ICT Hub February 2007 Newsletter
view printable versionThe content of this newsletter was last edited on 8th August 2008
It’s February already – how are you doing with your ICT New Year’s Resolutions? Is your ICT budget ready for the end of the financial year? Is your ICT strategy making a difference?
This month we have a feature for small community organisations but there’s plenty in there for everyone.
Our new media feature has a party feel and we’ve an example of social media in action with a report from the Circuit Riders conference.
Alongside some updates and developments in open source, we’ve all the usual news, ideas and provocative suggestions for doing things better and doing better things with ICT.
Thank you to all of you who contribute (via the various lists and other newsletters, website and
forums which go to make up a lot of this newsletter). Your input is valued and helps to make
a difference.
We hope you enjoy it!
Contents
Feature of the month
This month is all about small community organisations – an ICT overview.
If you want a very simple IT strategy for your really small organisation take a look at http://tinyurl.com/2ndf3g
Parties can be intimidating (a bit like New Media) and why you need to trust your staff. More from Paul Caplan including why you’ll never find him in the kitchen.
Manchester Community Information Network have an interesting take on the Circuit Rider (mobile IT workers and so much more) model. A co-operative of skills and geography is working well up North. More from Jim Lyons.
Case study of the month
A different flavour to case studies this month with a perspective on information management, databases and outcomes. The names have been changed to protect the innocent (and not so innocent) and we hope it gives you food for thought.
Broadband and video in one go? Find out more about broadband community video from MCIN.net www.mcin.net/home/pages/178
General news
Web only for two whole weeks
London’s very own ICT champion is pioneering his own ‘Great Web Office Experience’ starting
this week. The aim is to find out just how easy or hard it is to apply online tools to
everyday tasks - no more Outlook for email and calendar, Word or Excel. Find out how Miles
gets on and whether you could apply the same in your own organisation.
Ask Charity
Want a better relationship with the media? Want them to ask YOUR opinions on your areas
of interest and expertise? Fed up with the same old people hogging the limelight? Take
a look at the free (Big Lottery funded) AskCharity.org.uk to see what it can do for you -
http://askcharity.org.uk/faq.php
Email marketing abuse is rife amongst large organisations
A study of the UK's biggest companies has found 31% of them breaking anti-spam laws by
sending marketing emails without either prior consent or an existing customer relationship.
Are you?
www.out-law.com/page-7647 For more on opt-in
and opt-out take a look at
www.out-law.com/page-5657.
Weee!
Laws forcing suppliers of IT equipment to dispose of it free of charge in an environmentally
sound manner have come into force in the UK.
www.out-law.com/page-7610 I’ve just bought a
new Samsung laser cartridge and it comes complete with a pre-paid sticker to post the old one
back. Still have to go to the post office though.
The 59 smartest not-for-profits online
I guess they couldn’t find the 60th or had too many for a top 50. Interesting examples
of embedding online activities in charitable work
www.squidoo.com/org20.
On a similar theme, the 10 best intranets for 2007 can be perused at http://tinyurl.com/quope
'Widget' to promote online fundraising pages
Participants in sponsored event fundraising can now use a ‘widget’ from Justgiving (www.justgiving.com) to publicise and link to their online
fundraising page from their blog, web page or social networking space
www.fundraising.co.uk/news/7580.
Fundraising technology is a blog offering comment and ideas on the use of technology in charity fundraising. Honest, witty and thought provoking, it’s worth a look at http://re-focus.blogs.com/fundraising_technology/
I-See-T, a year long project looking at collaborative working using ICT in the voluntary sector has published its final report. Key findings include (1) the application of some ICT tools can be misunderstood, (2) the rapid change in types of new tools can be a barrier to uptake, (3) individual, organisational and technical factors influence collaboration using ICT. Full report available at http://blog.i-see-t.org.uk/?p=244 or as a pdf at http://tinyurl.com/2k7jow
Online freedom of expression?
Some of technology's biggest names are joining together to create a code of conduct to
protect freedom of expression online. Google, Microsoft, Yahoo! and Vodafone will create a human
rights charter along with academics and social groups
www.out-law.com/page-7682.
Where do blogs and MySpace fit in to your internet use policy? Sandy Adirondack has the answers http://tinyurl.com/32yawo
Time to think
Defining community information from Manchester Community Information Network. What is it and where does it impact? - http://www.mcin.net/home/pages/195
So much technology, too little conversation … My New Year’s resolution was to stop replying to so many emails and start calling people on the phone. It’s working – decisions get made more quickly, fewer misunderstandings and it actually saves time! Are we overdoing technology tools and missing the real point of communication? On a similar theme, read what Beth Kanter has to say starting with ”Should we put out social media tools away and have a conversation?” http://tinyurl.com/2m787q
What kind of a genius are you ? http://tinyurl.com/2rdm53
A work in progress on social media from David Wilcox at http://socialmedia.wikispaces.com/ Including contributions from the UK Circuit Rider conference, this is a good overview of what social media is and more importantly, why bother - http://tinyurl.com/3aaswl
How effective would your organisation be if your email, word-processing documents, and contact databases were wiped out completely? How many hours would it take to rebuild the lost information from scratch? Practical help and advice from TechSoup http://tinyurl.com/33ub3m and more guidance from the ICT Hub’s own Knowledgebase http://tinyurl.com/2lta55 Don’t wait until the office burns down / gets robbed. Get peace of mind NOW!
Helpful advice
Internet filtering for youth club – The wisdom of the UK circuit rider community in one bite size piece http://tinyurl.com/2tf4qs
Is your home page immature? Just what impact does the front page of your website have on others? Ideas and tips to ‘help grow up’ at http://tinyurl.com/ywa3ek
We thought you deserved a smile so here’s a few ICT related cartoons … (thanks to Ben and John for the links). Some are a little edge – view at your own risk!
It is better, trust me http://tinyurl.com/2l8b2s
The wonders of choice http://tinyurl.com/27k42d and http://tinyurl.com/2tsr5d
And finally a world without spam? http://tinyurl.com/3cqxwv