London Regional ICT Champion

London riders network is a quarterly opportunity hosted by Lasa for circuit riders and others supporting non-profit technology to get together and learn from each other about the latest tools, tips and projects.

A big thank you to all of our guest speakers and riders for making this a great event to network and learn from each other.

• Rob Stead – SIP to Win: An exploration of Voice Over IP telephony with SIP, IAX, Asterisk,  Trixbox and Trunks.
• Kate White (Superhighways) – Moodle: Using Moodle as an online platform for learning resources.
• Mike Veitch (HAVS) – Visualising opportunities – from vBase to Google Maps.
• Sarah Lord-Soares (Lasa) – Circuit Rider skills development

We’ll be doing another London Riders event in March – so if you’d like to take on a guest presenter slot and share some non-profit technology applications that are close to your heart – let us know. We’ll be posting over at UKRiders email list shortly with a call for your proposals.

To carry on reading notes from the London Riders network event on 8 December 2008 go below the fold…

Mike Veitch (HAVS) – Visualising opportunities – from vBase to Google Maps.

Slideshare
Demo Google map

Google Maps mashups are widely used to map data and demonstrate impact in a more immediate and visual way than tables and graphs.  However, the problem for us in the UK  is that the Google Maps Geocoding API doesn’t recognise post codes – it needs addresses in the form longitude and latitude co-ordinates.  The Royal Mail owns the copyright for the post code co-ordinates – and the licences are restrictive and expensive.

The good news is that plenty of third party solutions, including Mike’s have been developed to help us get around the problem with mapping UK postcodes. To give you a flavour of what can be done Base64.co.uk links to some great examples of Google mapping data from the US at HousingMaps – which shows houses for sale and rent from craigs list, and Chicagocrime which plots crime scenes for a particular day.

You can also use Google gadgets – or widgets – to maps a list of addresses in Google Docs & Spreadsheets to Google Maps – but again this won’t work for UK post codes. As a test, I tried it with our office post code which Google plotted to Bangkok – some 6,000 miles away.

Mike’s solution was developed to fit a particular need to export volunteering opportunities from Hillingdon’s V-Base to Google Maps.  Mike’s says his solution is available on request “as is and with no guarantees”.  To find out how he did it check out his presentation on Slideshare.

Rob Stead – SIP to Win: An exploration of Voice Over IP telephony with SIP, IAX, Asterisk,  Trixbox and Trunks.

Slideshare presentation

Rob gave a short talk demonstrating the benefits of VOIP or internet telephone calls.  He used a set up consisting of a laptop running the open source Asterisk/Trixbox software, hooked up to a Wi-Fi phone.

Also worth checking out:

• ZapTel - project providing open source drivers for computer telephony hardware.

• Wi-fi phone handsets – demand for these is increasing as companies begin to realise the cost savings of VOIP calls.  See here for an example.

Why use VOIP?
Cost effective – cheaper or free compared to “normal” phones (ie BT)
Flexible – expandable, great for remote workers/offices

See Rob’s talk on Slideshare for more detail.

• The set up demonstrated by Rob is 100% open source – this makes it free to download and highly configurable to your own needs;

• However, set-up is initially complicated – unless you have open source skills you’ll need to find someone to help you set up Asterisk/Trixbox and support it if things go wrong;

• Bandwidth – which determines the call quality and number of lines is still perceived as problem – but not so much in reality.  Using an ADSL line to make VOIP telephone calls should provide the same call quality as a BT landline;

• VOIP call charges to landlines, mobiles and overseas numbers are considerable cheaper than landline providers like BT.

• Because VOIP relies on the availaibility of the Internet it’s perceived as a deal-breaker for many people  – but broadband reliability is very stable and it’s less of an issue than it was 3 years ago;

• Always good to keep a landline as an emrgency back-up for when the internet is not available;

• Asterisk can be integrated with Outlook contacts using the Zoiper client software;

• Wifi phones – around £120 each

Kate White (Superhighways) – Moodle: Using Moodle as an online platform for learning resources.

Thanks to Kate on how Superhighways is using Moodle – an open source web platform – to publish and share training materials.  You can see more at: http://www.superhighwaysmoodle.org.uk/course/index.php

Notes:

• The project is still in the early stages of development.  We needed an some help from a Moodle developer to set it up, design templates and layout.

• Admin mode – can add topics, resources (of different types). Interactive functionality, quizzes, assignments etc

• Can add relevant RSS feeds so learners can subscribe to courses, etc

• Potential to be widely used – can offer to learners for online learning as well making materials available for classroom based learning;

• Can easily add forums to foster peer support

• Track who is looking at resources – restricted information, who is logged on when

• Integrate with payment processing modules

• Access levels – administrator, course creator, teacher, non-editing teacher…

• Bringing resources together already designed and pointing to other online resources.  Looking at how to fund this – charged to member, charge per course – number of options

Sarah Lord-Soares (Lasa) – Circuit Rider skills development

Slideshare presentation

Last up, Sarah led a discussion about Lasa’s circuit rider skills project. This project is working to create a set of principles, standards and a framework of professional learning to suppport riders and others supporting non-profit technology in their work.

Check out Marc Osten (below) introducing Lasa’s London circuit rider project.

Notes:

• Level 3 competancies – is about understanding the non-profit sector, not just ICT skills;
• Level 4 competancies – is about internal communications, planning and assessment with orgs, technical support and maintenance. Look at specialities and not general skills.
• Process – structuring learning is better than general learning.  Looking at peer certification or Lasa certification of standards.
• Will also cover help with marketing to help circuit riders match their skills with VCOs.
• Personal learnering advisor to to help riders think through process and structure.