Funders needs a sense of balance

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

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

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

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

Win £2,000 for your technology related project.

TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards

Upgrading to QuickBooks Pro 2008: A Warning

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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?

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?

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?

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?

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

[1] Story spotted on locomatrix.com

A search engine you can vote on

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

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

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

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&amp;Culture=en-GB>
Louise Brown

Free Workshop: How can faith groups use ICT?

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?

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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..

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

A useful resource for trustees, produced by the Governance Hub

TrusteElearning - online Trustee Learning

IT for communities awards ceremony

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'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

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

How to reduce ICT carbon footprint

A report by Headstar - run by SCIP's Chair Dan Jellinek - shows that the public sector is becoming increasingly concerned about the carbon footprint of its ICT operations.

Green Datacentres Vital to Reducing ICT Carbon Footprint

technorati tags:scipmark, ict champion

Nominate your site for an Award

Nominate your site now for the Brighton & Hove Web Awards 2007. Sponsored by local newspaper the Argus this unique event has been run by SCIP for the past seven years.
It is open to any site which is built in or is about Brighton & Hove. Winners are picked by various judges and voting by the general public, with the winners announced in front of 200 people at a ceremony in November.
Brighton and Hove Web Awards 2007

technorati tags:scipmark, brightonwebawards

Net.weight project site

I'm working as a member of the team at Brighton University on the Net.Weight project, which is looking at how ICT can help people manage their weight. It's funded by the Department of Health and led by Professor Flis Henwood, with colleagues from a across a range of disciplines.
Lots more details about what we're doing and how the project is going can be found on the rather lovely new site.

technorati tags:scipmark, netweight

International Circuit Rider organisation

Had a good meeting with Dirk Slater from Tactical Tech which is now based in Brighton - and Bangalore.
Dirk is a former New Yorker now enjoying life in sunny Brighton. His background is in community activism, having helped build and run Circuit Rider projects in the US and in so-called transition countries - usually former communist countries - and especially through work with Open Society Institute. OSI is funded mainly through money from George Soros - who got very rich form currency deals on Black Monday back in the late 80s.
Having had the connection made via Simon Pavvitt, ex of LASA but now in Vancouver, we realised we had lots to talk about in terms of the combination of community activity, ICT development and social enterprise. This included the fact that I've previously worked on an OSI project in Veszprem, Hungary, with Dr Peter Day, one of SCIP's Directors.
INterestingly Tactical Tech is changing its work, and is now mainly focused on the use of information within activist networks, although it also has a strong background in Open Source and produces a great collection of Open Source software in the form of NGO in a box. I was interested to learn that their focus is moving towards what you can do with ICT, rather than how to keep it working, as this echoes some of SCIP's early sentiments.
It was great to meet someone so in tune with what SCIP is trying to achieve, and I'm sure there's lots more we can share and learn from each other.

IT Volunteer Awards - £250 prizes

The IT Volunteer Awards are designed to reward charities and volunteers working together to improve the way charities work with technology - with £250 Cash Awards to be won.
The Awards are open to any charities and voluntary and community organisations of all sizes who have worked or are working with an IT Volunteer. The charities stand to win a £250 cash award plus increased publicity which will go some way in raising the profile of your organisation.
Closing date for applications is 6th October 2007. Information on how to make a nomination can be found on the iT4C website:

http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/awards.jsp

Winners will be announced at an Awards event and reception to be held on the evening of the 29 November 2007 at the Information Technologists’ Company Hall, in London. You can attend for free and to book visit:

http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/Awards2007/bookingform.jsp

technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark

How are you performing?

Not another Viagra spam message but a quiz on the rather elegant Performance Hubv website, which I found very useful.

Performance Hub | Learn more | Improving performance | Performance quiz

technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark

Funding for ICT Projects

ICT Hub Unmet Needs Fund 2007
The ICT Hub Unmet Needs fund is now open for applications - to further deliver on the mission of the ICT Hub in “improving voluntary and community sector ICT infrastructure so that organisations are enabled to achieve their missions more efficiently and effectively through the better use of ICT”.
We are looking to fund ideas that are innovative, scalable, sustainable, realistic and can be used as examples of excellence and support the ICT needs of voluntary and community organisations now and leave a lasting impact for the future.
These projects should be able to demonstrate impact in a short space of time and could inform funders of potential areas for further funding or to encourage others in taking further and sustaining.
We will only be funding ICT ideas that are not covered by any of the existing ICT Hub core funded projects or commissions and we won't be able to provide support just to keep existing projects running.
The fund is £50,000 from which we would expect to fund 4 or 5 projects all of which must be completed by 31st March 2008.
You can submit applications to the fund now up to the closing date of 5pm on September 17th 2007.
Details of projects we have funded in the past, the application process and to download the application form can be found on our website at
http://www.icthub.org.uk/commissioning/Unmet_Need_Fund.html.

technorati tags:ict champion, scipmark, funding

New ICT Guide 'not bad'

Grant in the SCIP office has flicked through the Guide and says that most of it is 'not bad'. And he's read lots of books so he'd know.

