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 …. !!

Came up to London today to meet Jane Robbins from the CLG Digital Inclusion team (you must watch the video on the wiki BTW!). Lots to talk about, particularly on overcoming barriers to use of technology by individuals and groups. What stops groups using technology … is it fear, cost, change, scale, confusing terminology - we covered them all. Often it’s simply that small groups need someone to hand-hold them through the maze and match a solution to their needs. A social enterprise or local ICT advisor. Something that might just be addressed by other things taking place within CLG today …

Dave Briggs says today is one of the most exciting in history for CLG, well perhaps they don’t get out much, but I would have to agree. The long awaited Empowerment White Paper - Communities in Control (£33.45 or 1.8MB download) has been published, their department is now on Twitter and Hazel Blears has started to blog - he’s probably right.

But hang on, dig deeper. The engagement is only temporary! The blog and the twitter account will only be open for 7 days (excluding the weekend!). 7 days, just 7 days, is this a consultation, an elongated press release announcement or a half hearted attempt at using social media?

What if Hazel Blears wanted to continue blogging after the 7 carefully snipped posts have been made? What if she wanted to share with us about what she had for tea, how heavy the rain was (like the rest of us use Twitter for … ). Please shoot me down, but this isn’t setting a good example for “Real People, Real Power”.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh as there are many positive statements in the document covering community involvement in many ways, including a number where the third sector will be involved, where use of technology, ICT, social media etc. will be called for and where access to public information (as already started by the POI taskforce) will increase. So I do welcome the report.

• £7.5 million to be invested in support for national third sector organisations - turning ideas into practical action.
• £2 million for people with disabilities to volunteer
• £70 million fund to help community led organisations become more sustainable

With some relevant sections …

Section 1.15 - third sector organisations should be full and equal partners on Local Strategic Partnerships

Section 1.54 - creation of an Empowering the Frontline task force

Section 1.55 - support for national third sector organisations through the Empowerment Fund

Section 2.17 - funded opportunities for those with disabilities to volunteer and be volunteer managers

Section 2.23 - community leadership support programme

Section 2.27 - the Communitybuilders fund to develop neighbourhood organisations

Section 2.29 - (Office of the Third Sector) grassroots grants funding

Section 3.12 - support for the network of Digital Inclusion Advisers to local authorities

Section 3.13 - The Digital Equality Action Plan to smooth out some of the inequalities that exist in communities and with citizens use of the range and benefits new digital technologies can offer

Section 3.14 - recognition that section of the community don’t want information digitally or need support to access digital information

Section 3.34 - support for innovation in new technologies through community and social media

Section 3.35 - a Digital Mentor scheme to train groups in development of websites / podcasts / blogs etc

Section 4.35 - strengthening the voice of the local third sector

Section 4.38 - encouraging individuals and groups to form enterprises to deliver local services

Section 8.11 - establishing a social enterprise unit to recognise the part these play in delivery of services for the community

Section 8.17 - opening the supply2.gov portal so that social enterprises can bid for public sector contracts

Lifted from the executive summary

“A vibrant participatory democracy should strengthen our representative democracy. The third sector – through charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises – has much to offer from its traditions of purposeful altruism and selfless volunteering”

and

“We particularly value the role of the third sector in social and democratic renewal, by which we mean groups, campaigns, co-operatives, mutuals and social enterprises owned and run by their own members, investing their profits in the local community. These types of organisations are where people learn the skills of democracy and where democracy can flourish”

“within the third sector, we recognise and celebrate the role of individual active citizens, social entrepreneurs, campaigners, volunteers and political activists. Our civil society is defined and energised by hundreds of thousands of decent people, performing acts of altruism and selflessness, and these people deserve the support and recognition of government”

Excellent!

Finally, met with Simon Berry (yes, he of Coca-Cola fame!) for a beer in the Rocket by Euston Station, we’ve been meaning to do this for a while, but it was good to catch up and talk net:gain, Ruralnet, Social Enterprise ICT support (more on that tomorrow) and inevitably the Communities in Contol report. All too brief before we headed separate ways into the rain!

Not even an excuse about being too busy to blog …. either a lack of motivation, nothing happening to blog about or laziness ! Actually I’ll stick with the ‘busyness’ excuse !

Not sure if this will be of interest to some people or if you already know about these, but there are people who like to gather data, mop up information, see what information is held or (like me) are keen to see what those teccie people much cleverer than me can do when presented with files of public data!

