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Dear Miles,
As someone with an interest in voluntary and community sector ICT we hope you find our monthly London ICT e-bulletin useful. You can also forward it to a colleague or unsubscribe at any time.
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Marathon effort
Ian Goodman of the Information Systems Team at Lasa is running this year's London Marathon for our friends at LVSC, which is in its centenary year. Find out more about supporting Ian and LVSC.
Join in the discussion
In the Bulletin we will normally have one or two discussion points which can be followed up by Bulletin subscribers over on the Knowledgebase Forums - we encourage all Bulletin subscribers to join in and take forward the ongoing debates.
Lasa Information Systems Team
In this London ICT e-bulletin for April 2010:
ict news
Website report, children and social networking, TPS update, Idealware social media survey, learning technology benchmarks, fundraising technology study.
IT volunteering, NetSquared, Silver Surfers, development workers event, digital inclusion, communications strategies, Media Trust, Idealware, Spiceworks.
Internet awards, Children In Need.
Social media guide, Google grants, Suppliers Directory listed, guide to servers, web accessibility and digital economy bill.
Troubleshooting networks, email newsletters, support and how much to pay for it.
File converter, backing up cloud apps, online OCR, synching files and Huddle add-in.
Web page usability, managing listservs, virtual conferencing, cloud hype.
Website usage report.
Charity websites do not make best use of technology, says report
Third Sector Online reports that analysis of charity websites by the consultancy Precedent says they are poor campaigning tools and often fail to use the most effective web technologies. The assessment of 60 charity websites with annual incomes ranging from about £100,000 to more than £10m, found they often lacked basic information about the charity and appeared to have little overall strategy. You can download the report direct from Precedent (click on reports).
Too young for social networking?
Some scientists are worried about children using social networking sites at an early age but as the company behind Moshi Monsters in Battersea is discovering, the social networking websites are increasing in popularity. Watch the BBC news report.
Charities can call supporters registered with TPS
Third Sector Online reports that charities can make fundraising calls to supporters registered with the Telephone Preference Service if they believe the supporter would be unlikely to object to such calls, the Information Commissioner's Office has confirmed.
Social media survey
Idealware needs your help! If your organisation is using social media (Facebook, Twitter, blogs, MySpace, LinkedIn, video or photo sharing sites, or something else you consider social media) in any way, can you fill out a quick survey about what you're doing and how it's working?
Benchmarking charity use of learning technology
A report on a learning technology benchmark study undertaken by the Charity Learning Consortium (pdf download, 547KB – site requests registration) has been published. CLC wanted to see how innovatively charities are thinking about skills for staff and volunteers and the extent of technology use.
CAF launches charity fundraising technology study
Technology charity CTT reports that the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) has commissioned an investigation into how technology can be used to improve charity fundraising through gift aid.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
- Getting a website - introduction to a series of articles on planning an online presence
- Fundraising software
events, training & learning
19 April -
iT4Communities "Good practice in
IT volunteering and mentoring" @ WCIT, EC1.
An afternoon
seminar for IT volunteers, the community organisations that use them,
and the mentors who support them. Booking is free.
4 May - NetSquared Net Tuesday - David Turner on the Cluetrain Manifesto, venue tbc, 5.30-7.00. Sign up for Net Tuesday
21 May - Silver Surfers Day - The annual promotion and celebration of the use of digital technology by older people.
24 May - Supporting groups with their ICT - CAN
Mezzanine, London, N1. This one-day NAVCA SKILD workshop for development workers
in local infrastructure organisations who may not be
confident to support groups with their ICT. The day will cover the importance
of ICT together with practical case studies, resource
materials, free or low cost web services and help to equip them with information, skills and knowledge. £49 per person.
Book online.
23 June - Tackling Social Exclusion Through Technology: Delivering Digital Inclusion - Central London, 09:10 - 16:00 Up £165 half day, £185 whole day. This forum will offer delegates the opportunity to take the debate beyond the existing legislative framework and have an opportunity to discuss how we can work together to drive up digital participation and put an end to the digital divide.
