UKriders

Matthew Saunders has posted a useful introductory article outlining the media available to share your organisation’s stories along with tips on how to get started.  Head over to his blog and read the full article Story Telling, Web 2.0, and Non-profits.

Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

Information overload is one area of my work that is a constant. In the past recent weeks, I took some time away from the desk and computer with a pencil and big sheet of paper in hand. I hadn’t intended on blogging about it, but a recent message on one of my social networks prompted me to share it.

Beth Kanter put out a call on Twitter earlier pointing us to her post on Information Coping Skills - How Information Overloaded Are You?
Very timely, I took the quiz and was quite pleased that with some of my new coping strategies I managed to score a reasonable 9. Of course my strategies aren’t perfect and am looking forward to reading the comments and suggestions raised on Beth’s Blog and the outcomes of her forthcoming session at BlogHer Boston this weekend.

But it had recently come to a point where I really needed to take stock of the impact of information overload had been having on my working practice. As many of you will know, until July I was managing a nonprofit which provides support services to other organisations as well as juggling a growing freelance business supporting a wide range of non-profits to small business with their websites, social media and technical support needs. Oh yes, and trying to be a mom too. Plus, keep up to date with information and participate with the outside world.

Like many of us working in the nonprofit sector and supporting nonprofits, it’s sometimes hard to say no, not only to others but especially to yourself. I like information, in fact I’m probably addicted to it. I like keeping abreast of new technologies, new innovations, seeing projects evolving with their aim of supporting social change and more. I mix in a wide range of circles, non-profits, enterprise, education, local government as well as the core of my work, with design and web development; and accessibility and inclusion to all on the web. I use a variety of tools that help me keep up to date including RSS, email groups, forums, Twitter, Friendfeed, Facebook and other networks too. Living in a rural area means that I often am unable to attend many of the face-to-face meetings and get-togethers that take place in the major UK cities, so rely on using these tools to keep up to date with conversations and innovations that take place.

The speed and pace that social networking can function on is immense. I only began blogging in Spring of 2007, and often it’s my blog that suffers with my own time management. Like many of us, I have blog posts in draft constantly and by the time I get round to finishing a post off, the next issue or topic is already being discussed out there, so often don’t get round to posting as much as would like. I enjoy blogging but rarely make the time to share a post. This is one area, in time, I’m planning to make more for but do partake in lifestreaming and microblogging to keep connected in our interweb-connected world.

So other than managing the overloaded email inbox which overflows daily, what is my other biggest information overload ‘Vice?’

Well, it has to be Twitter. Twitter and I have a long-standing love/hate relationship. As I mentioned earlier, the speed which conversations and innovations can take place using web 2.0 is immense. Especially so with Twitter. I’m seeing it more and more being used to float ideas, even jobs and involve people in new ideas and projects. If you aren’t there at the time, you could potentially feel left out of the conversation. New social applications are appearing daily, and temptation to test them all out after hearing about them on Twitter to see if they could help the groups I work with is always tempting. Twitter also has another wonderful (and sometimes nagging function) with it being sociable, very sociable. Sometimes one little innocent tweet message can get lots of replies. Often conversations can be more akin to using Yahoo or MSN messenger.

Don’t get me wrong, I like my Twitter and without it I would not have the connections to such a wonderful diverse array of people across the globe. I use Twitter as a lifestream, mixing the professional side of me as well as the personal side too. I’m sat in front of a screen most of the day, and as a freelancer working alone, it’s like having an office of people working next to you. One of the best parts of Twitter is not only the people that make up the micro-world in your following list, but the news they share, especially when it’s good news or a success. There have been many times (and still are) where I’d like to give up Twitter but when weighing up the value it brings (for instance, I have the local and national news headlines delivered as tweets) I don’t want to let it go.

With the above and all the rest, oh yes and work to get done, how does it all fit together?

A few months ago, before switching on the kettle in the morning to make a cup of tea, I’d start up the computer, open the email inbox and RSS. Then, Twitter would be there as well as a myriad of other applications. I really like FriendFeed also and would dip into that often too.  For the work I do, I need lots of screen estate, especially when designing or coding.  My day would become ‘noisy’ and often disjointed. As well as managing work, the noise of everything else would be there, the inbox showing more mail had arrived and on it all went. When settling into my new freelance routine, as well as juggling lots of exciting new projects, with the added noise it all ended up with me entering the procrastination loop at times, kindly brought to my attention by Nick Booth of Podnosh in his post, the Flow chart of Faff.

So as mentioned at the beginning of the post, a few weeks ago I moved away from the computer, and brainstormed about my own information management.

