Using information to take action

Ten Tactics for Turning Information into Action is an independent film that explores how rights advocates use information and digital technology to create positive change. It documents inspiring info-activism stories and uses the lessons to create advice for others. BBC News item at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8416785.stm, or go direct to http://www.informationactivism.org for trailer and featured tactics.

(Source: www.netsquared.org)

10 ways to avoid making mistakes in projects

I found this great post on TechRepublic. Although the focus is on IT projects it applies equally no matter what project you are planning.

So whether you are a seasoned project manager or starting your first project this is worth a read.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/10things/?p=1360&tag=nl.e042

Performance Reward Grants – Leeds Strategic Plan

Deadline: Friday 19th March

A total of £938,287 is available to commission activity to support delivery of the Local Area Agreement targets in the Leeds Strategic Plan (2008-11).

Applications are invited from the VCFS, public sector organisations and not for profit / Social Enterprise organisations.

VCFS organisations are particularly encouraged to apply.

For further details of the programme, please go to http://www.fundsinleeds.org.uk and follow the link under Latest News

Huddersfield Social Media Surgery, Monday 15th March, 4.30pm to 7pm

Venue –  Cafe Ollo at The Media Centre, Northumberland Street, Huddersfield HD1 1RL

Are you interested in using blogs, text messages, Facebook, Twitter and other free web sites (sometimes called “social media”) to help a group or organisation that you belong to? Want to find out how you can use free web sites and services to organise activities, promote events, collect feedback and keep a record of everything you do?

Come along to one of our free drop-in advice sessions for community and voluntary groups, clubs, societies and small arts organisations.

Preflight checklist for your PowerPoint presentations

You may not always have time to create a blockbuster slideshow. But if you take a quick spin through this list, you can catch mistakes, improve polish, and prevent problems.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=2640&tag=nl.e056

Source: Tech Republic

New guidance from Cabinet Office to help Third Sector organisations

Red tape can make life difficult. These pages from the Office of the Third Sector are intended to help people that run third sector organisations by:

• highlighting recent and ongoing changes and initiatives that are intended to make life easier for them and
• providing links to where more detailed information can be found

New funding opportunity on behalf of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS)

The Development Fund offers grants to set up Community Learning Champion initiatives in targeted areas of need. Grants of up to £25,000 are available in Phase 2 – April 2010 to March 2011.

Learning Revolution Yorkshire – Free event 12th March Leeds – with Rosie Winterton MP

This free event will showcase innovative practice in Informal Adult Learning and demonstrate how informal adult learning contributes to – and is essential to – the wellbeing and economy of our Region. The Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP (Minister for Regional Economic Development and Coordination) and Alan Tuckett (Director of NIACE) will speak at this event.

Event – How to influence policies that affect you and your community – Leeds 23 Feb

Getting your voice heard:

How to influence policies that affect you and your community

23rd February 2010, 10.00am-3.00pm, Leeds

An informal and practical event for small groups and grassroots organisations in West Yorkshire.

Primarily aimed at BME, Refugee, Rural and Faith groups, though all other groups are welcome to join.

ICT Planning Workshop – York, 26th February

ICT Planning workshop at York CVS on 26th February.

Electroville are running the next of their highly acclaimed ICT planning workshops in York. The workshop forms the first part of an Improving Reach programme where participants receive:

1. ICT planning workshop
2. Individual ICT consultancy visit
3. Website in a Day workshop

All for the price of £75 + VAT.

The Improving Reach programme is funded by Capacity Builders and is aimed at helping voluntary organisations to use ICT to save money by being more efficient and effective in achieving their overall goals.

Download a flyer here. IR Flyer 26 Feb 2010 York CVS. A5

For full details of the programme and dates of workshops visit Electroville at www.electroville.org.uk

IT4Communities links with AbilityNet

IT4Communities, the volunteering project for IT workers, has become a service provided by AbilityNet, the computer technology charity making it easier for people with disabilities to use IT. It will continue to operate providing volunteers for charities and community groups through the same staff based in London. See IT4C news item at http://www.it4communities.org.uk/it4c/home/press240110.html

CITRA merges with Socitm – new membership body for IT workers

CITRA, the membership body for charity IT workers which has merged with the public sector equivalent Socitm, is to rebrand as Socitm Third Sector, Civil Society IT reports. A nine-person steering group has been established. The group’s meeting on 18th February will include discussion on improvements to its membership scheme and establishing a professional development programme.