Some of these may help you in work with communities, some are a little eclectic … and other just tell you fascinating information about your locality.

The Power of Information Task Force was established by Cabinet Office Minister Tom Watson MP in March 2008 to explore the social and economic gains that could be achieved from better use of the data that government holds, as well as setting out how much further the government has to go to capitalise on these.

The POI blog gives background to the project and a list of the public data already available. They have also just launched a competition to find out innovative ideas of using public data in “mash-ups” such as an idea to find a local post box or donating free time.

To see examples of some of the sites already developed have a look at the POI Wiki. Keep up to date with what your MP is saying through They Work For You visit the best information site for young people’s advice or see the active government consultations open for responses. Even the vast Sheffield Forum gets a mention (these are the useful flood advice pages).

Some may be more useful than others ….. but a noticeable lack of anything with a focus on the third sector, surely someone has a bright spark of an idea for the competition ? What are your ideas, what would it be ?

For anyone reading this from a CVS or organisation interested in attending the NAVCA annual conference, this year there is a blog and Crowdvine networking site for the event. If you are coming along please leave a comment or in the Open Space area tell us what you’d like to talk about. If nothing else the event and the blog will be a good place to record the after dinner “networking”.

(By the way David - Surely Kevin is now a “blogging boss“)

I’ve been at the Digital Inclusion 2008 conference today …. an event that I should have been helping David Wilcox and Dave Briggs live blog in words and video….

…

Only by the blank space above you can see this didn’t happen! Apologies! The lesson I have learnt is that you can’t participate fully in an event and live blog it as well - I participated and the experts Dave (Briggs) and David (Wilcox) did the magnificent job of capturing the event and peoples thoughts.

The event was very well attended with many people genuinely interested in closing the divide between those groups and individuals that are proficient users of technology and those who are not.

What was even more encouraging for me was that almost everyone who spoke from the platform mentioned that the Third Sector were seen as playing a vital part in the Digital Inclusion agenda. The list included Baroness Andrews OBE (Parliamentary Under Secretary of State CLG), Stephen Dodson (Director DC10plus) and Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP (The Minister for Digital Inclusion).

Yes, these are names and words in speeches, but I got a real sense that across all government departments there is an urgency to involve all citizens, young people, older people and Third Sector users of in technology.

There are plenty of thorny issues ahead in terms of who does what, support, training and providing sustainable solutions, but I hope you will agree that given a fair investment we are up for the challenge.

As my posts often spiral onto other topics, please forgive me as I was moved today to read about the Justice For Tom case - how the treatment of one man separated from his family and held on remand in a Kenyan jail can be so unjust. Make your own mind up about the facts of the case, but if you believe in honest, fair treatment of any human being then you will see the political games taking place regardless of the facts surrounding Ton protecting his land and animals.

Please let others know and spread the Justice For Tom link around and even display the badge on your website or blog.

Bit of a light bulb moment on the train back from the South West ICT meeting in Exeter today.

It’s not that I’ve just discovered what collaboration is; I know effective progress, visible development and meeting your aims, your goals or whatever, comes through working collaboratively. If you don’t believe me Clay Shirky on David Wilcox’s blog explains it much better than I ever could.

OK no surprises there… people have been working together and holding meetings since caveman times, but the trick often missed is how we actually effect collaboration.

There maybe just two people or there maybe a room full of organisations, but to truly collaborate they must all want the same thing and without saying me, me, me share ideas openly and make plans on how to take it forward.

Stating the obvious. Easy.

Seeing it working in practice. Hard ? I did think, but yesterday and twice today I’ve seen genuine leaps forward and I am encouraged!

Firstly to say hello to anyone now visiting this site either from the ICT Support section of the NAVCA website or the Capacitybuilders Improving Support website, also I guess if you are redirected from the old ICT Hub website which soon will be no more (get those publications from the old site while you still can).

As the Regional Champions project is now under the watch of NAVCA all links now lead here.

Where did that last couple of weeks go; did you get anywhere?

I’ve been away and to the the Collaborate2008 conference which was a great chance to … err collaborate (!) and to celebrate the 10th birthday of Ruralnet (the link above takes you to videos and pictures from the day).

What else have I been doing. Well to use this quote “You have two ears / eyes and one mouth … use them in that proportion” wise words indeed, words which I have been following. I’m going through a period of reflection, thought and planning for the future, in many ways at the moment.

