UKriders

The entry level 5-user version of Lasa's case management contact database system AIMS is now available free of charge. It can be downloaded from the main Lasa web site at www.lasa.org.uk/aims

The AIMS team amended the original Access version of the AIMS Core package, giving people all the features but limiting it to a maximum of 5 users. AIMS is a useful free resource for community groups needing to report on their client services. See the Lasa website for more information or email the AIMS team on aims@lasa.org.uk.

Amy Sample Ward who works with NetSquared helping non-profits get the most out of technology, is setting up Net Tuesdays in London, bringing together social changemakers of all kinds to discuss social media with the first one starting on November 4th. I hope that we can see lots of Net Tuesdays springing up across the UK soon! Head over to Amy’s blog to find out more.

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

(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

Today is Blog Action Day - a day where thousands of bloggers across the world commit to write on the same topic with the aim of creating awareness around that issue. The topic this year is Poverty.

I work with a wide range of organisations on their communications, branding and websites. When working together on a new project I get them to take a look at what’s out there to look at what they do or don’t like with sites on the net so they can begin to formulate their own ideas. For my post today, instead of writing my views on poverty, I’ve decided to highlight a few nonprofit websites to give inspiration to other organisations with their own design ideas.

I’ve picked out a few of the well known organisations related to social change and the relief of poverty.  There are many more, but chose the following to help organisations who may be looking at their own designs and communications to see how some of the sites below use different ways to reach out to their readers, helping to raise awareness and motivate action in their work and campaigns.  Some use strong visual imagery, or bold usage of language and content wording, others have clear information architecture to enable the reader to easily find where they need to get to be to donate or take part or show innovative ways to become involved and share the message with others .

End Child Poverty - www.endchildpoverty.org.uk

Shelter - www.shelter.org.uk/about_us

Oxfam - www.oxfam.org

Global Call to Action Against Poverty - www.whiteband.org

Salvation Army (on Virb social network) - www.virb.com/salvationarmy/

Not just focussing on poverty, but Change.org has recently undergone a makeover and created a vibrant modern online hub and media network for social issues and collective action.

Change Social Action Network - www.change.org.

If you have more examples of sites that you like, feel free to add a link to your favourites and also a sentance or two sharing why that site appeals to you in the comments form below.

And, if not involved already, head over to the Blog Action Day site to read what thousands of others are writing about on this one issue today and sign up to take part.

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

The getwithit team are pleased to announce the details of their 2008 Annual ICT Conference. This year it will be taking place on the 25th November, at the Bank House Hotel, Bransford.

The conference has been developed to meet the needs of small to medium voluntary and community organisations based in Herefordshire and Worcestershire and is tailored to suit their specific needs.

The conference will also be of particular relevance to individuals who have responsibility for ICT but limited experience, or organisations with little or no internal ICT support.

The speakers on the day will cover the following topics;

• Why managers and Trustees should be interested in ICT

• How to write for the web

• Data Protection

• ICT and Accessibility

• Conducting Online Surveys

There will also be a chance to ‘ask the expert’ which is an opportunity to pick the brains of our panel of experts by asking about any ICT issue that you are currently experiencing.

For more information and get hold of a booking form visit the getwithit website.

The getwithit team are pleased to announce the details of their 2008 Annual ICT Conference. This year it will be taking place on the 25th November, at the Bank House Hotel, Bransford.

The conference has been developed to meet the needs of small to medium voluntary and community organisations based in Herefordshire and Worcestershire and is tailored to suit their specific needs.

The conference will also be of particular relevance to individuals who have responsibility for ICT but limited experience, or organisations with little or no internal ICT support.

The speakers on the day will cover the following topics;

• Why managers and Trustees should be interested in ICT

• How to write for the web

• Data Protection

• ICT and Accessibility

• Conducting Online Surveys

There will also be a chance to ‘ask the expert’ which is an opportunity to pick the brains of our panel of experts by asking about any ICT issue that you are currently experiencing.

For more information and get hold of a booking form visit the getwithit website.

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.

Integration of social media reporting working alongside mainstream media, with Reuters hosting an event with the UK Prime Minister, Gordon Brown discussing the current economic crisis. Christian Payne and Mike Atherton were given unprecedented access to the event and asked to utilise social media apps in order to facilitate conversations around the day. Qik, Twitter, Phreadz, 12seconds and Seesmic are just some of the tools used. Read more at PM in the AM.

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

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.

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.

read more

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.