UKriders

At the North East voluntary and community sector awards tonight.
What makes me so proud to work in this sector is to see these people giving selflessly of themselves simply to help others.
Well done.
Details will be on the VONNE website soon.       

(EDIT) The first part of what follows is a blog post created for Susan Cooper from Friends of Pitts Wood as we went along at the BrumBloggers Surgery held at BVSC in Birmingham this evening (EDIT).

Here we are trying out blogging at the Blog Action Day event in Birmingham.

Visit the Friends of Pitts Wood website for more information about their project.

That’s how simple it is to set up a blog post!

And to insert a picture - thanks Paul Henderson for uploading the picture through your Flickr account of me showing Susan Cooper how to set up a WordPress blog.

(EDIT)

Yes, that easy to add a post; and if you look at the blog of Nick Booth there are more links to the organisations we helped. Can I ask you to look at the blogs that were created tonight and try out leaving a comment … it’s what makes the “live web” really come alive!

The two hours seemed to fly by so quickly with some people disappointed that we couldn’t do more - surely a sign that this type of event should run again. Thinking about this on the train home I realised that we have enough events for the geeks, the teccies, the webbies and the planners but not enough for the community organisations to learn in simple language about those toys that we all love to play with.

This really isn’t a new idea and I know of many occasional events over past couple of years where the regional champions have run workshops / one-to-ones / surgeries etc for the communities in their area. But there can never be enough of these it seems, just as you show groups how to master social media more are arriving to learn - some about social media, but others with more basic ICT needs (such as flaky Internet, poorly maintained hardware etc) that they must overcome before moving forward at speed with blogging etc.

I can see regular surgeries across the country to tackle these questions as being an area where the proposed Digital Mentors may step in - our community champions who want to see local issues resolved and who have an understanding of how technology can achieve this. It’s going to mean us taking “a bit from here” and “a bit from there” to make the whole package - but one thing we have no shortage of is community organisations eager to know how to use technology to further their aims. (Dave we must get our head’s together on this!)

To finish - another picture of the “doctors” at work in the BVSC “surgery” and a full room of “healthy patients”!

BrumBloggers Social Media Surgery

      

I am not single handedly expecting to change the attitude of the world, the country, my city or even my workplace to the issue of Poverty on Blog Action Day this year. What I am hoping to do, together with over 10,000 other bloggers across the world is to say stop and think - individual actions can make a difference, and individual actions when collected together can begin to have a larger effect.

We may think Poverty is something that you see on those news features you accidentally catch when looking for the sport on News 24, or the “annoying bits” that get in the way of the jokes on Red Nose Day, but Poverty is closer to home, its the people sleeping rough on the streets, the older people not able to pay fuel bills, those in rural isolation, the single parents ….

We all just need to do a bit, not a lot, just s bit, as collective actions make a difference,

I am not preaching, and some may think “it’s not for me”, but I felt uneasy reading in my Twitter Tweetstream about the launch of the new Apple products yesterday (other launches, were available!). We all need reliable, fit for purpose, tech equipment, but why not think about donating to others a portion of the money set aside for the next “technology-must-have” - just a thought.

The Social Media Club in Austin, Texas have been busy raising awareness of Poverty situations in their community and this evening I will be joining the BrumBloggers at their “Surgery” to help voluntary and community organisations in Birmingham use Social Media, (blogs, flickr, facebook etc.) in their outreach to the community causes. (Pictures and an update to follow here - or on the blog of Podnosh)

Finally just a few links to read and think about - The Jubilee Debt Campaign, The Change.Org website and Emmaus - the Homeless Charity in Preston.

      

The last few blog posts may seem a bit random. These were all added and edited using my current mobile phone - the fantastic Nokia E66. I have been surprised how much this phone is capable of with the appropriate (free)  software installed. I have been able to compose, post and edit blog posts. Upload pictures and video and live stream video, which I tried using Qik at the Live and Local / Future Choices Conference and is available on their conference blog.

In addition, I was also able to check train times on Opera Mobile through the 3G connection,  find the venue of the conference party using it’s GPS mapping functions, bluetooth a picture, listen to my LastFM radio stations … oh and it does a great job of making some phone calls too !

I am tapping this post out on my laptop, but certainly plan to use this phone for more mobile social reporting in the future.

Now onto the actions …

Action 1 - The eagle-eyed of you may have noticed the blog title has gone pink and over on the right there is “P4O” button… Myself and many thousands of bloggers have turned parts of our blogs (or the whole theme) Pink for October to raise awareness of Breast Cancer. Please follow suit, if you haven’t already by seeing the links, banners and buttons on the Pink for October website.

