We are all affected by computers in some way. Whether that's because we use a mobile phone, play computer games and spend time on the internet, or whether it's because we visit a doctor, go to the bank or vote in an election, technology has transformed our lives. As this technology becomes more and more pervasive, it’s important for people to have an understanding of how it works and to realise that these systems aren't powered by magic, but are built and designed by ordinary people. There is one ingredient needed to make all of these diverse things work the way they do - CODE!

Computer code is the set of instructions, or program, which tells a device what to do and how to behave. It requires an understanding of the underlying structure of a system, but all programming languages are built on similar concepts and ideas which give us the power to control the behaviour of a device. In many ways this is similar to spoken languages which may sound very different from each other, but all still have concepts such as nouns and verbs in common.

The really exciting thing about learning to code is that it isn’t very difficult. It does require a little bit of patience and some time put aside to learn what it's all about together with some direction and help on where to focus and what to practice. This is the idea behind the Isle of Man Code Club. Some of us already have coding skills, acquired either through work or play and are looking to share them with others and teach people who would like to learn, so that they can go on to create their own software and build new things.

The Isle of Man Code Club is a new organisation aimed at providing a focal point for people of all ages to develop coding skills, share their knowledge and experience and teach others how to leverage the technology that surrounds us. We will be meeting at least once a week and will be running classes and sessions on how to code, targeting different levels and capabilities.

We will be launching the Isle of Man Code Club on Saturday 8th March at The Forum in Douglas at 4:00pm, kindly hosted by the Manx Education Foundation. We would like to invite anyone who knows how to code or would like to learn how to code to our Launch Event, where we will be discussing the future of the Club, how we will run it and what membership to our Club looks like.

We would also like to announce that the following Saturday (March 15th), we will be starting an elementary coding class called 'Beginner Scratch'. This is aimed at 9-11 year olds, but we are happy to include anyone else who would like to learn and won't be restricting it on age. We do have restricted class sizes however, so please book early to avoid disappointment.

Further information about the Isle of Man Code Club and the classes we are running can be found at http://codeclub.im.