FreeGeek Chicago is excited to announce our first educational program, Web Basics. The program begins next Tuesday, June 22^nd, from 6:30-8:30pm at FreeGeek Chicago (3411 W. Diversey, basement). The program is free, and open to people of all skill levels. The program will meet no less than twice a month, and the program will run until late summer or early fall – the group will set the schedule in the first few sessions.

The Web Basics program is a seminar and collaborative exercise built around the question “what makes a website happen?”  Attendees will study the essentials of website design and function, and get their hands dirty by helping build the next generation of FreeGeek Chicago's web-based tools.

Participants will learn a vocabulary and critical thinking skills for dealing with the web. We will discuss fundamental concepts of web publishing and the Internet – basic networking, browsers, markup languages, servers, databases, and content management systems. Participants will use Drupal and Wordpress to build websites and publish online. As always, we will emphasize practical, real-world technologies, tools, techniques, and strategies for building effective web sites, and explore some of the political, social, and economic consequences of the web.

The program will be facilitated by FreeGeek staff member David Eads. Food and drink will be provided.