June 16, 2005
Back to Basics - Internet training. The RIGHT way.
Posted by Jess in
End users pay a lot of money to have someone fix their computer of spyware and trojan viruses. Corporations spend millions on both internal and external IT support for the same reasons.
If users and companies spent the same money on *prevention* rather than damage control, it's a far better value, as well as helping restore the Internet to the original purpose it was intended for. I hate cliches with a passion, but give a man a fish... this is no different.
There's no doubt that this is a hot topic for ANY user, and the facts prove it. There were many courses offered in computers (intro to PCs, Surfing the Internet, Excel 101, etc.) for the spring semester in my town's Adult Community Education and Enrichment program.
Due to the spring, attendance was down, and most classes have been cancelled in all topics. In the computer classes alone, one remained with 8 people signed up... Combating Viruses, SPAM, Spyware and learning Internet Privacy. This was the class that I taught. These four ideas are all closely related.
The class was a great success, and all the users were shocked at the amount of information they revealed about themselves and others on a daily basis. Is your username "Jess0476"? I can guess you were born on April 1976. I now know your age. I also asked how many users had ever forwarded a message out to many people. A funny joke perhaps? Then I asked who had ever checked the very bottom of the email for a signature file of the original sender to delete first.
I have my curriculum all set up, I'd love to get into touring companies and sharing what I know. The class is 4 hours, but can be paced for longer. This was a two parter, each week for two hours. Even then, it seemed to me a lot of information for them all to take in.
I'm researching the technicalities of doing such a thing, and I've already done it for some of the smaller companies in Rhode Island. What would really be worthwhile is to know the facts cost-wise. Did the companies end up saving money on the number of infected and spyware-ridden PCs being reduced?
It's also easy to see how prevention topics like SPAM, viruses and spyware/adware must be brought to the workplace. Based on my experience, a single computer infected with a simple trojan and spyware (CoolWebSearch anyone?) can take up to an hour and a half alone to completely eliminate all problems. Wouldn't it be worth the money to educate the user so it doesn't happen at all? Teaching users red flags and warning signs is a great tool for them. A timely example: The recent Michael Jackson 'suicide' email virus came to user's inbox disuised as a news story. If a user takes a few conscious moments to think about it, isn't it a little strange that they are getting a random news story via email? Who sent it? And why would they all of a start sending me news? Could be sketchy! Critical evaluations are a must.
It may be a little more of a challege to train corporate users. Residential users vs. corporate users is like home-renters vs. home owners, there is no incentive to take care of it if you are a renter. It doesn't cost them to get their work computer fixed, and they don't have to do it themselves. In fact, they get a break from work when their computer is down!
From a marketing perspective, if any company is considering this training, I'd make a point of noting to them that the information is transferrable to their home computers. Interest will pique. :-)
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Not quite the same as renters versus owners -- insurance will pay for the renter's lost possessions in case of fire, while corporate "renters" have to redo that whole report they've been working on all month -- and when the "landlord" fiinds out that they can virtually eliminate data-recovery costs, they'll likely let the users redo those reports on their own time. Not that you need another selling point, but if you wanna use it....
True! Details, details. :-)
