We found that 90% of Lambeth-based voluntary and community organisations responding to our survey rate computers and the Internet as vital, but don’t back this up by budgeting, managing or planning for ICT.  The problem is also compunded by a lack of awareness from organisations about where to go for independent ICT advice and support.

The results in Lambeth are broadly inline with Ticher & Eaves 2007 baseline survey of ICT across all voluntary and community sectors and regions.

Download the Accessing and Using ICT report (PDF 2mb)

These are some of the edited highlights from the Accessing and Using ICT report:

• 43% of respondents came from smaller organisations with less than 5 staff, whilst another 31% had an annual expenditure of under £10,000 per annum.
• Virtually of our respondents said that computers (85%) and the Internet (96%) was “vital” or “fairly important” to their work. However, our respondents are exposing themselves to considerable risk by not planning or taking responsibility for ICT:
  • 55% lack an ICT budget
  • 65% don’t back-up data on a regular basis
  • 51% don’t update anti-virus software on a regular basis
• Accessing ICT: 53% of respondents have 0-5 computers. Of those, 12% have zero computers, presenting smaller organisations with serious barriers to engaging with mainstream services and provision;
• Networking of computers consistently emerged as a development and support need;
  • 40% have no computers networked
  • 33% said staff don’t have access to networked computers or email
• The comfort zone of computers tends to be for a universal range of basic office tasks – email, calendar, documents and spreadsheets for reporting to funders and trustees;
• Confidence is an issue for many decision-makers, with 41% of respondents being “not confident” in making ICT decisions. However, 53% of respondents confused us by saying they were “reasonably satisfied” with the way ICT decisions were made in their organisation!
• We are concerned about sources of internal ICT knowledge – 41% of respondents do not have anyone within the organisation with specific ICT skills. This has a knockon effect on the way ICT problems are dealt with, as some 20% are happy to let staff solve their own ICT issues on an ad hoc basis;
• The need for signposting external sources of ICT knowledge – awareness of UKOnline and
  NetGainwas low – is evident and LIOs and development workers have a crucial role
  to play in raising awareness of sources of help and support. Training resources – like
  SKILD – exist to help development workers signpost sources of ICT help.
• There are contradictory attitudes to training – 51% of respondents identified ICT
  training as a development need, but 41% were unable to prioritise ICT training,
  with 40% admitting to having no-one with ICT expertise within their
  organisation;

Lasa was commissioned by Lambeth LIP Consortium (Lambeth Voluntary Action Council, London Borough of Lambeth, Lambeth Primary Care Trust and Voluntary Sector representatives – Streatham Darby and Joan Club and Lambeth Play Association to undertake the Lambeth LIP Consortium’s “Accessing and Using ICT” research project.

Digital Britain logo

Published yesterday, Lord Carter’s Digital Britain report gives more details about how the government aims to provide universal access to a minimum 2Mb broadband connection.

An estimated 2.75m homes, about 11% of UK households, today have no access to a connection at this speed. The report says 1.5m households might get access to next-generation broadband as a result of the commitment.

The report also looks at dealing with online piracy, the BBC licence fee and funding for Channel 4. Download the summary or the full report.

Discuss this issue over on Lasa’s ICT Cafe forum.

The survey found that the most popular uses of the Internet were for:

• 70% fundraising and oter research
• 65% purchasing goods and services
• 48% social networking
• 47% remote access
• 35% e-learning
• 24% VoIP

nfpSynergy is a  specialist research consultancy for not for profit organisations.

Rural areas of the UK are better connected to broadband than their urban neighbours, a new Ofcom report published here today reveals. England only summary here and full PDF (916kb) here.

Here are the edited highlights:

Rural vs Urban
Across the UK as a whole, 59% of households in rural areas now have broadband compared to 57% of urban areas.

