I got tipped off recently that there’s a resource for New Yorkers of a certain age. It’s called Senior Planet. Yesterday I attended my first workshop there (at no cost) to improve my navigation on youtube. Like most of you, I’m a veteran user. But, like any platform available on the web, I knew I was exploring only a fraction of its capability.

The room was packed. Our lecturer, Roberto Enamorado, managed the group well asking that we hold questions until the end. It’s been my experience, in tech classes particularly, that once you open it up to audience participation, it’s hard to regain control. The rabbit hole is too deep and circuitous to get back out. But Roberto is gifted in dealing with this population and herded well.

Here’s what I want to share with you:

• I mentioned in a recent post that over 2 billion hours of audio files are downloaded a year. Roberto informed us that 1 billion hours of youtube video is watched PER DAY!
• He introduced us to a youtube channel call howcast.com, which as its name implies, is all about how-to’s.
• He reminded me that any sports highlights I wanted to watch, youtube captures. I immediately went to the Serena Williams footage. I’d read about it, but wanted to see for myself how one of my heroes behaved.

I’ll be back for more classes there. It was fun, informative and punctual. Did I mention free?!