Action 2- This week on Wednesday 15th October it is Blog Action Day. On this day we are all being asked to do something useful through our blogs, or the wider use of social media for those in poverty. The action will take many forms with awareness raising and some direct help being given. One such show of direct action will take place at BVSC in Birmingham when the “BrumBloggers” group will meet together to offer a “social media surgery session” with free support, advice, blogs … or help with anything technology related that may be needed by the voluntary and community sector working with groups that tackle poverty in Birmingham.

Thanks to BVSC we will have food and hot drinks, if you are in or around Birmingham please do register to let us know you are coming along and see just how social media can help you reach out to more people in the community.

      

At the future choices conference in skipton. My E66 continues to perform as i put it through its paces.
I have used Qik on the phone to record a couple of videos of colin harrison talking about blogs. Go over to the site to watch them.
Http://qik.com/event/315/futurechoices–live-and-local/day/2

      

Noticed a typo in the previous post. All corrected using opera mini on the phone.
Caught up with my twitter feed using twibble and even listened to a little last fm on mobbler my phone last fm client. Well i am out of work now!
All courtesy of national express free wifi on the train.

      

What has this got to do with the voluntary and community sector?
I have been interested in gadgets and technology for as long as i can remember so this and the next few posts are all about how a pocket sized computer (a Nokia E66) can or cant be utilised as part of my work. This post has been written using a program called Wavelog. There is a free version for Symbian S60 phones which seems to do the trick . . You tell me!
I will be trying these out at the Future Choices conference in Skipton. Will check the train is on time on the phone of course and off i go. Pics. Video. Audio even to follow.

      

“We tried soc med and we liked it, Kevin Curley said so!” (With huge apologies to Katy Perry!).

As part of our annual conference this year we set-up a blog, which originally started out as not much more than an on-line version of the booking form, with the added feature where people could leave comments about the workshops and find out more about the logistics of the event (we put up a map of where delegates were coming from and some background information to the area).

But approaching the conference date, the momentum of social media took over as ideas flowed and also we saw what other events were doing.

So in addition to the simple blog, we tried out Crowdvine prior to the event and then over the two days we did much more! We recorded videos - making them available on Vimeo and YouTube; we recorded podcast interviews; we took photographs and put them on Flickr and Slide; we Twittered …. but most importantly we took our organisation forward and we learnt a lot! We made mistakes, we covered up mistakes (ahem !), but we learnt from this, and most importantly we learnt that this is the way we want to move forward.

On the second day of the conference four of us (including our Chief Exec and our Communications Manager) attended workshops run by Jude Habib of sounddelivery (it was so good I even went along twice!). Listening to the Chief Officers and NAVCA members in these sessions confirmed that there is potential and interest, but only if we get the basics sorted out first and show real uses for this technology.

The session covered the whole range social media tools that are available for use in th sector that infrastructure organisations can promote to their members.

Here’s the slideshow Jude presented (oh, that’s another two social media tools in connection with the conference - Slideshare and Scribd!) !

As someone with some knowledge of social media I tried to put myself in the shoes of an infrastructure organisation grappling with how to reach out to their members, how to engage communities in their work and generally how to be more effective and efficient.

Various participants shared their thoughts on the subject - which ranged from bewilderment, fright and lack of understanding to an interest if the benefits could be presented to them simply.

We heard podcast recordings both from Jude of young people she had worked with and examples from within the room of organisations using video to be more effective at gathering meeting feedback and using Facebook for supporters to show their support. Interestingly a significant number of people said they used Facebook for personal reasons - but had not seen its potential in a work context.

A clear message from Jude was Content, Content, Content - I thought it’s easy to see how the written Content we all use (paper and emails) can be enhanced to get our messages across in a fully three dimensional way. Listening to the podcast of the children on the beach or the young mother walking around her run down housing estate it was easy to feel transported into that situation and more connected to the messages they were putting across.

So if we were to also use the audio Content (possible through a podcast) and the video Content (possible through video and picture sharing websites) we have the potential to say so much more and connect with so many more people than just sending out emails or printed newsletters. In addition since social media is a two way communication channel the power to collaborate with similar organisations and be responsive to feedback from stakeholders is enormous.

I have put together a quick FAQ of Social Media definitions that you can read on-line or that can be downloaded for your own use. For more in depth case studies see the booklet put together by the Media Trust which you can also read on-line or download in PDF format (944Kb). Printed copies of the booklet can be obtained by contacting your Regional ICT Champion.