I asked myself the following questions -

• Why do I need all of this?
• What do I need these tools for? Name each of them and the value they bring to what I do?
• What else do I need to achieve each and every day?
• Which areas do I fear most? (seriously, that inbox can create fear when you open it to find lots of new unexpected mail!)

The next part was to map out a perfect day, including the work and personal/family routine.
Then, add how my favourite applications/tools can assist me in that day and when best to use them.

Not rocket science, but simple plotting and asking myself has shaped a better routine.

I use web 2.0 for listening, learning and sharing.

My simple steps that are working so far for me -
(please add your tips to this list!)
Firstly, I no longer turn on my computer until I’m really ready to settle into working mode. (cup of tea and the dog walk comes first now!)

Email - In my previous role working for a nonprofit, and also my freelance role, email has always been an issue. I receive many requests each day, many are for signposting (”ask Laura, she always knows the answer”) as well as helping organisations with their technical/web support, and updates from all the email groups and much more.

I’ve admired how Luis Suarez has continued his work on giving up email at work, and had instilled many of the practices when in my old working role and slowly integrating them into my new role.
First part of the day, I check my inbox, prioritise which mail needs attending to first or not. Emails then get tagged for read later or respond later. The ones that aren’t urgent or for signposting I will often deal with later in the day. I only check my mail morning and afternoon and shut it down the rest of the time.

RSS feeds - I subscribe to far too many. I use Netvibes and have created seperate pages for themes of blog/news but don’t always look every day, in fact it’s often only once or twice a week. I’ve also unsubscribed from many feeds, as I’m feeling more so that I’m following people, not their blogs; and if they are on Twitter (or identi.ca or Jaiku) and if it’s a good post, and I follow that person, they’ll shout out or tweet a message about it.

Social Applications - Facebook, Friendfeed and more. I had nearly given up on Facebook as I personally don’t like it that much. But many of the people I communicate with use it regularly so, I made the effort to use it more and dip in once a day to quickly view and deal with what arises there.

Twitter - I think I’ve tried nearly every desktop application for Twitter. I often use the website itself, although that can be a big time eater. I like using Twhirl as it can sit politely on the side of my screen and I can get on with my design work. More recently though, I’ve discovered the wonderful FireStatus which is an extension for the FireFox Browser. You can send updates to Twitter, Facebook and FriendFeed easily. I’ve found that it has become a great listening tool for my own needs. It displays updates from these services in notification popups that fade in and out at the top of your screen. To me it’s gentle and without noise. I can focus on working intently and listen to the conversations and updates from friends and followers. It doesn’t work for everyone, but has helped my own personal workflow a tremendous amount. I can listen and easily jump into a conversation too if I want to.
I also now try to save my ’social’ messaging for when I’m having a tea or coffee break rather than respond continuously. I have two ears and only one mouth, so consciously do try to listen more than talk.

One valuable asset of using Twitter isn’t just the conversation, it’s the sharing of links. I make use of my Tumblr for many of the links that appear that I like or want to come back to later as well as my Ma.gnolia for managing my bookmarks. For managing FriendFeed, there is a little script for Firefox that I use which enables you to Read Later. Another useful tool to help manage time!

The blog - I have been on a journey and a half with the blog in the past few months, questioning it’s need and purpose, but I do enjoy it when I make the space to write. I have a healthy number of subscribers and enjoy the conversation and comments that often appear. I’m still unsure of it’s future role, whether to focus on nonprofits and social media, or web design and accessibility as often it’s different audiences. I don’t blog about the everyday occurrences of my life and the universe that surrounds me, which is sometimes what I’d like to do too. Time will tell with how the blog evolves but I do feel personal satisfaction when blogging. I tend to keep my life-streaming out of my blog, but would like to integrate my bookmarking in a useful manner. Using ScribeFire has helped with creating quick posts on the go, although as mentioned earlier, most never get to being published. Something still to be work on.

Finally, even though there are days in every week where I want to participate and join in the conversation and the inbox is overflowing, I’m learning to step back, just a little. I tell myself it’s all okay and information will keep moving and evolving with or without me reading or taking part in all of it.

Please do leave your tips and suggestions here so that I won’t need to start a new non-profit organisation “Information-a-holics Anonymous”, or head over to Beth’s Blog, take the survey yourself, see how you are doing and leave some suggestions there too.

(and just to note, turned off my Twitter, email and more whilst writing this post!)

Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

Colleagues, Next week I'm facilitating a session titled: Connection and Collaboration: the role that technology  plays in connecting people and information

14 October 2008 10am-1pm followed by lunch - Venue: LVSC, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

• Description - I'll demonstrate to how simple-to-use, low cost tech tools can strengthen the connection between members, the wider sector and other stakeholders. We will actually attempt to set up, in under an hour, a blogging platform to engage people online and share resources - as recently demonstrated with the Cascade membership in July and August 2008 Please can anyone wanting to come to the session book via anna@lvsc.org.uk

Marc

www.summitcollaborative.com

Colleagues, Next week I'm facilitating a session titled: Connection and Collaboration: the role that technology  plays in connecting people and information

14 October 2008 10am-1pm followed by lunch - Venue: LVSC, 356 Holloway Road, London N7 6PA

• Description - I'll demonstrate to how simple-to-use, low cost tech tools can strengthen the connection between members, the wider sector and other stakeholders. We will actually attempt to set up, in under an hour, a blogging platform to engage people online and share resources - as recently demonstrated with the Cascade membership in July and August 2008 Please can anyone wanting to come to the session book via anna@lvsc.org.uk

Marc

www.summitcollaborative.com

We have now set up a code server to publish all of our open source work - even those tiny bits of code that we often write to solve a particular problem. We are very dedicated to sharing knowledge, especially since we (and the groups we do work for) have benefitted so much from the hard work of other open source developers.

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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.

Regular readers will have noted a drastic colour change today on my blog.
It’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month. From politicians, to the public, to the press, it is a time when focus on breast cancer is at its very highest across the world.

Pink is the colour during Breast Cancer Awareness Month hence the new look to my blog during October. You can find out more by searching on the internet for breast cancer awareness charities and nonprofits to learn how you can help to raise funds, spread the word and take part.

Bloggers and website designers like myself are joining in with awareness raising across the globe by turning their sites pink for the month. You can find out more at Pink For October.
(Image above designed by I Design Studio Blog)

For Twitter friends and users - I’ve changed my general ‘woody’ brown Twitter page background, to a pink background for the month ahead, If you would like to use it on your Twitter page, you can download it here. Enjoy! (design updated)
[To use on your own Twitter page: download the file, Login to your Twitter, go to 'Settings', then to 'Design' tab, then "Change Background Image' button lower down the page' and upload the file.]

For other Twitter Pink for October backgrounds, head over to the wonderful Twitterpatterns.com.

Let me know if you join the pink brigade too!

Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

“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.

Glenda Watson Hyatt, who lives with cerebral palsy, shares a video on how blogging with WordPress has enabled her to be heard by the world, increase her circle of friends and more. View it on her blog at Do It By Myself, or you can use the Easy YouTube viewer to watch the video.

Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

“Nobody likes to think of themselves as disabled – lots of people ignore content aimed at disabled people because they want to use what everybody is using” - one of the quotes from the conference day at Scripting Enabled.

I recently attended Scripting Enabled, which was a two day event held in London on 19th and 20th September looking at ways to make social media software and the internet more accessible for all. The first day included a series of talks and presentations on the barriers to accessibility and what can be done to make a real difference, and the second day of the event was a hack-day with developers, designers, and advisors working together to find and build solutions. The event was the brainchild of Christian Heilmann who opened the event on the first day.

As well as meeting up with many new faces, it was also a great opportunity to finally meet up with others that I have either followed on on the interwebs such as Jon Gibbins, an accessible web developer who writes at the dotjay.co.uk blog (who on day 2 headed up keen web devs on making a more accessible version of Google Maps), the vibrant Ann Meekin who is PixelDiva on Twitter and many more.  I also met with Roger Wilson-Hinds who I wrote about last November.  Roger writes regularly on his blog, the Blind Blogger and involved with Thunder, which is an easy to use screenreader, software can be downloaded for free and installed and up and running in a matter of minutes from Screenreader.net.

I finally got to meet long time Twitter-buddy Dominic Campbell who works collaboratively with local governments effectively as FutureGov, and is also passionately involved with the Enabled by Design project which has been evolving steadily since winning the Social Innovation Camp back in April 2008 (By the way, there is another Social Innovation Camp organised for 5th - 7th December 2008; if you have an idea for a mashup for social change, get involved now!).  I also chatted lots with the bright and bubbly Denise Stephens lots over both the days of the events, the founder of Enabled by Design,which aims to grow an online community who help each other find assistive equipment and products; making independent living more accessible the use of clever modern design.

I’m not going to write in full detail about the event, as all of the full presentations and further information and inspiration is available over at the Scripting Enabled website.
But listed below is a very brief rundown of what we all listened to, experienced, shared and participated in with day one - (I’ve linked directly to the speakers’ presentations and post on the Scripting Enabled website below with the title of their presentation.  All of the presentations listed are also available on the site using Easy SlideShare ).

