An interview with the founder of Friendly Training, Todd Kelsey.

Mini-Bio: Todd Kelsey is an internationally published author and educator who resides in Wheaton , Illinois . He is currently pursuing a PhD in Technical Communication at Illinois Institute of Technology, and is a Technical Writer and Global Learning Advocate at Hostway Corporation, a global internet hosting company.

Todd is the visionary behind Friendly Training, a new computer training business based in Wheaton, IL . The business is related to his PhD research at Illinois Institute of Technology.

Where did the idea for Friendly Training come from?

Friendly Training grew out of some of my experiences as an author and adjunct faculty member at College of DuPage , and in helping my parents to learn things about the computer. I see a need for short, comfortable workshops that can help people get their feet wet with topics that are interesting and important to them. I like the idea of helping to get people on their feet, and maybe encourage them to go on to take courses at places like Illinois Institute of Technology's Center for Professional Development (in Wheaton), or a place like College of DuPage. Some of the audience are beginners, and others are people who want a specific skill but don't have the time for a traditional course.

How does your job at Hostway fit in?

I'm constantly learning valuable lessons in my role at Hostway ( www.hostway.com ). It's a global internet hosting company that provides products and services that help people and businesses to have their own websites. At Hostway I'm responsible for helping people to learn how to use Hostway's products and services – a global audience, who want to learn how to make and maintain their own websites. There's been a natural synergy in my role at Hostway and the PhD research, where I'm focusing on figuring out ways to make messages available in different languages, to as wide an audience as possible. It's all connected – I bring lessons from my PhD research into my work at Hostway, and vise versa. Friendly Training is really just an extension of this, bringing things into a live classroom setting.

What is your role at Friendly Training?

In ways, I am more of the visionary behind the business than a CEO or President; I consistently seek to work with partners, and am seeking someone to actually be the president of the business and help it grow. I've been learning lessons about collaboration, and how much can be accomplished when you work with other people. I see my role as being the person who gets the curriculum written, to set the ship afloat as it were, and to help guide the ship.

How does Friendly Training relate to your PhD Research?

Part of the purpose of Friendly Training is to generate revenue for the PhD research, and ultimately to help support the development of free online learning. Eventually the same underlying curriculum that is offered through Friendly Training, will be offered in some form for free online.

For free? For real?

Yes, I am forming a separate non-profit organization, Change for the World (www.cftw.net), to serve as a charitable vehicle, and part of the revenue from Friendly Training will go to the non-profit. The idea is that I believe there should always be a website where you can go for good quality training, for free. Part of the purpose of the PhD research is to investigate how to make free online training “sustainable” – and I think that Friendly Training is a great way to do that.

Of course I'd like to find corporate sponsors, grant funding for the research, and solicit donations, etc. – it's just that I don't want to rely on that solely. In the PhD research, the dissertation I'm working on will result in a website where you can learn, among other things, how to use Windows XP, for free, in ten different languages. One of the synergies with Friendly Training is that lessons learned, in the classroom, by the instructor, will help to make the free training better. There's no reason that free training can't be of excellent quality.

Another thing I would like to mention is that I went to college with Todd Beamer, who helped to storm the cockpit on Flight 93 on 9/11. I didn't know him personally, but I knew of him, and I appreciated his character, and sacrifice. Part of what motivated me to pursue a PhD and work at a global company like Hostway is to consider how I could make the world a better place, in light of some of the events of recent years. I'm not claiming that computer training can save the world, but I do wholeheartedly believe that education and cultural exchange can help to make the world a better place. One of the underlying motivations for the free training in different languages, and Friendly Training, is to try and figure out ways to help bring computer literacy to a wider global audience, in a completely apolitical way, in languages from English to Arabic.

Where do you see Friendly Training going?

My hope is that the business will grow to include franchises; recently I read an article in Inc. magazine about the founder of the Curves fitness centers, and I would say the spirit of Friendly Training is somewhat similar – the ultimate mission is to help people. I want Friendly Training to give people confidence about using computers, in a friendly, non-intimidating environment, and apply some of the unique lessons I've learned as an educator, author and television guest. Part of the process of friendly training is to empower people to share their knowledge, and help their own friends to learn things. Sometimes I state half-jokingly that the mission of Friendly Training is to put itself out of business – the ideal situation is that whoever desires computer literacy, can obtain it.

For those who can afford it, I do believe that in-person classroom training can help them learn what they want to know, in an effective way. For those who can't afford it, I plan to offer free online training through the non profit organization. I also know that there are opportunities for delivering classroom training either for free or at a discounted rate, and that there are people out there who have limited resources but are hungry to get computer skills. I don't want to re-invent the wheel – I appreciate the efforts of community organizations and other entities that do things like this already – but I'm hoping that Friendly Training can contribute in some way. The most likely scenario is that part of what a Friendly Training franchise would do is to offer some free or discounted training.

I appreciated how Curves has a low overhead business model, which allowed them to start in many out of the way places, and I dream that Friendly Training could do something similar. The audience for Friendly Training is not the typical computer training audience – I'm talking about everyday people, who may or may not have significant computer skills. What Friendly Training offers is more of an “express” curriculum, and a unique style of learning.

What kinds of things can people learn?

I recommend that people who are interested take a look at the website, and really, if they don't see something there, to write in and let us know. It's all about meeting peoples' needs, not assuming that we already know everything. I've done research, and based on experience, I believe that computer security and digital media are high on peoples' lists – in regards to computer security, this is especially an area where I've had some mixed feelings about actually charging people to learn how to keep their computers safe. I think that computer security is an especially significant threat, and there are so many computers out there that are unprotected – but there are some straightforward things you can do to keep your computer safe.

So in a way it's kind of an experiment – for those who can afford it, I want to help them learn how to keep their computer safe, and I do think there's value in doing that in a hands-on setting, but at the same time, because I think it is such an important issue, I'm developing a separate website, esecuritynow.com – which will have free, simplified information on computer security issues. If I had a CEO or investors, they'd probably feel squeamish about me saying something like that – but the beauty of the current situation is I can do what I like, and I think that to really solve the computer security problem, information needs to be free. Billions are lost each year to viruses, operating system bugs and other issues that can really be easily prevented. I'd like nothing more than to get some people to come in and take a workshop and then share their knowledge with as many friends as possible!

I've been on international television before, and did some self-promotion – but if I could get on television again, locally, nationally, or whatever, I probably wouldn't even mention Friendly Training – I'd try to get them to let me talk about the simple steps you could take to help keep your computer safe, and refer them to the esecuritynow.com website.