scipmark

Charlie gets a message from Santa

2011-12-17T18:37:00.003Z

Play it full screen if you can

The web is a machine. The machine is us.

2010-01-10T16:11:00.006Z

I just watched a fab film about the web via Euan Semple, a blogger I've met once and followed since and who is an example of the sort of person I didn't know existed before the dawn of the web and couldn't have remained connected to until web 2.0 and social media came along.
In terms of credentials one of Euan's testimonials is from a authors of Cluetrain Manifesto, which is a seminal book about the way the web is changing the rules for business, marketing and just about everything else. You may find the film a bit techie but I hope you watch it to the end because it's message is that the real power of the web is down to us, the human beings, not the machines.

Do I need a social media policy?

2009-11-15T09:58:00.004Z

You may be wondering how to strike the balance between giving your team the freedom to make the most of new social media whilst still retaining an appropriate degree of control. The potential benefits may be obvious but there are plenty of horror stories about dodgy posts on Facebook to give pause for thought. The newly published Online Database of Social Media Policies is a great way to learn from other organisations that are grappling with this dilemma.

Some larger organisations are still in lock-down mode, denying even the most senior staff access to Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. At the other extreme are small consultancies where the people blogging ARE the business. it's natural for them to be presenting a public face and it's 100% authentic so it doesn't need any rules.

Somewhere in between is the sort of organisation that needs a set of guidelines, both to encourage staff to get the most from social media and to clearly identify the expectations when they're using it.

The social media governance database lets you see how other organisations manage this balance. As well as practical examples to help your own thinking it also provides a glimpse of different cultures at work. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, for example, reminds staff that their sources are not their friends...

The BBC has an online document running to several pages, including guidance for bloggers which explains that if they are is contacted by the press about posts on their blog that relate to the BBC they should "talk to their line manager before responding. The relevant BBC press office must be consulted."

I guess it would be odd for a media organisation to be anti-blogging, so this seems to be pragmatic, but also demonstrates that the organisation controls the message, not the individual.

Contrast this with the one pager from the Headset Brothers, online retailers of electronic goods whose guidelines apply to a small number of people and are brief and to the point.

It opens with: "Sign up for any and every social media service to reserve our name (headsetbros). Identity theft is easy. Don't let it happen to us." And a few lines later it closes with "Word of mouth is extremely important to us. If you can make the experience better than expected, do it." It would be hard for an employee to claim they didn't understand what they were expected to do.

Somewhere in the mix may be something to suit your organisation. There is little to distinguish commerical and not for profit organisations but maybe they're the same size as you, or have a similar culture.

I haven't looked at them all but as a starting point I'd check out Sun Microsystems Guidelines on Public Discourse I like the fact that it is less about the specific sites and more about the potential value of maintaining conversations with people outside the organisation - although maybe change the name?.

There is a lot to be won and lost as social media networks become key channels of communications for you and your customers. These policies show the different ways that organistaions are trying to harness the good stuff and avoid the bad stuff.

Online Database of Social Media Policies.

Age Concern using Wii for their digital inclusion project

2009-10-06T21:29:00.002Z

Just found a great video produced by Sussex students about how Age Concern Brighton, Hove and Portslade is using bowls games on a Nintendo Wii to bring together older people. We awarded the SCIP Technology for Good 2008 prize for this work - it's fab and so's the video.

That's Not Cool. Except it is.

2009-09-21T23:25:00.003Z

Just came across thatsnotcool.com - a great new personal online safety campaign site - or at least I think that's what it is. Lots of helpful advice about cyberstalking apparently aimed at young people and including callout cards to flash at people who get too personal.

Grant funding for media projects with young people

2009-08-21T08:49:00.001Z

MIX MEDIABOX OPENS FOR APPLICATIONS

Mediabox, the fund that offers 13-19 year olds the chance to create their own media projects and get their voices heard, opened its Mix Mediabox on August 10th. More details at http://tr.im/wOrB

">Mix Mediabox enables organisations working within the community to apply for grants of between £5,000 - £20,000 for youth-led media projects that explore the theme of community cohesion.

The strand is particularly looking for organisations that bring young people from diverse ethnic, economic backgrounds, faiths or areas together to work on a media project, providing young people with the opportunity to explore issues around identity, diversity, sense of belonging in their community and in doing so tell their own stories and experiences in a creative way.

Mix Mediabox is run in partnership by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG) to help achieve the Government’s vision for cohesive and integrated communities

The strand opens for applications on Monday 10th August 2009. The grant team at Mediabox will be on hand to offer application support and advice on how to find media professionals to facilitate projects.

More details at http://tr.im/wOrB

Don't recycle your computer

2009-07-10T08:23:00.002Z

A charity that recycles computers is using Twitter to remind people that it is better to re-use their computers before recycling them, as part of its support for Green Britain Day. Computer Aid International is urging companies to consider the re-use of their old PCs and laptops as part of their green initiatives.

Re-using old PCs is significantly better for the environment than recycling them, said Tony Roberts, Computer Aid founder and chief executive. The charity professionally refurbishes PCs and laptops for re-use in schools, hospitals and community organisations in the developing world.

"Green Britain Day will provide the ideal opportunity for companies to consider the environmental impact in conjunction with other green and corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Research has shown it is 20 times better for the environment to re-use a PC rather then recycle it, as 75 percent of the fossil fuels used over its entire lifecycle have already been consumed before the computer is even switched on for the very first time,” he explained.

Full story is on the eWeek website

Follow Computer Aid on Twitter here: twitter.com/computeraid

Is the internet good for you?

2009-07-06T22:06:00.002Z

Just came across a short but sweet video by Howard Rheingold, an American academic and author who has had his finger on the internet's pulse for a long time and has some interesting answers about whether or not we should be teaching about, or learning about social media. By which he means the new web stuff like Facebook and Myspace.

The two word answer is 'it depends' - on who learns how to use them and what they choose to do with what they learn. The slightly longer answer in his video suggests to me that whilst the technology can be used as a positive tool for change we can't rely on the people who adopt technologies quickest to know how best to put it to that use. For Rheingold that points to 'teachers' or educators. For me it is about supporting community organisations who have built trust in the communities they are part of and who therefore understand their needs.

Free SCIP Manuals for Web Design

2009-06-30T12:45:00.001Z

We have three sets of web design workshops running at the moment, teaching people how to set up and run a website using Wordpress.com. The notes for this course are available for free download from a site we've created to support this training.

Wordpress.com is fairly easy to use and it has some great support pages, but we recommend the Dummies Guide for those who want to buy a book - mainly because this includes info on wordpress.com as well as running your own version of wordpress.

We have also published some of our own notes to help our learners, including:

Wordpress tips and how-to's - mainly for those things where we found the Dummies Guide less helpful;
A Guide to Running Your Own Community Website - tips about setting up your page, whether or not you use Wordpress.com, plus roles and responsibilites, launching your site and so on.

Both are available for download at scipdiy.wordpress.com.

What does the future look like?

2009-06-05T13:51:00.001Z

NCVO has published a series of short guides on a number of topics about what the future will look like for the third sector, including one about how we will use new technologies in five years’ time. It considers a number of drivers for change and how they will affect us, such as access to low cost high quality printing, new ways to engage with people and the ability to work flexibly. I thought it was very useful - it's not a technical review but looks at the implications of how technology will change the work of the third sector.

Here’s the contents:

Driver 1: A wealth of information and choice
Driver 2: Increasing ease of making new connections
Driver 3: New ways to engage people
Driver 4: Lower barriers to publishing and broadcasting
Driver 5: Ability to work flexibly
Taking action: A case study
How considering these issues can result in practical actions
Further information and support
Helpful links for finding out more

There is also a similar Guide covering:
    * Future Focus 1: What will our funding be like in five years’ time?
    * Future Focus 2: What will our volunteers be like in five years’ time?
    * Future Focus 4: How is local democracy changing?
    * Future Focus 5: How are social attitudes changing?
    * Future Focus 6: What will the UK population be like in 5 years’ time?

They cost £2.50 each or free to download here:
www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/publications/publication.asp?id=7296

Free Event: Microsoft Training Resources

2009-06-04T07:36:00.001Z

There are lots of free training resources available through the
Microsoft site, as there are across the internet. Many can help staff
and volunteers support themselves when using common tools, but which
ones work best? Techsoup, based in the US, is running a free online
training event/webinar (what an ugly word) at which Microsoft staff
will guide you through what is available. It will take place at 7pm GMT
on Wednesday 10 June – register at the Techsoup site.

Taking things for granted

2009-05-28T09:19:00.002Z

Do you find yourself forgetting how incredible this internet thing is? Caught up in the humdrum, always looking things up for work, ordering groceries or failing to keep your email in order? And then sometimes you find yourself transported into a different world, that would have been closed to you before, learning new things and seeing the world in a different way.

I've just spent 20 minutes on Flickr.com, enjoying the work of a photographer from the west coast of USA called Patrick Smith. His photos are beautiful to look at - west coast sunrises, beaches of Hawaii, fog over the Golden Gate. I was engrossed by the descriptions of how he takes his shots and realised how long it's been since I took any serious photographs myself, since I used a camera with manual controls and sat patiently for the right combination of light. clouds and scenery.

Seeing his photos is a treat, but having an insight into his techniques a real privilege. Both are probably available in a coffee-table-book of his work, but those 20 minutes are much more accessible and the ability to stumble across such treasures underlines what makes the internet such a wonder.

Movements, tribes and leadership

2009-05-15T21:04:00.001Z

Seth Godin is very insightful and shines a light into the murky complications of life in the digital age sethgodin.typepad.com/ Download his audiobook here [free] http://www.squidoo.com/triiibes-downloads and look for other triiibe-related things to try as well - I recommend signing up for his regular emails [shame about the iffy name btw].

Oh if marketing is your thing, then this is cool too
http://www.marketingovercoffee.com/2008/10/23/seth-godin-on-tribes/

Teaching people's heads

2009-05-14T22:21:00.005Z

Just viewed a fab video about education, what it's for and how schools kill creativity on the wonderful TED site.

Found via Steve Bridger's excellent blog.

How is social media like ice cream

2009-05-14T21:42:00.005Z

‘Social Media’ is something of a buzzword at the moment. Everyone – from huge corporations to governments to community groups – are switching onto the idea that ’social media’ is happening, and that they need to get in on the act. But what is it? And what does it have to do with ice cream?

The editor of MyManchester, a community-based publishing network that’s been around since we started SCIP back in 1997, has provided an answer in plain English that offers a valuable guided tour to the world of blogs, new media, and why people are getting so excited about it. It includes this video that uses ice cream to explain why new technology may be changing the world.

Read the whole article here mymanchestereditor.wordpress.com/social-media-2/

How to run a newspaper

2009-05-13T20:07:00.003Z

Doing some research about how to set up and run a community newspaper - linked to the training I'm running about how to set up and run a community web site, developing the training I do about using Wordpress.com.

This is like most of the community newspaper meetings I've been to - except they usually have enough money to last two and a half minutes...

Remixing YouTube

2009-03-29T19:46:00.001Z

I love these remix videos - taking all sorts of stuff from YouTube and making great cutup/hip hoppy stuff. The music reminds me of Money Mark or UNKLE.

EVENT: Outcomes monitoring and IT: finding the best solution for your organisation

2009-03-27T10:11:00.001Z

M & E Consulting, preponderate.network and Charities Evaluation Services are pleased to announce the first-ever conference on ‘Outcomes monitoring and IT’ which will take place in London on 21st May 2009. The conference will help voluntary and community organisations to:

understand more about the processes involved in implementing an outcomes-based IT system spacer
gain an overview of the range of solutions available spacer
identify specific IT systems that will help you measure the outcomes of your work.

After a morning session of presentations and discussion, the afternoon session will provide an opportunity for delegates to meet one-to-one with IT-system providers and find out more about how different systems work and how they might help them to manage their outcomes data.

Costs vary form £85 to £175 depending on the size of the organisation.

For more information and a booking form visit the event's website:
Outcomes monitoring and IT: finding the best solution for your organisation

FREE ICT Conference from Microsoft and NCVO, 6 May 2009

2009-03-27T09:53:00.001Z

Tickets are available now for a free ICT event in London in May. Workshops will cover:
• E-learning tools
• Ensuring effective websites
• Delivering an e-campaign
• Technology supporting collaboration
• Managing your supporter base
• Accessible computing
• Innovation in service delivery
Book now on the NCVO website using the link below:
NCVO - Maximising potential through Information and Communications Technology

How long will Gmail be free?

2009-03-16T22:35:00.003Z

I've just totted up 30 pieces of software that I use at least weekly which have cost me absolutely nothing. In particular I have my Gmail account open just about every moment of the day, so the recent service problems hit me hard. It made me think about how much we can rely on free stuff, and how much I take for granted what I routinely get for nothing.

