I’ve been thinking about ‘making technology mainstream’ for a while now, ever since reading the Publishing 2.0 article, Yahoo Tech Is Tech For the Rest of Us.

From my experiences working in a government organisation and for a non-profit organisation, I know that many (if not most) people find working with technology a battle, never knowing when it will suddenly crash or fail in some other way. The most common frustration seems to be with technology not doing what we’re telling it to do (we think) - it seems to have a mind of its own.

To this end, today I launched Bright Resources: free Guide to Technology for Technophobes.

Of course, the field of technology is a vast one and it would be impossible to cover everything, so I’m sticking to select areas, chosen on the basis that a) understanding them would be very valuable to people generally, b) I’m passionate about researching these areas, and c) I feel I can write about them in a straightforward way.

The first part of the guide is Blogging with WordPress for ABSOLUTE Beginners, which I feel qualified to write about having installed it five times, added a vast variety of different customisations (known as ‘plugins’ and ‘themes’ - explanations coming) and both created my own design for WordPress from scratch (new site due for release by 1 September 2006) and tweaked numerous designs (e.g. for this site).

I welcome all questions & suggestions, from geeks and non-geeks. No question is silly or too simplistic: If something is unclear to you that shows I’m at fault - please help me to help you by letting me know.