Had a great day teaching museum staff and volunteers in Henley on Tuesday. The course included how to brief a web deisgner, a review of everyone's existing site and lots of chat about how any museum can update, improve and make more of the web. Lots of people are already switched on to what it offers, including video podcasts and blogs, but there is always something for people to do to help generate visitors to their museum and share their collection with the world.
This video shows some of the participants talking about what they learned:
The work with Coldean Residents Association is going really well. I'm working with Libby Davy to help them build a new Wordpress-based community website, through a series of short early evening workshops in Coldean Library. We did two sessions in November and are now planning to return to deliver more. They are planning the launch of their site and going great guns in putting together a test site which will then morph into the real thing.
To see what they've achieved take a look at the test site at www.douglascoldean.wordpress.com and watch a video I've posted which features interviews with three of the four protagonists.
This is pretty impressive for a small team of three volunteers and a part-time community worker. A key factor in this success is that the three volunteers have a complementary set of skills and interests and fit neatly into the roles we have suggested are needed to manage the site:
editor - someone to help manage and develop the overall themes and content of the site. Having the editor of the local newsletter is a perfect fit for this.
webmaster/mistress - someone to take a lead in technical issues, learning how to configure and adapt Wordpress and other relevant tools. The progress to date is very much down to one person's willingness and capacity to take the basic lessons we have offered and start creating a new site.
contributors - the third volunteer is chair of the residents associations and sites on all sorts of housing-related committees across the city. So as well as local information and events we have a chance to help amplify his voice and create new channels for local people to communicate with him.
The Community Worker has been very important in ensuring that we have the right mix of people. She is the person who first approached SCIP, asking for advice about building a site and she remains a key point of contact as the website group starts to form, and will be involved for as long as she is funded to be there. She works for the Trust for Developing Communities, based in Brighton, and demonstrates how community development is a vital component in successful community projects.
Leaving aside the usability of Wordpress, the role of the Community Worker is a critical ingredient so far. It provides some continuity for us and additional resource for the community, to help get these sorts of ideas off the ground and running under their own steam. She also happens to be enthusiastic about what were doing, and is asking very useful questions and helping to make sure the group keeps thinking about practical issues and not just playing with websites.
And the trainers? What are we doing to earn our keep?
I think Libby and I sing from a very similar hymn sheet, albeit in a slightly different accent. Our experience has been gained in slightly different spheres - mine more community oriented, hers more business and academic - but we have a lot in common in terms of our previous working lives. We also share a very similar approach to helping people to work with new communications tools and have complementary skills in terms of practical, technical and stylistic issues.
I've just been talking to someone from a CVS about upgrading their database and along the way I was pointed at a very handy guide on the NAVCA website. Getting to know your local voluntary and community sector toolkit encourages a standardised and common approach to producing a local voluntary and community sector database and profiling the sector in local areas.
It's a useful overview that may give you a broader view of what is possible and what is going on in other parts of the country. The Appendices are also worth downloading, if only for Appendix Five which offers a list of places to look for further help if you need it. Anyone working in a Local Infrastructure Organistaion in the south east region is also welcome to contact me if they have any questions about databases, membership directories and related websites.
How do you choose new software? For many people for many years it's been pretty simple - go for whatever Microsoft does and get on with it. However some problems just can't be solved that easily, like buying a website or database, which are more about buying a service than a product. And the growth of open source has also shifted the goalposts, as has the rapid growth in online services, such as Google Docs or online meeting planners such as Doodle.ch. So is there a simple process everyone could can follow?
It very much depends on what you want, when you want it and who you're asking, but US-based IdealWare has suggested six simple steps for when you're in a hurry and have specific needs - "something that’s neither a big investment nor particularly strategic". It offers a very useful starting point, and I particularly like the fact that Step 2 suggests that you investigate whether your current software can do the job.
This is a really useful point, especially given the wealth of features in Microsoft Office. So as well as suggesting you check out their Six Steps I would add that it's always helpful to have reference books available, especially books such as Office 2003 Timesaving Techniques in the Dummies series. This goes beyond the basics and includes tips for Excel, Word and the rest of the Office suite and I use it at least once every month for fiddly things I don't do very often.
Of course for more advice on just about every topic I'd always recommend looking at LASA's ICT Knowledgebase, especially for larger projects such as websites and databases.
Hello, I'm Mark Walker. I work for SCIP, in Brighton, helping charities and communities to use ICT. I am currently ICT Champion for the south east of England
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