Although many of these tools may offer upgrades, add-ons or be linked to things I have paid for, I am using all of the following absolutely free of charge:

Blogger
Doodle.ch
Drupal
Evernote
Facebook
Feed My Inbox
Feedburner
Firefox
Flickr
Flash player
Flock
Gmail
Google custom search engine
Google groups
Google maps
Google search engine
icanhaz
Linkedin
Mediawiki
Quicktime player
Skype
TinyURL
Twitter
WikiPedia
Wordpress
Yahoo! Search Engine
Yahoogroups
Youtube

Most have a single function, but they get used at least monthly, whilst some are built into to other tools, such as Flash Player, so I hardly know I'm using it. And then there's Gmail and Flock (a Firefox-based browser) which is open just about every minute I'm online, which is close to 10 hours on a working day. And I'm sure many other people use a lot more.

Bear in mind that I didn't include my free Flickr because I also have a $25 Flickr Pro account, or 'other people's blogs', which save me money on magazines. Think of the time and effort invested in publishing useful information without any thought of charging for it. Or RSS, which is a vital part of my networked world - if it had been invented by Microsoft it could easily have needed a licence to be built into someone's website.

And I didn't count any BBC stuff, especially iPlayer and news, because I pay for a TV licence. There is also a lot of technical stuff that I can't see but that I know is important to SCIP's work, such as open source server tools which we use for hosting sites. Or my free iPhone apps, some of which I use regularly.

But how long will they be free?
I'd been thinking about free stuff not just because I wanted to point you at useful stuff [although I have only listed things I use regularly and would endorse] but because I was wondering whether the credit crunch presented a threat to my new way of working.

Do they rely on income from advertising to remain free? If so I can only see a downturn in advertising spend in 2009, and perhaps a corresponding decline in free services. Even the mighty Google's income remains firmly linked to turnover in online advertising, and is currently tightening its belt as the squeeze continues. Imagine paying for searches. And GMail is suffering some servcie problems which have underlined the problems in relying on a single provider for a vital service such as email.

Some of these tools are free because I can choose to pay for an upgrade. I'm typing this in the excellent Evernote, for example, which offers a generous free monthly limit - I can upload 20,000 text notes - but has cheap paid-for features which I may find useful in future. It's business plan probably relies on a small percentage of people paying for a service which it can offer for free to millions. Whilst this is based on the very low margins for each free customer there will be some fairly hefty bills coming in each month and it will need to begin seeing some income at the end of the tunnel if it doesn't want it's banks or backers breathing down its neck in the next few months.

And Evernote is a tool that's been round for a while and may well be backed by bigger fish or have a more substantial base of paying clients than, for example, Twitter, which, as far as I can tell, has no paid for features. This free service allows people all over the planet to post short messages that can be shared with thousands of other people. Like text messaging crossed with email groups crossed with blogging. I can't believe any users would say that it has reached mission-critical status, but even minor drops in service cause howls amongst millions of current users.

Will we see a shift in the charges for services as the crunch bites? Or more and more open source as the market for software dries up?

We-Think: Free tickets to see Charles Leadbetter

2009-03-10T08:44:00.003Z

Charles Leadbetter is author of We-Think - a fascinating new book that explores how we can use collaboration and community networks to create innovation. He's appearing at a free event in Brighton on 26 March - tickets are available now by booking online using the link below.

Connecting Innovation | 26 march 09 | the old market | hove

Virtual wrappers for old-style conferences

2009-02-25T14:28:00.004Z

Community gatherings and conferences offer an opportunity for collaboration and interaction, As well as the learning that takes place on the day they can also signal the start of new relationships and activities. A recent post from David Wilcox shows how Social Reporting can help event organisers use video, blogs and other technologies to create a high value virtual wrapper to augment real world activities. As well as the practical benefits this approach also underlines the need for not for profit organisations to think about how the widespread use of new social media tools amongst its supporters may change their role.

David [a co-founder of SCIP back in the mid-90s] has experimented with a variety of highly accessible techniques and a wide range of events - from video interview booths to handing out video cameras and building event-specific blogs.

Not surprisingly the secret to success lies in careful preparation, thinking about the community of people attending the event and what they could gain from the use of such tools. It could be a way of simply recording proceedings for people who cannot attend or a way of building a new online community that continue to function well beyond the event itself.

David links this to the proposal by Prof Clay Shirky that not for profit organisations need to think about their role as a focus for or convener of supporters. An interview with Professor Shirky can be found here

Read more about social reporting here: How social reporters can help turn old-style conferences into the new convening spaces

Making Facebook more accessible

2009-02-16T17:45:00.004Z

A tool to make Facebook more accessible to visually impaired users has been created by Project:Possibility, a group of not-for-profit software developers in the US. The application, which can be found at http://fastlink.headstar.com/pp2 allows visually impaired users to log in, navigate and use the site by combining screen reader technology with other coding techniques.

Brian D’Souza, a team member who worked on the project, explained:“We leveraged an existing technology developed by Google which combines use of screen readers and java script and navigation methods to make navigation and modification of content of webpages easier. It provides a lot of value for a blind person.”

Facebook’s popularity has risen dramatically in recent years, with more than 150 million users worldwide. However some users claim it does not fully support assistive tools, with several groups active on the site itself pressing for a more accessible service, such as The Official Petition for a More Accessible Facebook which contains almost 1,500 members. Some measures have already been taken by Facebook to accommodate the needs of disabled users, such as releasing screen reader-friendly versions of some of its applications.

The Facebook tool was one of a series of projects created at the recent UCLA SS12, an annual ‘code-a-thon’ held at the University of California, Los Angeles. Software developers spend a weekend working on projects for disabled people.

Story taken from e-access bulletin, a free monthly email newsletter’ available for subscription at http://www.headstar.com/eab

How to set up online forms to collect information

2009-02-10T10:55:00.002Z

Ever wanted to collect sign up information for your event through a website? Want to have a spreadsheet with all the delegate's details at your fingertips? Want to be able to download that information and use it again in the future? Sounds like you could use a Google Form, a great new tool that lets you quickly easily set up an online form, and even embed it in another website.

Google Docs is a set of online tools that includes a word processor, presentation software and spreadsheets. It can be used to keep your documents online so you can access them anywhere and it includes lots of features to help you share documents and collaborate with other people.

Now it has a neat new tool that you can set up a form to gather information and enter it into a spreadsheet through a web page. I came across it when someone who's running a conference I'm going to used it me to ask me which workshop I'm going to and whether I have any dietary requirements.

If you already have a Google account then it's very simple to set up, and if you don't then it may worth thinking about. It will beuseful for anyone with any sort of administration role, whether it's booking places at a traing workshop, collecting personal contact details as people register for feedback collecting feedback after it.

Official Google Docs Blog: Stop sharing spreadsheets, start collecting information

How Museums Can Use the Web

2009-01-30T11:06:00.004Z

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:

And here's the presentation I made.

090127 MLA-SE Museums and the web

View more Mark Walker.

Teaching Wordpress

2009-01-20T09:34:00.003Z

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.

More soon...

Thinking about a database for your CVS?

2009-01-08T15:38:00.001Z

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.

NAVCA VCS profiles toolkit

Selecting Software on a Shoestring

2009-01-08T15:25:00.001Z

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.

Idealware: Selecting Software on a Shoestring

How small charities can take credit card donations

2008-12-10T13:25:00.003Z

A new report by the Charities Aid Foundation raises concerns that cash donations are falling sharply as credit card payments and regular direct debits become more common. A 22% drop in cash donations, coupled with a predicted fall in charitable income on the back of the credit crunch is seen as a particular threat to smaller charities - in other words the vast majority of organisations supported by CVS and other infrastructure bodies in local networks across the south east.

Given the costs involved most small charities will not be able to afford to set up credit card payments, but there are several online systems which could help avoid the worst effects of this change. Here is a quick round of three of the best known and ideas about how to use them.

The best known of these is Just Giving, which is very commonly used by people entering large public events, such as the London Marathon, to enable supporters to send their money straight to their chosen cause. Any charity can set up a page on the site, and it currently offers a free 3 month trial, after which it charges £15 per month and 5% per transaction BUT it also adds on Gift Aid when UK resident donors fill in the form provided. They reckon they can turn a £10 donation into about £13.

They have a handy video to explain the concept:

Justgiving Fees - Explained in Video! from Justgiving on Vimeo.

Similar services are available through Charities Aid Foundation's eFundraising service, which includes listing on the CAF website, and www.bmycharity.org.uk, which offers a free Pay As You Go service. This gives you slightly less for each donation but is an ideal way to get started.

Fundraising plans and online promotion

Of course setting up an online payments system in this way is not going to solve anyone's funding problems unless it is part of a more comprehensive fundraising plan. You need to think about who you think will donate to your cause, how you will communicate with them and then find as many ways as possible to advertise and link to your new payments page.

This may include adding a bog to your web site - using Blogger or Wordpress.com for example - or investigating Facebook groups and other new forms of networking to raise your profile and connect with supporters. This may mean a steep learning curve at first but, given the potential financial benefits, and the relative ease with which you can set up payment systems it is definitely a good first step to addressing a significant trend.

A final point is that none of these systems is of any use if you don't have a charity number. Unconstituted groups, social enterprises without a charity number or other organisations will probably have to use PayPal or an equivalent online payments service. There are many services such as this, with all sorts of charging structures, so more research is needed to see which one fits your needs.

Read about trends in giving

Third Sector magazine has a story about the findings of the research and details of the changing patterns in giving at Massive decline in cash giving 'a threat to smaller charities' - Third Sector

Tags: fundraising, ictchampion, scipnews

Age Concern wins first SCIP Award

2008-12-09T09:18:00.005Z

Age Concern Brighton & Hove is the first winner of the SCIP Award: Technology for Good. Over 150 older people in sheltered housing have been playing games with Nintendo Wii, as part of a healthy living campaign introduced by Age Concern earlier this year. A new ten pin league bowling has sprung up and the reaction has been so good that they're now planning a snowboarding competition.

The SCIP Award was part of the Digital Media Awards South, a new showcase that highlights business and community use of computers and the web across the south east. The Awards were announced at a spectacular Ceremony staged in a church in Hove in late November, and attended by over 350 people.

Its chairperson Dan Jellinek said: "We work with a great many local community organisations who are doing innovative and imaginative work with technology, but we were really impressed that Age Concern had crossed the generations by using a games machine for fun, healthy living for the less mobile, and digital inclusion.

"Some of the most regular Wii players are in their 90s and it has helped create a new social network, so vital for older people who can easily become isolated. they are now thinking about buying one of the new Nintendo boards that mean you can have a go at snowboarding, or take up yoga - puts the youngsters to shame."

The picture above shows Age Concern Director Jim Baker [right] and Luis Algorta [centre], the Community Development Worker who delivers the Wii sessions, receiving the award from Mark Anderson, a member of SCIP's Board of Directors.

More pics of the event and other category winners can be found on Flickr

So what have you been up to?

2008-11-21T15:28:00.006Z

Here's a catch up after several busy weeks [a bit long, sorry].

3 Nov: Regional ICT Forum, Guildford.

I run a regional forum for anyone involved in ICT-related activities in the voluntary and community sector in the south east. We had a good turn out and spent a very useful couple of hours before lunch talking about how we work with funders to help improve the way that voluntary and community orgs budget for their ICT. This included the input of someone from the Big Lottery Fund and looked at how best to encourage VCOs to think about Total Cost of Onwership when budgeting for ICT - like buying a car and including petrol, insurance and driving lessons in the budget.

There was a lot of support for this work amongst the group but there were also lots of questions about how funders will respond and how we can help them make better decisions. The first step we agreed was to work together on a draft set of guidelines which we ask funders to adopt. We also reviewed other aspects of the proposed regional ICT strategy and came up with plans for workshops about 'How to Buy a Website' which Lucian and I will be running in the new year.

Full notes of the meeting are still in draft I'm afraid, but more to come soon.

6 Nov: RAISE conference/AGM, Oxford.

RAISE is the regional body representing the voluntary and community sector so this was a great opportunity for networking. I learned a lot about Compacts and Local Area Agreements [LAAs] and their relevance to the sector but felt depressed by the presentations by a selection of National Support Services - now known as Improving Support Workstreams. There really is a lot to do to make these worth more than the sum of their very disjointed parts.

7 Nov: Judging the Digital Media Awards: South

A whole day locked in Midnight's basement judging for DiMAS. The other judges were a great bunch and this was a lot of fun. The whole this was very tiring but everyone got a fair crack of the whip and you can see the fruits of our deliberations at www.thedimas.co.uk

The winners are announced at the glittering awards ceremony on 17 November at All Saints Church in Hove, which I'm co-hosting with local funny man Stephen Grant.

I spent the evening celebrating the 10th birthday of the wonderful Working Together Project at a fun-packed event attended by just about everyone who's anyone in the local voluntary sector, and featuring Michelle from Gender Trust's fab stand up routine. I was much less drunk than I expected but also much much more tired than I hoped so went home early.

10 Nov: Big Lottery Fund south east Helper Agencies event, Portsmouth

A nightmare day for journeys but I had a really useful trip to Portsmouth attending an event for Big Lottery Fund [BLF] Helper Agencies [2.5 hours there, 4 hours back!].