We must be doing something right, as we have been christened “Team Socmed” in NAVCA and are looking at many other uses of this technology for the organisation and at future events.

If you want to know more or would like to see how any of this is can be used in your organisation just drop me or one of the ICT Champions an email.

      

Bit of an “I did this and then I did that blog entry today”, so skip a couple of paragraphs to get over that if you wish!

Last week in the blog I said I was just about to dash off over the hills to Preston and that I would report back on how all things ICT are for the third sector in Lancashire. ‘Apologies for the delay’ (as I hear too frequently on my travels by public transport), however I grabbed some “downtime” away from work for a few days.

There is a lot of ‘history’ surrounding the recent fortunes of infrastructure support in Lancashire (which are best left for someone else to expand upon!), which have had some impact on the ICT services available for the county. But despite the rocky road an ICT Working Group for the Lancashire Voluntary, Community and Faith Sector (acronym time – LVCFS) was set-up and has met regularly over the last two years.

So this workshop was a chance for the group to say ‘this is what we are do’ and ‘if you care about ICT provision in Lancashire, or you have ICT needs then come and join us!’. They also gave away a free CD-ROM containing useful guides, resources, case studies, the ICT plan and a selection of Open Source Software (I’ve got a couple of spare copies if you want one for nowt).

Fortunately groups actually attending were higher than the number that had booked (communication is a recognised gap by the group!) and after the nibbles we got down to the business of discussing ICT needs of groups and who / how these could be met.

Rather like the iconic (no - really!) bus station in Preston (unchanged since the 1960s - but now threatened with demolition), what struck me was that I was hearing the same requests aired by groups as I was hearing in my time with Purplezebra back in 2005 and had heard throughout my time in the ICT Hub!

• We need help in writing an ICT plan / strategy
• How do we put together a basic ICT budget?
• Where can we get reliable ICT advice from that really ‘knows the third sector’?
• We need to speak to local, impartial ICT champions / digital enablers / buzz directors / ICT development workers (delete as appropriate) to explain what all the fuss is about social media / blogging / pod-casts etc etc. Then, is any of this relevant for us?
• Some teccies use geek speak and leave us more confused than before they started or leave half-finished or botched installations!

…and I heard similar too from the providers and circuit riders in the room.

• There are not enough circuit riders to go around
• There are not enough paying clients to make a sustainable service
• How do we diversify and offer more than one service
• We can’t find support staff with the right skill set that strikes the balance between having sufficient technical skills to deliver a competent service and the inter-personal skills to explain ICT to non-technical staff

As part of the discussions I asked the questions

• Would having a simple ICT plan help in identifying an ICT direction for your organisation? (I didn’t even use the word strategy!)”

and

• Would you be interested in finding out how a pod-cast could help you reach new audiences?

I was given a clear message

• Maybe, but only after we have sorted out the dodgy printer, the flaky Internet connection, the incompatible software versions, Mabel’s computer that only works sometimes, the volunteers who need basic training, data protection issues with storing client records …..
  

I got the picture. Get the basics and the foundations right and the rest will surely follow - but we really do need to crack this one !

We will not have used Capacitybuilders (and others) funding wisely if in two years time we are still seeing the same barriers put up and hearing the same excuses.

Third sector VCS organisations need access to a range of affordable providers supplying impartial advice and guidance about a range of practical technology solutions from network and hardware maintenance to use of social media. Suppliers (circuit riders, trainers, digital mentors etc.) need offer a range of services and find means to operate in a sustainable way but with their USP (Unique Selling Point) of being in the sector and for the sector, recommended by others.

Whilst we ponder how to address these, I was given a couple of other thoughts (positive this time!) to ponder on train home - from groups who had already had the ‘light bulb moment’.

• “We get the need and importance of the I (Information) and we have invested in the T (Technology) to make it all happen, what we need help with is the C (Communications).” I see this as a way that social media can play a part as it offers so much by way of collaborative communications - although with a word of caution as communication could simply mean getting past their faulty Internet connection.

• “Although ICT involves a financial outlay it is not a COST to our organisation, it is in fact a SAVING in the long term.” Wise investment in hardware / software and training in social source now, is predicted to have longer term savings in real terms and improvement in organisations effectiveness and efficiency.

Same as it ever was - hopefully not for much longer.

With apologies again to Steve for ripping off his idea again (but it works so well), here are Talking Heads asking the question.

