London Region ICT Champion

Kinda, sort of, mostly a slow news day for ICT news as the Easter hangover continues…and we’re still working on those longer think pieces, so hang in there dear reader.

• Nick Booth reports on how local residents are using Neighbourhood Programme Reward Grants here.
• David Wilcox on the reality of web 2.0 and social change here.
• Gavin Clabaugh reviews Amazon’s new Kindle device moments after custom building a mile of book shelves for his home.
• Google gets serious about its environmental policies and practices. Read ZDNet’s interview with Google’s Dr Brilliant. Yes, really.
• CNET reports on a subscription service that effectively lets people dump Exchange in favor of Google’s cloud-computing infrastructure.
• Techrepublic’s Toni Bowers discusses US moves to combat workplace bullying here.
• PC Pro reports that 7 out of 10 orders for the Eee PC are going unfulfilled due to excessive demand here.

And finally…

• It can’t be long before your local LEA picks up on the idea, but a US judge has ruled that anti-plagiarism software Turnitin does not violate student copyright. Story plagiarised with thanks from articles here, here and here.

Today we’re rounding up resources from the 2008 circuit rider conference 2008.

• Lasa has pulled together all the notes from the 2008 circuit rider conference sessions into a pdf file so you can read them on your non wi-fi connected train, the bus or wherever.
• You can view the UKRiders Flickr Circuit Rider Conference set of photos here.
• To view all photos from the conference which have been tagged with crconf08 look here.
• Thanks to David Wilcox  who did a great job of video-blogging the discussions at the conference here.
• Marc Osten has posted a series of five short video tutorials about Online Community Building and Engagement.  A 2nd installment will air in April.  Yours truly was also ambushed far too early in the morning to talk about web2.0 and online engagement - hopefully that segment is still on the cutting room floor and didn’t make the final cut.

Sounddelivery has produced a mental health podcast (pilot) in partnership with SocietyGuardian.

The 25 minute magazine-style programme features a discussion on anger and mental heath, an interview with Clare Allan about her new Channel 4 drama, Poppy Shakespeare,and a service user perspective on poetry and mental health.

The programme will go live tomorrow Wednesday 26th March as part of Mental Health Action Week. You’ll find the programme online at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/audio/2008/mar/26/society.guardian

There will be an online blog for listeners to contribute their ideas and thoughts.

Another ICT Hub publication hit the news stands this week - An ICT Survival Guide for Trustees. Download the free PDF (399kb) from here.

We also have a few hard copies of the publication, so if you’d like one, email us with your contact details and we’ll mail a copy out to you.

The guide says is not about improving your technical understanding
of ICT. It’s about:

• supporting you to better govern your VCO,
• improving your board and organisation’s general understanding of ICT’s role,
• supporting your board to make more informed decisions, and
• enabling ICT to support what your organisation does day to day.

Whether you’re a committee member of a local voluntary group, a trustee of a major charity or a director of a social enterprise, the guide will help you:

• make more informed decisions,
• access relevant and meaningful information (and sources of support) quickly and easily,
• make a tangible impact quickly and noticeably,
• increase your confidence in ICT Governance, and
• help make a difference to organisational effectiveness and your impact on beneficiaries.

Download it for free from here.

The Telephone Helplines Association’s free Guide to Good Telephony is now out and highly recommended by this Champ.

The guide will help you focus on your organisation’s telephony requirements, cost and fund a telephony plan, and integrate it with your organisation’s overall technology plan. There’s also lots of stuff on choosing a supplier, understanding the different telephony technologies, topped off with case studies.

We went on a THA telephony course in January as a preview to this guide and have to admit how much of a personal knowledge gap we have around telephony, which tends to get left out of most ICT planning and budgeting.

Knowledgebase telephony articles:
The Knowledgebase also contains useful resources to complement the guide:

A Business Case For Telephony - How to argue for financial support with your telephone systems.

Identifying your telephony requirements - How to take a strategic approach to your telephony needs

Download it:
TheGood Telephony Guide is only available only as a PDF, and you can download it from us before it goes up on the Hub publication page. Click here to download the PDF (64kb).

Abilitynet’s latest “State of the e-nation” report says social networking websites  - like Yahoo, Youtube, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo - are either difficult or impossible for disabled people to use.  In many cases users were not even able to register with websites.

Facebook is described as “a professional looking exterior belies a range of accessibility issues”, and gets a 1 star out of 5 review.  MySpace is also slated as having “significant accessibility and usability issues across the website”, and likewise scores a miserable 1 out of 5.

However, Yahoo does better with 2 stars and is praised for using serif fonts and resizable text to make reading easier.

Sadly, the Brave New World trumpeted by social networking sites is not as democratic and inclusive as it appears, so roll on accessible Web 2.5.

You can download “State of the e-nation” reports all the way back to 2003 from here.

STAR (Student Action For Refugees) has launched ‘an all singing, all dancing, one stop shop of information for anyone interested in refugee issues and volunteering with refugees!’. Best of all, it is built by volunteers, for volunteers.

RefugeeMap is an online collaborative Wiki providing easy and accessible information for volunteers, especially young people, working with refugees in the UK. This site seeks to gather in one place easily accessible information on refugee situations, news and policy, and volunteering opportunities around the UK.