These events are run by BLF for funding advisers and other people who provide support to voluntary and community organisations. The aim is to make sure that as many people as possible understand the various funding programmes offered by the Lottery in the region. This session included a great exercise where we had to choose between six funding bids, as if we were on the Lottery Awards panel.

It was a mixed bunch of about 30 people: mainly local authority but lots of voluntary sector organisations such as CVS funding advisers. It was tough exercise but in the end we came to fairly similar conclusions about who we'd give the money to, and I'm now looking forward to delivering a similar workshop in the new year to help people think about budgeting for IT.

12 Nov: Build and Manage Your Own Website, training workshop, Brighton

Libby Davy and I delivered a really positive first session in web design training for a small community org in Coldean, a neighbourhood on the edge of Brighton. This is the first time I've delivered a workshop that uses Wordpress to help groups produce their own website. Everything we prepared went down really well and we had two hours and a group of four to teach, which was a nice gentle introduction. I'm really looking forward to the next session next wednesday evening, to be followed by four more sessions after xmas.

13 Nov. Intellect Third Sector Working Party meeting, London

Intellect is the trade body for the IT indutsry and its swanky Russell Square HQ drew a good mix of people who heard from a great set of speakers including the head of NCVO's Collaboration and ICT Unit, the Digital Inclusion Team who highlighted some great resources and, my fave, Julie from Cosmic who talked about her work in a really inspiring way. Cosmic is the same age and delivers almost exactly the same work as SCIP but is based in beautiful Ottery St Mary in Devon.I have thought of it as SCIP's cousin, but under Julie's guidance it is fast becoming more like a big sister.

I made some good contacts and enjoyed the very positive discussion about supporting use of IT by the third sector. I'm not sure where else this sort of audience may come together so I'm hoping it will continue to grow, esp as a forum for shaping relationships.

Quick catch up with some of the other regional champs afterwards - great to see them and a shame we can't seem to coordinate more face-to-face meetings better/at all.

14 Nov. NetWeight, University of Brighton

I chaired a meeting for NetWeight project, a DoH-funded research programme led by Prof Flis Henwood at Uni of Brighton. It was a lively and very informative session summing up the work we've done to date on the project, and especially reflected on some workshops I helped run. These were about how people could use ICT to self-manage their weight but included introducing complete beginners to blogging, storytelling and redesigning local websites.

I really enjoy being involved in this project and there was a really good mix of people at the meeting, including workshop participants [also known as The Guinea Pigs], members of the research team and partners such as local providers of health information.

Much more work is needed to capture and feed back key issues for the Department of Health, but I'm already building lessons from these workshops into what I'm delivering in my web design workshops in Coldean. I also hope we can do some more work with the participants from these workshops, beyond the life of this project.

17 Nov. Chain Reaction 08

Had a great day out a Chain Reaction event on the south bank in London. As well as crying at the video for Peace One Day, I got to hear Lord Mandelson and Gordon Brown talking up social enterprise we also got to hear from Dragon's Den tall boy Peter Jones, Tim Smit from the fab Eden project and loads of inspiring people out to change the world.

I was a social reporter for the day with David Wilcox leading a busy band of people adding lots of live content to reflect the day's events. The videoboo was an especially eye-catching means of conducting video interviews and beaming them online. I particularly enjoyed mixing it with lots of young people from all sorts of volunteering projects, and learning more about Disruptive Innovation. Very enjoyable train ride home too.

20 Nov: Social Enterprise Day.

Illness had kept me sidelined for a couple of days but I did get an hour with some politics students who wanted to know more about SCIP's work. I took the chance to explain social enterprise and they had some very insightful questions which I hope I answered sensibly.

Other stuff in my head right now:

talking to people in Kent about how to connect with their project that is supporting development workers across the county
lots of detailed finance and reporting stuff on the BASIS-funded project I'm managing about embedding IT skills in the vol and comm sector
back to the Isle of Wight on Monday for more work on their IT volunteer recruitment campaign
trying to understand who's trying to carve up what from the Government's £1m requests for bids to coordinate a network of Digital Mentors - and how SCIP can be involved
publicising and organising the BASIS-funded event we're running on 15th December about how people learn IT skills
recruiting an evaluation consultant for the BASIS-funded Embedded IT project
planning the next sessions of the wordpress training for the residents of Coldean
learning my script as co-host of the Digital Media Awards in next Thursday night
planning SCIP's xmas do

How do you measure digital inclusion?

2008-11-12T16:34:00.005Z

So tonight the Wordpress training starts at a library here in Brighton. We've designed a very simple opening session so that we can work out some basic stuff, including:

what are the skills of the group?
what sort of website do they want?
what sort of support will they need in the coming sessions.

I've set up a test site for the group to play with, as well as a Surveymonkey survey to capture some basic details about them. I'm hoping this will help us think about how this training is helping to tackle digital inclusion, so I've included questions about how much they use technology.

Questions include:
1. Tell us about your computer skills.
For each question please choose one answer from:
Never tried, Need some help, Comfortable, Do it all the time

Basic computer use - saving files, clicking folders, etc
Browsing the internet
Sending email
Using a digital camera
Viewing videos
Putting pictures or videos on websites like Flickr or Youtube
Running my own website

2. How often do you use technology?
Choose from: Never, Not very often, Every week, Every day

Mobile phone calls
Text messaging
Sending and receiving email
Surfing the internet
Working on my own website
Contacting friends or family through social websites
Posting videos or pictures on a website

There are other questions about what they like about the internet, their skills, and what they think are the barriers to people using new technologies.

I'll post up some replies once we've collected them but I wondered whether there any other suggestions for other ways of asking questions now which we can use to judge digital inclusiveness in the future?

How Can VCOs Learn the IT Skills They Need?

2008-11-04T14:21:00.001Z

I’m working on a Lottery-funded project looking at ways of embedding IT training in other community learning activities. So we’re teaching budgeting but it includes training in Excel, or we’re teaching report-writing and showing how to use some of the features of Word. We’re holding a free event in December to discuss what we’re doing and share ideas about to help people learn the IT skills they need. Full details below.

** How Can Voluntary and Community Organisations [VCOs] Learn the IT Skills They Need?
A free event to share ideas, funded by the Big Lottery Fund through its BASIS programme.
    * What IT skills do you think staff and volunteers need?
    * What learning activities will help them acquire and make best use of those IT skills?
    * In what way will those IT skills make their work more effective?

WHERE: Community Base, Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG
WHEN:   11.00am – 3.00pm, Monday 15 December 2008
HOW MUCH: Free of charge

* Who should attend?
    * Anyone interested in meeting the training needs of the voluntary and community sector
    * Anyone interested in how people learn IT skills
    * Anyone interested in better governance, planning, financial management or communications by voluntary and community organisations

* Embedding IT skills in the voluntary and community sector
SCIP and Working Together Project are developing and delivering a range of training to help organisations acquire the IT skills they need to address four key issues:
   * Governance
   * Financial Management
   * Communications
   * Planning

This is funded by a three-year grant from Big Lottery Fund under its BASIS programme and means we can look at how to embed IT training in other community sector training courses.

Our approach is to identify key tasks and then include appropriate IT training within existing courses. So we will now include Excel training as part of Budgeting and Fundraising courses, rather than just delivering standalone Excel training.

* Help us get it right
We started the project on 1 January 2008, so this event gives us a chance to tell you about our progress to date, describe the new courses we're developing and review feedback from the people we're consulting.

More importantly we're starting to plan next year's programme, so we're really interested in your views about how to deliver learning activities that help people make effective use of IT.

We're planning a highly participative event, to help you share ideas and to help us learn from your experience. It includes:
    * Introduction to us and our project
    * What can IT do for VCOs?
    * What IT skills does this require?
    * How will people learn those skills?
    * How can IT skills deliver more effective organisations?
    * What shall we measure?
    * What shall we try next?

Book now!
We're providing a free lunch so we need you confirm that you're coming.

To book a place please reply to this message, or contact Jane Hill at SCIP on 01273 234049.

Wordpress stepping stones

2008-10-31T09:13:00.002Z

SCIP has been down the DreamWeaver route for many years, but right now I think wordpress is the best short and medium term solution. I'm now looking at the progression route for an organisation starting without a website and would welcome views on what I'm thinking of:

1. Brand new org or never built a website before:

wordpress hosted site to learn basics of posting stories, creating static pages, working with images, sharing tasks within a group, editorial issues, etc
build test site to learn basics then rebuild launch site
budget = 20 hours training + zero for website + 20 hours for group to launch site

2. Second generation site

hosting wordpress on your own server [ie paying for hosting]
want specific look and feel not available in word-press hosted themes, or functionality only available in specific widgets
this requires some degree of expertise in managing and updating the site software, plus a decent host familiar with wordpress
budget = 10 hours training + £100 pa hosting + 20 hours for group to re-launch site

3. Third generation site

take control of the code on a self-hosted site
buy in or learn CSS skills and other wordpress-related magic, eg to integrate site fully with a database, calendar, map, whatever
budget = ? hours training [eg CSS] + £100 pa hosting + 40 hours for group to re-launch site

4. Moving on

depending on the size of the organisation and its needs it may be necessary to move onto drupal, or some similar CMS, which will probably mean buying in much more expertise and support
by this time the org should be muchy better at specifying and administering an appropriate solution, and therefore pay less and get more for their money.
budget = ? £3k for group to pay agency

Any thoughts based on your experience?

I also wonder whether this model holds for small businesses?

Why Wordpress?

2008-10-25T06:41:00.004Z

I'm planning a training course to help a community association learn how to build and run its own website. And I'm using a hosted Wordpress.com site as the platform for this training, as opposed to other possible solutions, suich as self-hosted Wordpress, Typepad, blogger, drupal, joomla, build your own in dreamweaver, etc. But why Wordpress?

After years if patiently explaining ftp to people who didn't want to know about ftp I'm hoping that choosing a theme and agreeing what pages to have on their site will be more useful, engaging and fruitful to most people than having to work through the back end techie bits or get to grips with html. It seems an ideal way of helping people understand the process from the front end side of things, like what it looks like and what it has on it, with more time to explain some of how it works and play with the CMS-style administration interface.

I run a wordpress-hosted site as ICT Champion, having previously used blogger for some time. I should say that I've also set up a self-hosted WP site and I did it in about an hour but that included 45 minutes finding and configuring an ftp client. Then I spent a lot of time downloading themes and widgets and wotsits and fixes and then uploading them and installing them and remembering passwords and whatever else. Then the latest version was released and I had to carefully back everything up, save everything in then right place and reinstall blah blah

Simple enough stuff to be sure, and offering a great deal of flexibility and control which I may well need at some time in the future, but I can't I can't tell you how much happier I am since I started using a wordpress-hosted site and working within its limitations.

The trickiest techie bits were working out how to have the blog entries appear on a page with a menu tab [by no means intuitive to me but actually just a couple of menu items in different parts of the system] and fruitlessly seeking ways of embedding javascripted stuff like google maps.

Aside from posting I now spend most of my time thinking about categories, which I realise need to drive my navigation much more than the page structure, and re-categorising old stories as I fiddle with my categories. [On which point Blogger has a much easier way of retro-categorising batches of stories than wordpress, which requires you to do one at a time.]

I can also look at promotion and content and editorial issues with a much clearer eye than when I used dreamweaver, when I seemed to spend a lot of time tidying up folders and playing with plugins etc.

By the way I have used Typepad, and I liked it, but it costs, which Wordpress doesn't, so it feels like a safer option for first timers. And I also tried blogger and it doesn't support static pages, so I think it's less interesting to people who want a website, not a blog.

And so I favour Wordpress, both as a nursery slope for people new to building a website, but also because it's probably good enough for most organisation's relatively modest needs.

And in case anyone needs evidence of people's modest needs I leave you with a link to a site which has been used to create a web site/presence by more community organisations than any other in our area - perhaps five times more than we have worked with ten years:
http://www.communigate.co.uk/sussex/viewgroup.phtml?group=3

This is a layer in the internet's geology which is technically outdated but remains a useful reminder of just what people in community organisations want to do on the internet and where they have to start if they're ever going to do it.

More soon on this as I start preparing the notes...

What you need to know to run your own community website

2008-10-25T06:10:00.006Z

I'm planning some workshops for a local community group that wants a website. Rather than selling them a website they've asked for some training in how to build and run their own. Now we have to work out what to teach them. Here's an update on progress.

I'm working with Libby Davy for the first time - a local social media person who crossed my path in various ways and seemed like a good choice when the person I've worked with before on web design sessions said she was a bit too busy. Turns out she's a great choice: we're both full of ideas, and have complimentary skills and experience, so it's been a very creative and enjoyable early process.

We'll be working with a neighbourhood group in Brighton - a resident's association with no staff, supported by a community development worker who has been the link to SCIP until now. They have a Council grant to fund this - £1000 - and we'll be working in a swanky new library building on an estate on the edge of town [which shall remain nameless as I'm not working with them yet].

