How time flies, time for the edited ICT highlights from the last week or so.
Web 2.0
Lingro is a new collaborative dictionary and translation service that combines open dictionaries on the web with user contributions under a CreativeCommons license.
Need to dynamically generate charts in web pages? The Google Charts API will let you do it.
Mobile 2.0
With mobile phone global sales past the 3 billion mark, Infoworld reports on the hidden environmental costs of mobile phones.
You can make it up. Last year, 5 out of 10 of Japan’s best selling novels were originally composed on mobile phones, and now craze is breaking here with Quillpill.
Mippin is a service delivering web content “perfectly formatted” to your mobile phone
British democracy is alive and well and The Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in Parliament have launched their own Youtube channel to prove it.
IT over-spend shocker: According to Kablenet, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s telecommunications network and its Future Firecrest infrastructure work have produced a £61m net overrun on the department’s IT projects.
Lost data shocker: Another one from Kablenet. Six laptops containing personal data on 20,000 patients have been stolen from St George’s Hospital in south-west London, the hospital’s parent trust has revealed
Venue: Conway Hall, 25 Red Lion Square, London WC1 (nearest tube: Holborn)
There is so much happening in the online world - how can we make sure that we are making the most of online opportunities?
This free conference for Cascade members will provide insight and ideas about how to use the Internet strategically. Workshops will explore engaging people online, online campaigning, e-communications and analysing how people respond to your online interventions.
So far, the only details we have are those published by Capacity Builders, which shows a total of 10 grants totalling £2,374,550 (13.6% of the total) awarded to London. Until we get further information from Capacity Builders, its not clear of any if the winning projects will feature elements of ICT.
Sometimes when we’re trying to learn a new technique or a new subject - a video tutorial - watching how an expert does it can be more powerful than web or print ‘how to’ articles.
Video tutorials offer a great way to concisely convey a lot of information that might otherwise take hours of writing and drawing diagrams to make the same point. Tutorials are also a great way for organisations to showcase their expertise or point of view to a wide audience.
YouTube is not the only vehicle for hosting web tutorials - a whole raft of web sites have sprung up in YouTube’s wake and we take a look around at some of the web’s best instructional web sites.
5min describes itself as a place to find short video solutions for practical questions and a place for people to share their knowledge - a communal Life Videopedia. subjects covered range from tech, arts, fashion to practical DIY. First up, it’s “What Google Really Has On You” from 5min video.
Howcast has a slightly more professional clean-cut look than the rough-cut appeal of 5min. It offers a wider range of material but seems a lot weaker on technology. The best we could do is “Hyper sonic shut-down of Windows” for folks always in a hurry.
ExpertVillage describes itself as “the world’s largest how to video site”. The site is very slick and professional looking and has a large section covering technology and the Internet. Here Drew Noah explains the basics of Google Documents.
Lastly, we couldn’t finish without a blast from Youtube. Check out CommonCraft’s “Social networking in plain English”
In the next installment we’ll look at the mechanics of putting together a video tutorial for the web.
The LIDP:08 describes the ChangeUp vision for London over the next 3 years along with action plans for thematic areas such as ICT, Advice, Olympics, Premises, etc.
The plan for ICT envisages:
2008-11
London Region ICT Champion project to take forward ICT actions identified in the LIDP:08 and the London ICT strategy;
To develop the ‘Circuit Rider’ mobile ICT support project locally;
To increase the professional development of Circuit Riders and help meet demand;
To support the network of London circuit riders and others providing the sector with technical support;
To lobby funders to recognise the total cost of ICT, as a legitimate expense that brings real benefits to VCOs and their stakeholders.
This is an ambitious list that comes without any funding attached from the LRC - the body which manages ChangeUp in London. However, we do have NAVCA’s regional ICT Champion project - funded at a national not regional level by Capacity Builders - which proposes more generic support, such as sign-posting sources of information.
We’re yet to see how the LIDP:08 plays with NAVCA’s regional champion project, so watch this space.
Disclosure: The author is the London Regional ICT Champion - a national support service project funded by Capacity Builders and managed by NAVCA.
The ICT Champion’s mission is to support not-for-profit organisations to understand and use technology to better achieve their goal of delivering high quality services for all.
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