• Following on from Pauline Baker’s recent retirement to enjoy grand-mothering, GMCVO is recruiting for a north west regional ICT Champion.

• Community First has also been in the market for a regional ICT Champion - they should be announcing the new West Midlands Regional Champion towards the end of August.

Databases

• Uniservity is bailing out  from the voluntary sector, leaving many CVS clients who spent their ChangeUp money on its databases in the lurch.   The company has told its voluntary sector clients that it will continue to support its Uni-COMMA and “Phoenix” platforms for the duration of existing customer contracts only.  There will also be no major new upgrades or significant new functionality.  Uniservity says it will instead focus on meeting increased demand from the educational sector.

• Drupal is a powerful free and open source content management system with a growing user-base in the UK non-profit sector.  If you are a Drupal developer or user check out illuminate iCT’s upcoming Drupal conference on 20 August.

• CiviCRM - another free and open source content management system aimed at non-profits - has a lively UK community of developers and users.  Read their blog for more on CiviCRM network events around the UK.

• VC Connect - a project of Voluntary Action Sheffield - is a new web-based database”designed specifically for the voluntary sector”.  You can see product demos at NAVCA’s annual conference in Nottingham on 16 and 17 September.

E-democracy:

• Another blow for e-democracy: ICELE, the government sponsored owner and  operator of  the  VOICE community web platform is scheduled for closure by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG).   As well as VOICE, ICELE has a number of useful tools for consultation, blogging, webcasting and online surgeries.  DCLG is currently reviewing its options before making a decision about VOICE.  Connecting Bristol has a great discussion thread on the subject and you can read Parmjit Dhanda, DCLG Minister’s Parliamentary statement at They Work for You and Hansard.

Web 2.0

• NCVO’s Collab08 conference on 22 October will feature a workshop delivered by amado on Web 2.0 technologies and collaboration.

IT Volunteering

• Since 2002 IT4Communities’ fantastic volunteers have delivered over £3 million worth of help to charities, community groups and other voluntary organisations.  Read about it in their latest newsletter .

Funding:

• Telecoms company Talktalk is offering £60,000-worth of technology grants to UK charities and community groups.  Not-for-profit organisations are invited to enter its second annual Innovation in the Community awards, held in collaboration with digital technology charity Citizens Online.

Government:

• The long awaited Empowerment White Paper - Communities in Control (£33.45 or 1.8MB download) was recently published.  You can read about it via the departmental Twitter and Secretary of State Hazel Blears’ blog or get the full skinny from Paul Webster.
• Over at Kablenet, a report on information recording and sharing in the criminal justice system finds that big IT projects are not necessarily the answer.

Social Enterprise
It’s an urban legend that George W. Bush allegedly said, “The problem with the French is that they don’t have a word for entrepreneur.”  However, we can verify these stories are true…

• Research carried out by Delta Economics says that almost 1.3 million people, or 3.4 per cent of the working population, are employed in social entrepreneurship in the UK. Read more in Third Sector.
• Simon Hebditch, former chief executive of Capacitybuilders, has joined the board of social enterprise Social Firms UK.   Social Firms UK provides employment opportunities for disabled and disadvantaged people by supporting local social enterprises.  See Third Sector.

Databases

• We hear from several sources that Uniservity,  purveyors of bespoke databases to VCOs flush with ChangeUp cash, is allegedly withdrawing from the not for profit sector.
• Voluntary Action Sheffield has launched a new web based database solution specifically designed for the voluntary sector.
• Open source rival, CiviCRM is gaining some traction in the UK non-profit sector.  The CiviCRM UK usergroup recently met in Bristol.  You can find out more about CiviCRM events from their blog.

Web 2.0

• Our favourite web 2.0 gurus, Read/Write/Web, have  a great analysis of a new report from Forrester which says 63% of IT managers are now expecting social technologies to impact their business.
• More from the folks at RRW - Google has opened up Knol, its advert fueled Wikipedia competitor, to the public after announcing a private beta of the service last December.