Now Libby and I are planning the sessions in detail, as we have the beginnings of a timetable, with two sessions planned in November to be followed by four or five sessions in Jan/Feb/March. Yesterday we had a great time mapping out topics we want to cover, so here's my version of what we've got in our long list [in no particular order]:

how to use wordpress.com [our chosen software solution]
passwords, permissions, getting a webmail account
storytelling skills
teamwork/working with others/collaborative skills
getting to know the internet - trends, demystifying, searching, etc
why do it? how can a website help a community association
roles and responsibilities of a community web site team
planning: aims, milestones, processes, resources
planning your site: what it has on it - page structure
planning your site: what it looks like - pictures, colours, fonts, logos
promoting your site
working with pictures
working with sound
a guided tour of someone else's community website and how they run it
working with video
building links with others/community networking
how to get other people involved

I've got some really good stuff via the UK Circuit Riders email discussion forum and another regional ICT Champ who has run wordpress training, but none of it encompasses such as broad set of training outcomes. So Libby and I need to work out how to teach that lot in six two hour sessions and we're now working on lesson plans, course outline and handouts.

More soon.

Regional ICT Forum, 3 November 2008, Guildford FREE

2008-10-22T22:24:00.001Z

I'm organising a regional ICT Forum for people who are working on ICT-related projects in the voluntary and community sector in the south east. Please come along to discuss what you're doing and share ideas with other people, interested in similar activities. Full details below.

South East Regional ICT Forum:
Surrey Community Action, Guildford, GU4 7HL

11am – 3pm, Monday 3 November 2008

1. Agenda:
11.00   Welcome
11.05   Brief intros
11.15   Regional ICT Strategy: Feedback and issues arising
11.45   Working with funders: Update on progress
             > Includes discussion with Louise McGrath, regional Policy and Partnership Manager for Big Lottery Fund
12.30   Lunch and networking [veggie-friendly food provided]
1.30     Working with suppliers – review of previous workshop, proposals for future sessions
2.15     Round robin – news, views, ideas
2.55     Proposed date for next meeting
3.00     ENDS

2. About the Forum

I am organising this Forum as ICT Champion for the south east, a post funded by Capacity Builders to help develop ICT Support for frontline organisations across the region. I am based in Brighton and am supported by Lucian Borcanescu, who lives and works in Slough.

3. Regional ICT Strategy
The work of the regional ICT Champion work is linked to a regional ICT strategy.

The aim of this strategy is:
To ensure that voluntary and community sector organisations have access to trusted sources of ICT support and guidance at a ChangeUp consortia level.

We are working towards the following goals for April 2011:
Funders ensure the best possible investment in ICT when funding VCOs;
VCOs get the best value from ICT suppliers;
VCOs get the best value from volunteers with ICT skills;
Appropriate ICT skills and signposting knowledge are embedded in the support networks available to VCOs;
ICT training courses are available to help VCOs make the best possible use of their investment in ICT;
Existing social enterprises that deliver ICT support services flourish and new social enterprises emerge to meet the needs of the sector;
ICT Health Checks are used to help VCOs understand their current use of ICT and identify options for update and improvement.
Better understanding of how ICT can form part of shared back office services.
ChangeUp Consortia include relevant ICT activities in their business plans.

4. Progress
I am making good progress on several parts of this work:
Meeting with the regional funders forum to help them provide better information to applicants about ICT budgets
Planning workshops on how to buy web sites and databases
Developing a volunteering campaign on the Isle of Wight
Planning and delivering workshops for development workers and helper agencies that work with front line organisations
Promoting the inclusion of ICT in the regional social enterprise portfolio
Building new IT training courses on a BASIS-funded programme managed by SCIP

5. Who is it for?
In the past year or so I have identified several organisations and individuals who I hope I will be able to support over the next few years. I see you as the people already doing things that could help deliver this plan, not reinventing the wheel. I hope the Forum can help raise your profile amongst your peer group, guide my work by identifying the sort of support you want, and enable you to share ideas for further development.

You’ll see from the invitation list below that I am hoping that this will be a small but diverse group, including local organisations, sub-regional interests and people with regional roles including the Big Lottery Fund and Capacity Builders. I hope this approach can help generate new relationships and build links for you beyond the scope of my own work.

6. When/where?
I am proposing that we meet twice a year, with an emphasis on practical sessions that encourage information-sharing. I have chosen Guildford as a venue because although previous meetings have been moving around the region I found this meant we ended up with a very localised attendance. If absolutely necessary I can help with travel expenses [although I don’t have a big budget for this].

Feedback on this approach is welcome either now or at the meeting.

7. What next?
You can read more about the ICT strategy on the ICT Champion website at www.seictchampion.org.uk
Please confirm whether you can attend and, if not, whether you would like to receive papers and be invited in future
I will circulate notes for the meeting in the next couple of weeks – and full directions
Or just get in touch to say hello and talk about how I might be able to help you
Send me any news and updates about your work that I can circulate beforehand
Please pass this invitation onto other people you think will be interested

Thanks

Mark

Invitations will be sent to lead contacts at all ChangeUp Consortium in the region, plus:
Kathryn Williamson   RAISE
Paul Webster   NAVCA
Mark Hummerstone   The Really Helpful IT Company
Warren Feagins   Slough CVS
Lucian Borcanescu   ICT Champion
Amanda Bowens   Ladder 4 Learning
Ed Baker   Surrey Community Action
Chris Deeney   Oxfordshire Voluntary Action
Maureen Covacic   Basingstoke Voluntary Services
Charlie Fox   Voluntary Action West Kent
Jackie Horne   Southampton CVS
Minesh Patel   Acorn House IT, Milton Keynes
Sarah Bridges   UK Online
Peter Southcombe   Hope in the Community
Kat Pearce   Capacity Builders
Kevin Jennings   Hope in the Community
Paul Bramwell, Working Together Project
Iain Lucas, RISE Computers
Peter Mason, SCIP
David Guthrie, SCIP
Peter Smith, Surrey Community Action
Anne Stafford, IT4Communities
Dave Ahlquist, South East Social Enterprise Partnership
Miles Maier, London Regional ICT Champion
Nigel Parrish, Isle of Wight RCC
Helen Snashell, Isle of Wight RCC
Helen Gibbons, MLA south east

--
Mark Walker
Project Manager and South East Regional ICT Champion

SCIP: IT Services for Charities and Communities
Community Base, Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG

Tel: 01273 234049 Email: mark.walker@scip.org.uk
Web: www.scip.org.uk Mobile: 07956 627116
ICT Champion: www.seictchampion.org.uk
Blog: www.scipmark.org.uk

SCIP Web Awards 2008: Deadline extended

2008-10-22T21:48:00.002Z

We've received lots of entries for the SCIP Awards but we only really gave people a week's notice, so we're extending entries until midday Friday details below. Please please please ask me if you think you want to give it try. Because it's the first time we've done this I want to get lots of ideas submitted send up to 300 words about how technology is doing good in your community
** SCIP Award 2008: Technology for Good **

Are you using the web, mobile phones or computer games to make a difference in your community?

Sussex Community Internet Project (SCIP) is proud to announce a new award that celebrates the creativity and innovation of the not for profit sector in Sussex and surrounding parts of the south east.

Entries are required by email by the midday 24 October 2008. Full details below or atwww.thedimas.org.uk

* A new showcase for innovation and inspiration

This new Award, Technology for Good, is part of the first Digital Media Awards South a high profile showcase for the creative talents of people building and using digital media tools for business and the wider good of the community.

SCIP has worked with not for profit organisations for more than 12 years, helping them use the internet, mobile phones, email and other technology to tackle disadvantage and make positive changes in our communities. We want our Award to help raise the profile of the not for profit sector, recognise the hard work of staff and volunteers and share stories that inspire others.

* Who will win?
We want to know how digital media has changed the way you work with your communities. It could be the web, email, mobile phones, computer games, social networks or any other digital technology.

It could be a way of using brand new tools to meet an age-old need, or a creative way of integrating established digital media into a community project.

It could be linked to campaigns, service delivery, community engagement, fundraising or any other aspect of your work. The key thing is that it is used to deliver real benefits for the good of the community.

It's not about how much money you've spent, or how big your organisation is. You may have paid staff, or rely entirely on volunteers. We're looking for stories that will inspire and inform others.

Here are some examples which we hope will encourage you to give it a try:
* A local history website that is run entirely by volunteers and has hundreds of new stories posted every year;
* An older people's organisation that uses exercises on a Nintendo Wii as part of its well-being campaign;
* An organisation that uses digital video to build creative projects with people with learning disabilities.

* Who should enter?

Any not for profit organisation from Sussex or the surrounding parts of the south east. This could include voluntary and community organisations, charities, social enterprises and public bodies.

Please contact Mark Walker if you need any clarification on eligibility.

Agencies may enter work on behalf of their clients as long as the entry clearly shows the consent of the client.

* How to enter

Please complete a 300 word (max) submission explaining your project and how it benefits people in the community.

Email this to dimas@wiredsussex.com no later than 12noon Friday 24th October.

Please send any supporting material on DVD or CD clearly labeled with your name, company name, contact number and award category name to: Nish Dhailwal, Wired Sussex, Studio 8, Level 4 South, New England House, New England Street, Brighton BN1 4GH

* More information on the DiMAS

The Digital Media Awards South is a prestigious new Award Ceremony, which builds on the Web Awards, which SCIP has organised for the past seven years. The winners will be announced at a glittering event in Hove on the evening of 27 November.

Take a look at all the categories to see what other Awards you could be eligible for:www.thedimas.co.uk

* Any Questions?

Please ask Mark Walker at SCIP. Email him on mark@scip.org.uk or call 01273 234049

=

The Digital Media Awards South 2008 are organised by Wired Sussex, SCIP and Midnight Communications, in association with The Argus, SEEDA and Sussex University.

--
Mark Walker
Project Manager and South East Regional ICT Champion

SCIP: IT Services for Charities and Communities
Community Base, Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG

Tel: 01273 234049 Email: mark.walker@scip.org.uk
Web: www.scip.org.uk Mobile: 07956 627116
Blog: www.scipmark.org.uk

Quick 'n' Easy Guide to Online Tools

2008-10-20T15:36:00.001Z

A quick and easy guide produced the lovely folks at Tactical Tech [one of their staff is a Trustee of SCIP] provides an excellent overview of tools such as Flickr [share photos online], Shozu [upload video direct to the web] and Google Maps. The guide offers feedback on privacy concerns as well suggested uses for all the tools mentioned. Browse their site for other goodies, including links to manuals for open source software.

Online Advocacy - Quick 'n' Easy Visualizing Tools | Tactical Technology Collective

Maps and the third sector

2008-10-15T08:44:00.001Z

Ordnance Survey is launching a campaign to raise awareness among third sector organisations of their ability, as contractors to government, to gain access to mapping data under existing licences. Maps are an important way of communicating information and many community organisations are starting to use them to publish data and advocate for specific strategies. The cost of using maps can be prohibitively expensive, so this is good news.

Ordnance Survey and the third Sector

Local democracy and blogs

2008-10-14T09:30:00.001Z

A really interesting short film has been produced by what I think are Government-funded consultants to promote the use of blogs by local Councillors. A DVD version of the film and short booklet about the value of blogging has apparently been sent to to the Chief Officer of every local authority in the country and generated positive response from lots of people. I recommend checking out the videos on the CivicSurf website., but I'm also less

It's interesting to see Councillors as the interface between the bureaucracy of the local authority and local people. And I'm also reminded of the role they can play in interacting with the community-based organisations which I more typically spend my time with. As with many e-democracy projects, however, I am concerned that the whilst the 'e' stuff is becoming more accessible the democracy bit is inching away from us.

Of course a Councillor is going to be pleased to have an unfettered channel to people to explain themselves, with the ability to turn on and off the comments of others. Check out this 'debate' about allowing dogs on Brighton's beaches, which took place in a forum on a local newspaper, to see how bonkers that can be [http://forum.theargus.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=558]. A blog can hardly fail to produce a more reasonable discussion than this - it starts off posing the question and descends into recipes for roasting cats...

Whilst Wordpress may be democratising the world of 'publishing your views online' it seems to me that the decision-making within most Councils remains flawed - dominated mainly by national policy, local in-fighting and proscribed funding packages, rather than bottom-up, identifying local problems and searching for solutions.

And most public organisation's themselves are too large and unresponsive to be able to deal with even small amounts of user feedback via these new tools - this problem seems especially acute in PCTs and other NHS-related organisations. Check out www.patientopinions.org.uk for direct feedback from users about services, which I'd consider equally 'democratic' as being able to monitor my Councillor's movements, but which sits outside the NHSs ponderous and largely bureaucratic 'consultation' processes.

We have had a Councillors blog page in Brighton for several years - and an e-democracy.org supported forum - as well as a welter of other local projects and initiatives and launches and awareness-raising campaigns. We've also had Neighbourhood Renewal Funding - long term investment lurching forward on annual budgets - New Deal for Communities and projects big and small, e-enabled and not. We have email lists, blogs, online forums, YouTube videos and a network of people able to share information and ideas and opinions more openly than ever before, but I'm not sure we have less poverty, better healthcare services or more democracy...

