A report by Headstar - run by SCIP's Chair Dan Jellinek - shows that the public sector is becoming increasingly concerned about the carbon footprint of its ICT operations.
Green Datacentres Vital to Reducing ICT Carbon Footprinttechnorati tags:scipmark, ict champion
Nominate your site now for the Brighton & Hove Web Awards 2007. Sponsored by local newspaper the Argus this unique event has been run by SCIP for the past seven years.
It is open to any site which is built in or is about Brighton & Hove. Winners are picked by various judges and voting by the general public, with the winners announced in front of 200 people at a ceremony in November.
Brighton and Hove Web Awards 2007
technorati tags:scipmark, brightonwebawards
I'm working as a member of the team at Brighton University on the Net.Weight project, which is looking at how ICT can help people manage their weight. It's funded by the Department of Health and led by Professor Flis Henwood, with colleagues from a across a range of disciplines.
Lots more details about what we're doing and how the project is going can be found on the rather lovely new site.
Had a good meeting with Dirk Slater from Tactical Tech which is now based in Brighton - and Bangalore.
Dirk is a former New Yorker now enjoying life in sunny Brighton. His background is in community activism, having helped build and run Circuit Rider projects in the US and in so-called transition countries - usually former communist countries - and especially through work with Open Society Institute. OSI is funded mainly through money from George Soros - who got very rich form currency deals on Black Monday back in the late 80s.
Having had the connection made via Simon Pavvitt, ex of LASA but now in Vancouver, we realised we had lots to talk about in terms of the combination of community activity, ICT development and social enterprise. This included the fact that I've previously worked on an OSI project in Veszprem, Hungary, with Dr Peter Day, one of SCIP's Directors.
INterestingly Tactical Tech is changing its work, and is now mainly focused on the use of information within activist networks, although it also has a strong background in Open Source and produces a great collection of Open Source software in the form of NGO in a box. I was interested to learn that their focus is moving towards what you can do with ICT, rather than how to keep it working, as this echoes some of SCIP's early sentiments.
It was great to meet someone so in tune with what SCIP is trying to achieve, and I'm sure there's lots more we can share and learn from each other.
The IT Volunteer Awards are designed to reward charities and volunteers working together to improve the way charities work with technology - with £250 Cash Awards to be won.
The Awards are open to any charities and voluntary and community organisations of all sizes who have worked or are working with an IT Volunteer. The charities stand to win a £250 cash award plus increased publicity which will go some way in raising the profile of your organisation.
Closing date for applications is 6th October 2007. Information on how to make a nomination can be found on the iT4C website:
http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/awards.jsp
Winners will be announced at an Awards event and reception to be held on the evening of the 29 November 2007 at the Information Technologists’ Company Hall, in London. You can attend for free and to book visit:
http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/bookingform.jsp
technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark
Not another Viagra spam message but a quiz on the rather elegant Performance Hubv website, which I found very useful.
Performance Hub | Learn more | Improving performance | Performance quiz
technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark
ICT Hub Unmet Needs Fund 2007
The ICT Hub Unmet Needs fund is now open for applications - to further deliver on the mission of the ICT Hub in “improving voluntary and community sector ICT infrastructure so that organisations are enabled to achieve their missions more efficiently and effectively through the better use of ICT”.
We are looking to fund ideas that are innovative, scalable, sustainable, realistic and can be used as examples of excellence and support the ICT needs of voluntary and community organisations now and leave a lasting impact for the future.
These projects should be able to demonstrate impact in a short space of time and could inform funders of potential areas for further funding or to encourage others in taking further and sustaining.
We will only be funding ICT ideas that are not covered by any of the existing ICT Hub core funded projects or commissions and we won't be able to provide support just to keep existing projects running.
The fund is £50,000 from which we would expect to fund 4 or 5 projects all of which must be completed by 31st March 2008.
You can submit applications to the fund now up to the closing date of 5pm on September 17th 2007.
Details of projects we have funded in the past, the application process and to download the application form can be found on our website at
http://www.icthub.org.uk
technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark, funding
Grant in the SCIP office has flicked through the Guide and says that most of it is 'not bad'. And he's read lots of books so he'd know.
I've been working on a new Guide for the ICT Hub since last September - and now it's finally been published. Here's the officical blurb about it:
"A Guide to Managing ICT in the Voluntary and Community Sector
This in-depth guide covers all aspects of managing information and communications technology. It contains over 100 pages of accessible information that is useful for anyone whatever your level of technical knowledge."
Available from the ICT Hub website: Publications: ICT Hub
A whole load of selected software built around particular tasks. This is a great way of trying Open Source - I especially like the How to Guides, that you can donwload as a pdf. All software is also available to download in a bundle.
technorati tags:ICT champion, scipmark, FOSS
This may be worth a look - don't know how much the paid for sessions cost though...
+++Techshare Expo 2007
- The biggest ever European exhibition on access to the information society by people with disabilities
- Free entry for all, pre-registration now open
- Runs 4-5 October 2007 at award-winning London venue
- Please promote to your public networks http://www.techshare-expo.com/
Techshare Expo 2007 is a new showcase for products and services helping people with disabilities participate fully in the information age.
From the internet to home computers, educational technologies, video games, digital TV and mobile phones - Techshare Expo 2007 will be a showcase for products, services, tips and techniques.
Entrance is absolutely free and open to all, and E-Access Bulletin readers are urged to pre-register today for this event. And if you are an organisation with communication channels to the public and people with disabilities who are your service users, please do promote the exhibition widely - everyone is welcome.
Pre-register today at:
http://www.techshare-expo.com/
PLEASE NOTE: this exhibition is running alongside the revamped, comprehensive Techshare conference, hosted by the RNIB for professionals in the field, which does have an admittance charge: for more information and a full speaker programme for the conference see www.techshare.org.uk
If you are attending the Techshare 2007 conference, there is no need to separately pre-register for the free 'Techshare Expo 2007' exhibition.
We're finalising details of categories and sponsors but you can already nominate your site for this year's Brighton & Hove Web Awards. These are organised by SCIP as a showcase for lcoal web sites, helping to raise awareness across the community of just what's on the web.
See www.brightonwebawards.co.uk for more details
Community-based ICT projects and contacts I've found so far, shown on a Google Map
Link to my Google Map
technorati tags:ICT Champion, scipmark, ICT South East
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