News from ITEM3

I’ve started a new newsletter, “News from ITEM 3“, to help promote resources, events in the region etc. As well as being for frontline organisations to use, infrastructure organisations can “cut and paste” bits out of it for their own newsletters, use it in its entirety, email it out etc. The idea is that it is a flexible resource to help groups find out more about what IT can do for them. First edition can be downloaded here:

News from ITEM 3(as word doc, 65Kb)

Feedback welcome.

Live blog – follow up and thoughts

The live blog last week worked really well -certainly the audience seemed to appreciate the power of “Web 2.0″. I’ve now uploaded all of the pics to Flickr. Thanks to all that “dipped in” to the blog during the day and left comments.

Some useful learning that I’d like to share:

• Live blogging is VERY demanding: trying to capture people’s comments during the presentations; take, edit and upload pics; present and talk to people about the work of the ICT Hub and Digital Umbrella during the coffee breaks; moderating comments before publishing them - all too much for one man!
• The 3G data card worked really well  – speeds of 1.4Mbps were seen. However, if you are considering getting one think about how much the data charges will be. The internet “traffic” (uploading etc) at the conference was about 18Mb – or £30 on our current tariff.
• None of the ICT Hub publications are in alternative languages – (or braille?). Not an issue at this conference…but it might have been. Something for the hub to think about?

As a result of the CIO conference blog”experiment”, my organisation (High Peak CVS  – the parent of Digital Umbrella) will be holding a “virtual” AGM, alongside the real AGM in October – with a cyberzone / internet cafe during the event, live blog etc. More info to follow. And it won’t just be me blogging!

Live CIO conference blog – 3rd update

Rajed has just given thepresentation about AbilityNet. Unfortunately, he has had to pick this up at the last minute as someone from AbilityNet should have been delivering it. Demonstrates my golden rule – never present someone elses presentation! However, he did well and gave an overview of the accessibility work.

The final speaker, Mahendra Mistry is now speaking about “Website: Does your organisation need one?”. Some excellent explanation about internet use and growth – India is the biggest growth market, he says: and so, given today’s audience it is becoming really  important. 

He is also doing really well in not making it too technical: he’s just used a fantastic analogy (and one I’m going to steal!) “we’re not interested in how £20 notes are printed – we’re interested in getting hold of them”.

   

 Mahendra’s presentation is now here – the internet

Okay – 1.15pm, event over apart from lunch – and I’m NOT missing lunch (as many of you know)

CIO live blog – 2nd update

Just finished my presentation, that seemed to go well. Most of the audience were from small groups, so needed to tailor it somewhat. real interest in accessing funding (as always!) but people seemed to understand the need to PLAN and work out the TRUE COST of stuff. Some great questions afterwards – including the idea that CIO could apply for funding to run a website project, to help very small community groups from this communtiy get websites up.

The audience loved the idea of this experiment as well – i I gave out 2 digi cams for people to take pics (mainly because I can’t photograph myself!). I’ll upload more to Flickr later, but a few here:

    

   

The audience really “got” the idea about the power of tech – and how things like websites can bring people together – and this live blog helps to demonstrate the potential. Thanks for the comments so far.

Live CIO blog – 1st update

Vinod has just opened the conference, welcoming people and explaining that he didn’t know anything about IT 6 months ago. He raised a smile with “my son said – ‘this mouse won’t bite you’”.

Rajen from CIO is now speaking, talking about what ICT can do – focusing on particpation, the way that  groups need to develop a vision,and how ICT can help, the need for training and how ICT skills can benefit an organisation. He’s now moved on to talk about making sure organisations use appropriate technology – not just technology for techs sake. I totally agree with him!

Interesting Question from the audience about whether Microsoft is available in Punjabi – anyone out there know the answer because no one here does. Raises some interesting thoughts for me about the ICT Hub publications – do we have any of these in Cultural Languages?

My presentation up next.

Live blog – CIO ICT Conference

So, here we are, at 9.45am, the Three Kilns in Leicester, ready for the days programme.

First hitch of the morning – my data card has “parental control”, so I can’t upload pics to flickr. So, I’ll try and edit the pics in Photoshop before uploading.  Here is the room before the start:

Details of the speakers are below – and I’ve uploaded the presentations (as pdf files)

Welcome & Introductions from Vinod Kotecha  Regional Manager, Confederation of Indian Organisations (UK)

Disha - the way forward

Rajen Gohil
ICT Officer – CIO 
           
The ICT Hub and ICT Funding – Powerpoint slides
Tony Okotie, EM Regional Champion

Questions & Answers

Introduction to Accessibility
Rajen Gohil
ICT Officer – CIO 
Introduction to the work AbilityNet are doing as a part of ICT Hub  

Website: Does your organisation need one?
Mahendra Mistry

The plan is to post a couple of articles as the event goes on. A local TV crew is also here….MATV (Midland Asian TV)

 Update: 10.30. Conference about to start, there’s about 25-30 people here. I’ve just been interviewed on camera.

Ready for a live experiment?

I hope so. Tomorrow (Friday) I am speaking at the CIO (Confederation of Indian Organisations) ICT Conference, in Leicester.

 

So, armed with my new 3G broadband data card, digital camera and laptop, I’m going to attempt to “live blog” from the conference – putting up notes, comments, my slides etc. in as close to “real time” as possible. Fingers crossed it “might” work – there’s no broadband, hence the data card, I’ve never done it before and it’s Friday – what could go wrong?

It would be great if people could dip in and comment during the morning – the event is 10am -2pm – and let us know whether it works.

The Regional 3rd Sector IT Strategy

Tah-dah! The “early draft” of the regional ICT strategy, commissioned by the infrastructure steering group, managed by Engage East Midlands and jointly produced by High Peak CVS, VAL and PurpleZebra, is now available. It covers research into IT needs of frontline groups; research into funders views (or not!); how the sectors’ ICT needs “mesh” with the Regional Economic Strategy (and how to influence the RES!) and finally an action plan.

 You can download Draft 3rd sector ICT strategy here.

There is still more to do on the strategy, including completing case studies and the action plan. However, we would like comments from third sector organsiations (both frontline and ICT service deliverers) to help move the strategy on.

I presented the strategy at the Infrastructure Steering Group meeting in Melton Mowbray earlier in the week (nice lunch, with great pork pie!), along with an outline of the Regional Champions role. My presentation was well received (PowerPoint download) – I hope it wasn’t just that it was getting to the end of the morning and everyone wanted lunch!

Regional Projects Meeting

My first “public “meeting in my role as regional champion was arranging the meeting of ICT projects in the region. We have being meeting approximately every three months for the last year or so, to share ideas, network etc. The meeting yesterday was in Loughborough, hosted by Ray Smith and his team at LCC.

We had a good turnout, despite it being “holiday season”, including Andy and Terryfrom Ashfield Links; Alex from VAL; Andrew from PurpleZebra, Paul Webster from the hub, John Powderly. Issues discussed included:

• Current work the hub is undertaking (with Paul updating about the new unmet needs fund, SKiLD training workshops for development workers and the soon to be published ICT Good Management Guide)
• The regional champion mission and workplan
• Update on the regional ICT strategy
• Proposed CircuitRider accreditation

Minutes will be sent to those on the email list and are published here. Please let me know if you are not currently on the email group and want adding to it.