CivicSurf » CivicSurf - the documentary in full

When to build your own website or database solution

2008-10-09T09:07:00.003Z

Every post I read from Idealware has me firing off messages to contacts who are involved in delivering IT solutions to not for profit clients. The latest post about when to build your own content management system is no exception. It's simple, straightforward and opinionated - what's the point of blogging if it's not all of those things?

This is good stuff for people like me who sit between supplier and client - offering advice and support to people who say 'I want a database that I can update myself, with x, y or z specific functions' and tryin to work with our team of web developers and programmers who don't know whether to build their own solution or jump on the latest open source or Software as a Service [SaaS] solution.

The conculsion from this post?

"From my perspective, exhaust all of the "buy" options: open source/proprietary/SaaS out-of-the-box, customized open source/SaaS, or integration of already existing components, or building modules on top of open source tools, before you take on building something new from the ground up. You'll save money and time, as well as be able to take advantage of an upgrade path as web software changes and improves, meaning you won't have to build whole systems again."

Idealware

Google endorses IT volunteering through iT4Communities

2008-09-30T14:12:00.002Z

A new YouTube video shows Vint Cerf, internet guru and vice-president of Google, adding his support to the work of IT4Communities [IT4C], a UK-based charity that recruits and places IT professionals to support projects in the community.

Hosted by the Worshipful Company of IT professionals in the City of London, IT4C sits between the voluntary sector and a network of IT professionals. It receives requests for help from charities across the UK, and uses a telephone-based project definition process to create a brief for each piece of work. This brief is then circulated amongst its network of volunteers, who can log onto the central website to follow up and offer themselves.

Cerf was recorded by Anne Stafford of IT4C at a meeting in late September 2008. I'm working with Anne on a project to promote IT volunteering on the Isle of Wight, which I hope will lead to production of a new toolkit to link IT4C with local volunteering networks in the south east.

YouTube - Vint Cerf at iT4Communities

What makes a good presentation great?

2008-09-09T12:23:00.004Z

Looking for inspiration for your presentations? Now you can check out the world's best presentations at www.Slideshare.net who have announced the results of the Best presentations Contest 2008. The winning entry is called Thirst [see below] does an excellent job of explaining the impending global crisis in water resources.

Slideshare is an excellent website that hosts your presentations for free. It's a useful tool for sharing presentations before and after events, and it's also a good place to look for ideas when planning your own presentations.

Take a look and see what you think of the winners. You'll see how they all use strong graphics, and it's also interesting to note that many of the slide shows selected relate to not for profit activities and campaigning. Perhaps they're easier to judge than the typical sales-oriented business presentation?

Results of the World's Best Presentation Contest 2008 - SlideShare

THIRST

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: design crisis)

Just what the world needs: A new browser?

2008-09-02T09:06:00.001Z

Google is about to launch a new open source web browser. Read about what it does - and why - by reading their comic book style story, and then sit back and see whether the might of Google can dislodge the monster that is Internet Explorer.

Google Chrome

Can Facebook stop global capitalism?

2008-08-26T12:07:00.001Z

A Facebook group has been started by a campaign in Brighton that wants to close down Starbucks newest coffee shop in the city. As well as rejecting the corporate giant in favour of the numerous small independent coffee shops the group is also raising awareness of the fact that Starbucks is choosing to ignore the fact that it doesn't have planning permission to be there.

This is one of many campaigns being developed through new social networking sites, but it remains to be seen whether it can make a difference when faced with an intractable corporation. It's also worth noting that facebook funds itself through advertising - and when I visited it was a credit card company paying for my eyeballs to cross its path.

Facebook | Stop Starbucks from Opening on St James Street

Blog Action Day 08

2008-08-26T10:12:00.001Z

In classic self-referential style I'm blogging about Blog Action Day, which takes place on 15 October and has a theme of Poverty. There are 2,709 blogs signed up so far, and it all seems very worthy, but I have yet to make sense of how I can participate and what will change as a result of it...

It's all very blog-tastic - have a look and see what you think...

Blog Action Day 08

Win an award for digital inclusion

2008-08-19T16:35:00.002Z

Have you created or implemented an initiative that has used Information and Communication Technology (ICT) or digital technology to positively impact socially disadvantaged or digitally excluded communities? If so, you should enter the European e-Inclusion Awards 2008.

The Awards are open to organisations in the public, business and voluntary sector or civil society. There are seven competition categories:

Ageing Well
Marginalised Young People
Geographic Inclusion
Cultural Diversity
Digital Literacy
e-Accessibility
Inclusive Public Services

Entries will close on the 12th September 2008 and five finalists in each category will be invited to exhibit at the Ministerial Conference on E-Inclusion to be held in Vienna in December 2008 For more information on the Awards or to register, contact the awards team on:
+44 207 234 3538 or visit the website www.e-inclusionawards.eu

More details on the e-inclusion Awards website

Workshop: Tackling Digital Exclusion, November 2008

2008-08-19T16:26:00.006Z

Digital Unite is the organisation behind the annual Silver Surfer Day, which helps promote the use of computers and the web by older people. They’re now running a workshop in November to show voluntary and community organisations how they can help their clients and communities to bridge the digital divide.

“In today’s world being able to use Information Technology is as vital as reading and writing. Yet some people miss out on this vital skill, whether because they retired before learning for work, slipped out of the education ‘loop’ for some reason or simply felt too daunted at a crucial time in their lives. Bringing IT literacy programmes to these groups can feel challenging but it’s also a tremendous opportunity to work communicatively and pro-actively and in a life-changing way with your clients.

You will spend a constructive, creative day with like-minded others finding out about the highly successful ‘DU way’ of bringing sustainable IT programmes into all sorts of communities. We’ll also explore how to use outreach opportunities like Silver Surfers’ Day to encourage people to join in and try new technologies.”

Dates:

Liverpool, Wednesday October 29;
Brighton, Thursday November 6;
Burton-upon-Trent, Tuesday, November 11;
Exeter, Monday November 17.

Costs:

GBP75 per head or GBP120 for two from same organisation.

Refreshments:

Hot and cold drinks and biscuits but please bring yourself something for lunch.

Timings:

Exact times depend on locations but roughly 9.30-4.30pm.

What is Uniservity telling us?

2008-08-12T12:06:00.001Z

Recent years have seen many voluntary and community sector infrastructure bodies spend five figure sums on database projects. Some have been successful, others have not. The flood of such projects is now slowing to trickle, which may explain why one of the biggest suppliers has pulled out the market, leaving its customers across the UK without support for their products.

Such projects are always complex, especially when the client has little experience of how to get what they need. The databases being commissioned are shared information systems, helping to promote better co-working between agencies in a local area. They may also be linked to shared website systems, which include the ability for member organisations to build and manage their own sites.

I'd estimate that at least £1m has been spent in the UK on similar products in the space of three years, and one of the most popular suppliers has been Uniservity.

Not only did they have a good product and recruited staff with experience of the sector, they came with an endorsement from NAVCA, the lead body for CVS Chief Officers in the UK. Now they've pulled out of the market, and suggested that their customers switch to other suppliers for product development and support.

Informal research suggests Uniservity has a reasonable share of the market, so this will be a big problem for lots of people who thought they were investing in better information systems for the long term. NAVCA's decision to give them its blessing could also be seen as a dent in the reputation of the sector.

Below is a message from the NAVCA Chief Officer which explains its position. It's good to see someone so senior saying sorry, and let's hope others who backed Uniservity - and other suppliers - will be just as candid about the perils of their national clout skewing the market.

Procurement and investment
On the other hand this is a complex issue that deserves ongoing attention, well beyond a review of NAVCA's relationships with suppliers.

From the supplier side Uniservity certainly seemed to be a credible option. I assume that there are financial reasons to withdraw from a market in which they are a leading player, which perhaps reflects a lack of ongoing income from their initial sales. There are very few new clients beyond the Consortia which had ChangeUp funding for these projects, and few of them will have budgeted for spend beyond years one or two.

I'd suggest Uniservity's withdrawal is a symptom of bigger problems on the client side. These include unrealistic funding deadlines, lack of focus in the face of a blizzard of "urgent" issues, and the shortcomings of the procurement and project management expertise at a local level?

I have also been surprised at how few people spending the money have spoken to one another either before, during or after the procurement process - and there are suggestions of large discrepancies between what was paid for similar products.

Leaving aside whether the money would have better spent on projects other than databases or websites, this is a very common problem when budgets do not follow through the implementation process. Even if implemented perfectly first time [ha ha] all databases and websites need to grow and change as they are used, which means more money in years three and beyond.

The current problems also shows how valuable independent advice and support is for the sector - and how carefully that independence needs to be patrolled at national, regional and local levels.

What next?
The network of regional ICT Champions is being asked to help review the situation and support organisations affected by Uniservity's decision. I hope we can look beyond Uniservity's clients to all similar projects and how they're progressing.

We can help quantify the size and nature of the problem, share best practise, create a collective voice with the remaining suppliers, encourage peer support amongst people with the same issues and identify key factors that make such projects a success.

Amongst the support available is a popular workshop I delivered in February about how to choose a database, as well as the wealth of guidance about choosing and using databases in the ICT Hub Knowledgebase. I'm sure we can also come up with more help specific to the ongoing implementation of these complex systems, perhaps involving volunteer support through IT4Communities.

Expect to see more on this over the coming year...

= = = =

Dear Chief Officers

I gather from a recent email conversation with Steve Place, Chief Executive at Dorset Community Action, that support from Uniservity is becoming more and more difficult to obtain.

NAVCA's relationship with Uniservity over the past four years was discussed at the recent Trustee Board meeting in the context of new "guidelines for ethical business development" agreed by Trustees.

I would like to offer my personal apology for the way Uniservity turned out. I was responsible for the early discussions with Uniservity and for the subsequent "partnership" with NAVCA.

At the time of the early discussions Uniservity was highly recommended to NAVCA by two members in the North West. They had both bought the Uniservity database product and were very pleased with its implementation. In presentations to NAVCA Uniservity representatives were convincing - they had a real grasp of the needs of NAVCA members and seemed committed to developing and sustaining the product.

Hindsight is always a great thing as we know. However, it is fair to say that I should have been more circumspect about the Uniservity offer. It was a small company with a limited track record outside the NAVCA members in the North West.

It has turned out badly for too many NAVCA members. The learning we have taken from this sorry story is that we will not enter into a partnership of this sort again with a database supplier.

Good wishes

Kevin
______________________________

Kevin Curley
Chief Executive
NAVCA (National Association for Voluntary and Community Action)
The Tower
2 Furnival Square
Sheffield S1 4QL

Funders needs a sense of balance

2008-08-11T12:23:00.001Z

Jill Ferguson at Hastings Voluntary Action [HVA] has posted a useful reminder that grant funding from Government remains a vital part of the funding mix at a local level. She welcomes a recognition of the role of grassroots activity at a neighbourhood level but fears that the emphasis on contracting services and tendering for funds will undermine funding for work which is best delivered on a small, very local scale.

This echoes a campaign being led by NAVCA called Sustaining Grants - why local grant aid is vital for a healthy voluntary and community sector and thriving local communities.

Jill's article can be found on HVA's website: HVA - paper_030

More details of the NAVCA Campaign can be found on its site http://www.navca.org.uk/publications/sustaininggrants/

Turning websites into email

2008-08-04T12:31:00.001Z

I love email and I get loads of it every day. I filter it off into various folders and try very hard to only read messages that require an action - and leave the rest until I have set aside 10 minutes or so for catching up. And now I love SendMeRSS, for sending RSS feeds sent straight to my email in-tray, giving me all sorts of news and updates as they're added to the web.

I love mailing lists and discussion forums because I can dip into specialist networks and keep track of trends and ideas, just by running through a folder full of emails. I also love having email on my Blackberry because I can ignore stuff as it comes into my in-tray on my computer at work, but then catch up later [usually as I put the kids to bed].

I also love pootling around websites but find that time goes very quickly and I always end up promising to go back to something - and then never do. So I've signed up to a load of RSS feeds, that mean I can see the latest stories as they're added to a website. The RSS Feed Reader built into my browser [Flock] is fine, and you can also get RSS or News Readers as standalone applications. But I want all the information I can get coming into my one place - and in my case it's my email in-tray.

Some websites offer an email subscription, so you can receive news regularly. But many sites don't have this facility, which means you need to check your RSS Reader or go off surfing on the off chance that something's been added.

SendMeRSS lets me sign up to receive emails every time a website is changed. So I can keep track of any page that has an RSS feed [which is a lot of them these days] and then receive an email containing the story as it is added.

There are other tools like this out there - www.rssfwd.com and FeedMailer.net amongst them - but this has worked the best so far. I get an account lsting my feeds and they come through nice and promptly. Oh, and it's free...