Full article

JOB OPPORTUNITY: COMMUNITY CENTRE MANAGER

The New Earswick Community Association, a registered charity having an annual turnover of nearly £300,000, invites applications for this full time post from April that arises from the retirement of the existing manager. The appointment will be made on the Local Authority SO1 scale £24,646 to £26,276.

Full details of this job appear on the website http://www.newearswickfolkhall.org.uk together with descriptions of the Community Centre known as the Folk Hall in New Earswick, York.

Applications close at noon on February 19.

Interviews on February 25.

‘Can we afford equality?’ – Regional Forum Annual Lecture – Leeds 2nd March

‘Can we afford equality?’ – Regional Forum Annual Lecture

Date: Tuesday 2nd March 2010

Venue: The Rose Bowl, Leeds

Time: 3.45pm to 5.00pm

Join us for the Regional Forum Annual Lecture, ‘Can we afford equality?’ given by Maeve Sherlock OBE.

Get your marketing in gear – Leeds, 18th March

Date: Thursday 18th March 2010

Venue: Leeds

** Event run by Media Trust **

Research shows that frontline groups are often unaware of support provider organisations that can help them.

This tailored training, part of the Capacitybuilders Improving Support service, addresses the marketing needs of support provider organisations to help you get your services known, and communicate your value to the groups who need you.

* Understand and use the tools that help marketers communicate

* Identify, understand and reach your target market

* Develop a marketing plan for your organisation

For information and how to book visit:

http://www.mediatrust.org/training-events/events-calendar/planning-marketing-Mar18

Accessible Information training day – 26th Feb – SHINE, Leeds

We are providing this to improve access for people with learning disabilities to all services in the third sector. It is part of the drive to improved equality of access for people with learning disabilities. Would yourself or any of your colleagues like to attend this training? It is free of charge.

Venue:  SHINE, Harehills Road, Leeds, LS8 5HS

Date: Friday 26th February.

Make your learning count – Leeds 25th Feb

Date: 25th February 2010 from 12am – 4pm (with lunch)

Venue: St George’s Centre, Leeds LS1 3BR

Cost: Free – but space is limited

* How can volunteers and workers in the Third Sector make their accumulated learning count?

* Can the new Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) work for voluntary and community organisations?

Tender Opportunity – Yorkshire and Humber

The Regional Forum is seeking to commission 9 case studies to showcase the contribution of voluntary and community sector (VCS) organisations to empowerment activity within a neighbourhood or across a local authority district.

Guide to rural network support – Yorkshire and Humber

This new guide gives rural voluntary and community organisations, and those working with them, a clear introduction to rural networks in Yorkshire and the Humber. It outlines what each of the networks aims to achieve and how they will support and improve the representation of rural VCS organisations. It is the first in a new series of Regional Forum guides for the voluntary and community sector.

The guide can be read and downloaded free at:

http://www.regionalforum.org.uk/publications_resources/knowledgebase/500/530/321.pdf>

Find out more about the Regional Rural Network at:

http://www.regionalforum.org.uk/regionalruralnetwork/index.php

Quarterly confidence survey for voluntary sector in Yorkshire and Humber

Please find a link below to the Regional Forum’s second quarterly confidence survey for the voluntary and community sector (VCS) in Yorkshire and the Humber.

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/KMRQ3LW

The survey is a valuable way for us to assess expectations within the sector over the next 3 and 12 months and this survey will build on the results from the last survey in November.

Social Media policies examples

From a post on Third Sector Forums: the Social Media Governance website has a listing of social media policies from organisations around the world, including the BBC and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. Do note that many of these have been written for use in other countries, where legal (and cultural) issues may differ, http://socialmediagovernance.com/policies.php.