Mobile 2.0:

• Mobile Crunch reports that Wordpress has gone mobile with a free app for the iPhone
• heck out the Google Mobile blog for the latest news on their mobile products and services.
• For all you folks who can’t stand to be out of touch for more than a nano second, Windows Live Messenger is now available for Blackberry and Google Talk for the iPhone.
• A great article from Webware on why mobile analytics matter.

Earlier this week we were at a major Capacity Builders’ consultation event in a south London borough  - to facilitate the ICT strand - and were met with the sight of rows of empty chairs a grand meeting room echoing to the sound of apathy.  Over 50 organisations had committed to attend, but around 20 actually turned up, their ranks swelled by event organisers, liggers and facilitators.

The few hardy souls who turned out made a reasonable attempt to look consulted before engaging with a buffet intended for three times as many people.  We witnessed one old boy make 6 visits to the buffet before he retired with a glazed look of satisfaction. Who said there’s no such thing as a free lunch, these days?

So what is it with the non-profit sector:

Does the ChangeUp/Capacity Builders agenda leave non-profits disaffected and why?

Are non-profits tired of  consultation, however meaningful it might be?

Or was it just a nice day and people fancied doing something else?

Either way, the irony of an apathetic non-profit sector in a hall dedicated to the memeory of Ernest Benn (uncle of Tony) - a tireless worker for the “good of others” according to the plaque on the wall - was not lost.

Ernest Benn is famously quoted for defining politics as “the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.”

And in an almost empty hall, what better metaphor could there be for the Capacity Builders project?

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

• Read Write Web discuss the rise of m-commerce - or buying stuff from your mobile phone.

• Download Squad reports that Spb Software House has released an updated version of the company’s popular Spb Backup utility for Windows Mobile phones and PDAs.

Government:

• 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.

More about CASCADE:
Joining is free and easy.

BOOK NOW!
To book a place complete this form and email cascade@lvsc.org.uk or call 020 7700 8118

Conference booking form

More details below the fold….

Strategic Use of the Internet - Marc Osten from Summit Collaborative

No plenary! No talking heads! No experts! In our opening session we will set the stage for the day’s work together. Our facilitator will take us through an exploration of what the word ‘strategic’ means when we consider mission-based use of the Internet. We will leave the session with tools to assure that the rest of the day’s workshops all feed into the same end point…enhancing our STRATEGIC use of the Internet.

Workshops:

Online Campaigning - Anna Feldman from GreenNet

Exploring innovative ways to use technical tools as part of your campaigning strategies - to get your messages out, raise awareness, and mobilise people into action. We will look at some specific examples from the 16 days of Action on preventing violence against women, and consider priorities for any technology plans you’re devising.

Engaging People Online – Tips, Tools and Techniques - Marc Osten from Summit Collaborative

Do you want to build community online? Do you want to raise money online? Do you want to activate and energise people online? In this session we will review successful online engagement efforts to help us understand what works and why virtually all online engagement efforts fail to realise their potential. You will leave the session with:

• A keen awareness of the questions to ask and answer as you consider online engagement efforts.
• A better understanding of the skills you need to succeed online.
• Answers to the most critical questions related to online engagement.
• SPECIFIC answers to SPECIFIC questions you have about online engagement.

Note – An online platform to collect your questions and share resources before the session will be made available two weeks before the conference.  See here: http://sc.blogs.com/cascade/

E-communications – Why, how to, dos and don’ts with Maria Diaz, E-Communications Manager @ Charity Technology Trust

For anyone who sends email newsletters or anyone who thinks they will need to, this session will take you through the fundamental principles of creating and delivering successful email newsletters that will get read.  This is not for techies and is not about copywriting but will be jargon free and give you tips to take away.