Send RSS feeds to your email | Home

Community-sector Drupal Conference

2008-08-04T11:13:00.001Z

Drupal is a powerful open source tool for creating websites that can be managed by people without a high degree of technical skills. It is a very popular tool with a large community of users, and it is free.

Many people around the world use Drupal to set up sites for not for profit organisation - we've been using at SCIP for several years, including our own site at www.scip.org.uk. The initial set up stage still requires a specialist web developer, but once it's in place it can offer very powerful features to anyone with basic keyboard and mouse skills.

These sites are becoming increasingly popular for small and medium sized community organisations, alongside the growth of personal sites such as Blogger. You can change content quickly and easily, add photographs and useful links to other sites, add news stories and tidy up loose ends, such as when staff or job titles change.

Drupal has developed thanks to the commitment and collaboration of a wide range of people across the world. This conference in Coventry in late August is for web developrs with a specific interest in creating sites for the voluntary sector. It's just £15 and is being organised by Illuminate ICT.

Our Drupal Conference | www.illuminateict.org.uk

How to get a free website

2008-07-30T06:16:00.001Z

A free series of online tutorials about how to use wordpress to get a FREE, easily updated website.

[Hint: you have to press the back button after watching each segment]

swict.com :||: the place for help when you're Stuck With ICT - WordPress Course

TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards

2008-07-07T09:28:00.001Z

Win £2,000 for your technology related project.

TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards

Upgrading to QuickBooks Pro 2008: A Warning

2008-07-02T22:16:00.001Z

Quickbooks is a very popular accounting package, often used by organisations that have graduated from using spreadsheets but who don't need the full power of Sage.

Given its popularity it's interesting to see 12 out of 12 stinking reviews on Amazon, including one that simply says 'Whatever you do don't upgrade to Quickbooks Pro 2008'. Take a look at the reviews to see why not.

Amazon.co.uk: QuickBooks Pro 2008: Software

Free manuals for open source products

2008-06-25T13:35:00.003Z

Floss Manuals is a great website that lets you build manuals for a wide range of free software. You can pick and choose which software you want to know about and it will build a manual that you can download as a pdf.

There are loads of free open source tools out there that can do the same thing as software you can pay for - free software available online you can download and use without paying a license fee. So far so good, but, unlike Microsoft and other standard suppliers, it can sometimes be hard to find user-friendly information about how to use it.

It's all very well installing a free copy of Open Office if you're confident about learning new software skills, but it's a lot harder for people who aren't happy clicking about trying to make it work. And there aren't that yet Dummies' Guides for even the most popular open source products.

That's why Floss Manuals is a great idea. It's a well-designed website that let's you select the products you want to know about and download pdfs of the manuals. Follow the link to see how it helps you get the most from OpenOffice, which is a free alternative to the suite of Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. OpenOffice manuals

SurveyMonkey is accessible

2008-06-25T11:26:00.001Z

Do you need to run online surveys? There are lots of free tools for building surveys on websites but one of the easiest to use and most popular is Survey Monkey. It's now been certified as fully accessible, which means it can be used by people who use screen readers, such as blind people. It has a lot of free features that can be used for smaller surveys or it can be rented cheaply by the month when you need to build bigger surveys.

SurveyMonkey.com is accessible

Big money for young people

2008-06-22T08:13:00.001Z

The Big Lottery Fund has announced £190m of funding to create new spaces for young people. Looks like a great new initiative but it will be interesting to see in what ways computers, the internet and other technologies feature in the projects that are funded.

It's often assumed that young people know everything about technology and that us adults are lagging far behind. My experience, however, is that many young people do not have access to laptops, wifi or home computers. They cannot afford them, or they can only use them at school, where they may be face all sorts of restrictions in their use.

They may be evolving massively muscular thumbs but beyond the social aspects of texting, mobiles phones and Instant Messaging there can be a distinct lack of opportunities for more meaningful use of new technology. They may also be short of teachers, parents or carers with enough confidence or creative skills to help them.

I did some work many years ago in Brighton Young People's Centre. They have had an IT suite for many years - originally ste up with UK Online funding - and recognise that although many kids have Playstations very few will have had a chance to 'play' with creative tools like video, music or the web.

The young people I worked with wanted to work together on a video project, or learn about music technology and make songs with their friends. What they needed was a space where they could access cameras, keyboards and editing software, which is those days was not available in schools.

More importantly they were lucky enough to be in a space where the youth workers considered these activities to be an important part of their work. They recognised that it help gives them confidence, build relationships and create stories which reflect their lives. It helps create the sort of buzz which draws in young people who are put off by formal education and can help tackle social exclusion.

They could build on their youth work training to learn relevant technical skills, or see when they needed to bring in experts to help with things like DJ skills, video editing or web design. In contrast to my work in schools at the time they seemed more open to these ideas than the formal education system, where technology was often seen as creating as many problems as it solved.

That was all before MySpace and bebo and IM and even texting, so the landscape has no doubt shifted enormously. There may be more ready access to the web but that brings new issues into play, such as personal safety and responsible uuse of social networks.

What hasn't changed is that young people will continue to benefit from access to high quality technology, supported by knowledgeable and supportive youth workers with relevant skills. I know there are lots of young people's projects that have seen how IT can help transform lives. Hopefully the BLF will see that and encourage applicants to think big when it comes using new technology.

myplace

Fundraising and the Internet

2008-06-19T09:16:00.005Z

Fundraising is the lifeblood of the sector, but how can the internet help? Well, it can help you with:

Research that supports your fundraising

Where’s the money?

Information to support my bids

Raising money from donors
Improving your fundraising skills

I compiled the following list of sites as part of a review of useful sites for a training course I'm planning. Although a lot of it may appear to be local information I'd suggest it all has some value wherever you work:

East Sussex Bidding Bulletin
The Bidding Bulletin is updated monthly and is the most comprehensive listing of current funding sources I have found anywhere in the country, including deadlines, contact details of all live funding pots. Mainly relevant to south east of England, but worth a look for any fundraiser.

West Sussex Grant Finder
Where’s the money? Use this free service to search for current grants information. Not 100% relevant to Brighton & Hove but better than anything we have online here.

Government Statistics
Relevant facts and figures emphasise the value of your work and add weight to your application. Now you can view all sorts of Government statistics - just put in your postcode and see the census data for your neighbourhood, plus loads of other useful information to cut and paste into your funding bids.
Take donations online at bmycharity
Take donations online – you pay a commission but can easily take donations and add tax relief without having an online banking facility. You can also try www.justgiving.com for the same service.

Popular local funders
Brighton Resource Centre maintains a list of popular funders, especially aimed at small local groups. Every CVS or local support group could do this quite easily - does yours?

Professional fundraising information
This is at the professional end of the fundraising spectrum but may alert you to training courses or new ideas.

Advice about how to make a bid
Lots of useful leaflets and information to download from the Funderfinfer website about how to do fundraising – from beginner to expert level.

You can also subscribe to various email alerts to receive news updates about fundraising by email. Keep your eye open as you surf these links and let the information come to you.

Do you get the most from Word?

2008-06-05T14:41:00.001Z

In the age of Google Docs, websites and wikis Microsoft Word may feel like a dinosaur to some, whilst many will be stumped by the bewildering range of functions and short cuts and menus it offers. It remains a valuable tool for many tasks, however, and not least when preparing and collaborating on long reports. You just have to put a bit of time into learning a few key tools.

As I'm running a course about report-writing next week I've been brushing up on a few of the basics - many of which I use all the time when compiling reports. Because of a background in desk top publishing I'm particularly keen on style sheets and all the automated functionality that flows from them - saving time and effort and bringing a professional-looking consistency to how your report is presented. Whichever function you favour you may need a bit of work to get it to do what you want, but once you do you'll never look back.

I've complied my top ten tips below, but along the way I found a very nice site that explains style sheets and other functions in a jargon-free way that is useful to beginners and experts alike.

My Top Ten Tips for Getting the Most from Word when Writing Reports

1    Start with an outline
Start building your report by laying out the bare bones using the Outline View, and then starting to add the flesh. Especially useful for planning and then reviewing the overall structure of your report as you go along.

2    Headers and Footers make the report look smart
Display the same piece of text, eg date, page number or title, on every page in the top and/or bottom margins. Another way of adding polish to your report, as well as making it easier for your reader to use.

3    Get to grips with style sheets
Style sheets are used to store formatting instructions for headings and paragraphs, which can then be easily applied to other paragraphs. It helps you produce professional-looking documents and can save you loads of time and effort if you know how to use them.

4    Use Outline Numbering
You can automatically add numbers to your headers as you create your report, and heading numbers will even update themselves if you move things around as your report takes shape.

5    Create a Table of Contents
Create a list of headings in a document that can be inserted anywhere in your document, and can be easily updated as you go along.

6    Use graphics
Photographs, logos and charts can bring the report to life. You can insert graphics into Word documents including graphs imported from Excel that you can update later. It is especially useful to learn how to make pictures appear exactly you want on the page.

7    Check spelling and grammar
Use the built in tools to highlight possible errors, and always leave plenty of time at the end to use the spell-checking tool to run through your final document.

8    Track other people’s changes
See the changes that have been made quickly and easily when you get a document back from someone else. You can run through a complex document easily accepting or rejecting suggested changes .

9    Create an Index
You can create and then update and edit an index containing key words and the pages where they can be found. This makes you look *really* clever...

10    Keep it simple
Use as few fonts and font styles as possible, don’t add unnecessary details, use graphics sparingly for maximum impact.

For more help about using Word try Shauna Kelly's site at www.ShaunaKelly.com

By the way I also found a lot of interesting articles foretelling the death of Word as Google rolls ouit its plans for Google Docs - here's a good one... MiramarMike.co.nz: Google Docs ... so what - the ONE reason why you should care

The fine art of making a presentation

2008-06-05T11:12:00.004Z

I've just stumbled across a wonderful example of how tools such as Powerpoint and graphs and charts can be a tool for powerful and highly effective communications. I urge you to watch it through to the end to remind you just what makes a great presentation work - and also because it's about world poverty and raises all sorts of questions about its causes and effects.

I'm preparing notes for a workshop on presentations, which will combine a session I run on the use of powerpoint with a workshop that someone else delivers that focuses on body language and confidence-building. We're taking the best bits from each to produce a two-day course for staff and volunteers from community and voluntary organisations in Brighton & Hove.

Whilst Powerpoint may be a staple tool of business there are many people in the voluntary sector who do not use it, and in fact are often anti-Powerpoint. This may be because they don't have access to the tools, or often because they feel an aversion to it - having suffered too many times at the hands of a poor quality presentation made worse by awful slideshows.

The availability of cheaper laptops and projectors means it is now becoming more common for people to use them - we hire them out at SCIP and have seen a massive change in the numbers being borrowed in the past few years. Today a new laptop plus projector may cost no more than about £700 , and it's a great tool for community work and outreach.

But, instead of being liberated by the opportunity to prepare and share information in such a flexible way there is still an underlying assumption that Powerpoint = boring, and an antipathy towards its use. Mainly this is because too many people have suffered as people use all the gadgets at their disposal without any consideration about how it helps tell their story. Rather than embrace the technology and use it as a tool it has become someting you have to apologise for.

I think this video shows how we need to look beyond the technology to see that it is the story and the storyteller that matter - but also how they can use the tools available to help you listen, learn and respond. It subtly underlines that you need to be in control of your tools - this is a master craftsman cleverly combining highly technical skills to make an incredibly powerful point.

TED | Talks | Hans Rosling: New insights on poverty and life around the world (video)

Microsoft donate software to UKonline Centres

2008-05-07T16:41:00.001Z

News from the ICT Champion in Yorkshire and Humberside of an announcement by Microsoft of donations to UK Online Centres. It includes a full suite of software and up to 50 user licenses, free of charge. Follow the link for more details.

Microsoft donations programme extended to non-charity UKonline Centres

Update on new support for voluntary sector

2008-05-07T16:27:00.001Z

It's all change at the top as a new set of national services start to roll out across the land, bringing a new range of support to the voluntary sector and the people who support it. It's intended to herald a new way of doing things after the first few years of ChangeUp, and includes the work of the existing regional ICT Champions. like me [hello].

Improving Support is a new CapacityBuilders-funded website that provides information about the nine National Support Services that replace the six Hubs. It only has basic information on it so far, as most of the services are only due to start up in earnest this summer, so there's not much about what they're going to do or how they're going to work. Some strands provide an overview of what they'll do over three years. Some have listed activities for the first year.

For example Volunteering will be led by Volunteering England, whose activities start with "research to identify the practical support that frontline organisations need." And the Collaboration workstream is led by bassac, which starts its activities by "developing the reference/advisory structures". Which is similar to ACEVO's first step, which is "Researching and scoping current provision to avoid re-inventing the wheel - and adding value to existing programme."

There is a sense of babies being lost with bath water if this sort of information is not available after the past few years of needs assessments, consortium development plans and seemingly endless surveys. But these are early days and there is also a lot of detail there about ambitions for new services and more targeted support than the Hubs provided.

