News & Events > ICT Bulletin Archive

ICT E-Bulletin - October 2011

By Lasa Information Systems Team

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

Lasa news

Powering Up The Third Sector - Lasa’s autumn technology conference

Book now for Lasa's technology conference Powering Up The Third Sector with an amazing line-up of speakers including UK Digital Champion Martha Lane Fox and former BBC correspondent Kim Catcheside.

We'll have sessions on managing technology mergers, social media, the cloud, mobile technology fundraising, working with CEOs and more... There's also a chance for you to run your own "unconference" informal session.

Based at the prestigious IBM Forum London on the South Bank, London, we will be joined on 14 November by experts from across the globe including Holly Ross of NTEN and Doug Jacquier, of Connecting Up Australia.

More information, programme and registration - don't delay!

Lasa Technology Surgery Day - still a few slots left and introducing event management sessions

Does your organisation need advice on ICT? Are you unsure how to manage or plan your technology? To help London-based small and medium sized third sector organisations, Lasa is organising its second annual Technology Surgery Day.

Lasa has gathered together eight eminent “surgeons” to give you advice and information on a wide range of technology issues ranging from websites, cloud technology, databases, open source software, email marketing, networks and security to social media - and now online event management.

We now have eight surgeons each offering five one-to-one 45 minute workshops throughout the day. To book go to our Eventbrite page and choose a surgery and select the ticket for your preferred time slot. Places are reserved on a first come, first served basis. Questions to Miles Maier at Lasa mmaier@lasa.org.uk or telephone 020 7426 4473.

News

Awareness needed of technology recycling schemes

Concern over data protection is the main reason up to two thirds of UK companies don't donate their IT equipment for reuse, according to research released by charity Computer Aid International reported by Civil Society IT.

Google's first ever store hits London

Chrome Zone is located within Currys and PC World Superstore on Tottenham Court Road and offers tech early adopters a chance to play with a Samsung Chromebook, Google’s internet-only laptop, says PC Advisor.

New philanthropy and social media guide published

The Institute for Philanthropy has issued a guide to Philanthropy and Social Media (pdf, 3.1Mb) and how social media are affecting fundraising. It includes a number of conversations with investors in social media.

Charities 'lag behind' in use of technology                       

Civil Society reports that the charity sector is “lagging behind” other sectors such as travel and retail when it comes to embracing new technology, according to Annie Dare, special advisor to Martha Lane Fox the digital champion at Race Online 2012, speaking to delegates at the AIME Empowering the Charitable Sector with Interactive Technology II conference.

Online Employability Toolkit Launch

Lasa has finalised the English version of the  ‘Key Competencies for All’ Online Employability Toolkit, an EU project,  which is now freely available online. The toolkit supports telecentres - online centre networks, public facilities such as libraries or community centres where people can access computers and the internet, undertake basic training courses and gain skills certification and helps develop their skills, from CV building to online job hunting.

Events, training & learning

London Events Calendar

For technology events please see our Events Calendar. This month's events include: Data Management in the Public Sector, GiveCamp UK, Data Protection and WEEE, Information Age's Cloud Security, Green IT Expo, Lasa Technology Surgeries, Mozilla Festival and Lasa's Powering Up The Third Sector.

Data protection webinars launch

Paul Ticher, the sector’s data protection guru, is launching a series of 55 minute webinars next month. The first is on 10 November entitled Data Protection: membership, supporters and fundraising followed by Data Protection: Information Security on 6 December. Cost per webinar is £25 but some organisations may be eligible for a 40% discount.

Take part in Get online week and Go ON give an hour

This year, Get online week takes place from 30 October to 6 November. It's all about asking those that are online to give an hour to help someone who isn’t to get started, and those offline will be encouraged to spend an hour at one of over 2,000 events that are taking place throughout the country in UK online centres and other venues. Find out more about the Get online week campaign and sign up. If you want to be a Digital Champion and help someone else get started, you can make a pledge or find out more about how to help.

European public internet centre conference

The fourth Telecentre-Europe Summit will take place in Brussels, Belgium, during 27-28 October 2011, and will bring together an audience of 100 telecentre network leaders from across Europe.

Get Connected to eLearning for social care providers

Get connected to elearning is a SCIE resource which supports improved access to ICT in the social care sector. It is intended for those who are new to or have experience of elearning. Focussing on learning via the internet, it includes what is elearning, the strengths and weaknesses of elearning, staff training and development, how to recognise good elearning and where to find quality free elearning. The information can be accessed online and in booklet format.

Funding and awards

Omidyar Network sets up in London

Third Sector reports that a grant-making organisation set up by Pierre Omidyar,  the founder of eBay, has opened a new global office in London. The organisation, which sources its grantees through networking and has no formal applicatiion process,  concentrates its funding on technology that promotes transparency and accountability and on organisations that promote economic development worldwide.

Proportion of giving done online nearly doubles in three years

The proportion of voluntary income that charities receive online has increased from 2 per cent to 3.7 per cent over the past three years, according to new research by the consultancy nfpSynergy. The research is contained in the second edition of the report Passion, Persistence and Partnership: the secrets of earning more online (pdf, 1.6Mb).

