Not sure if its the surge in on-line demand for watching this event or flaky Internet connection at the venue, but the streaming video became unwatchable – well the pictures were OK, but the audio a no go. (I know you tried Dave!)

* UPDATE * Following up my post from earlier. It seems as though there was something mightily powerful in the coffee as the live video and audio stream @digitalbritain is now totally and completely watchable. Now you can watch the live video feed of the speeches unfold AND see the Twitterfall comments from the room too. FAB.

Credit where credit is due ….

Oh, and a little ironic that we can’t listen to the people who are telling us about the future of a Digital Britain … because of problems with the digital infrastructure.

Was it the coffee, or the power of the audience in the room and listening / watching / tweeting in that “fixed” the connection problems ?

I don’t blog much these days.

I spend most of my time on Twitter where conversations are much more instant and where you can witness change happening and news “as it happens, not after it has happened”.

I came to work today with the intention of keeping one eye and one ear on the Digital Britain summit at the British Library through the live streaming video feed.

Not sure if its the surge in on-line demand for watching this event or flaky Internet connection at the venue, but the streaming video became unwatchable – well the pictures were OK, but the audio a no go. (I know you tried Dave!)

So I returned to my friends on Twitter, I cranked up Twitterfall typed “DigitalBritain” into the Searches box and instantly was connected to a superfast stream of what is REALLY going on at the Digital Britain Summit.

I don’t get the political spin, the hollow promises … and the clicks and jittery audio, instead I get the thoughts and views of @digitalbritain and other people at the summit  I trust and respect … and due to the wonder of Twitter lots and lots of new contacts I ought to be following as well.

Simple choice really. Thanks to you all – keep it up.

Oh, and a little ironic that we can’t listen to the people who are telling us about the future of a Digital Britain … because of problems with the digital infrastructure.

Showing how simple it is to start blogging

Here is another one - Nick Booth from Podnosh

I’m at the Social Media Exchange event being run by Sounddelivery.

The exchange is really going well – so thanks to everyone who is here listening, learning, socialmedia reporting or just generally hanging out and catching up. Some sessions have been so popular that people are sat on the floor just to hear what the speakers are saying!

To add to the conversation – there is also a Pageflakes site gathering together blogs and pictures tagged with SMEX09 – you can find it at http://www.pageflakes.com/SMEX09/.

Dave Briggs is talking about blogging right now …perhaps I ought to go along and listen to the man who is DavePress !

Just had to let you know that at the end of last week three great steps (leaps?) were taken by the organisation I work for (NAVCA) along our path of discovering and using social media. To most this will seem like a ‘huh – so what’ but to me and a few who read this blog this really, really is progress.

We’ve an internal ’social media’ group that has informally met for a year or so to look at how new communications and social media ideas can be tried out by the organisation . In true collaborative style the membership changes, no-one takes minutes and our Chief Executive attends – but it’s stressed we are all there to learn and are on the same level as we explore this shared path together.

Anyway back to the three leaps …

• Firstly on Thursday, after discussions at the group we agreed to bring someone in to talk us through the design of a site to host forums, discussions, video, pictures and conversations – it may be hosted on Ning (possibly), but it may not – we are open. (I will post more about this in weeks to come).
• Then on Friday morning our Chief Executive arrived very excited about the article he’d just read in the Independent explaining Twitter and the growth it is going through – as he left he said “I’ll look into Twitter over the weekend” and as promised – he’s arrived! I encourage you to show Kevin what Twitter can do, how voluntary and community organisations are using it – and to please be his friend!
• Then on Friday afternoon another urgent need raised by our social media group – to have an RSS feed of news from the main website became a reality (I know it’s a slight fudge, which is for reasons too boring to go into here!), but its an RSS feed all the same.  This is just a small feed from the Local Commisioning and Procurement team, but I know more will follow very soon. If this is your area of interest then please follow the link for the latest news.

I’m going to the Social Media Exchange (SMEX09) organised by SoundDelivery tomorrow (oops today!) – the 26th January, which looks like an action packed feast of all things social media related where third sector organisations will be able to try out blogging, use of Flickr, Twitter, YouTube etc. and talk to people just like them who have tried it and found it of huge benefit to their organisation.

Not everything is right for every organisation and there are learning curves to go through, maybe even mistakes made, but there has never been a better time than now to try these out.

My message to anyone tomorrow will be the one that Kevin said to us just before Christmas when we were looking at experimenting with this.

He said “Just do it!”.  By tomorrow evening I hope lots of people will go home want to do just that.

Hope to see some of you there.

Is there an elephant in the room ? Sometimes I wonder if organisations in the voluntary and community sector are missing the point so much that they are in a different room … a different county or even on a different planet. Take this example – an extract from an email a colleague, one of the regional ICT champions was sent today – anonomysed of course.

Due to a number of key issues facing the voluntary sector at the minute we would like to put the ICT workshop on hold for this year and look at this as an item for our next event.  Thank you very much anyway for agreeing to facilitate this workshop but this will no longer be a requirement at this point.

