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Making the Net work for women
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From travelling abroad to learning how to operate a camera, Cybermom helps homemakers learn everything about the World Wide Web
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NET SAVVY Home makers explore new avenues on the Net PHOTO: P.V. SIVAKUMAR
At a recent episode of MasterMind India, Siddharth Basu's quiz show on the BBC, one of the questions posed was, "Which Indian worked for Hewlett-Packard for 20 years and now leads SupportSoft, a major U.S. software firm?" The answer: Radha R. Basu.
From our great grandmoms, who were scared even to raise the volume of the radio, and our moms who were content choosing their mixer-grinders, today's woman is buying her own Notepad, cellphone, MP3 player, plasma screen and more. The tech-savvy woman has arrived.
To suit the requirements of the evolving new-age woman, Reliance Infocomm has come out with a concept called Cybermom, to help even homemakers take that step ahead and explore the World Wide Web.
"Value-added experience is the key. The business services desk at our Web World will ensure this.
The basic objective of the concept is educational programmes aimed at the homemaker and help her become as computer savvy as her husband and children," says Bob Dexter, head of Reliance Web World.
To suit a woman
The course has been designed based on the individual requirements of a housewife. "It can either be two hours a day for five days or just 30 minutes a day — to introduce them to the world of information."
Whatever you want on the WWW, you name it and it is available. Accessing chat channels, e-mails, search engines... . "Some are keen on learning cooking, some want to explore shopping and others want to know more about baby care and the choice of education services available for their children.
The executives at the business desk will identify their choices of information, and will guide them to those websites," he adds.
Some housewives even wanted to learn about matchmaking services available on the Web.
When a `PC a home' is the norm in urban households, will Cybermom lure the urban woman?
"In fact, it is those who have a PC who want to go through the course to broaden their knowledge.
Some websites such as thomascook.com are heavy content and you need broadband connectivity to download faster, so joining the course becomes useful for them.
In some homes, women are scared to use the PC and they prefer to experiment it in a browsing centre," Dexter adds.
Though the largest target audience for Cybermom is homemakers, it is open to anyone in the age group of 15 to 60.
All you have to do is just walk in to any Reliance Web World, enrol yourself and complete the course at your pace.
There is also a supplementary tool Little Genius programme that goes with Cybermom to help kids learn subject-oriented topics on the Web and Windows and Office packages.
The Cybermom package costs Rs.500 for a 10-hour programme while Little Genius is priced at Rs. 750 for a 16-day course.
K. JESHI
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