Guide to Managing ICT

I've been working on a new Guide for the ICT Hub since last September - and now it's finally been published. Here's the officical blurb about it:

"A Guide to Managing ICT in the Voluntary and Community Sector

This in-depth guide covers all aspects of managing information and communications technology. It contains over 100 pages of accessible information that is useful for anyone whatever your level of technical knowledge."

Available from the ICT Hub website: Publications: ICT Hub

technorati tags:scipmark, scip news, icthub, nfptechuk

Open Source: NGO in a box

A whole load of selected software built around particular tasks. This is a great way of trying Open Source - I especially like the How to Guides, that you can donwload as a pdf. All software is also available to download in a bundle.

technorati tags:ICT champion, scipmark, FOSS

Accessibility Technology Event

This may be worth a look - don't know how much the paid for sessions cost though...

+++Techshare Expo 2007
- The biggest ever European exhibition on access to the information society by people with disabilities
- Free entry for all, pre-registration now open
- Runs 4-5 October 2007 at award-winning London venue
- Please promote to your public networks http://www.techshare-expo.com/

Techshare Expo 2007 is a new showcase for products and services helping people with disabilities participate fully in the information age.

From the internet to home computers, educational technologies, video games, digital TV and mobile phones - Techshare Expo 2007 will be a showcase for products, services, tips and techniques.

Entrance is absolutely free and open to all, and E-Access Bulletin readers are urged to pre-register today for this event. And if you are an organisation with communication channels to the public and people with disabilities who are your service users, please do promote the exhibition widely - everyone is welcome.

Pre-register today at:
http://www.techshare-expo.com/

PLEASE NOTE: this exhibition is running alongside the revamped, comprehensive Techshare conference, hosted by the RNIB for professionals in the field, which does have an admittance charge: for more information and a full speaker programme for the conference see www.techshare.org.uk
If you are attending the Techshare 2007 conference, there is no need to separately pre-register for the free 'Techshare Expo 2007' exhibition.

Good day in Ely

Had a meeting in Ely, Cambridgeshire, on Monday with some lovely people from around the country to swap top tips on running a social enterprise ICT support service for the voluntary sector. Nice cathedral innit?
This is the first post I've sent to my blog from my Blackberry - which is clever I suppose...

Brighton & Hove Web Awards 2007

We're finalising details of categories and sponsors but you can already nominate your site for this year's Brighton & Hove Web Awards. These are organised by SCIP as a showcase for lcoal web sites, helping to raise awareness across the community of just what's on the web.

See www.brightonwebawards.co.uk for more details

Regional Map

Community-based ICT projects and contacts I've found so far, shown on a Google Map
Link to my Google Map

technorati tags:ICT Champion, scipmark, ICT South East

Friends Centre and SCIP training

Good meeting with Juliet and Chris at the Friends Centre in Brighton. We talked about the FC's current strategy and I explained some of what is going on at SCIP. We also covered some ideas about links which could be useful in my Champion role.

In particular we discussed the continuation of the current contract SCIP holds with Friends Centre, which ends at the end of the month. We've been struggling to hit targets, and had considered stopping this work.

Luckily FC is interested in use the money to do some other work, especially if it helps develop their partnership with us and Working Together Project. Suggestions included:

• an edemocracy-related project, linked to the Brighton and Hove issues forum, which SCIP help set up and now runs
• joint work on newsletter or web site production with a neighbourhood group
• developing new courses, as a pilot for our BASIS funded work with Working Together Project

Spoke to Paul at WTP and he's interested so we'll meet in early September to see what we want to do.

technorati tags:scip, scipmark

UK Online

Have now contacted Sarah Bridgeman at UK Online - she's the regional coordinator and I've bumped into her a few times in different projects.

I'm keen to get SCIP set up as a net:gain centre, so I'll be applying for UK Online Centre status. She handles the process and seemed confident we'd get through it okay, so that's great.

And we're meeting up next week to talk about regional connections.

Capacity Builders draft framework proposals

Prepare to say goodbye to hubs, and hello to national service centres - and ICT no longer out on its own but part of the performance theme. Capacity Builders has reviewed the current Hubs and proposed new themes and a new way of encouraging joined up working.

Click here to download the document

technorati tags:ICT Champion SE, changeup, scipmark

ethical shoes

Worn Again make recycled trainers and other products, put together in China using ethical methods - some nice designs including some made form firemean's trousers...

our story | Worn Again

technorati tags:social enterprise, trainers

some ICT related docs on the RAISE website

Index of /changeup/Docs/EGP

    not sure whether I should be able to see this directory but it has some useful docs in it

technorati tags:ict champion se, ict hub, nfptechuk

East Kent CVS

Report about ICT Support Services for vol and comm orgs produced by East Kent CVS in January 2006.