• I’m reading a lot more blogs and websites, seeing what others have to say …. and of course (as we all should) leaving comments too.
• I’m collecting thoughts and opinions from that pseudo-evil tool they call Twitter!
• I’ve collected all the evaluations of the Regional Champion work from the past 12 months and am reading it to see what worked well and where the successes and progress compared to April 2007 have been …. oh yes there have been some fantastic ones to tell you about soon!
• I’m looking to the future. What can the nine Regional ICT Champions do next. Where are the gaps, what does each Sub-regional ChangeUp consortia need from its ICT.
• And finally - personally as a necessity right now, I’ve just had a week “off-tech” in rural Suffolk with no laptop, no wi-fi and patchy phone signal (no 3G at all!). Highly recommended - thinking and listening to my own thoughts!

We are listening - if there is something you’d like to see develop within your regional or sub-regional ICT infrastructure do get in touch.

We will all be putting 100% into delivering this, but will be listening and seeing what is needed 200%.

Its the word of the weekend. Whether Joanna used it accidentally or if its used all the time in Birmingham circles I don’t know, however I thought it summed up perfectly the way Social Media / Web 2.0 is being used right now. Incedentally the very word has an interesting history - if you want a diversion Joanna pointed me to David Weinberger and Scott Rosenberg who write about  Ted Nelson being the originator of this very interesting word.

So, I asked a question on Twitter to Joanna Geary about the snowy weather in Birmingham and found out she lives close to where my son is at Birmingham University, a Tweet later we were talking about both knowing Nick Booth and then greater community involvement and empowerment through use of Social Media sites such as Twitter and Blogging.

This last bit got me thinking. Do I feel more a part of the community (for example my local newspaper?) if I am able to leave them blog comments and to upload Podcasts and Videocasts ? The answer is most definatley Yes … but only if I have the knowledge that there is a real person reading my thoughts and that I know there are mechanisms in place to respond to them and the confidence to know this will be done in an appropriate way. Just like the imaginary Web 2.0 party, you don’t pour out your life story over cheese and pineapple on a stick to someone who then tells the world do you?

More Intertwingling last week through the power of Twitter saw me meeting up with Emma Mulqueeny, Louise Brown and David Wilcox (all in one day!) and then Nick Booth a day later.

Too many conversations to relate in detail - about subjects as diverse as Justice for Tom, locked down school intranets and the future of membership organisations.

A particular one mentioned more than once was the merits of the HMGOV and DowningStreet twitter streams (which are here and here) and in relation to the previous paragraph - what reason are you / am I signing up to these two feeds for? Is it to get all press releases from HMGOV (useful if dull) or to feel more connected to what happens inside No. 10 (voyeuristic and dynamic)? HMGOV is a one way broadcast, DowningStreet is a conversation, but who is listening?

Life is not dull !

More intertwingling this week with visits to the North West ICT Group, the Collaborate2008 event (complete with live Twittering) and a meeting of the DC10plus team. If anyone is around Manchester, Birmingham or Bristol and wants a non-virtual coffee then Tweet me at watfordgap.

The ICT Hub website is still live if you need to get hold of any publications and resources, but keep checking the Regional Champions page or the Ruralnet website for details of the net:gain programme.

Twitter says “What are you doing?” ….. Singing its praises.

Like a lot of relationships mine with Twitter has been a bit on and off over the past 9 months or so.

I was going to ponder on an elaborate post - but that’s not what the New Web is all about - blogging is about capturing the moment (as Hubmum showed last night) and conveying instant thoughts in micro-blogs … in less than 140 characters if you use Twitter. (Side note - see English 140).

(Twitter by Commoncraft - if you want a simple no nonsense video of what it is all about).

I’m “on” with Twitter now for a number of reasons

• There a network of like minded people I am sharing 140-character-bite-size chunks of information with.
• You can “track” what others are saying about a topic
• The Hashtag enables a group of people at event or going to an event to use its power to draw themselves to each other.
• It’s fun – following the twists and turns of The Apprentice with other Twitterers last night was just such – well I thought so anyway.
• You get to meet read the blogs of a wider range of interesting and inspiring people - recently for me like Emma and Jeremy.
• Its about sharing stuff, telling people “its gone cloudy, but was sunny this morning”.
• Its about collaborating “I’ve got an X, you’ve got a Y,can we together build a great XY?”

Beth Kanter asked a question on Twitter last night that made me think. “What was your Twitter Ah Ha moment when it proved its worth?” (Beth - can you reply with the results of this Twitterpoll please?)

So I am sat here thinking….