So let's hope that this first phase is no more than a short initial scoping exercise. What we're waiting for is a coherent, dynamic, participative roll-out, with an army of eager beavers working across all nine workstreams, knitting together the work of over 20 national agencies to help deliver another round of change in the second tier.

Meanwhile the ICT Champions have started building a plan for the next three years. This will be based more or less on business as usual at a regional level but we hope to create a more coherent national plan and share information and ideas in a more focused way.

As the dust settles from the past few months of uncertainty we're expecting to sit in amongst this network of support and activity, translating and connecting between consortium-level organisations and the national support services. Any ideas and suggestions welcome.

improvingsupport.org.uk / welcome

Who will pay for digital inclusion?

2008-05-07T14:22:00.002Z

Good article in the Guardian about how to reach the 30% of people who don't have regular access to broadband or related digital technologies. Some don't want it of course, but many are prevented from having it through cost or lack of access.

The Digital Inclusion conference last week highlighted growing Government action in this field, linked to recent research activities funded through UK Online looking at the social and economic impact of digital inclusion projects. As the author of the article Michael Crossnotes it's not about giving things away to the poor and needy but tackling market failure in a service area which is entirely privately owned and run.

And as well as getting suppliers to play fair it's about a bit more joined up thinking about grant funding to actually get people in front of PCs and getting the help they need in their local communities.

At ground level SCIP works with many community groups who have suites of computers paid for by funders eager to hand over capital, but whose doors are shut because they can't get grants for the costs of keeping them running. Stuff like insurance, broadband connections, materials, let alone salaries and trainers' fees.

New UK Online funding was announced this week and seems to be headed in the right direction ie revenue funding and reasonable sized grants of up to £10k. Let's hope this is a sign that Government is realising what makes a difference at community level, as well as getting the big telecoms providers to put their weight behind solving the big problems.

Digital inclusion isn't just about playing Santa Claus | Technology | The Guardian

Do you Doodle?

2008-05-02T16:11:00.004Z

Do you ever have to organise meetings for lots of different people, and end up playing diary matching games by email for days on end? Some people use Outlook to find available dates, but more and more people are using the elegant Doodle.
To use Doodle just go to www.doodle.ch, post up a list of possible dates and invite people to visit the page you create. They can then indicate which dates and times they can make, without needing to log in. As people add their details the page notifies you which dates are the most popular.
It's free of charge, it's very simple and as well as scheduling meetings you can use it for other polls.

100 million therapy sessions?

2008-04-24T07:20:00.001Z

According to the New York Times [1] the makers of The Sims have now sold 100 million copies of what has become an iconic computer game. This is a game which is more popular with girls than boys and, according to its makers, is now being included in therapy sessions.
As the Head of the Sims Studio says in the NYT, many adults use the game like a diary, building an electronic version of the world based on their on own lives. "You get to tap into this wonderful childhood imaginary game, which is ‘What if I could create my own little world and all the people in it and watch them go through their business and jump in and change things when I want?’ That is a pretty personal fantasy.”
With the boom in Second Life and other avatar-based virtual worlds people are increasingly immersing themselves in versions of shared reality, which in some way reflect their frustrations with their real lives. According to the article, however, The Sims has failed to move online because people want to keep these fantasies to themselves.
This isn't a huge community-based environment but 100 million different worlds. Perhaps that's a better reflection for our fragmented communities and self-centred lifestyles? And maybe we're all set to become self-medicating therapists?

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[1] Story spotted on locomatrix.com

A search engine you can vote on

2008-04-23T08:30:00.001Z

Swicki is a new collaborative search engine, with one or two features that I like a lot, although it is still not the perfect customisable search engine for me.
Firstly it lets you select which websites it is searching. Rather than the whole web you can select up to 50 sites to get your results form - helping to focus on specific information, as well as helping to weed out the spammers and other search engines which can clog up search results.
Unfortunately it doesn't only bring results from your selection - it drops other results from the web beneath the first ten or so from your selections.
It is highly collaborative because anyone who uses the search engine can rank the results they get - and the higher ranking results start to move up the results for the next people who use the search engine. With many searches you can find too many similar references appearing - but using this ranking system can help sift through multiple results using other people's knowledge and preferences.
You can also add comments, which appear with the results. This is a good way of adding signposting to areas of particular interest, or warning of resources which don't deliver what it says on the box.
I've used it to make a search engine to help people from the voluntary and community sector find useful information about ICT. It searches key resources such as the ICT Hub Knowledgebase, TechSoup and similar sites. You can view it at http://community-ict-swicki.eurekster.com/
Not only does it work on it's own page but I've also added it to my blog - take a look on the right hand menu.
It's not the perfect customisable search engine yet. Ideally it would search only the sites you include, rather than the whole web as well. And it doesn't seem to have any keyword matching function which helps deliver specific results to match key words. But the comments and ranking features are very nicely done and show the way ahead for the next generation of knowledge management style search tools.
Take a look at other uses in the Swicki directory Swicki Directory

Marcus and his naked computer

2008-04-18T14:51:00.004Z

Marcus Pennell at SCIP prepared a Naked Computer for the Community Base Open Day on 17 April - an old PC stripped to the bare bones and running WIndows. Just to show how it all works.
click here to see it in the altogether

TB Alert and YouTube

2008-04-18T14:23:00.004Z

TB Alert is a charity based in the same building as SCIP. We had an open day here yesterday, with loads of people roaming around chatting to the 40 or so charities and voluntary organisations based here. We also had a film show all afternoon featuring various videos and films made by and about people from the building.
Two of the TB Alert staff are out in India at the moment so they broadcast their greetings via YouTube - a bit like This is Your Life. This was a great way of particpating in the day as well as teaching people more about their work.
Sadly the only technical glitch of the whole day happened when YouTube went down at the critical moment, leaving people here to use good old fashioned face-to-face presentation to fill the gap...
YouTube - TBAlert's Channel

Microsoft event for charities

2008-04-14T14:35:00.003Z

This upcoming event from NCVO and Microsoft UK is free to registered charities - registration opens next week.

Improving your productivity through technology
Opportunities for the voluntary and community sector
10th June, London

NCVO and Microsoft UK are hosting an interactive conference combining case studies, workshops and keynote speakers to explore the potential of ICT (Information and Communication Technology) for small and medium sized charities.

Understanding that complexity, resources and finances can hold technology development back, Microsoft and NCVO aim to introduce you to ways of accessing the latest technology through the help of a special donations scheme, enabling your organisation to achieve more.

The conference will include case studies from charitable organisations that demonstrate how they are already reaping the benefits from using the latest technology. The event will close with an informative session on ICT funding and how you can access technology donations through Microsoft UK.

This full day event is free of charge to all charity employees on a first come first served basis.
Workshops include:

Workshop 1: Costing and Funding ICT in your organisation

Workshop 2: Managing finances effectively using new technology

Workshop 3: Tips and tricks for setting up and managing an online community

Workshop 4: Managing a remote team - How technology can bring you together

Workshop 5: Finding your niche - how new media options can help you stand out to your supporters

Online registration will be open from 23rd April 2008 at http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032376570&Culture=en-GB <http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032376570&Culture=en-GB>
Louise Brown

Free Workshop: How can faith groups use ICT?

2008-04-09T13:45:00.003Z

How can faith groups use ICT to support their work? this workshop is aimed at people who are active as staff, volunteers or trustees in any faith-based group form the south east.

FREE WORKSHOP: Faith groups and ICT

Brighton, Friday 28 April 2008, 2-5pm

Venue: Community Base,Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG

HOW CAN ICT HELP FAITH GROUPS?
This free workshop is aimed at staff and volunteers who work as part of a faith-based organisation. It is not a technical session but is aimed at managers and decision-makers who want to know more about how computers and the internet can help their work.

The session will be delivered by Mark Walker and Lucian Borcanescu, who are the ICT Champions for the South East of England.

It will include:
- How can ICT help faith groups?
- Where to get help with ICT
- Budgeting and fundraising for ICT

For bookings please contact either Mark on 01273 234049 or by email at mark.walker@scip.org.uk or Lucian at Lucian@clusterit.co.uk

WOW! The language of the web?

2008-04-01T08:27:00.002Z

I ran workshop last week for museum staff and trustees about how they can use the web. As well as being a way of sharing their collections every one of them saw it as a way of increasing visitors to their museum and wanted to know how to use it in their marketing activities. The pressentation is posted below.
The museums ranged from small independents, run for free entirely by volunteers, to a large visitor attraction which houses one of the largest collections of vintage cars in the world. The people attending ranged in age from 17 to 70 with a mix of Trustee, manager and student volunteer.
The general position was that the people in the room felt very little control over what was on the site or what it looked like, felt confused by how to update it and were at the mercy of techies about what they could and couldn't do on their website.
Having discussed the advent of the content management system we looked at everyone's sites - screengrabs in the presentation.
This revealed the usual ragbag of designs and styles. Some were more elegant than others, some were more complete or up to date than others. One was designed by the Chairman's son, whilst another cost about £20k, including a first version rejected at the last minute which had cost £10k!
Everyone had an excuse for something not being right on their site, or what they wanted improved, but few felt confident enough to comment on anyone else's site. I was happy to roll through, making positive and negative comments, and suggesting improvements, but it was a far from particpative part of the session.
I realised that many people feel alienated from the web as a medium - they were all regular users of it but lack a language with which to interact fully with it. These are people who have adopted to pseudo-business language of the current voluntary scetor - happy to talk about outputs and objectives and mission - but are feel unable to say that a site looks 'old-fashioned' or is 'basically okay but needs a few more pictures'.
The closest they got was at the start when I asked what they wanted from the day. Amongst various individual issues all agreed that their site needed a bit more 'wow' - and I soon realised that was about as articulate as they could be about what makes a website work.
It made me think we need to include similar discussions in all workshops - helping to build confidence by leading discussion as an 'expert' whilst making sure that people learn a language in which to express their ideas and begin to take control.

| View

A simple guide to writing

2008-03-28T10:47:00.002Z

I'm preparing a workshop about Writing Reports for Voluntary and Community Organisations, which will combine writing skills with how to get the most from Word and Excel.
It's part of ongoing work to embed IT skills within mainstream community training courses and is based on a successful course I've run a few times about How to Draw Graphs and Charts and Include Them in your Reports combined with training run by Working Together Project about writing skills.
Along the way I found a great site called Writing for Change about writing reports, produced in a past life by Becky Faith, one of SCIP's trustees who is currently part of Tactical Tech.
It's a simple site that's easy to navigate with some great tips.

Save money, improve your service and keep people happy

2008-03-13T17:04:00.002Z

There's a really useful new article by Simon Davey on the ICT Hub website that explains how to plan your IT training programme. It suggests a step by step process for reviewing and planning your training as well as linking to some excellent free resources.

A lot of staff and volunteers struggle to get to grips with computers and new technology, which means that investment in hardware or software can take a long time to be repaid. Training is a way of investing in people instead, and empowering them to get the most from the resources available to them.

Training Action Plan: ICT Hub

Rural ICT Conference

2008-03-05T14:08:00.001Z

Lackham House in Wiltshire is the beautiful setting for a very successful conference looking at rural issues relating to ICT
Several people were there from the south east and it was good to catch up with others from across the country

Opening of Phoenix IT centre

2008-02-27T14:18:00.001Z

Paul Tilley [second right], chair of TWIG Tarner Wide Internet Group and Helen Milner [second left], MD of UK Online, open the new computer room in a small community centre in central Brighton.
SCIP has been a partner in the development of a project which has helped set up and develop a number of similar facilities as part of UK Online Social Impact Demonstration project
Top news for local people in some of the hardest to reach groups

is it worth using social networks for fundraising?

2008-02-21T16:40:00.002Z

Lots of people are talking about using sites such as MySpace, YouTube and Facebook as a way for charities and campaigning organisations to link up with supporters. This may be a new channel for networking with existing supporters, or a way of recruiting new supporters, through recommendations and online connections.
Such social networks are free to the user, and can be appealing as a way of reaching a new demographic mix. As with online worlds such as Second Life the yoof that supposedly lurk in such sites are the donors of tomorrow and are like gold dust.
But what does it cost and is it a good use of your time? Even if you know what you're doing you can spend hours keeping your profile up to date, adding news and chasing down new contacts.
Justin Perkins at Care2 has done some serious work on whether you can calculate the return on investment in time and effort. for many small groups it will best to find a volunteer to explore this option, but for larger charities, who are already investing heavily in online fundrasing tactics, this is a serious question, which weighs the short term costs of the time spaent against the medium and long term risks of NOT doing it.
Find out more and try the calculator at http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator

How to Choose a Database Workshop

2008-02-21T16:20:00.004Z

Last week's workshop was a great success. Over 30 people from across the region attended the session that was held in Community Base in Brighton.
Mark Walker provided an introduction to the key issues when choosing a database, and 13 suppliers were on hand to show their products and talk to delegates about their needs.
Some of the key points made were:

the person taking a lead needs to be a senior manager, not a techie
a technical person can help with the detailed discussions, and could be a volunteer
be very clear about your requirements from the start
talk to lots of suppliers and ask to test their productsremember that the reporting may be the most important requirement - it needs to be easy to get informatioin out, not just easy to put it in.