24 June - Fit for the Future Conference: Developing a Communications Strategy in a Changing World - St Albans Centre, London, EC1
Organised by CharityComms, this conference will be looking at some of the hot issues facing the sector, and showing you how your organisation can develop a strong, relevant communications strategy using critical, political, technological and socio-economic intelligence. £170 for small organisations. Book for Fit For The Future
Idealware online seminars
Idealware continues their series of seminars in
April and May with Choosing a Low Cost Constituent Database, Getting
Started with Mobile Outreach, Getting Started with Email Fundraising,
Fundraising through Social and Personal Networks, Building An Effective
Email List and Getting Started with Online Conferencing. All seminars run between 1-2.30 pm US EST (which is 6-7.30pm here, we think). Check out Idealware for
more information and more seminars.
Media Trust training
The Media Trust is running a number of digital media training events in the London area over the next few months - see the Media Trust training page for more information.
Spiceworks seminars
Our favourite ICT
auditing and monitoring tool is running a series of free online training events starting at 10am CST (that's 5pm in the UK according to the
World Clock).
ICT Champions Events Calendar
The ICT Champions website now has a useful list of countrywide ICT
events.
Event/training organisers - if you are planning an event please send us brief details so we can include it in the e-Bulletin by emailing ictbulletin@lasa.org.uk
Internet award scheme launched
The Better Net Awards is a new UK-wide programme from UnLtd and Nominet Trust to provide individuals with funding and support to improve and encourage the development of a safe, educational and inclusive Internet. Up to £5,000 is available to individuals over 16 years old or an informal group to develop and lead Internet based solutions to the problems that affect our society. A limited number of projects may be eligible to apply for up to £15,000.
To be eligible for an Award, you must have an original and innovative project that meets at least one of the following themes:
- Increases education about the Internet and Information Technology
- Promotes and addresses online safety
- Provides an Internet based solution to social, educational, health and environmental issues
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Increases digital inclusion and the use of new media for a social purpose.
Children In Need Small Grants Fund
A reminder that up
to £10,000 funding per year for up to three years is available from the
BBC's fund.
ICT equipment must generally be for the direct use of young people. The
next closing date is 15 July with further deadline on 15
October. More information from the BBC.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
- Writing a winning grant proposal
- Fundraising and the internet
- Funding for ICT
- Download: How to cost and fund ICT (PDF 1.2MB
Simon Duncan, the Yorkshire and Humber ICT champion, has recently published the helpful Social Media Guide for Small Voluntary Sector Organisations (pdf download, 282Kb). As it states in the introduction: "Social Media is brilliant – if used well. Transform your organisation by getting it right. In this no nonsense guide we show you just how to go about using the power and potential of social media in a way that is right just for you."
Google Grants explained
Rich Kirk over at Chameleon.net looks at how the Google search service supports charities
Suppliers Directory included in business tools directory
The Suppliers Directory run by Lasa, has been selected for inclusion in the prestigious Smarta small business tools directory. The site also includes some ICT advice which, although aimed at small businesses, is also relevant for the VCS. More on this story.
A Field Guide to Servers
TechSoup's article helps you to understand how servers can make your ICT infrastructure more powerful.
- legal
Equality Bill makes Britain's web accessibility law harder to accessAn opinion piece on out-law.com states that the UK's law on web accessibility is being re-written in an apparent attempt to make it impenetrable. But the duty to make information accessible to disabled people survives, thanks to a blind peer.
Quick guide to the Digital Economy bill
Read The Guardian's quick guide to the bill as it stands now after being passed by Commons and as it awaits royal assent.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
- Women's Resource Centre's journey into social media
- So you think you want a server?
- Web accessibility and the law
Techsoup is republishing advice (which originated on the Lasa Knowledgebase) on troubleshooting those niggling network issues. The first part deals with network infrastructure, the second with workstations and the last part with servers.
Don't write off email just yet
Jayne Cravens believes that email is still the best way to reach your supporters and has advice on how to put together great email newsletters.
ICT Champions answers in a box
Our regular feature linking to the answer cards put together by the Capacity Builders-funded ICT Champions:
What kind of support do I need to get the most from my ICT?