• In Northern Ireland its 54% of households in rural areas with broadband and 52% in urban areas.
• In Scotland, 59% of rural households have broadband compared to 52% of urban households.
• The biggest difference is in Wales where 51% of rural households have broadband, in contrast to 43% of urban households.

Broadband take-up
Overall, broadband is in 57% of households across the UK – up from 45% in twelve months – and take-up has also increased steadily in the nations and regions.

• England saw the highest growth, up 13% to 58%.
• Sunderland is the UK’s most connected city with 66%
• In London and Edinburgh 62%, Newcastle 55%, Liverpool 40% of households have broadband
• The East of England region has the highest proportion of broadband households at 68%.
• East Midlands is at the lower end of the scale with only 37% of households having broadband.

Mobile-only homes on the rise
At 12%, more UK households than ever before now rely solely on a mobile phone.

• Some 12% of homes in England are mobile-only, an increase of 3%.
• In the UK’s cities, Greater Manchester has the highest levels of mobile-only homes at 28%, followed by Londonderry/Derry at 27%. Elsewhere, the mobile-only proportion of homes is Birmingham (22%), Yorkshire and Humber (18%), Greater Manchester (28%), and Liverpool (21%).
• However, in London the proportion relying on mobile telephony is lower than average (7%).
• Wales saw the highest growth of mobile-only homes up 9% with around a fifth of all homes (20%) mobile-only.
• In Northern Ireland, around one in ten households (11 %) are mobile-only, up 1% per cent in 12 months.
• Scotland was the only nation where the number of mobile-only homes fell slightly from 14 % to 12%.

Mobile 2.0
People in England are using their mobile in different ways other than to make calls.

• Some 21% use it to access the internet, rising to 32% in London. Birmingham is highest with a third of people using mobile internet. People living in rural parts of Devon and Cornwall are least likely to go online via their mobile at just 7%.
• Watching television or video on a mobile phone is also becoming more popular with 4% of adults in England now viewing content this way. The figure rises to 10% of adults in Liverpool and 15% in Birmingham.

The report also found non-profits were:

• optimistic about the value of social networking technologies to “organize an event” and “spread news” about the organisation.
• increasing their “web traffic” through use of various technologies.

Read more below the fold..

Interestingly, the report goes on to talk about some of the strategies we’ve discussed in the past for successful implementation of web 2.0 technologies. So, if you’re planning to launch a Facebook group or Youtube video for your non-profit:-

• Know your options, get informed, learn from others
  • research successful campaigns
  • plan tasks, define goals, measures of success, and budget time

• Identify what you want to accomplish, and why you should use web 2.0 technologies
  • Determine what it is you want to achieve
  • Test one tool at a time – its quicker to set up Facebook groups than making a video for Youtube
  • Use existing technologies rather than building new ones
  • Spend time marketing and contacting potential contributors

• Why use social networking technologies and how does it fit with your organisation’s mission?
  • Think about your motives – avoid using social networking as a sales tool. rather use it as engagement strategy or educational tool
  • Understand your target audience – this will inform the tools you pick
  • Make sure the tools you pick are sustainable – will they be around in 5 years time and can you get your data out?

• Indicate reasonable, realistic metrics and measures for success
  • Target a specific measurable metric – increase in members, web traffic, donations, volunteers recruited, etc
  • Make your metrics relevant to the tool you choose – Facebook, Youtube, etc
  • Be realistic – will your Youtube video get 100,000 hits? Can your cause attract 100,000 supporters in Facebook?

• Develop organisational support and personnel
  • Be sure to have a dedicated staff person tasked with developing new media
  • Management needs to ‘buy in’ or it will lose credibility
  • Manage social network/community expectations as much as possible
  • Integrate traditional marketing and communications with online as much as possible

• Launch, evaluate, reiterate, repeat
  • connect with like-minded people using web 2.0 technologies to promote causes similar to your own
  • Tap into pre-existing email lists or networks to build a foundation for your own network
  • Have an annual “meet up” for your community – it fosters a sense of belonging
  • Frequent reports on campaign progress to your supporters
  • Don’t expect short-term gains – be patient!

