London Region ICT Champion

In a late breaking story - that many will regard as good news for the open source community - Friday’s The Register warns that Microsoft is unexpectedly withdrawing the Microsoft Authorised Refurbishment (MAR) program.

Under a special licence, authorised refurbishers could install Windows XP or Windows 2000 and Office XP Standard as one bundled package on old computers.

Microsoft’s UK refurbisher site claims to have helped more than 1,000 UK “educational establishments, charities and non-profit organisations” in the last 12 months.

In a statement emailed to The Register, Microsoft said:

“Whilst Office will no longer be available through the MAR programme, registered charities will still be able to obtain Office and a selection of other products through our software donation programme.

“Microsoft’s software donation initiative is run by the Charity Technology Trust. The Charity Technology Exchange (CTX) programme allows UK-based charities and NGOs to request a range of Microsoft software.

“The charities need only pay an admin charge to cover the cost of the programme, and save over 95 per cent on the ERP. For further details please visit the CTX programme.”

The CTX programme - run by Charity Technology Trust - enables eligible UK-based charities to request a wide range of Microsoft and Cisco product donations. Charities are required to pay a small Administrative Fee - usually equating to about 4% of the software’s retail price - to cover the costs of the programme.

Whilst we can’t find any reference to the withdrawl of MAR scheme on the Microsoft site, according to The Register, Microsoft has confirmed “the software will be withdrawn globally” for unspecified “legal reasons”.

We at ICT Champ Towers prefer to believe that Microsoft has seen the writing on the refurbishers wall as Open Office and various flavours of linux operating systems have long been a favourite and more effective way of breathing new life into old kit.

So, it’s more good news from Microsoft for the open source crowd.

According to a new survey “Folksonomy”, “blog”, “webinar” and “social network” are amongst the words mostly likely to make people ‘wince, shudder or want to bang your head on the keyboard’

That’s the verdict according to a survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Lulu Blooker Prize which asked 2,091 adults to vote for their least favourite web words.

Folksonomy - defined by Wiktionary as “the spontaneous cooperation of a group of people to organize information into categories” - is a mash up of the words folk and taxonomy and applies to the process of tagging files and data -  ranked first in the list.

Del.icio.us and flickr are both well known  allowing users to organise their content through tagging.

The list goes like this:

1. folksonomy
2. blogosphere
3. blog
4. netiquette
5. blook
6. webinar
7. vlog
8. social network
9. cookie
10. wiki, podcast and avatar

The list looks like a decent reflection on the current state of the language surrounding web 2.0.  Could this unweildy language be the why web 2.0 isn’t taking off in the voluntary sector?  I haven’t checked the ICT Hub Knowledgebase to see how many infringements on this list it racks up.

Do you have any other hated web words to add to the list?  Screencast gets my vote.

The story also appears here and here.

I am impressed by the use of broadband and how many more people can access expert knowledge and assistance via remote webcams, an example of this is assistance for people with computer accessibility issues.

This fairly new AbiltyNet project is called the Remote Assessment Project for London (RAPL) and funded by Bridge House Trust and Online Communities. Contact AbilityNet to become a RAPL centre. It could be a service a community organisation might offer to staff and the local community. It is carried out via a broadband connection at a RAPL centre which would have some alternative keyboards and mice available. Existing Centres are listed here.This project has won an e Well-being award too.

An assessment carried out by AbilityNet is an evaluation of what assistance an individual might need to help them access a computer. It aims to find out what adjustments a person might need to make to a computers settings or its keyboard and mouse for example, to help the learner do the things that they want to do.

If this remote access business is all too much, you can go through and use their Online sellf assessment tool as a starting point.

Happy and healthy computing!

AbilityNet is a national charity promoting assistive technology for people with disabilities and impairments.

Whilst we’ve not always been very keen on the web 2.0 hype, we at ICT Champ Towers believe the underlying functionality of web 2.0 has real benefits for voluntary and community sector organisations (VCOs) willing to embrace it - such as community colloboration, widening social inclusion, being able to tell your story to a wider audience, reducing the cost and complexity of IT investments, and so on.

