Digital Bazaar at Tate South Lambeth Library

On a late Saturday morning in January I found myself seated in the Tate South Lambeth Library dishing out pearls of wisdom about blogging to anyone rash enough to show a passing interest.

This was the first Digital Bazaar, a drop-in event for anyone wanting to find out more about almost any aspect of using a computer (or a smart phone) such as how to set up a Facebook page find cheap flights online, or even pick up their voice-mail messages.

My beat was blogging and I had three very interested pupils over the course of the morning.

Is it wrong for a Svengali to have favourites? Probably. So let's just say that my most responsive pupil was undoubtedly one Mr F Buff (a pseudoym I suspect) who ran home and set up his own blog within a matter of hours. Please visit Buff's Stuff and leave some comments telling him how good it is.

I had modelled my teaching method very closely on James Mason in The Seventh Veil, bringing my cane smashing down on Mr F Buff's fingers every time he did something wrong on the keyboard. Tough love I call it but the good news for anyone wanting to learn about blogging is that at the next Digital Bazaar (Saturday 19th February 2011 from 10am until midday) the man teaching you will be Rob from Another Nickel In The Machine who is almost certainly kinder on the knuckles than I. Will he get such outstanding results? We shall see, we shall see

Of course it's not just about blogging and other volunteers will be there to teach you how to use eBay, Skype, Powerpoint, spreadsheets and Photoshop, or how to search the Internet. There will also be a general surgery where you can ask about anything and someone will try to help.

There's no need to book. Just turn up.

You can find out more on the Digital Bazaar Blog and if you are interested in helping out in the future you can get in touch here - the hope is that this will become a monthly event. It's all very Big Society, but try not to think about that. Terrific fun.