“Yes, it was a desperate plea a few weeks ago for help to a technical / logistical problem for which I needed a quick answer. Twitter followers answered - I said thanks”.

How true, but actually as I type my Twitter moment has just happened (again!).

Its that Twitter is just so amazingly flexible, adaptable and mouldable to your life. I have a light-bulb over my head just re-reading bits of Paul Caplans blog about sending Hashtags from your phone to yourself with to do lists and URLs you’ve spotted than then pop up in your RSS feed when back at a PC. How cool really great is that !

Twitter is only limited by the creativity of those gifted to “mash-it-up” with other applications and our thoughts on how these apply to us.

I don’t “know” a lot of my Twitter followers, but because I know they are in similar situations to me and we are all working to solve similar problems there is a kind of bond there.

Twitter says “What are you doing?” … Being controversial.

I will end with this news item from Charity Finance

Some of the problems may be with the Charity Commissions internal ICT capabilities or with the procedures they are asking organisations to go through, but you also do have to ask why are some small Charities and Voluntary Organisations having problems with their use of ICT to submit their returns

Is the difficulty at their end?

If it is, could it be because they don’t have the equipment / skills / infrastructure / support / Internet bandwidth (circle as appropriate) to make the submissions.

What is needed is a co-ordinated national programme of ICT infrastructure development with nationally developed guides, websites (Knowledgebase) and resources applicable for use by small front line VCOs and cascaded out regionally and sub-regionally so each of these VCOs knows of a trusted local point of contact they can call on for support and help …..

….. that’ll be the ICT Hub then.

Two more ICT Hub branded publications for you to get your hands on this week.

First, an ICT survival guide for Trustees full of useful excersizes and help in putting in place effective governance for the ICT of their organisations and secondly a guide to costing and planning to get more out of the telephony systems of organisations.

Miles Maier, the London ICT Champion has summarised the Governance Guide and the Telephony Guide in more detail over on his blog so I will spare you the time of reading about them in detail here as well, but these links will take you to download the Governance Guide (399k) and the Telephony Guide (64k).

I was putting together a pack of all the ICT Hub resources to be sent out to a CVS ICT worker today and thought - if you put together all the books and guides the ICT Hub has produced you pretty much have everything a small group or a development worker needs to know about ICT in the Third Sector. Funding, Managing, using New Media, Accessibility and now Governance … they are all available for download on the publications page or in hard copy from your local regional champion.

Regional Champion contact details are all now listed on this blog. These people have been funded by Capacitybuilders to make ICT Infrastructure work better … so contact them to see how they can help you work through the publications and signpost you to local Circuit Riders and providers of support to get you organisation to really make a difference to the way it uses ICT.

Where do you look if you want to find an answer to a question about using ICT or if you want to find out what is an RSS feed or what are the latest developments using 3G mobile access as an alternative to broadband?

Where can you find someone to fix your poorly PC or advise you about putting together a plan for how your organisation uses ICT? Like the plumber or the electrician, how do you find one that is fair and affordable?

• You may use Google - hit and miss and an lot of results to sift through
• You could try a Wikipedia article - good idea but my not have the voluntary sector slant
• There is Experts Online - currently need to register, but a good second place
• Personally i’d go for the Knowledgebase and Suppliers Directory developed by Lasa.

“Of course you’d say that - its a resource that’s part of the ICT Hub!”. Yes, this true, but its not just me saying this. Everywhere my travels take me I hear of people using the Knowledgebase to answer their questions and the Suppliers Directory to … errr compare Suppliers!

However the point of this post is to raise the fact that these two valuable on-line services may soon be severly restricted in their updates or even may disappear!

We welcome the investment Capacitybuilders have made in ICT infrastructure at a National and Regional level through the Regional Champions and net:gain.

We understand that some ICT publications will still be available, but to keep these on-line resources fresh, current and as the authoritative place to go for advice investment is still needed. As Miles points out - this may not be forthcoming, so if you have used either of these and you value them then email Miles with a message of support.

Others have blogged about the events I have attended recently (thanks!) so for the Circuit Riders conference see the ICT Hub page and the crconf08 page complete with flickr pictures and reports from each session. This week it was the Rural ICT conference in Chippenham where issues around Rural Broadband, access to rural ICT services and many more were discussed and debated (further report to follow).

If any of you are coming to the National ICT Hub conference this week, say hello! If you can’t be there - or just want a sneak preview of one session have a look at what Mark Osten has to say about Funding for ICT.