News & Events > ICT Bulletin Archive

ICT E-Bulletin - April 2011

By Lasa Information Systems Team

A source of technology news, resources and advice for small to medium sized third sector organisations.

News

Nick Hurd meets Apple to discuss iPhone donations app

Third Sector reports that Nick Hurd, the Minister for Civil Society, has met representatives of the technology giant Apple to ask it to allow donations to charity through iPhone apps.

Charities Evaluation Service launches monitoring tool selection resource

CES's National Performance Programme has launched IT for Outcomes, a new online resource designed to help you select the right tool to support your monitoring work. We've focused on low-cost, 'off the shelf' database systems and have created a guide to help you establish your needs, and a comparison table to clearly demonstrate key features - for example cost, flexibility, outcomes management functions and ease of use.

Spending cuts will affect technology use by small groups

Civil Society IT reports that the third sector's ability to use communications technology to reach out to service users and other stakeholders will be badly hampered by cuts to support providers’ budgets.

Orange launches volunteering app

Mobile phone provider Orange has teamed up with 12 UK charities to create an app which enables people to volunteer through their mobile phone for the first time. According to Civil Society, Do Some Good comprises 12 different actions which range from taking a survey on wellbeing for the Samaritans, to uploading photos and tagging locations and take less than five minutes to complete.

Events, training & learning

London ICT Events

For London technology events please see our Events Calendar. Events include a number of Sounddelivery training days, Fossbox Friday, Go ON: ND11 and the Institute of Fundraising Technology Conference.

What training do you want?

KnowHow NonProfit would like to know what training you want and will try to deliver it for £10.

... and what open source software training?

Fossbox has now come to the end of the Lottery funding which supported its free topical workshops over the past 6 months. They're developing a programme of training for later this year and are running a survey to find out what is required.  Fear not, FOSS Fridays aren't affected by funding - Fossbox will do their best to make sure these will always be there by keeping it on a voluntary basis - if you think you can help others with Wordpress or Ubuntu, they'd love to hear from you. See also the events calendar for the next event.

Digital communications training for less than a tenner!

KnowHow NonProfit have added Digital Communications for Successful Campaigns to their training programme which consists of four online training videos, resources and discussion forum moderated by the trainer.

Media Trust training

The Media Trust are running a number of digital media training events in the London area over the next few months.

Idealware online seminars

Idealware continues their series of seminars in April with An Introduction To Website Analytics and Choosing A Volunteer Management System. All seminars are one and a half hours long and run between 1 - 2.30 pm EST (which is 6 - 7.30pm here, we think).

Funding and awards

BT launches new online fundraising platform

The Guardian reports that survey findings published today to coincide with the launch of BT's MyDonate, a new free online charitable fundraising service, highlight staggering sums donated to charity by the average person last year. Londoners were the most generous, giving on average £367, followed by the Scottish who donated an average of £227.

However, BT’s move to launch a no-fee fundraising website has drawn criticism from social entrepreneur and author Robert Ashton, who has accused the telecoms giant of using its financial muscle to deliberately undermine the market's creator JustGiving.

Internet Awards 2011

The Nominet Internet Awards recognise the achievements of organisations and individuals who lead the way to make the internet a more inclusive, enjoyable and safer space for everyone. Entering the Awards is easy and can be done online. All you need to do is choose the category which fits your initiative best and complete the online application form.  You can save your application and come back to it at any point. Nominations close on April 28.

Resources, legal and accessibility

Technology Conference (NTC) impressions

NTEN recently held NTC 2011 in Washington, DC - here's a round up of attendees posts, highlights and NonProfit "takeaways" (not their leftover McDonalds you'll be pleased to hear...). Also many of the session presentations are available on Slideshare.

NTEN Change magazine

Aimed at nonprofit leaders and decision makers, NTEN launched their new free online journal at the NTC. Through in-depth articles, case-studies, best practices, leader profiles, and discussions, NTEN's conference NTEN quarterly journal for nonprofit leaders provides the guidance and practical considerations necessary for making sound investments and decisions that will help your organization achieve its mission. The first issue includes articles on board collaboration, online fundraising, accidental spamming and tips for picking a web consultant. Holly Ross introduces the journal over on YouTube.