Localgiving.com

A social enterprise set up by Community Foundation Network (CFN) and the Ardbrack Foundation, the website enables philanthropic giving to small local charities and community groups in the UK. Once vetted by their local Community Foundation, organisations can be listed on the site and then searched for and found by potential donors in their local area.

Resources, legal and accessibility

Interested in becoming a paid member of the AbilityNet Web Testing Team?

Do you:

• Use an assistive technology such as a screen reader or voice recognition?
• Avoid using the mouse or find it difficult to use one?
• Find it hard to see the screen or have difficulties reading?
• Experience pain or fatigue when using the computer?
• Have a learning disability or cognitive impairment?
• Are you British Sign Language user?
• Use the web regularly?
• Want to help improve website accessibility?

If the answer is 'Yes' to any of the above you could be eligible to become a tester. To find out more or to register your interest, please visit AbilityNet or email your details to webtesters@abilitynet.org.uk

Media Trust relaunches Community Newswire

The free-to-use Community Newswire service which helps charities, communities and citizen journalists get their stories into the national and regional media is back thanks to funding from the Big Lottery. Submit your stories, press releases and photos and the best will be selected and written up by dedicated Press Association journalists and distributed to thousands of newsrooms across the UK.

Social media guide for museums

Sounddelivery have published a  guide to social media (pdf, 1.8Mb). Although aimed at museums, it is a useful overview for other non-profits.

Windows 7 accessibility features

The Ease of Access Centre replaces Accessibility Options of previous versions of Windows, in the Control Panel.  It includes a range of options e.g. making the computer easier to see and the mouse or keyboard easier to use.  In addition there are 3 programs - Magnifier, Narrator and the On-Screen Keyboard.  For further information see Microsoft's briefing, the BBC's My Web My Way guide or the Which? guide.

Practical tips

Top YouTube tips, getting a YouTube channel and QR codes

Business2Community compiles a list of their top tips on how to get your videos noticed. And KnowHow NonProfit have added a How-To article on getting a YouTube channel. Also on KHNP, how to create and use QR (Quick Response) codes (those square bar code type things!).

New social media measuring articles on Idealware

Andrea Berry and Chris Bernard help you through the process of measuring your organization's social media success in these three articles, originally published in the NTEN: Change journal and the NonProfit Times.

• Measuring Your Social Media Success
• Measuring Your Social Media Success Case Studies
• Tools to Measure Your Social Media Efforts

Moderating problematic behaviour on online forums

Some useful advice on dealing with onlne bad behaviour from The Helplines Association.

Building your social media audience

Laura Quinn at Idealware asks “If you post a message on Twitter and no one’s there to hear it, does it make a noise?” and then goes on to help you attract a crowd to your facebook updates and tweets.

How Newham hospital greened its IT

A Guardian Government Computing article which explains how Newham University Trust introduced server virtualisation and thin client computing to reduce their power use.

Tools and applications

SlideRocket now on CTX

Charities and not-for-profit organisations will now be able to access SlideRocket as a CTX donation. SlideRocket is a web-based service for creating, managing and sharing online multimedia presentations.  It has the ability to create better slideshows quicker from within any browser or to import them from existing PowerPoint slide decks or Google Docs presentations. Presentations are easily and securely sharable and SlideRocket also provides analytics tools to measure its effectiveness.

Free accounts software for small organisations

The second free accounts system from the Money in Mind project is now available for groups to download. The Simple Accounts system is designed for small community groups who don't have lots of grants to keep track of. For groups who need to track grants from several different funders, MiM also have an Annual Accounts system.

Twitter tools - a round up

Love it or hate it, Twitter is now a fact of life. Here’s a useful round-up at Noupe of tools to help you battle with the tweet-stream. (warning - serious image overload on this page, may take a while to load).

A Few Good Online Event-Registration Tools

In this update of an Idealware article first published in 2007, TechSoup asked a number of nonprofit technology professionals what online registration tools have worked for them.

Spiceworks 5.2 released

The free inventory (and much else bsides) tool Spiceworks has been updated. The latest release tracks software licenses, create multi-vendor quote requests, simplify your ink and toner purchasing and manage and inventory your cloud services.

Opinion

Text and mobiles - the basics

John Kenyon outlines some essential dos and don’ts for non-profits on using smartphones - and even if you’re not yet, you should be thinking about and preparing for it...

Managing risk in the cloud

In another Guardian Government Computing article, Mike Small outlines the risk factors to be taken into consideration when moving data or services to the cloud.

Would we lie to you?

In this excellent article, Jay Baer on his Convince and Convert blog reckons that having your Twitter followers and Facebooks likers on show makes you lie to yourself about your social media impact.

Loving technology

Terry Stokes, CEO at Lasa looks at the legacy of the recently late Steve Jobs of Apple and how the “customer experience” rather than the tech itself is the thing.

And finally

Never type Google into Google

The Head of IT in The IT Crowd issues a dire warning...

Happy 55th birthday to the hard disc

The Register celebrates IBM’s invention of the hard drive back in 1956.

Flushed away

How a rural toilet crashed a server - from The Register (where else?)