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