If you would still be available on the day, your IT expertise would be much appreciated and welcomed in assisting me to ensure all the technology, (laptops and projectors) is set up for about 12 workshops and any problems can be solved.

After the poor ICT champion had finished thinking “cheeky …… ! “, the irony emerged that the workshop being proposed for this event was on effective planning and budgeting for ICT projects!!

We need to help organisations see that by if they do budget and plan in advance they will be more aware of the costs that they will face – whether that is in event planning like this example, hardware procurement, software licensing or ongoing technical support etc. But will they ever get it if all we are being asked is to do, is fire-fighting and to ‘help out and fix any problems that can be solved’? We should be asked to take centre stage in presenting the message of planning in advance to those who need to hear!

Yes, budgeting for ICT projects can be a complex subject and to some organisations in the third sector it can seem – like the elephant in the room – so large that they try to side-step it or patch things up and limp along without properly addressing it.

So, the only way to really be effective is to address full-on and in detail the strategic aims of the organisation through a programme such as net:gain from Ruralnet and to then put steps in place to resource these aims and to carefully plan the technology to be used. This approach applies to all organisations no matter how large or small they are, or if the funding is for a single ICT workshop (as in this case) or for a six month project using computers to train service users in the latest health policy.

Yes, there may well be an elephant in the room, but with the right plan in place it is tame, it is eating buns (if elephants actually do that?) and it hasn’t left its calling card behind as did this one on Blue Peter (which still makes me laugh today)!

One of the great things I like about Twitter is the way it is being used by people to instantly react to events such as the plane crash in New York yesterday and how you can spontaneously canvass opinion (a form of ‘crowd-sourcing) from people in your network.

Today I asked a silly question – one that I’m sure comes up many times every day in offices and homes around the world.

Well in the space of 30 minutes I had a screen full of responses – diametrically opposed in their views from put the milk in first to put the milk in last together with thoughts on how long to leave the tea bag in the cup or if a teapot is the only way to drink tea.  Some even went as far as pointing to websites explaining the science behind it all.

Yet again (and justifying this as work related post – phew!) it shows how Twitter could be used by community and voluntary groups and networks. For example to ask “What do you think about the proposal for an incinerator behind the Junior School?” or “Please tell us your views on the plans to reduce funding for the volunteer centre”. The list is endless.

I’ve got just over 240 friends in my network and we generated a tiny, tiny blip on Twitter when the “tea” question was asked … it has recently been reported that there were 4.3 million visits to the Twitter website (whatever that actually means), however just imagine what trends you could discover or views you could seek if you had just a fraction of this number in your network (and could easily reconcile answers from them!)

Oh, me … ? I drink coffee …. Instant !

I get excited when I find a local infrastructure organisation that is using social media to tell the world what it is doing, one that is encourage US as readers to tell IT what we think of them and their work.

Well can you imagine my excitement when today I found out that Voluntary Action Manchester (VAM) have a website that racks up no less than FIVE forms of social media ! Oh yes, I actually did have to ‘go to the foot of our stairs‘.

If you want to follow the work of VAM, you can do it on their blog, on Facebook, by watching YouTube videos, browsing the Flickr photo gallery and of course by following them on Twitter!

I’ve got over 30 LIOs now plotted on my LIOs using social media map,  perhaps some more could try out some the ideas from Manchester – these really do work and will generate more interest in the work of your organisation.

No, i’ve not dropped of the planet, for from it, in fact in seems in the last few week as though there isn’t a part of England i’ve not visited !

Anyway, today is Monday so it must be Brentford … yes Brentford !

I’m at the delightful Watermans Arts centre for the DC10plus IT in the Community series of workshops (don’t like to use that word conference!).

What feels different about this event (as well as the fact that its right by the Thames AND its sunny!) is the number of people who are community focussed rather than IT focussed.

Although i’ve seen it a number of times, Jane Robbins shared her teams’s video which I’d recommend you take 8 minutes and 21 seconds out of your busy day to watch. The “Think about it” video produced by the Digital Inclusion team is fast paced and with a catchy tune, but really brings home the message that an increase in digital technology use can really reduce social exclusion. (I pick up something new from it everytime I watch it).

There are number of interesting developments all aimed at giving people in communities more of a sense of inclusion and giving them more of a voice with the decision makers, their local authority and the wider third sector. What is good news is that there is investment from funders and central government in these being through use of social media (blogs, video, podcasts and similar tools).

Don’t worry if all this is sounding daunting.

If you want to be involved look at the Digital Mentors initiative, you will hear a lot more from the successful organisations soon – well if you don’t – whoever wins the work won’t be doing their job well !

If you have an idea about third sector community empowerment then the £7.5 million Empowerment Fund may be of interest to you.

Now is the time to test if the brave promises made in “Communities in Control” mean anything to real grass roots communities.

Think about it !

PS – see you later in the week in Sunderland !