mezzo Moderno, Mezzo Distrutto’ project — recording this area as we see it.