[this news is courtesy of the NE Regional Champion at VONNE - see the original article here ]

Cambridge Open Systems is making available free websites to all community groups throughout the UK. Based on their successful VOICE service, any community, not-for-profit or voluntary group can apply to have a free website.

With an easy-to-use website building package, users can set-up a website quickly and easily with no technical expertise required. Pre-built, interactive modules such as picture galleries, discussion boards, and surveys, can be added to websites with a single click.

Visit the VOICE website to find out more.

UPDATE: VONNE are also signposting the possibility that some charities may benefit from a free upgrade to their Microsoft Office software. Read their article on the subject here.

One of the few ICT-related items in yesterday's “emergency budget” was the announcement that the proposed levy on landlines in order to support better penetration of broadband is to be scrapped before it even started.

The Chancellor said:

“..we also need investment in our digital infrastructure. The previous Government's landline duty is an archaic way of achieving this, hitting 30 million households who happen to have a fixed telephone line. I am happy to be able to abolish this new duty before it is even introduced. Instead, we will support private broadband investment, including to rural areas, in part with funding from the Digital Switchover under-spend within the TV Licence Fee…”

According to the Financial Times, the Digital Switchover fund is expected to underspend by some £350M and this has been earmarked for two major broadband projects – ensuring a minimum of 2MBs broadband to every home, and running pilot projects looking at extending rural broadband networks.

Now that the SW ICT Champion is active on Twitter we felt that some direction to how to get the best out of the various social media platforms would be useful for those who hadn't signed up or weren't using those services to directly help their organisations.

After a bit of searching we are indebted to the Red Foundation for signposting us to a guide they developed in conjunction with Brighton and Hove Volunteer Centre, along with a case study as to how the Volunteer Centre successfully adopted the new tools and communications methods: they have very graciously allowed us to provide these resources to our region as downloads from this site.

Toolkit (the social media guide: 4.5MB  PDF format)

Case Study (Brighton and Hove Volunteer Centre case study: 1.2MB PDF Format)

If your organisation is already using social media to advance its aims or to work better, why not let everyone know in the comments below?

We have received intelligence that the London Advice Services Alliance (LASA) website Rightsnet (http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/) is undergoing a transformation into a new and expanded version.

An email into the SW ICT Champion says

“Rightsnet will continue to be the UK's No 1 source of the most up to date, high quality welfare benefits and tax credits information online. But it will now also offer breaking news about community care, debt, employment and housing law, sourced direct from government and leading charities specialising in these areas.

Best of all, this new part of the site is free – you don’t need to subscribe.
You can see it first on rightsnet http://www.rightsnet.org.uk/index.shtml on 16 June.

Finally, we've put together a new brand which communicates how we can help you much more effectively. You could win £50 of Amazon vouchers if you take our 5 minute survey http://www.surveymonkey.com”/s/YH5RDWZ?campaignkw=Survey-re-new-brand- to tell us what you think of it. Please respond by 5pm on 17 June”

We wish LASA all the best with their new site.

We've found that Twitter is a great way of staying in touch with a network of people online. So much so that updates from the SW ICT Regional Champion are now available on Twitter. We post links to this blog as they are published as well as providing links to lots of the other great stuff that's going on locally, nationally and globally – and we like to talk to people as well!

If you are on Twitter then follow us by going here

http://twitter.com/swictchampion

and clicking on the “follow” icon.

If you aren't on Twitter, perhaps you should be? But maybe it isn't for everyone. Why not let us know in the comments why you think it isn't for you – the SW ICT Champion is here to find the best way to enagage with you!

Gloucestershire Rural Community Council's Performance Improvement for All website is currently running a story outlining the basics of Cloud Computing as a way of storing information for Trustees of 3rd sector organisations.

“Cloud Computing” is one of those buzzwords that sounds very advanced and new, but turns out to be quite mundane:  we use it every day when we do a Google search or shop online. However, it does have some major long term implications for the way we all run, exploit and manage our IT, so watch this space for more cloudy news, events and workshops in the days and weeks (and months and years!) to come.

the article is here:

Up in the Clouds – PIFA

If you are using any “Cloud” tools to help you run your 3rd sector organisation, why not let us know in the comments and we can share your best practices!

Media Trust/NAVCA are running a survey on social media usage in the third sector and they need your help! If you are a third sector organisation and have successfully (or not!) used any social media tools to help achieve your objectives, please take a few minutes to tell us about it.

You can either download the survey (MS Word format) and either send it to NAVCA (the email address is on the bottom of the survey document), email it to us (swictchampion at cosmic dot org dot uk), or simply let us know what you've been up to in the comments, including

• type of social media used (e.g. Twitter, YouTube, etc)
• your organisation – name and one line description of what you do
• dates the usage took place
• how the tools were used
• what the benefits were
• a website where it can be accessed
• any other information you want to give us

We don't need lots of details or a full case study: just what happened and what the benefits were, and we'll send it on to NAVCA for you!

UK Online centres have just launched a new campaign designed to reduce the fear of using the Internet for over 55′s. The “Face your online fears” campaign aims to tackle the fears that have so far prevented around 20% of citizens from going online, based on recent research on the most excluded group – the over 55′s – that reveals:

“fear plays a key role in preventing the over 55s from getting online – with over one in 10 over 55s (13 per cent) saying they’d rather take the plunge on a bungee jump than use the Internet. A third (38 per cent) would rather hold a spider than pick up a mouse and start clicking away….

The research, released today in a new report, also revealed:

Read the full story at UK Online here.

South West Equality have just launched an excellent new resource – prototype maps using Google Earth, showing Third Sector (Voluntary community and social enterprise) organisations that work specifically in the field of equality in the south west or that support and provide advice, guidance and voice for people from the different equality strands.

You can view the maps and related information by clicking here; http://www.equalitysouthwest.org.uk/about-us/promoting-equality-for/mainstreaming-equality/google-mapping.html.

Please feel free to circulate to anyone you think may find them useful and let any Equality Groups or Organisations you work with know that they can be added to the maps FREE OF CHARGE by contacting Jack.horwood@equalitysouthwest.org.uk

52 Cool Facts About Social Media from the blog of Danny Brown. Some will amaze you, some may baffle you and some are probably just ‘statto’ facts to use in the pub! However all do highlight how big and how important social media now is.

What is the relevance for Civil Society Organisations? If you are using social media already, or still thinking about it these facts may help in planning the best tools to use and the best ways to reach your audience.