However, the latest data on Internet participation reveals that [whilst many sites such as MySpace and Facebook are reporting increased traffic] only a very small percentage of Internet activity is related to users creating and publishing content.

“According to Hitwise, only 0.2% of visits to YouTube are users uploading a video, 0.05% visits to Google Video include uploaded videos and 0.16% of Flickr visits are people posting photos. Only the social encyclopedia Wikipedia shows a significant amount of participation, with 4.56% of visits to the site resulting in content editing.”

Not only is the percentage of participation very small online, but there are some very strong skews as to who is participating.

Visitors to Wikipedia are almost equally split 50/50 men and women, yet edits to Wikipedia entries are 60% male. The gender gap is even greater for YouTube, a site whose visitors are equally male and female, but whose uploaders are over 76% male.

With age comes experience, as well as the desire to disseminate knowledge.

There is a clear age difference between visitors to Wikipedia and editors of its content. Over 45% of visitors are under the age of 35, while 82% of those making edits are 35 years old or older.

Like Bill Tancer of Hitwise says, right now web 2.0 “feels as though we’re in the awkward and uncomfortable position of being one of the first guests to arrive at what promises to be a very cool party.”

So there you have it: According to Hitwise, web 2.0 visitors are equally gender split and in the magic demographic of 18-35 - these are the cool people hanging around the drinks making all the noise - whilst web 2.0 content contributors are male, over 35 and desperately trying to impress everyone with cool stuff. More Twiglets, anyone?

Microsoft has announced that it will stop selling Office 2003 as of 30 June 2007.

The company is understandably keen to move businesses towards upgrading to Office 2007, and expects it will take retailers and manufacturers some time to exhaust existing stocks of Office 2003.

Microsoft has also said it will continue to offer support and patches for Office 2003.

Writing on Microsoft’s Small Business Community Blog, Eric Ligman said:

“Also, remember that for your clients wishing to run Office 2003 still today, by taking advantage of the downgrade rights included in the Volume Licensing versions of Microsoft Office 2007, they can utilize Office 2003 today and then move to Office 2007 when they are ready without having to re-buy their Office license like they would with OEM. Remember that OEM Microsoft Office does not have downgrade rights.”

You can also read a review of Office 2007 on the ICT Hub Knowledgebase.

A Case Study of the Accessiblity Champion

I was asked to signpost some solutions to aleviate problems of pain for someone while using a standard keyboard and mouse. What was highlighted was issues of contracting your IT company to support Assistive Technology you supply or the member of staff brings with them.

• What was the problem?

The person was having pain in the arm and shoulders and wanted to explore different supports, keyboards and mice at the Access Learning Centre. She had been referred to us by a in a South London Local Authority officer.

• What was done?

I spend 2 hours with her trying out a range of options and combinations of arm supports, mice and keyboards. I suggested, if these were options that seemed comfortable to use, she could loan some items and try out. She loaned the 2 types of keyboards and 2 mice for 5 weeks. I also suggested she got some more medical advice.

• What was the solution recommended?

After the loan period she chose to use an IBM keyboard with an ergonomic mouse.

• What difference did this make to the individual and the organisation?

She was very pleased with the solution. She purchased the same equipment as she loaned at her own expense to use at work. She didn’t want to cause ‘problems’ by asking her employer to purchase the equipment.

Two months later we were donated the equipment by her for our loan scheme. The IT support company refused to support the equipment as they didn’t supply it and it needed an adapter to convert a PS/2 connection to a USB port.

• Comment

This highlights another issue of Computer Accessibility and IT support contracts including clauses for assistive equipment being supported and covered by IT departments whether supplied by them or not.

Anyone else experienced this issue?

Scary Paul Allen: an ICT Accessiblity Champion

Accessibility Champions are organisations in your region that have expertise and equipment to help make computers more accessible for everyone, disabled and non-disabled people alike. As a member of a voluntary or community sector organisation it is free for you and your organisation to benefit from the knowledge and skills of your Accessibility Champion. Each region within England has an appointed Accessibility Champion that is funded by Change-up through the ICT Hub till September 2007, the role is then to be incorporated in the Regional ICT champion role which is held by Miles Maier at LASA.