Short, medium and long term assistance examined.
How much should we pay for technical support?
What support you need and how much you might pay.
You can order your own box of answers from the Champions website.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
Zamzar will convert a wide range of images, text document and video files - for free!
Get off of my cloud
Backing up local data is (or should be) a no-brainer, but how do you ensure that online data is also backed up? Alyssa Gregory over on Sitepoint looks at 13 applications to do just that.
Online optical character recognition
If you have scans of text documents that you need to edit but don't have any OCR software then OCR Terminal may be able to help. You can get up to 20 pages free every month.
Synch those files
TechSoup highlights Microsoft's free SyncToy application which could help organisations manage shared files and folders.
Huddle for Microsoft Office add-in
The online project management tool Huddle now has a Microsoft Office add-in, so you can now access your Huddle files directly from within Microsoft Office. The tool lets you save your local files directly into Huddle with one click, view and edit files, add new versions, and send notifications without going near a browser.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
Jakob Neilson, the guru of web usability, in an ironically rather long article, reckons that 80% of visitors to websites never go below the fold. In a follow up piece, Jakob looks at how much attention people pay when scanning horizontally.
How do you engage and manage online communities - and FourSquare
Allyson Kapin over on Care2's Frogloop marketing blog looks at managing "old technology" listservs in the Web 2.0 age - should you moderate? how to manage unruly members... Allyson also checks on the hype on the hip new location-driven social networking tool FourSquare.
Low environmental impact conferencing
Tena Hanson, over on TechSoup's GreenTech blogs, explains how her library service ran a virtual conference (look out for a virtual meetings article and top tips in the next issue of Computanews, due out early May).
Every cloud...
... has a silver lining, according to David Geilhufe
and Lucy Bernholz looks at how distributed organisations can take advantage of the cloud over at NTEN's blogs.
Related Knowledgebase articles:
In our lead news item Precedent were somewhat damning in their survey of the sector's websites. Does this strike a chord
with you? Or is the sample that they used atypical and casts the
technology use by the VCS in a poor light? Let us know what you think. Do
you agree with this? Join in our discussion. Why not let us know over on the Knowledgebase forum.
Slightly late for April Fools Day... Glen "The Raptor" Wiznewski introduces a revolutionary new training course for the Microsoft Windows 3.1 Operating System.
About Lasa
Lasa is a charity which delivers innovative services in the fields of welfare benefits, ICT, and advice policy. Our clients are mainly from the voluntary, community and statutory sectors but we also work with some private organisations.
Lasa publications
This monthly London ICT e-bulletin, published by Lasa in collaboration with Superhighways, provides up to date ICT news, events, funding, tools, tips and resources for staff in small to medium-sized voluntary organisations.
Previous e-bulletins are still available if you missed them fiirst time round:
Lasa's quarterly magazine Computanews provides straight-forward, clear information on the use of ICT for staff in small to medium-sized voluntary organisations.
Computanews is published quarterly as a free Acrobat pdf file download.
London ICT Champion
The London Regional ICT Champion
supports VCOs to better understand ICT to achieve their missions of delivering quality services more effectively.
Lasa ICT Knowledgebase
The sector-leading ICT Knowledgebase contains over 300 articles in jargon free plain English on all aspects of ICT. Discuss the articles and more at the ICT Cafe.
Lasa Suppliers Directory
From web designers to support companies, use the Suppliers Directory to locate independently verified high quality ICT support in your area.
UK riders email list
UKRiders is a discussion group for circuit riders and others who support voluntary and community sector technology.
Superhighways
Superhighways is an ICT Support and Development Social Enterprise run by and for the voluntary and community sector in South London, and collaborates with Lasa in the production of this e-bulletin.
The London ICT e-Bulletin is funded by London Councils. London Councils is committed to fighting for more resources for London and getting the best possible deal for London’s 33 councils. London Councils has a website about its grants service.To read about our grants funding and the work of some of the 300 groups we support please visit
"Don't let techies hijack the discussion"
Cartoon by Phil Evans
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