Charity Technology Trust (CTT) is a charity that helps other not for profit organisations to make the most of technology. In the last 5 years, we have been helping over 200 organisations with their e-communications and online campaigning.

An introduction to Google Analytics – Shakuntla Joshi , marketing and online consultant

Google Analytics is a free tool for site owners that assists in measuring websites.  In this introduction we will be covering getting set up and the key features of this service.   Also covered will be a summary of how this information can aid an organisation in strengthening online activities and how it assists decision-making.

There is a tour guide available (for you to see in advance of the Conference).  Select the Analytics links from the following web page: http://www.google.com/services/

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.

Improving Reach awards 2008: London

• Evelyn Oldfield Unit £375,000 (supports refugee organisations)

• London Community Recycling Network £139,683

• Olmec £370,998 (community investment foundation working with disadvantaged communities)

• London wide organisation for disability £121,200 (new second tier organisation for the disability sector)

• Ealing Community and Voluntary Service £55,770 (support for local organisations)

• Islington Voluntary Action Council £297,268 (support for local organisations)

• Harrow Refugee Forum £200,000 (umbrella body for refugee organisations)

• Southwark Community Care Forum £249,000 (supports voluntary sector groups working in health and social care)

• Croydon BME Forum £415,953 (forum for black, minority, ethnic organisations)

• Refugees in Effective and Active Partnership £149,678 (directory of refugee organisations in West London)

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 London Infrastructure Development Plan (LIDP:08) was recently launched by LVSC and London Councils.

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.

Organise that meeting:

• Organising meetings can be a real pain. Fortunately, there are several web-based services out there that let you create an event, manage invitations and even take payment. Mobaganda - based on Google App Engine - is the latest. It creates a custom web page for your event, sends out emails and lets you keep track of RSVPs in Google Reader.

• Folks are also starting to use the very elegant and simple Doodle to organise meetings. We’ve used Eventbrite to organise meetings, which is also capable of taking ticket payments.

Mobile 2.0:

• With spiralling travel costs, it’s no wonder that video conferencing was ranked the third hottest business technology in a 2007 survey. Check out WM Net’s guide here.  Video-conferencing need not be expensive - check out Skype’s guide to free video-conference calls.

• A great story over at MobileActive about the Community Voice Mail (CVM) program which has provided a lifeline to 40,000 people a year across the U.S.

• Web developers take note - mobile web is the new platform you should be designing for.  Mobile guru Dan Appelquist blogs about W3C’s new mobile  web training courses.

• More from MobileActive - read how children in India are learning about sex education through “edutainment” mobile phone games that are designed to provide entertainment and be educational at the same time.

Web 2.0 and Social Networking:

• Read how our old friend Jason King has been busy building a Google Custom Search Engine for Dublin’s Ana Liffey Drug Project.  The custom designed search engine helps people find reliable information on the web about addiction-related issues.

• Head over to Techcrunch to catch an interview with Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg at the D6 conference.

• Google Earth hits the web browser.  Website developers are now able to embed 3D maps, powered by a special Google Earth Browser Plugin that end users must install. Unfortunately, it’s only available for Internet Explorer and Firefox users on Windows.

• Techcrunch talks about the next-generation web and the move towards browser storage - this lets users broswe web pages whilst not connected to the Internet - such as MySpace integrating Google Gears and Yahoo! new BrowserPlus product

And finally:
You can catch podcasts of the Regional Champs.  Julie Harris does that wonderful husky-voiced thing, Paul Ruskin gives his top tips for using ICT,  and yours truly coughs up quote on telephony.

By requesting a package of two or five Pro accounts Flickr is a new way for organisations to tell their story with their own photographs.

Learn more about how to place a request for a package of Pro accounts, made available to the nonprofit community thanks to a generous donation from Flickr.

Flickr Masterclass
An old friends of ours, Steve Bridger, will be giving a Flickr masterclass on 20th June 2008 in London.  Free places are availablefirst 20 qualifying organisations that place a donation request