My popular list of LIOs (Local Infrastructure Organisations) - Councils for Voluntary Service or Voluntary Action’s that are using Web 2.0 contains a link to the blog of Steve Manwaring the Chief Officer of Hastings Voluntary Action.

Steve recently had an article published in the LIO/CVS magazine which explains how he got started as a blogger and what motivates him to write, this is his blog post about it.

His blog is always an interesting read and paints a good picture of just how hectic the life of CVS Chief Officer is … juggling priorities, writing funding bids, oh and running a busy CVS! The nice touch is that he often finishes each post with a link to relevant (usually!) music track on YouTube.

Guess you are my first “blogger of the month” …. any other CVS / LIO / Voluntary Action’s like to be featured?

Finally - a plug for the NAVCA annual conference. I am looking forward to the packed programme, particularly hearing Greg Clark (Shadow Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering) speak on his vision for the third sector … and I guess others will be eager to speak to Peter Wanless the Chief Executive of Big Lottery Fund.

Now, dashing off to catch a train to Preston for a Lancashire ICT roadshow, I will report back on how ICT for the third sector is in Red Rose County later. As I’m going over the hills, I though this little ditty by The Automatic would be appropriate. (Sorry Steve, but there’s a saying about copying an idea being flattery isn’t there?!)

I have been trying out a couple of interesting blogging tools, which explains why this picture appeared !

What I was looking to be able to do was to post pictures and WordPress entries directly from my phone to go into the blog. I know for all you iphone lovers this is now easy on WordPress, however Symbian S60 users on Nokia etc. can do it also.

To post pictures and video there is ShoZu which is very easy to use and as you can see above drops any picture from your camera phone as a new blog entry. (It’s the Fountain outside Sheffield Railway Station by the way). ShoZu doesn’t just stop there as there are many other features linking into other sites and tools (I counted 53 sites) enabling you to keep up to date with Twitter or to check and change you Facebook status etc. etc.

To post blog entries from your phone as new WordPress posts I found two solutions Scribe and Wavelog. Scribe needs Python to be running on your phone and doesn’t seem to have a way of loading media files, but I prefer Wavelog for simplicity - although in the free version you can only post text not media (although the full version is only $10).

If you’ve tried any of these or know of alternative ways to do mobile blog posting from a Symbian phone please leave a comment.

What was your reaction when it was reported that Jonathan Lewis, the new Chief Executive of Futurebuilders, said that they were doing away with application forms. Disbelief? Well you can now hear this straight from the horse’s mouth thanks to NAVCA’s first ever Podcast which was recorded when he visited our offices on 15 July.

Just click on this link to hear the Podcast (or Right Click on the link to save it so you can listen to it on your MP3 player.) <The file is an 8.3MB MP3 format file - interview time is 11 minutes>

The interview between Jonathan and Kevin Curley, Chief Executive of NAVCA, covers his view of Futurebuilders’ role in supporting the third sector and how organisations can access their loans, grants and advice. He talks about how there will be no more application forms, their ‘tender fund’ - interest free loans to help organisations become tender ready, encouraging applications from smaller organisations and swifter decisions with a ‘a definite ‘no’ or an indicative ‘yes’ ‘ within a week of application.

This got me thinking; of all the social media tools and applications which is the easiest for a novice to “get”, that doesn’t have a big learning curve or any expensive technological hurdles.

We all probably grew up listening to the radio under the bed covers at night (It was Martin Kelner on Radio Hallam for me - sorry Mum!), so simple to do, just a basic battery radio and a earphone - but hours of great entertainment!

Zip back to today … what does new media offer for the non-technical casual user - the information recipient?. A couple of examples of the Social Media stuff we promote and we love to fiddle with either has an unfamiliar learning curve to fully interact with (blogging), is at times bizarre (Twitter) or is powerful but has quite narrow focus (Wikis).

The beauty of a Podcast is that it requires minimal set-up for the listener and is tapping into a very familiar way for us access media content. But what about where you should listen? A couple of thoughts and conversations raise two contrasting viewpoints.

Firstly, I noticed that on my daily commute maybe 75% of people are listening to an iPod, a mobile phone or MP3 player - people who would not consider themselves “into technology”. Look around your office …. who has a mobile phone ? There are the those “into technology” - the person writes your blog or the person who did something clever with the internet to video’d the conference; but there is everyone else too. Check; do these people go home with their music plugged in and all with the potential to listen to a podcast on their mobiles instead. (Not that I am advocating an organisational policy that iall Pods must be used to listen to the boss … on the way home from work too!)