Abilitynet’s latest “State of the e-nation” report says social networking websites  – like Yahoo, Youtube, Facebook, MySpace and Bebo – are either difficult or impossible for disabled people to use.  In many cases users were not even able to register with websites.

Facebook is described as “a professional looking exterior belies a range of accessibility issues”, and gets a 1 star out of 5 review.  MySpace is also slated as having “significant accessibility and usability issues across the website”, and likewise scores a miserable 1 out of 5.

However, Yahoo does better with 2 stars and is praised for using serif fonts and resizable text to make reading easier.

Sadly, the Brave New World trumpeted by social networking sites is not as democratic and inclusive as it appears, so roll on accessible Web 2.5.

You can download “State of the e-nation” reports all the way back to 2003 from here.

The tips cover tricks such as:

• sending large files
• visiting blocked websites
• running applications your organisation won’t install
• clearing your Internet surfing tracks

Like most headline grabbing stories, many of WSJ ‘tips’ for circumventing control freak IT managers are not that startling and have been in the public domain for some time and to anyone with access to a web browser and Google. We’re firmly in the camp that believes work computers should be locked down and tamper proof – because it reduces the maintenance bill and increases uptime.

But all the same this information is worth sharing because all of us – circuit riders, accidental techies and others – with responsibility for our organisation’s ICT should be aware of how easily systems can be compromised, and then we’ll be sorry.

The study suggests that misconception amongst managers is slowing down the adoption of web 2.0 or social media tools.

• almost half of UK senior managers do not understand the business benefits associated with embracing web 2.0 technologies, while almost a third of IT managers lack an understanding of the capabilities of web 2.0.
• only 11 per cent actually purchased the technology to achieve increased collaboration, process change and more streamlined systems. The rest relied on the advanced web capabilities of such technology to improve content management and search facilities.
• less than 20% cited improved content and document management as a benefit

On the upside, 55.6 % of respondents cited working together more efficiently and uniting workers across different locations (52.9%) as the biggest benefits of web 2.0, while 50 per cent cited more openness in the organisation.

In a Commons debate last week, Pugh went on to outline a “damning” range of preferential treatment, which he said was tantamount to advertising and product placement.

• The Driving Standards Agency driving theory CD-Rom can be used only on Windows computers.
• The Inland Revenue website has limited functionality for the Firefox web browser
• The Department for Work and Pensions online benefits system can be accessed only by those who have a Windows computer.

Winding up, Pugh said “Those who have Unix or Linux computers or who use Mac computers should simply not bother.”.

In response, the Treasury’s Angela Eagle said that whilst the DirectGov site (6.5m hits per month) used open source components, “some open source projects cannot meet our needs for quality or security, and we are not prepared to compromise on those.”

As we all know, Windows and other proprietary software is well known for its quality, security and ability to deliver value for money to the great British taxpayer.  Indeed, we’ve quite forgotten government IT projects have a long history of soaring costs, failed projects, and regular security breaches.

Discuss…

NCVO’s Third Sector Foresight has launched a new site today bringing together a variety of resources to help voluntary and community organisations plan their strategies with insight.  Those looking for help with technology planning should head straight for the section on technology drivers for insight into lowering the cost of ICT, increasing access to the Internet, digital exclusion and more.

3S4 is organised into 4 main sections:

• Drivers: summarises the key political, social, economic and technological drivers shaping the voluntary sector;
• Tools: Examines strategic drivers and how to apply them to your organisation
• Network: Discuss strategy and planning on the 3S4 forum
• Share:  Share resources and expertise

The 3S4 site is part of NCVO’s new Leadership Services programme – also launching today – which will bring together networking services and personal development opportunities.

We think the 3S4 site is a great idea – the Foresight pages were previously buried deep inside the NCVO site – and wish Megan and the team good luck.