South West ICT Champion Blog

A renewed call for everyone to make use of the great resource developed and supported by our friends over at LASA - the ICT Knowledgebase. 

On the system you will find a really excellent resource for information, advice, features and articles on just about everything ICT.  In fact according to the wonderful Miles there are over 300 useful articles to search and benefit from. So if you haven’t been lately (or at all!) then make your way over to the Knowledgebase today and learn something new.

      

Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations

An AbilityNet Workshop

Employers are required to have a process of workstation assessment for all employees who use computers. When this process identifies a problem, or the employee reports a difficulty, the employer must further assess the situation in order to recommend and implement any necessary changes. This course aims to help those involved in workstation assessments respond effectively to reports of a problem and develop suitable solutions.

“This course provided me with so many new ideas and also gave me more confidence in my ability to carry out assessments.” Occupational Health Nurse 

Dates coming up for this course are -

Monday 13th October 2008 – City University, London

Tuesday 14th October 2008 – Hewlett Packard, Bristol

For more information about the content of this course download Effective Assessment of Problems at Computer Workstations course information (PDF 491KB).

To book a place on this course please email courses@abilitynet.org.uk or call 01926 464095

Switched on Communities

Our Switched on Communities Project are also running the following course

“I.T. & Learning Difficulties”

Supporting individuals with a learning difficulty in the voluntary sector  

Computers can help an individual and tutors get the most out of their abilities whether they want to manage their work and communicate more effectively or explore their interests.  This course is aimed at voluntary sector workers on a budget wishing to equip themselves with information on software and solutions that can help those who have alearning difficulty. At the end of the course, you will have a greater awareness and practical knowledge of how the computer can be used to help address and support individuals. 

Friday 14th November

The course will take place at the following location –

Swansea Discover IT Centre (Leonard Cheshire)

Swansea Vale Resource Centre 
Ffordd Tregof 
Swansea Vale 
Swansea 
SA7 0AL 

Please call 01792 791920 for more information or to book a place 

Helen Liptrot
Administrator

Tel: +44 (0)800 269 545

Fax:  +44 (0)1926 407 425

Web: http://www.abilitynet.org.uk

      

The September issue of the NCVO ICT Development Services (ICTDS) newsletter can now be found online -

http://www.icthub.org.uk/newsletter/September_08_Newsletter.html

As you’ll see, there’s lots of information about social media in action and how its impact is being recognised at a national level.

If you would like to subscribe then email ictresources@ncvo-vol.org.uk.

DC10plus reports that two new projects have been launched in Sunderland, which offer communities virtual networking.

 

FlashMeeting allows people in any location with access to the internet to hold a virtual meeting. Users receive a link to the web address and a password then simply click on the link to enter into the meeting at the arranged time. While waiting for their time to speak users can contribute by using text chat, the whiteboard or emoticons and vote on issues raised in the meeting. Replays are instantly available.

Hexagon uses the same base technology as FlashMeeting but meetings are not scheduled or recorded and sessions can be left open.

More information

http://www.sunderland.gov.uk/wherepeoplematter/

To support better joining up and coordination of the National Support Services, a new training and events calendar is now available on the Improving Support website.

Easily searchable by region, topic and date, this online calendar holds details of training and events being run by the nine National Support Service workstreams and SKiLD.

Courses range from bringing human rights to life and bite-sized workshops for leaders, through to training in marketing, PR and data protection.  To find out more about this, please visit the Improving Support website today.

If you haven’t already been for a visit or subscribed to the top quailty newsletter then please take a look at the work being done by SustainIT on ICT and sustainability. An excellent resources of news and inspiration -

http://www.sustainit.org

Heres the link straight to this month’s newsletter

http://www.sustainit.org/sustainit-newsletter/newsletter.html

 

Lasa has announced that version 1.0 of the ICT standards and skills guide has been released. Titled “Improving Circuit Rider Service To Voluntary And Community Organisations ~ Tools To Build Circuit Rider Competencies” it was authored by Marc Osten and informed by UKRiders, the advisory group, conference attendees and a host of others. It’s available to download over at

 

http://www.ukriders.info/training-and-standards/icthub

Following a section on the rationale behind the Guides there are 5 VCO ICT standards:* ICT Planning
* ICT Infrastructure
* ICT Implementation and Maintenance
* Staff and other Internal Stakeholder Communications
* External Constituent Communications

Each standard is described and competencies which Riders require to assist the VCO to achieve those standards are listed. The guide can be used by Riders engaged on a skills development programme (formal or otherwise) to assess their needs and then use the Personal Learning Plan. We’ll be piloting the Guide as part of the London Region ICT Infrastructure Project (see

 

http://www.ukriders.info/training-and-standards/lriip ) but they’re also hoping that it will be valuable to other Riders around the country. As mentioned this is version 1 - please let them know any feedback on the content or structure.

