London Regional ICT champion

Welcome to our new look monthly London ICT e-bulletin. Our bulletin is aimed at smaller voluntary and community organisations, managers, circuit riders and accidental techies. It will keep you up to date with the latest news for circuit riding, ICT events and training, ICT accessibility and more.

Subscribe to Lasa’s free monthly email bulletin.

Lasa Information Systems Team

This month’s featured event

Lasa Circuit Rider Conference 2009 @ IBM Bedfont, Feltham, Middlesex

For circuit riders, accidental techies and anyone working in voluntary sector ICT support and development, this conference will offer practical, relevant tools and solutions for small voluntary organisations to survive the economic downturn.

Sessions will cover risk management, Lasa’s ICT learning programme for circuit riders, web 2.0, cloud computing, best practice for organisations working with ICT volunteers, social media and hard times and  resources and tools from the IT handbook, FAQ flash cards, VoIP, contact management to the Lasa ICT Knowledgebase.

Prices from £80 for charities, booking until 4 June.

Book your place now: www.lasa.org.uk/crconference

ict news

Westminster City Council gives away free computers
Westminster Council is giving away computer equipment worth approximately £200,000 per year to charities. Successful applicants will each receive about £700 worth of computer equipment and software. In order to apply, a group must be classed as a charity or not-for-profit organisation and be able to show how their service or activity meets the needs of people living, working or studying in Westminster.

To find out more: email or call Westminster Council on 020 7641 3382

IT volunteering on the rise
IT4Communities (IT4C) has seen a 200% increase in IT volunteers registering to use their skills to help charities over the first part of this year. IT4Communities introduces volunteer IT professionals to charities needing IT help and support.

Find out more in IT4C’s May newsletter.

Digital Mentors
Digital Mentors aims to inspire, engage and support disadvantaged and isolated communities to get their voices heard through digital media.

Led by Media Trust, Digital Mentors will provide funding for 26 grassroots groups, alongside one major new initiative and a further 40 small grants for specific digital projects.  Digital Mentors will also provide comprehensive tools and resources.

To get involved either as a pilot project or as a digital volunteer:
www.mediatrust.org/digitalmentors

Nominet Foundation

The Nominet Foundation has launched its new grants programme to support distinctive and inventive Internet-related projects that can make a difference to people, primarily in the areas of education, online safety and inclusion.

Find out more: Nominet Foundation

BT Community Connections
If you volunteer with a community group or charitable organisation, you can apply for a laptop and contribution to a year’s free broadband connection.  Round One closing dates 9th June (postal applications) 11th June online.

Find out more: BT Community Connections

events

01 June – Social Media Exchange for the Cultural and Heritage Sectors @ LVSC Resource Centre, N7 6PA – from podcasts to social networks and blogs to twitter, sounddelivery is offering bitesize masterclasses, practical creative surgeries, collaboration and networking opportunities that will give you new ideas and ways of incorporating new technologies into your work.

02 June – London Net Tuesdays – Social Collaboration Game – Do you want to know how to use technology better to engage your community? Designed by leading social collaboration practitioners, the Social Collaboration Game can help you with tools and methods to do so.

03 June – Introduction to ‘Cloud Computing’ for Voluntary Organisations @ NCVO, London N1 – a free breakfast seminar to introduce ‘cloud computing’ – or services delivered over the Internet – and demonstrate the Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) application.  Salesforce Foundation has donated over 6,000 licences to voluntary and community organisations worldwide.

Email ikelly@salesforce.com to book your free place.

05 June – NGO Media Better Writing for Charities @ CAN Mezzanine, Old Street, London, N1 6AH – this free afternoon seminar from NGOMedia will cover everything you need to know about how to make your charity’s publications as effective and powerful as they can be through great copywriting.  Free and book in advance.

08 June – Multi-Media Explained @ NCVO, London N1 – an NCVO conference for anyone who working in communications, marketing or publishing for a charity, voluntary or community organisation, who wants to start using multimedia to get their message across.  Prices start at £151 for NCVO members.