Superhighways was appointed the ICT Hub’s “Accessibility Champion” for the London Region and delivered services for over a year. The work is now based out of LASA and is to continue to be delivered by me.

The role is to raise awareness of issues and solutions for Healthy Computing and Computer use for people with impairments and/or disabilities working or volunteering in the Voluntary Sector.

Coming Up

There are 2 free workshops arranged at Happy Computers, E1 in July and August. See the ICT Hub Events pages and book at Happy Computers website. Book early!

I am looking for 3 CVS or VCS organisations in London to run free workshops on assistive technology and computer use. Download document about offer

Contact me to discuss if you want to be a venue for a workshop on 020 7426 4489 or email;- accessibility@superhighways.org.uk or pallen@lasa.org.uk

“The Internet changed everything. It changed commerce, communication, education and information management.” Mark Benioff, Salesforce

On this blog, we’ve previously talked about web 2.0 or software as a service - the ability to run web based services like Ebay, Amazon or Google Mail with nothing more than a computer and a broadband Internet connection - and the positive impact it could have on freeing organisations from the cost and complexity of maintaining their own IT systems.

BBC Radio’s 4 In Business looks at how businesses are using software as a service to reduce their dependency on internal IT and instead focus on delivering to their customers. Andrew Johnson of San Francisco Bay Area Paediatric reckons that moving to Google Apps - cost $50/£25 per user per year - has saved his business thousands of dollars on maintenance, hardware and software licensing that can be reinvested in staff.

However, as we’ve also pointed out before, there are still security and privacy implications to be weighed up, and these are well discussed by Brad Templeton of Electronic Frontier Federation.

Download it:
The show can be downloaded as a podcast (29 minutes) from BBC Radio 4 and features contributions from some of the biggest names in the software as a service world:

Marc Benioff,
Chairman & CEO Salesforce.com.

Richard Wetenhall,
Head of Corporate Development, Celerant

Matthew Glotzbach,
Director of Product Management, Google Enterprise

Andrew Johnson,
Chief Operating Officer, San Francisco Bay Paediatric

Brad Templeton,
Chairman of Electronic Frontier Federation

Ricky Reemer,
Chief Exec of Unicorn IT Solutions

Steve Prentice,
Chief of Research at Gartner

Are you getting the best use of your ICT? Need help developing a strategy or want to find out more about wireless Internet?

The ICT Connect scheme has been developed by the ICT Hub to help voluntary and community organisations to explore their ICT needs by visiting another organisation that is using ICT well or in an innovative way. Through the ICT Connect scheme, not only will you and the host organisation learn something from your visit, but it will also become a wider learning experience for the sector as a whole, as the learning is placed on the ICT Hub website as a case study.

So, if you would like to….

• Set up an ICT strategy
• Have an IT volunteer - learn more about how to work with volunteers, how to manage them and how to work out your requirements
• Learn to use ICT in an innovative way - maybe it’s the use of mobile phones, maybe it’s making telephone calls over the internet, maybe it’s video conferencing, or maybe it’s something completely new
• Learn more about accessibility issues

or more …

then apply for ICT Connect. (download ICT Connect application form .doc 48 KB)

How to apply
Read through the How does it work? guide (download How does it work guide .doc 29 KB) for more information and then complete and return the application form.

Email your form to catherine.morgan@icthub.org.uk or post it the ICT Hub at:

ICT Hub
NCVO
Regent’s Wharf
8 All Saints Street
London N1 9RL

Please note that the ICT Connect scheme is only available to front line voluntary and community organisations. If you are from an infrastructure organisation, you may like to find out about the ICT Hub Exchange Scheme.

Champs Hosiery

Originally uploaded by ictchamp

No, I’m not diversifying into a ‘vertical industry’.

As seen in Commercial Road, London E1