For more information please contact -

Ian Runeckles, Circuit Rider, Information Systems Team, LASA
www.lasa.org.uk
020 7426 4473
Skype ian.runeckles

 

The Community Website Builder allows registered UK charities, non-profit making organisations and volunteer led groups or organisations to build and maintain their own website free of charge. Using the community website builder you can create your own self-editable website for your organisation. It’s easy to use with no programming skills or knowledge required. It’s backed by BT and is perfect for organisations who have no money but do have a person with a little time available to put it together (the publicity says it will take you only 5 mins but let’s be realistic, it will take a bit longer than that). There’s a link on the homepage to local examples of what others have done too. Take a look at:

 http://www.communitykit.co.uk

If you know of a community / voluntary group, charity, social enterprise or similar that is looking for someone who is skilled and can help for free please send them to www.it4communities.org.uk to register and they will start the matching process.

IT4C have volunteers in most areas of the UK (or can work out a way to supply remote support) and their volunteers’ skill range is very wide indeed! If you are unsure what projects the volunteers can support, please see the RSS feed of new opportunities to get a feel for the variety.

Please feel free to pass this message on to other appropriate lists.

For further information please contact -Anne Stafford
Deputy Programme Director
iT4Communities
Introducing Volunteer IT Professionals to Charities Needing IT Help

Tel: 020 7796 2144

www.it4communities.org.uk

39a Bartholomew Close, London EC1A 7JN

iT4Communities is a programme of the Information Technologists Company
Charitable Trust www.wcit.org.uk

Blogged with the Flock Browser

A great blog from Mark Walker over at SCIP (South East Regional ICT Champion) about the experiences of Uniservity within the third sector and lesson to be learned

http://scipmark.blogspot.com/2008/08/what-is-uniservity-telling-us.html

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: uniservity, SCIP, NAVCA

www.flock.com

A new web browser which brings together much of the social networking stuff in one place - Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and much much more. Useful if you are always in-and-out of this stuff.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: flock, social networking

Digital Unite have got a workshop ‘road-show’ currently booked for Brighton, Burton upon Trent, Exeter and Liverpool (other dates/venues to be announced).

Digital Unite have got a workshop ‘road-show’ currently booked for Brighton, Burton upon Trent, Exeter and Liverpool (other dates/venues to be announced).

Why go to a workshop? In today’s world being able to use Information Technology is as vital as reading and writing. Yet some people miss out on this vital skill, whether because they retired before learning for work, slipped out of the education ‘loop’ for some reason or simply felt too daunted at a crucial time in their lives. Bringing IT literacy programmes to these groups can feel challenging but it’s also a tremendous opportunity to work communicatively and pro-actively and in a life-changing way with your clients.

If you want to spend a constructive, creative day with like-minded others finding out about the highly successful ‘DU way’ of bringing sustainable IT programmes into all sorts of communities, and exploring in detail how to use outreach opportunities like Silver Surfers’ Day, then the workshop below could be for you.

Dates: Liverpool, Wednesday October 29; Brighton, Thursday November 6;
Burton-upon-Trent, Tuesday, November 11; Exeter, Monday November 17.
Costs: GBP75 per head or GBP120 for two from same organisation.
Refreshments: Hot and cold drinks and biscuits but please bring yourself
something for lunch.
Timings: Exact times depend on locations but roughly 9.30-4.30pm.

Contact: Gill Adams or Brian Eisenberg,

Information, Digital Unite with Silver
Surfers’ Day. Email

gill.adams@digitalunite.netTel:  0870 241 5091

 

 

Bournemouth is to be the first UK town to embrace a new way of getting broadband - via fibre optics in the sewers.

Work is to start in September, but residents and businesses will be invited to get connected for free this week by H2O Networks, who are funding and installing the necessary cables at a cost of £30 million.  Anyone who signs up will be able to use Fibre to the home (FTTH) technology to send and receive data and businesses in the Bournemouth area will have a distinct advantage over those in the rest of the country.

http://www.connectedneighbourhoods.org.uk/bournemouth-to-lead-on-broadband

UKonline Centres are saying goodbye to the e-Skills passport on 01 August 2008 but they are being replaced by the our new Skills checkpoints.