Privacy law will extend to US social networks, vows Commissioner

Out-Law.com reports that US-based social networks should apply EU law to EU citizens. EU Commissioner Viviane Reding has said that  EU privacy laws should apply to citizens' data regardless of where or how it is hosted or processed.

Practical tips

Colour schemes for websites

Giving your website a makeover? Adobe® Kuler™ is a web-hosted application for generating colour themes that can inspire any project. No matter what you're creating, with Kuler you can experiment quickly with color variations and browse thousands of themes from the Kuler community.

Social media tips from "industry experts"

To help you lay down tracks for social media success, here’s a solid list of strategies from eight top social media experts. Take a look, ask yourself what tips you can use and start reaping the rewards of real success.

New KHNP "how tos" on fundraising and surveys

A new KnowHow NonProfit "howto" gives nine tips on how to use the internet for fundraising whilst another looks at designing and using online survey tools.

Do I need Microsoft Project?

Peter Campbell over on the NTEN blog looks at some project management alternatives.

Tools and applications

Digital Story Telling tools

Following on from the last London Circuit Riders Forum led by Sounddelivery – here are some tools you can use to tell your stories:

• Image editing:  Picnik, Photoshop Express online Microsoft Photo Editor (find in the Microsoft Office Tools folder on a Windows PC), Gimp
• Audio sources: Freesound, Soundsnap
• Audio recorders/editors:  Audacity, Freecorder 4
• Slideshow creators: Windows Movie Maker (find in Windows Start / Programs), iMovie, Soundslides, Microsoft PhotoStory
• Video platforms:  Vimeo, YouTube

In case you were interested in but unable to attend the event earlier this month, Sounddelivery have uploaded their presentation slides to Slideshare.

Teambox for free

The online project management tool Teambox is now free for qualifying nonprofits. Teambox offers activity streams, threaded conversations and commenting, inbox management and alerts, RSS feeds and anything that makes it easier to quickly see and address what is going on in your tasks and projects.

Web X-Ray goggles

A marvellous "bookmarklet" to view html information on a web page without looking at all that confusing source code. (Thanks to NTEN for steering us towards this)

Opinion

The cost of mobile communication

Gil Wilson over at Unbound Technology goes to the theatre, finds out how and who made the iphone in his pocket and doesn't enjoy the experience. Wired magazine also examines the conditions at the Foxconn electronic components factory in China.

Chitter chatter

Marc Baizman examines Salesforce's private social networking service, Chatter.

Cloud security in the era of Wikileaks

Steve Backman at Idealware's blog looks at the state of cloud security.

How the cloud is being used by civil society organisations in the developing world

Keisha Taylor from Guidestar International over on the TechSoup blog looks at how developing world CSO's are innovating using cloud computing under not ideal circumstances.

Amazon's Cloud Drive - bad news for privacy

Cloud Drive stores anything digital in the cloud so you can get to it anywhere you have an Internet-capable device. It’s free and you get 5 GB of free storage. The service connects with Amazon Cloud Player, a cloud-based music player that can be used on a computer or an Android tablet equipped with the Amazon MP3 App. However, Jim Lynch on TechSoup's blog looks at Amazon's small print and doesn't like it much.

Who won the proprietary vs open source debate?

Michelle Murrain on her Zen and the art of not for profit technology blog, reckons the age-old battle is coming to an end and cloud means that they both won.

And finally

Computer World

Kraftwerk! Puppets! What could be better?

And on a lighter note...

Inspired by Wii and Xbox, control your email with your body! Released on April 1, Gmail Motion uses your computer's built-in webcam and Google's patented spatial tracking technology to detect your movements and translate them into meaningful characters and commands. Movements are designed to be simple and intuitive for people of all skill levels.