Useful insight into common problems with one or two suggestions that caught my eye:

- engaging with businesses at a local level

- buying in bulk via infrastructure orgs

- need to build knowledge of ICT strategy at CVS level

Available from theRAISE website at http://preview.tinyurl.com/2y268f

technorati tags:ICT champion SE, ict hub, scipmark, nfptechuk

South East regional contact for capacity builders

kat.pearce@capacitybuilders.org.uk

Capacitybuilders - Regions

    in case you didn't know, it's currently:

email: kat.pearce@capacitybuilders.org.uk
tel: 07789 171631

technorati tags:scipmark, ict champion

Change Up for the better?

Directory of Social Change Editorial
The Directory of Social Change remains unconvinced by the achievements of ChangeUp so far, as well as challenging the processes and assumptions that have underpinned it.

The article refers to the Capacity Builders consultation process that is now underway and hopes that it may help formulate a considered review of the successes and faiilures of hubs, infrastructure and all the other jargon that dominates a certain layer of the voluntary and community sector [hint: it's not the layer that that delivers the servcies and support in our communities].

technorati tags:scipmark, changeup

HAKIT Taster Courses

A good example of taster courses runing in a community IT centre in Hangleton & Knoll, in north Hove. NB includes creche places.

HAKIT COMPUTER COURSES

The following two hour taster courses will take place during July

Digital Art

This course concentrates on the manipulation of graphics and digital images to produce designs for any project – from calendars to book covers.

Hangleton Community Centre, Thursday 12 July 10-12

Introduction to Digital Photography

This course will give you an idea on using a digital camera, how to take photos and put them on the computer ready for printing and editing.

St Richards Church & Community Centre, Friday 6^th July 10-12

Keyboard

Learn how to find your way around the keyboard and use the mouse effectively.

Hangleton Community Centre, Wednesday 4^th July 10-12

Internet & Email

Is aimed at people who have used a computer before and are able to create and manage files and folders. It is for anyone interested in learning about sending and receiving emails, attaching files to emails and being able to find information on the World Wide Web for a work or home situation. This is complementary to Genealogy.

Hangleton Community Centre, Monday July 2 10-12

Intro to Computers

Is aimed at people who haven’t used a computer before and want to find out the basics.

St Richards Church & Community Centre, Tuesday 10 July 10-12

Excel

It is aimed at people with some computer experience. The course will cover data entry; formatting; spreadsheet manipulation (i.e. column width adjustment); simple and more complex formulas and creating charts.

St Richards Church & Community Centre, Monday 9^th July 6.30

Genealogy

How to go about tracing a family tree using the internet and other local resources, bring along family info with you to this session.

St Richards Church & Community Centre, Monday July 2 1 -3pm

Adobe Photoshop

is a professional digital editing program that enables the user to create and manipulate images on a computer in a variety of ways. You will learn skills such as re-sizing, cropping, colour correction, image repair, red eye correction and much more

Hangleton Community Centre, Tuesday 3^rd July 6.30-8.30

MySpace

Finding out the different places to make your own website or community information space

St Richards Church & Community Centre, Wednesday 11^th July 6.30-8.30

ENROLMENT DAY

Please let us know if Creches are needed

TUESDAY 5^TH JUNE 10AM-MIDDAY AT HANGLETON COMMUNITY CENTRE, HARMSWORTH CRESCENT

TUESDAY 5^TH JUNE 6PM- 8PM AT ST.RICHARDS CHURCH AND COMMUNITY CENTRE

The price for each session is £2 for more information call Ruth 821370

technorati tags:SCIP, ICT Champion

My Google Coop Search Engines

Google Co-op - Custom Search Engine to search health information in Brighton & Hove

The [relatively new] Google Coop brings the power of the Google Search Appliance into the public domain and can be used for free for not for profit purposes.

The Google Search Appliance [GSA] is the tool that powers the p2b.net search engine that I have helped develop in Brighton & Hove. It is a federated search tool that can be programmed to search specific URLs, down to docuent level.

The license for the GSA cost £60k for three years use, and when we bought in late 2004 it was the only real commercial option available from Google - athough others were beginning to develop similar products.

Now the Google Coop brings very similar power to your fingertips, for free. I recommend a tour to see what it can do.

technorati tags:scipmar, p2b.net, search engines, civic knowledge

search engine for children

Quintura for Kids

This is a search engine designed for children, with safe filters and an attempt at to ceate a child-friendly interface. Lots of nice features, especially the floating thesaurus that moves a you hover on keywords, but I really don't like the graphic style they use.

   

technorati tags:p2b, scip, scipmark, search engines