 

These are now available on myguide. There are three Skills checkpoints - First steps, Next steps, Moving on - that a centre can use to help visitors check their ICT skills no matter what their level.

Further Information

See http://www.myguide.gov.uk/myguide/MyguideHome.do

The Charity Technology Trust (CTT) have announced the addition of cttGRANTfinder to their CTX Programme.

This is of particular interest to Infrastructure organisations.

 

 

Established in 1985, GRANTfinder is a user-friendly funding database carrying up to date details in excess of 4,000 UK and EU grants, loans, venture capital and advisory programmes - a reservoir of information that is constantly growing and continuously updated.

GRANTfinder has developed a unique discounted edition of its services, cttGRANTfinder, specifically for eligible organisations which do not have the resources to access the full GRANTfinder solution, but which will still benefit from the wealth of information available through the GRANTfinder database.

cttGRANTfinder provides simplified search, alert and management capabilities while delivering the same details on the relevant funding opportunities, newsflashes and bulletins for the small charity sector, as the full GRANTfinder service, at a significantly reduced price. For a 3-user 12-month licence, it is £349 plus VAT.

The Charity Technology Trust (CTT) have announced the addition of cttGRANTfinder to their CTX Programme.

This is of particular interest to Infrastructure organisations.

 

More Information

To learn more about cttGRANTfinder, go to the GRANTfinder section of the CTX website.

http://www.ctxchange.org/about_ctx/partners/grantfinder

These awards enable charity and community groups throughout the UK to harness the power of the Internet. 30 winners will receive cash grants of £2,000 each to fund technology related projects, as well as technology equipment to help them make the most of the Internet. Applications are invited from 1 July to 30 September 2008

http://www.talktalk.co.uk/talktalk/servlet/gben-server-PageServer?article=MAIN.UK.TALKTALK.STATIC.COMMUNITYAWARDS.INNOVATIONAWARDS

The Charity Technology Trust (CTT) in partnership with the not-for-profit technology capacity building organisation TechSoup have brought about the Charity Technology Exchange (CTX) programme.

Through the programme, eligible UK-based charities are able to choose from over 170 donated or discounted technology products from Partners such as Microsoft, Symantec and Cisco. The products include operating system software and server software, security software and hardware products such as switches, routers, wireless equipment and firewalls.

Charities are required to pay a small administrative fee to cover the costs of the programme. Whilst the administrative fees vary, charities will still make savings of between 92-96% on typical retail prices.

Well worth investigating if it is for you http://www.ctxchange.org/about_ctx

A new report on the place of Social Enterprise in delivering ICT support to third sector organisations in now published. Julie Harris, Regional ICT Champion and Chief Executive at COSMIC is a co-author to the report and has played a key role in the research, consultation and analysis work. Along with Paul Ruskin of AfL/I-Trust in Cambridge, Mark Walker of SCIP in Brighton, and Colin Harrison of Electroville in Yorkshire, Julie has been looking not only at existing social enterprises working in this field, but also at how more can be developed and how good practice and good business models can be taken forward.

Julie says “I am really pleased to have been involved with this work and to have had an opportunity to use my experience of developing COSMIC into a sustainable and successful social enterprise delivering ICT services in this way. I am looking forward to further opportunities to be involved in encouraging new developments in social enterprise in ICT support. The third sector (and other sectors too!) needs to be able to rely on top quality, affordable and trustworthy sources of ICT support and I believe passionately that social enterprise is the solution”.

 

ict-support-is-social-enterprise-the-solution-final

The Government has launched a new website and competition, Show Us A Better Way, to invite people to come up with new ways of using the vast amount of information held and which could be put to better use in planning and delivery of services. We are fairly certain that there are some sharp minds out there in the third sector more than able to rise to the challenge - here’s the official run-down. … .

———————

This is a competition about data, about communication and above all about making government more useful.

The government produces masses of data on what is happening around the UK. Infomation on crime, on health, on education. However, this information is often hidden away in obscure publications or odd corners of websites. Data tucked away like this isn’t  of use to the ultimate owner of that information YOU.

The Power of Information Taskforce want you to give us your ideas on how best to reuse, represent or combine the information the government holds to make it useful.  To provide you with some ideas we have linked to literally gigabytes of new information here. You have:

• Mapping information from the Ordnance Survey
• Medical information from NHS Choices
• Neighbourhood statistics from the ONS
• Pretty much all Offical Notices (bankruptcy, official appointments, etc) from the London Gazette
• A carbon calculator from Defra

We want your best ideas for how we can use this (or any other)information to make your life better.