Secondly, whilst NAVCA were making this great leap I happened to meet up with Nick Booth where the conversation (unsurprisingly!) also got round to Podcasting. He mentioned some work he had just completed where the organisation were asked to play the DVD (could easily have been a Podcast) on an office PC, but probably like a lot of us using the “standard office set-up PC” - there were no speakers or headphones available and some of the PCs did not even have soundcards!

Despite this I see the medium of a Podcast to be easy to “get”. It’s portable and can be accessed if you wish as an alternative to music on the move or after a trip to the Pound Shop for headphones, in the office too.

Final thought, if the interview with Jonathan Lewis had only appeared in our printed newsletter or on a web page I may not have chosen to read it. As its an MP3 I downloaded it and listened to it on my phone, it sparkled with real life, with information and with humour; it filled my commute … and was well worth it too!

We may do more Podcasts featuring key players in the third sector. (If you would like to suggest Podcasts you would like to hear, contact Martin Lockett at martin.lockett@navca.org.uk or on 0114 289 3958.

Who taught you how to use a knife and fork or how to ride a bike?

Did anyone go to a formal class to learn these skills?

How did you learn to use a PC keyboard or a mouse?

More than likely someone showed you how to do it, you didn’t enroll on a course and take weeks to learn you were helped by someone, a friend, someone at work or someone from your community, someone that understands in the same way as you do.

There are number of lines of thought converging that have been shaped by project visits, Government announcements and a range of blog posts I have recently read.

In the CLG White Paper (Communities in Control) there is talk of Digital Mentors (Page 61)

Government will pilot a ‘Digital Mentor’ scheme in deprived areas. These mentors will support groups to develop websites and podcasts, to use digital photography and online publishing tools, to develop short films and to improve general media literacy. The Digital Mentors will also create links with community and local broadcasters as part of their capacity building, to enable those who want to develop careers in the media to do so. Depending on the success of these pilots, this scheme could be rolled out to deprived areas across England.

Well i’ve seen something like this already and can say that these people really are making a difference.

On our recent visit to the DC10plus project in Sunderland we were taken to the St. Davids Community Project, a “typical” 1960s housing estate style church building that played host to one of the Sunderland DC10 “Electronic Village Halls“. But what turned this drab hall into the vibrant centre of the community was the ”e-champion” or Digital Mentor who had suceeded in getting many people through the door, using the internet and the software on the PCs to remove some of the exclusion they may have previously felt. These people weren’t being taught formally or told they had to take a test, but were just enjoying technology and feeling more included in their community. (Woodsy from Bristol Wireless who was with us goes into more details about the day on his blog and some of the other EVH’s we visited). We saw the use of digital media; young people creating mobile phone ringtones and burning them to DVD, community podcasts being made, blogging and website building almost seems “old hat”!

All this doesn’t  happen by magic. The e-champions need their ‘community / media’ spark capturing, there needs to be buy-in from the local authority and the third sector hosting the EVHs and there needs to be infrastructure support so that the networks don’t grind to a halt, the broadband connection become unreliable and the nice new laptops don’t end up locked away in a cupboard because there is no-one to provide support when they need attention or training on how to use them (i’ve seen it, and I bet you have too!).

My other thoughts come in here as in Bristol (and elsewhere) there are ”Digital Media - Social Inclusion Co-ordinators“as part of the Everybody Online project. We have Regional Digital Inclusion Networks (RDINs) in at least the West Midlands and South West with ones planned in Yorkshire and The Humber and South East, which are cross sector networks between local authorities, third sector and local communities. Then we have my project of third sector regional ICT champions who are all working to fill the gaps in the infrastructure technical support and training that will enable local communities to get the ICT support they need; something that was highlighted as a Critical Success Factor in the success of the Sunderland e-champions project.

One of the critical factors for the success and continued engagement of the existing Community e-Champions is the provision of a dedicated Technical Support Officer. This provision reflects the Project’s ethos of partnership through continued support. On-site visits and telephone support offered to ensure that skills and knowledge are continually updated, in addition to the standard hardware and software maintenance.

Finally back to the Communities in Control report, there is a Digital Equality Action Plan being written (find i on page 53). Wouldn’t it be really good if all the knowledge gathered from the regional ICT champions about support needs, how to deliver it using the social enterprise model, the DC10 e-champions and the electronic village hall could be combined to send out Digital Mentors equipped ready to bring communities together using technology, ICT and social media. So, Paul Murphy MP, if you are reading this ….  oh and Dave Briggs is also blogging about this idea so surely with two of us …. !!