09 June – Lasa Circuit Rider Conference 2009 @ IBM Bedfont, Feltham, Middlesex – for circuit riders and accidental techies, this year’s conference will look at ‘Riding the crest of a slump – surviving in tough times’.  Prices from £80 for charities.

12 June – Cascade conference – Improve your newsletters and e-bulletins @ King’s Fund, London – Led by Marc Osten, the theme will be tools, tips and strategies for maximising effective use of e-bulletins and newsletters.

23-24 June – CiviCRM training camp @ Miller Technology, London WC1X – a two day indepth workshop focusing on integrating CiviCRM with Joomla, Drupal and other platforms. Cost £400.

25 June – Collaborate|2009@ Dunchurch Park Hotel nr Rugby, Warwicks – sessions include collaboration for funding, use of social media, work of the regional champions and a presentation from Helen Stephenson of the Office of the Third Sector.  Costs £55 ex VAT.

resources & good practice

Fight the economic downturn

Go to the Lasa Knowledgebase to find lots of new articles, tips and tools on how your can save money on ICT and / or use ICT to reduce costs. Visit the Lasa Knowledgebase: www.ictknowledgebase.org.uk

Wales CVC Circuit Riders – new Circuit Riding guide published
In Computanews 151 we reported on what the Wales CVC Circuit Rider pilot project had achieved. They have recently issued a new guide to setting up a Circuit Rider project.

Download the PDF (512kb) here.

Senior citizens use Internet to overcome social isolation
If you work with older people you might be interested to find out more about a new research project by the University of Wales, Newport which reveals how the Internet has helped Newport’s senior citizens overcome loneliness and social isolation.

Find out more at: Digital Newport

Maximising your potential through ICT
Presentations from the recent NCVO / Microsoft ICT conference are now available to download.

SMEX09 presentations available
Presentations, resources and an exclusive video interview with Ken Loach from sounddelivery’s first Social Media Exchange event are now available.

Data protection & freedom of information – Legal changes in April 2009

• Taking an individual’s photo without consent may be breach of privacy even if images are not published.
• Anonymised information can be personal data under the Data Protection Act if the numbers are so small that individuals can be identified.
• Information Commissioner’s Office guidance on clarifying what is and is not personal data and on dealing with loss of personal information.
• When public authorities can choose not to disclose commercially sensitive information obtained from third parties (e.g. in a contract bid) under a Freedom of information request.

practical tips

Compress images in Word, Publisher or PowerPoint
If your Word, Publisher or PowerPoint document is too large to send by email or upload to your website because it contains lots of images – there is a quick way to compress all images and reduce the overall file size.  For Word and PowerPoint 2003, Right click an image, select Format Picture and in the Picture tab, select Compress.  Then check the All pictures in document option and select Web / Screen or Print as appropriate.  You can follow this procedure for Publisher 2007 but for earlier versions you will have to reduce the original images and then re insert into your document.

For further guidelines on how to do this and other tips on image resizing please refer to the Superhighways guide.

Open Office 2007 documents in Office 2003
If you are using Office 2007 and people are having problems opening documents they receive from you by email because they are using an earlier version – use the Save As option to save to an earlier version. Alternatively, point them to the Office 2007 Compatibility tool.

tools & applications

Microsoft Office 2007 Compatibility Pack
If you are using earlier versions of Microsoft Office such as 2000, XP or 2003, but need to open and edit documents created in 2007, you will need to ensure you have both the latest Service Packs and download the MS Office 2007 Compatibility Pack

For further information and guidance please refer to the Superhighways guide.

Accessible technology support for disabled people
AbilityNet has released a suite of low cost tools for disabled people wanting to use technology. these include AccessAT – a collection of free and open source tools, AccessFun – a pendrive made up of over 50 games, music, utilities and storybooks for disabled young people.

Find out more from AbilityNet

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