A copy of the presentation is available from the SCIP website.
Given the success of the session it is likely to be repeated during the summer - please contact Mark Walker at SCIP if you would like to told when this happens.

If a picture paints a thousand words..

2008-02-20T11:37:00.002Z

One of SCIP's Directors works for Tactical Tech, an organisation based here in Brighton that provides information and support to NGOs around the globe.
It's most recent publication is a great free guide to visualising information - how to get your message across in pictures. It's not a techie guide but provides pointers and examples as the first step in preparing reports or flyers or posters.
You can download it from the Tactical Tech site
Visualizing Information for Advocacy: An Introduction to Information Design | Tactical Technology Collective

Rural ICT Conference

2008-02-13T16:36:00.003Z

Do you work with groups in a rural area? Please share this email with relevant organisations in your networks.

= = =
REMINDER:: Rural ICT Conference ::

9.30am - 3.30pm, Wednesday 5th March 2008
Lackham Countryside Centre, Lacock, Wiltshire, SN15 2NY
The one-day Rural ICT Conference will provide practical advice and information about how to get the most from computers and the internet. Topics covered workshops will include:

Rural Barriers to New Technologies
Rural Broadband
Homelessness and ICT in Rural Areas
ICT for Development Workers

This event is funded by the ICT Hub, through Capacity Builders, and is supported by BT and South West Regional Development Agency.

Fees range from £20 to £50. Bursaries are still available and there are subsidies to cover accommodation costs.

More details, including a booking form, at the ICT Hub website

How the internet is being used in the American election

2008-02-12T09:45:00.001Z

Antony Mayfield lives and works in Brighton and has posted a couple of examples of YouTube videos to show the ways the internet is being used in the US elections. One of them is a great Bollywood cut and paste job featuring Obama, another is a cringy mockumentary about Hillary.
I know these sorts of activities can still seem very distant when it comes to grassroots community organisations but the technology needed to produce these videos like these now sits on many people's desktop.
If the biggest political process on the planet has space for this sort of stuff then it can't be long before we see more and more examples from activists campaigning about local issues.
Open (finds, minds, conversations)...: All the TechPresidents

Google Grant programme for the UK

2008-01-30T13:06:00.001Z

Google has launched a grants programme that provides free use of its Adsense
advertising tools. That's the way that the adverts appear alongside the
search results on the Google home page.
It means you can use it to generate extra viewers for your website and
therefore raise your profile and help raise funds. You'll need to know a bit
more about how it's advertising tools work but it's pretty simple there's
lots of help available.
More details at http://www.google.co.uk/grants/

New site for Voluntary Sector and Charity Jobs

2008-01-28T17:24:00.001Z

The latest third sector job vacancies can be found at Good Moves, brought to you by a clutch of voluntary sector organisations. Still seems very Scotland specific, and the interface is not the best but recruitment advertising is big business so let's hope this brings some extra cash into the sector rather than the hands of private publishers.
Goodmoves Voluntary Sector and Charity Jobs

ICT Hub National Awards 2008: ICT Hub

2008-01-28T12:32:00.001Z

Nominate yourself, or someone you work with, for the ICT Hub National Awards 2008.
Categories include Most innovative use of ICT, Best use of ICT Accessibility; Delivering social or environmental benefits through ICT; Most improved ICT Management; and individual contribution to ICT in the voluntary sector.
Closing date for entries is 8 February 2008

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Do you use Open Source software?

2008-01-07T17:20:00.001Z

The Nonprofit Open Source Initiative (NOSI) has launched an annual survey,
to understand and track trends of the use of free and open source [FOSS] in
the not for profit sector. It will take about 5-10 minutes to fill out.
The survey is here:
http://survey.dev.mayfirst.org/index.php?sid=75631&lang=en

News and events from the ICT Hub

2008-01-07T13:57:00.001Z

Latest news and information is now available from the ICT Hub, including

ICT Hub Knowledgebase Survey
Get Free IT Help from iT4Communities
New Media experts online at the ICT Hub Café
Circuit Rider – news digest
Circuit Rider – Principles
ICT Hub National Awards
ICT Hub National Events
ICT Hub Specialist Infrastructure Events - regional

Download it now as a pdf

New Circuit Rider 'pledge' announced

2008-01-07T12:02:00.001Z

Lasa and the ICT Hub have launched a statement of the Principles of a
Circuit Rider and invited ICT suppliers to sign up to it. The principles are designed to promote best practise amongst IT support providers and raise the profile of Circuit Riders in the UK.

There are ten pledges such as: "I commit to:
1. Recognise and respect the characteristics (vision, values, culture,
funding, mission, beneficiaries and services) of the particular VCS
organisation I work with and adapt my approach appropriately.
2. Work honestly and transparently, declaring any conflicts of interest
(including reselling activities) and be prepared to say when a non-ICT
solution is the best course of action.
3. Use non-technical language and examples to help organisations understand
ICT and their choices."

... and so on .Find out more about Circuit Riders and read the full set of Principles at
www.lasa.org.uk/circuitriders/principles.shtml

EVENT: Arts and ICT

2008-01-07T11:15:00.000Z

The ICT Hub and Voluntary Arts England are running a one day event to help voluntary arts and crafts organisations make the best use of technology, both in the running of their organisation or group and in the delivery of the arts and crafts. This event is taking place in Birmingham on 13th February 2008 from 10.30am – 4.00pm. Prices range from £0-£50.
More info at the ICT Hub website <http://www.icthub.org.uk/events/a_wider_embrace_increasing_participation.html>

Online Trustee Learning from the Governance Hub

2007-12-13T14:01:00.001Z

A useful resource for trustees, produced by the Governance Hub

TrusteElearning - online Trustee Learning

IT for communities awards ceremony

2007-11-29T18:55:00.001Z

Congratulations to the following people from the south east whose contribution was acknowledged at the IT4C awards. ceremony
Gary Axford Riverside Centre Newport isle of wight - winner best IT volunteer
Pip Jones Community Base Brighton
Steven Bowers Sally Grey berkshire county blind society
Paul Campbell and Sevenoaks area mind - Winner best volunteering project - innovation
This is an excellent way of raising the profile of how volunteers with IT skills can deliver change in community organistions - check out the IT4C website at www.it4communities.org.uk for more details

= = =
Mark Walker, Project Manager, SCIP
Regional ICT Champion, South East of England

SCIP: IT Services for Charities and Communities
Community Base, Queens Road, Brighton BN1 3XG
T: 01273 234049 M: 07956 627116
E: mark@scip.org.uk F: 01273 234731
Blog: www.scipmark.org.uk

TV voting scandals and poor e-democracy both destroy trust

2007-11-14T23:46:00.001Z

SCIP's Chair Dan Jellinek runs a major annual conference on eDemocracy. I saw him in the pub last week - the day after the event - and he was saying that his keynote speaker, Prof Stephen Coleman of Leeds University, had kicked things off with a great speech. He used comparisons with the scandal about voting on Blue Petter and Ant and Dec to raise questions about how seriously government is taking the use of technology.
Given that the event is popular with government officials, from all levels of government, it was heartening to hear of an academic forcing them to look beyond the technology to the respect for the individuals. He makes the point that the case for the role of the web in Government has now been well and truly made, and that emphasis now must be on public organisations using it to deliver real change.
You can hear/see a fascinating interview with Prof Coleman captured by Dave Wilcox later that day, hosted on Dave's site:

Designing for Civil Society: TV voting scandals and poor e-democracy both destroy trust

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Review of entry level CMS

2007-11-14T23:34:00.001Z

If you know what Drupal and Joomla are you'll appeciate this review of SNews, which seems to be a useful addition for entry level sites, especially if they aren't blogs.
If you don't know what I'm talking about I'd be very surprised if you decide to click through to it.

‘websites powered by sNews’

Laura’s Notebook | Technology for Non-profit Organisations, Social Media and Website Design » Blog Archive » sNews - an easy and simple web publishing tool for non profit organisations

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Accessibility resource

2007-10-08T17:29:00.000Z

I was reminded recently about My Web My Way, an excellent resource for anyone who wants to adapt a computer for someone with special needs. Developed jointly by the BBC and AbilityNet, who helped set up and train an network of accessibility champions across England.
More information on the BBC website at http://www.bbc.co.uk/accessibility/

Non profit marketing

2007-09-27T09:25:00.000Z

Behind the jargon this seemed to me to be a very astute extract from a wikipedia article about marketing for not for profit organisations.
I'm doing some homework as I prepare a marketing plan for netgain - a training and support programme to help organisations with their ICT planning that scip starts running next month.
The turbulent environment comment seemed very pertinent as funding priorities are announced by capacity builders and the lottery - with no mention of ICT in either.

=

Marketing Objectives for non-profit-making organizations

In the case of non-profit organizations the objectives may be less than clear. Keith Blois suggested five main reasons for the differences from `commercial' organizations:[5]

1. Ambiguous Goals [more actors and groups of actors are involved]

2. Lack of Agreement in Means-End Relationships [even where there is consensus on the goal there may be disagreement on how to get there]

3. Environmental Turbulence [non-profit organizations seem to be exposed more to turbulence than commercial ones]

4. Unmeasurable Outputs [unfortunately, by definition, non-profit organizations do not have the classically convenient simplicity of `bottom-line profit']

5. The Effects of Management Intervention are Unknown [the lack of precision caused by factors 1-4 is problem enough, but the `culture' seems to add further barriers to managing these organizations]

Even so, Kotler and Andreasen suggested some possible objectives for such organizations:[6]
1. Surplus Maximization [equivalent to profit maximization]
2. Revenue Maximization [as for profit-making organizations]
3. Usage Maximization [maximizing the numbers of users and their usage]
4. Usage Targeting [matching the capacity available]
5. Full Cost Recovery [breaking even]
6. Partial Cost Recovery [minimizing the subsidy]
7. Budget Maximization [maximizing what is offered]
8. Producer Satisfaction Maximization [satisfying the wants of staff]

Full article and references at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing_plan

Next phase of support for sector

2007-09-26T16:16:00.001Z

The next phase of support for the voluntary sector has been mapped out in the prospectus for the national support servcie being funded by Capacity Builders.

There is no explicit mention of ICT but plenty of places where the use of the internet and computers will support activities, such as communications and performance development.

Much more about this in future I'm sure...

Capacitybuilders website

technorati tags:icthub, scipmark, ict champion

what's stopping us from working smarter

2007-09-25T20:08:00.001Z

An article in Living IT magazine suggests there are a number of barriers to green computing and remote working. This relates to the business community, but I wonder whether the picture is any better in the world of not for profits?
I would certainly expect charities and voluntary organisations to be more prepared to support part time workers and those who wish to spend at least some of their working week at home. But whether they will be investing in technology for remote working is much less likely.

Culture barrier for remote working and green computing: Living IT: Making the most of business technology

technorati tags:scipmark, ict champion, green computing

Volunteer needed at The Bridge

2007-09-06T15:52:00.000Z

The Bridge Education Centre at Moulsecoomb, in Brighton, would like to recruit the services of a volunteer for 1 day per week that could offer IT technical support. They will provide to this person one to one support and access to training.
They are a small charity Community Education Centre based in Moulsecoomb and as such can not afford to pay for technical support.
Please direct enquiries to Sharon Maloney Volunteer Co-ordinator on either 01273 294929 or via email to eb_bridge@yahoo.co.uk marked attention to Sharon Maloney.

I should mention that we worked with their previous volunteer, who was unemployed and looking for work in the IT business and he now has a support job in the IT business.

FREE Media Training in Brighton

2007-09-03T22:02:00.001Z

'Introduction to Media' Training seminar - Old Ship Hotel, Brighton, 12th September, from 2:00pm - 5:00pm.

London based charity Media Trust is running a project called Improving Reach to provide FREE media and communications support for small to medium sized charities and voluntary organisations that work with the following priority groups:
- Faith;
- Black and Minority Ethnic;
- Migrant and/or Refugee; and
- Isolated Rural;
They're holding an 'Introduction to Media' training seminar at the Old Ship Hotel in Brighton on 12th September, from 2:00pm - 5:00pm to help organisations improve their media and communications needs. It is pitched at an introductory level giving participants the skills and self-confidence to gain positive coverage in the media and to produce better promotional
materials.
The training is free and they can cover travel expenses if receipts are provided. If you would be interested in attending then please contact them on 0207 874 7653 or check out their website
www.mediatrust.org/training-events/improving-reach.

Dirk Slater - Tactical Tech

2007-09-02T20:15:00.001Z

I met Dirk a week or so ago - he's based in Brighton working Tactical Tech, which helps NGOs across the world make good use of ICT. Here's an interview with him on a great blog called Luck of Seven
episode 11 - Tactical Technology Collective | on the luck of seven

technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark, circuit riders