London Region ICT Champion

Some more ICT news stories for the voluntary sector to close out the week of 3-7 September 2007….

Capacity Builders announces future of national support services
ICT is not to be one of the 9 new national support services announced here, according to recommendations made by an advisory panel of ’sector experts’ and agreed by Capacity Builders August Board meeting. Capacity Builders is planning to make a full announcement of the new arrangements for national support services/programmes on 26 September.

This is disappointing news for all those who care about building the sector’s ICT capacity, not least because Capacity Builders HQ have been making positive noises about the likely future of ICT as a national support service. However, our spies hear that ICT could be slipped in under the banner of a new theme called “Adapting to Social Change”. No, we don’t know what that means either, but wouldn’t the new support services of marketing and communications or collaborating and partnerships be a better fit for ICT?

84% of UK Internet connections are broadband
According to the National Statistics Internet Access 2007 report, the UK has 15.23 million households with Internet access which is 61% of the homes in the UK. 84% of the Internet connections in 2007 are broadband connections, which means broadband take-up is sitting at around 51% of UK households. The full 15 page document can be downloaded as a PDF document from here.

Source: thinkbroadband.com

National Computing Centre (NCC) Benchmark
The NCC Benchmark of IT Strategy 2007 which examines current trends in IT strategy amongst end-user organisations, including security issues, reveals that 40% of respondents have only partially secured their wireless networks, or not secured them at all, whilst only 15% of respondents have implemented VoIP security.

The Knowledgebase has articles on computer security here.

NCC non-members can get the 40 page report for a wallet-emptying £125 GBP.

Cybercrime committed every 10 seconds in UK

More than three hundred cybercrimes are committed every hour in the UK according to a report published by online identity experts Garlik. Garlik present a number of useful tips for staying safe online here. Download the PDF here.

The study in collaboration with leading criminologists estimates that more than three million online crimes were carried out last year. Of these, 60% were ‘offences against the person’ including abusive or threatening emails, false or offensive accusations posted on websites and blackmail perpetrated over the internet.

The Knowledgebase also has a number of useful articles for keeping your computer safe.

Source: Net4Now

Hot off the presses from the ICT Hub…

The ICT Hub is seeking to commission an individual or organisation to update the sources of funders research carried out in 2006/07. The successful applicant will be required to source at least 45 funders who have funded ICT initiatives/ projects in the VCS and who were not covered in the first phase of the research. The results from the second phase of the research will be combined with the first phase information and used to populate a searchable funder directory on the ICT Hub website (in development).

The first phase of the research can be found here.

If you would like to received the tender documents for this piece of work, then please send an email with “sources of funders” in the subject field to louise.brown@icthub.org.uk. The deadline for applications is 5.00pm on Friday 28th September 2007, interviews will be held in London on Thursday 4th October 2007.

Techshare 2007 - 4-5 October 2007

4-5 October at Novotel London West in London, UK. Pre-conference workshops will be held at the same venue on 3 October.

RNIB’s Techshare conference highlights the role of technology in the everyday life of people with disabilities.

Conference topics will cover the web, software, mobiles, standards, compliance and much more. Techshare offers workshops and presentations and an opportunity to meet with other professionals in the field from all over the world as well as browse the extended exhibition space.

Booking is open!

Conference programme

To find out more contact Claire Clinton by email: claire@headstar.com or by telephone: 01273 23 12 91.

And rounding off our brief look at new studies and surveys emerging lately….

A new study from Ofcom has found that Voice- Over-Internet- Protocol (VoIP) services - like those offered by Skype, Vonage, BT Broadband Talk and Tesco - have failed to capture the public imagination.

Ofcom found that only 17 per cent of broadband-connected adults said they’d used VoIP services at least once, with only 14 per cent of that total using it every day.

Other research found that folks were still hanging on to their mobiles and landlines for calls - so much so that web-based callers were more likely to have both mobiles and landlines than the average UK adult.

Whilst tech analysts have been busy predicting that web-based phone services are ready and waiting to kill off regular land-line services, the reality seems to be that that the technology is still firmly stuck in the ‘early-adopter’ phase.

Checkout this article on the ICT Hub Knowledgebase for more on VOIP.

Source: Net4Now

According to a new survey from Pipex, people over the age of 60 tended to use the Internet for e-mail or searching and very little else, with just 7% having downloaded music compared with 84 per cent of 16-20 year olds.

The Pipex survey of 500 surfers - as flagged up by PC Pro and ISPreview UK - found significant differences in what various age groups do online.

• Older web users are more likely to spend time checking emails and using search engines.
  
• Only 7% of the over 60s download music compared with 84% of 16-20 year olds.
• Nearly 60% of 16-20 year olds want the ability to order a takeaway online compared to more than 70% of over 60s wanting to be able to make appointments with their doctor, hospital, dentist or taxidermist.

The survey of over 500 broadband users was carried out by independent market research company, Pure Profile, and included customers of AOL, BT, Orange, Pipex, Sky, TalkTalk, Tiscali and Virgin.

Thanks to Brighton’s Scipmark for reminding me about this:

‘Introduction to Media and Web Design’ seminars

The Media Trust is providing FREE media and communications support for small to medium sized charities and voluntary organisations working with the following priority groups:

• Faith;
• Black and Minority Ethnic;
• Migrant and/or Refugee; and
• Isolated Rural;

Seminars will provide detailed information and practical advice on what makes a good news story, how to establish and maintain contact with journalists, interview do’s and don’ts and much more.

There are 2 seminars running in London:

2-5pm on 17 October 2007
2-5pm on 12 December 2007

If you would like to find out more, or wish to book a seminar by phone or email please contact the Improving Reach team on 020 7874 7657/020 7874 7653 or at improvingreach@mediatrust.org

Media Trust, 3-7 Euston Centre, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3JG

Improving Reach is funded by the Change Up Programme which is managed by Capacitybuilders.