• First to talk and share her personal experiences of her symptoms of MSand how inclusive design can help make it easier for many people to use the web was Denise Stephens from Enabled by Design.
• Then the effervescant Kath Moonan, from Abilitynet presented ‘Why I hate the interweb!’ sharing outcomes of recent research done by Abilitynet showing examples from users of the difficulties that people can encounter when using the internet.
• Next was Antonia Hyde, from United Response who delivered a fascinating presentation entitled ‘Opening doors: online content for people with learning disabilities.’ giving an insight into the barriers to inclusion that many people with learning disabilities face with using the modern web, and showed how with thought to the user in design, the substantial difference it can make with user experience showing a case study of someone using the Easy YouTube.
• Artur Ortega and Leonie Watson spoke about ‘Screen readers and JavaScript’ and provided a fascinating overview of the range of technologies available to help assist those with visual impairments, the barriers that web design can cause and some of their wish list of features they’d like to see implemented in the future.
• Jonathan Hassle, Head of Accessibility with the BBC presented about Dyslexia Barriers and gave many pointers in helping to understand and make the web more accessible from the learning from the research and work of the BBC in acheiving better accessiblity with their own sites.  Phil Teare from Textic.com, shared his own personal difficulties with his dyslexia and using the web and how it can affect the users experience when accessing websites.

The day finished with Christian Heilmann (also dubbed by Kath Moonan as the ‘Flame Headed Geek Warrior!’) chairing a lively discussion panel with the audience.
All in all an inpsiring an realy great day.  The only trouble many of us ‘Usability Experts’ had at the end of it all was navigating our way successfully to the pub!

Day two consisted of a wide range of developers, users and other interested people joining in to look at what they could achieve working together and then setting about doing it.  Lots of innovation took place, and I’m sure that the work will continue. More of the outcomes of the day and further developments can be seen on the Scripting Enabled wiki.

As well as seeing the work of new mashups and accessibility in action, I was able to see some existing projects which aim to serve to help with inclusion and accessibility for all on the internet.  Gary Mc Farlane from Blue Badge Route demonstrated a highly affordable tool which they had built that provided accessible maps, but also work well with screenreaders and enabled users to also email details of the routes they wished to travel too, thus giving control and independence to a user.  The integrated map systems showed the accessibility of parking and routes within an area, and I see these as being a vital inclusion for many local government websites and also nonprofit organisations who work with and for people with additional needs.
Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the whole of the day, but hope that there will be many more events like this in the future for web developers and users to come together to enable positive change and benefit for all users of the web.

For follow ups on the outcomes of the innovations from the hack day, head over to the Scripting Enabled wiki, and to see photo’s from the event you can head across to the flickr page to see all pictures tagged with Scripting Enabled.

Visit Laura's Notebook to read more articles or to leave a comment.

We at illuminate iCT are in the process of doubling our webserver capacity! We've started to notice that the performance of our main webserver isn't as good as we'd like it to be - it's getting quite full and it's beginning to show.

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Are you interested in using CiviCRM (a popular organisational database / client relation management system) but are unsure about how to get started? Are you using CiviCRM and want to share experiences and meet with other clients and developers that use it?

Next Tuesday 30th September, experienced and new users, non profits interested in using CiviCRM will get together with developers and consulants for the UK CiviCRM usergroup. It's a great way to find out if CiviCRM will be suitable for your organisation, and talk with others in an informal setting.

CiviCRM UK usergroup meetings happen once every two months in different parts of the UK. Full details of the upcoming and all other meetings on the CiviCRM blog (http://blog.civicrm.org/node/434) and website.

Please confirm attendance before hand so we have an idea of numbers.

Bristol Institute of Technology at UWE, Bristol, is inviting expressions of interest in this year's student consultancy projects.

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I don't have a work blog, maybe one day...

My personal blog about things Social Media, Open Source & ICT for organisations in the UK Charity & VCO sectors is here; http://staticeclectricity.wordpress.com

or you can find me as tonymolloy on Twitter or Friendfeed

Maybe we should have a UKRiders room on Friendfeed?

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.

Illuminate ICT spend a good deal of time working on your site designs. When they leave us, we're usually very proud of what we've achieved and we've given you a sturdy platform on which to build rich and beautiful content - I may be getting carried away! However, this is where one of the pitfalls of a Content Managed website rears it's fat, ugly head.

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IlluminateICT has been working to develop a low cost entry solution for smaller voluntary and community organisations to let them get onto the internet. Using the powerful Drupal solution we have now created a method that will allow organisations to create their own web site in a day.

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