Life+Web is a blog about computers and the internet and how we can make friends with them.

The computer is a tool, and the internet is like a giant encyclopedia, a phone book, a shopping mall, a dictionary and a playground, a giant information network full of news, media, artwork, fiction, music, videos, movies and more. Most importantly, it’s full of people. Even the most adept of us, however, don’t know everything, and to a certain degree we are all afraid of technology.

The goal of this blog is to remove the fear. At the time of birth of this blog, the end of the year 2008, the world was experiencing a major economic crisis. Many were losing their jobs, many were having to “reinvent” themselves in mid-career, midlife, midstream. Many of us have been complacent about technology, feeling that we could leave it to the younger generations to take care of all the computer “stuff.”

The reality is that we cannot afford to ignore computers and the internet, nor should we. We all live in the 21st century and we should all have a basic understanding of and familiarity with the tools at our disposal. Mostly, we need to remember that computers and the internet serve us, and not the other way around.

On Life+Web you will find:

• Definitions of computer/internet terms;
• Written explanations, introductions and tutorials to programs and features of the web;
• Video tutorials on how to install and use computer and internet tools;
• Reviews of programs, social networking tools, instructional products, and so on;
• “Ask Eggbird” – a regular feature in which we will answer readers’ questions directly;
• Periodical free reports to download on a variety of instructional topics.

Who is Ilaria/Swimturtle?

I was born in Florence, Italy, and raised half in Florence and half in New York. I was educated in Florence, England and New York. I hold a Master’s degree in Architecture and Design (Florence) and another in Library and Information Science (New York). My professional life has always included a great deal of teaching.

Ilaria/Swimturtle

No matter what my job is supposed to be, somehow it always morphs into teaching other people how to do the job. I have always enjoyed empowering others with knowledge, sharing what I know how to do and enabling others to do the same things. Now I feel that it is valuable and important to help anyone who may have doubts about basic computer and internet knowledge, overcome these doubts and gain a certain level of comfort with these tools. We all need to use them and we should all feel comfortable doing it.