If you would like to contribute to the site or have material posted on the site please visit the site at:

www.star-network.org.uk/refugeemap

Another edition of need to know ICT news…

• Phorm - a service backed by BT, Virgin and Talk Talk which will track users’ web behaviour for advertising purposes is believed to be unlawful. Check it out here and here.
• ZD Net reports that Vista Service Pack 1 is now available from the Microsoft Download Centre.
• Infoworld asks if you really need Vista SP1
• Graphic designers beware - Adobe has withdrawn a product update for Photoshop and Lightroom because it was too buggy and has told customers to uninstall it.
• The hitherto unknown DIUS, aka the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills has published a white paper called “Innovation Nation” on the lack of tech skills in the UK workforce.
• ZD Net is grinding its Microsoft axe again, this time as the company slumps towards the relegation zone in the Greenpeace league table, see here.
• Oh, and Channel 4 has joined the BBC in making its shows available for download from iTunes for a whopping £1.89 each. Honestly, it’s cheaper to buy the series on DVD from Play.com or Amazon.co.uk

Here we go, another eclectic round-up from the wonderful world of ICT…

• Check out the latest Knowledgebase articles on making a case for investing in telephony, telephony strategy and working with telecom suppliers.
• ISP 2008 award winners announced here, with Plusnet emerging as best consumer ISP.
• Beth Kanter is into Sprout widgets for social change here
• Michele Martin weighs up Zoho vs Google Docs for handouts.
• The Register wonders how big an eco-hazard IT equipment is here.
• We’ve all been asking for it and Google calendar now syncs with Outlook calendar. Another review here.
• Kablenet reports on public loss of confidence in the government’s handling of our data here and here.
• Former health secretary Patricia Hewitt joins the NHS National Programme for IT as a non-executive director later this month. Conflict of interest not mentioned here.
• Google Books goes social.
• AOL forks out $850m for social network Beebo here.
• Rumours about Salesforce integrating with Google Apps here.
• And Internet addiction is a common compulsive-impulsive disorder that should be added to psychiatry’s official guidebook of mental disorders according to this post.

It’s been almost a week since the dust settled like a shroud over the last ICT Hub conference - held at the cavenous Kensington Town Hall Conference centre - and we’re just rounding up some last thoughts and bones for you to pick over.

Keynotes:
We have to admit that an air of fin de siecle hung over the conference like a damp blanket - not surprising with the future funding of ICT so uncertain. Nonetheless, the Hub’s Nicky Thompson gave a rousing address to the ICT faithful gathered in the hall, praising “Lasa’s Knowledgebase as a quick and dirty solution”. Rather bizarrely, the second keynote speech was given by the Hub’s executioner, Capacity Builders’ Simon Hebditch, who was heard to say:

“…we are working with NAVCA on Business Plans for the Regional ICT Champions who can start on 1st July 2008 or, if they are wanting to be operational earlier, we can do that.”

“…[Capacitybuilders] will continue over the next three years to support ICT development.”

Does that mean a potential lifeline for the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory, which are currently not funded beyond 31 March 2008?

Moving along swiftly…

Publications:
The conference also saw publication of the ICT Survival Guide for Trustees by Preponderate’s Simon Davey. We hope to review it here as soon as copies are available from the Hub website or before they turn up on a Brighton market stall.

Presentations:
You can find most of the presentations featured at the conference here. The presenations will be up on the website until the end of March 2008.

A fevered Marc Osten went above and beyond the call of duty to deliver a great “Funding your future” workshop , which you can get here.

ICT Hub Awards:
You can also find out more about the fantastic award winners here. We were particularly impressed with one winner, Get Connected - which provides a free, confidential helpline for young people - and we’ll certainly be checking them out for the blog in the next few weeks.

Question time:
One more time…the panel (left to right: Nicky Thompson, Bill Freeman, John Davies, Simon Davey, Matt Legg) take questions from the floor.

Bill Freeman did confirm that NAVCA has been funded by Capacity Builders to manage a national programme of Regional ICT Champions from July 2008. However, the level of funding is such that regional champions will continue at a part-time level. Since the programme was announced regional ChangeUp consortia in London and the North East seem to think they’re off the hook for funding regional champion’s work. It’s also unclear at this stage just what agenda Capacity Builders envisage for regional champions - which may not be the same as that envisaged by regional consortia!

And lastly…
There are many things that could have been done differently or better, but nothing like the Hub model has been attempted before in the sector, and the Hubs have certainly had their critics. What the hubs did well was to leverage national economies of scale in setting up the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory as free resources for all. As a regional champion and a trustee of a volunteer centre, we have to say that some of the resources produced by the Governance, Performance and ICT Hubs have added real value to the sector through their publications. In fact, Capacity Builders likes the Hub model so much it’s decided to increase their number from 5 to 9 and rename them workstreams, that will no doubt see fit to re-invent the wheel.

The 9 new workstreams have just 3 years and reduced funds to bed-in - will they really be as effective as the Hubs? Will the resources they generate add value or duplicate? Will Capacity Builders be around in 3 years time. And what will be the state of sector ICT in 3 years time?