Social media advice surgery – Huddersfield Monday 1st February, 4.30pm to 7pm

Are you interested in using blogs, text messages, Facebook, Twitter and other free web sites (sometimes called social media) to help a group or organisation that you belong to? Want to find out how you can use free web sites and services to organise activities, promote events, collect feedback and keep a record of everything you do?

Come along to one of our free drop-in advice sessions for community and voluntary groups, clubs, societies and small arts organisations.

IDOX Social Impact Award – Knowledge and Information Management

The IDOX Social Impact Award, is a recognition of the innovative use of knowledge and information management (KIM) in the voluntary sector. It pays tribute to people who have developed KIM strategies and techniques that make a visible, positive contribution to the aims of their organisations and it provides an opportunity for voluntary organisations to share their KIM innovations with other sectors. We know that many of you make a real difference with the way you handle knowledge and information and are eligible to compete for the Award.

3 things you need to know about social media strategy

I like this article from Mashable. OK it is focussed on businesses, but the advice is sound and it is a good reminder of some of the most important areas relating to setting up a social media strategy.

If you are thinking about this then check out my social media experiment #socialmediavco where you will find loads of information aimed at small voluntary and community organisations plus a guide to starting out.

Finding funding in Kirklees just got a whole lot easier

Kirklees 4 Community, the free information service for community funding support, has undergone an overhaul to make finding funding that bit easier.

Packed with full, up to date information on all government grants, lottery programmes and charitable trust funds available to local groups, the new and improved (name of portal) enables you to:

• Search for funds in a matter of seconds using an enhanced user-friendly browsing tool
• Save funding searches and individual schemes for future use
• Create MS Word reports of your funding searches – print them off to share with fellow group members
• Get email alerts that automatically inform you when relevant new or updated funds are available
• Receive weekly newsletters packed with updates on new funds, upcoming deadlines and key policy announcements
• Search a revamped trust funding section offering more comprehensive and up to date coverage
• Post comments about funding schemes, sharing your own experiences with other local groups

Click on the link below to see for yourself all the funding support available to your group.

Kirklees4Funding link

If you need any more information please contact Vicky Harper on 01484 221652 or by email at victoria.harper@kirklees.gov.uk .

Manchester firms to get 100Mbit/s fibre broadband

A new broadband project being launched in Manchester could become the model for further network deployments in the UK by providing a service that could help to finance its own investment.

Facebook’s Version of the Retweet Has Arrived

We’ve long speculated as to when Facebook might get its own version of Twitter’s retweet, and it appears that the time is now. This evening, the site rolled out a “via” feature that lets you repost another user’s shared items, with a “via” link attached for attribution.

How to – add captions to your YouTube video

YouTube has a global audience, so if you want to reach as many people as possible, you’ll have to make sure subtitles are available for your videos. You’ll want closed captioning to reach the deaf and hard of hearing, too. Thankfully, that process has shifted from relatively easy to an absolute breeze in recent months. Here’s how to make it happen.

Third Sector Leeds – Vision 2030

Friday 22nd January 2010 from 9:30am to 12:30pm

Banqueting Suite in the Civic Hall

Third Sector Leeds are holding an event on to discuss and debate the third sector Vision for Leeds for the next 20 years. There will be keynote speakers, including Rachel Unsworth of Leeds University the author of “Setting the Vision for Leeds in the post-boom context”, and workshops to debate and develop the third sector Vision. The third sector Vision will feed into the review of the Vision for Leeds currently being undertaken by Leeds Initiative. Don’t miss this opportunity to contribute to the Vision for Leeds…

You can book your place at the event through Lisa at Leeds Accommodation Forum, email: susan@lafonline.org tel: 0113 2444 221

For further information regarding the event please contact Richard Jackson, richard.jackson@val.org.uk tel: 0113 297 7923

UK comes 26th for broadband speeds – UK and US lagging well behind the rest of the world

The UK ranks 26th in the world for broadband speeds, according to the most recent report from Akamai.

The traffic management firm found that the average UK connection is 3.4Mbit/s, and that 73 per cent have speeds above 2Mbit/s, while 19 per cent have speeds higher than 5Mbit/s.