Selecting Software on a Shoestring

How do you choose new software? For many people for many years it’s been pretty simple – go for whatever Microsoft does and get on with it. However some problems just can’t be solved that easily, like buying a website or database, which are more about buying a service than a product. And the growth of open source has also shifted the goalposts, as has the rapid growth in online services, such as Google Docs or online meeting planners such as Doodle.ch. So is there a simple process everyone could can follow?

It very much depends on what you want, when you want it and who you’re asking, but US-based IdealWare has suggested six simple steps for when you’re in a hurry and have specific needs – “something that’s neither a big investment nor particularly strategic”. It offers a very useful starting point, and I particularly like the fact that Step 2 suggests that you investigate whether your current software can do the job.

This is a really useful point, especially given the wealth of features in Microsoft Office. So as well as suggesting you check out their Six Steps I would add that it’s always helpful to have reference books available, especially books such as Office 2003 Timesaving Techniques in the Dummies series. This goes beyond the basics and includes tips for Excel, Word and the rest of the Office suite and I use it at least once every month for fiddly things I don’t do very often.

Of course for more advice on just about every topic I’d always recommend looking at LASA’s ICT Knowledgebase, especially for larger projects such as websites and databases.

Idealware: Selecting Software on a Shoestring

Selecting Software on a Shoestring

How do you choose new software? For many people for many years it’s been pretty simple – go for whatever Microsoft does and get on with it. However some problems just can’t be solved that easily, like buying a website or database, which are more about buying a service than a product. And the growth of open source has also shifted the goalposts, as has the rapid growth in online services, such as Google Docs or online meeting planners such as Doodle.ch. So is there a simple process everyone could can follow?

It very much depends on what you want, when you want it and who you’re asking, but US-based IdealWare has suggested six simple steps for when you’re in a hurry and have specific needs – “something that’s neither a big investment nor particularly strategic”. It offers a very useful starting point, and I particularly like the fact that Step 2 suggests that you investigate whether your current software can do the job.

This is a really useful point, especially given the wealth of features in Microsoft Office. So as well as suggesting you check out their Six Steps I would add that it’s always helpful to have reference books available, especially books such as Office 2003 Timesaving Techniques in the Dummies series. This goes beyond the basics and includes tips for Excel, Word and the rest of the Office suite and I use it at least once every month for fiddly things I don’t do very often.

Of course for more advice on just about every topic I’d always recommend looking at LASA’s ICT Knowledgebase, especially for larger projects such as websites and databases.

Idealware: Selecting Software on a Shoestring

Credit crunch communications for charities

When times are tough do you cut your communciations budget first or last? Is this the time to get out and tell people how great you are to raise funds, or keep your head down, rein in all your costs and hope for a big bid to come through pronto? The people at NGO.Media have spoken to specialist communications staff at various charities have produced a list of five top tips:

• Outsource to save money
• Stick to timescales so everyone knows what they’re doing
• Get service users and volunteers involved
• Focus clearly on your key aims
• Manage your time and projects extra carefully.

A lot of the examples given are from larger, higher profile national charities, but it is a useful glimpse into the work of professional charity communications workers during very uncertain times. Read the full story at http://icanhaz.com/creditcrunchcomms

Tags: nfptech, nfptechuk

Funders needs a sense of balance

Jill Ferguson at Hastings Voluntary Action [HVA] has posted a useful reminder that grant funding from Government remains a vital part of the funding mix at a local level. She welcomes a recognition of the role of grassroots activity at a neighbourhood level but fears that the emphasis on contracting services and tendering for funds will undermine funding for work which is best delivered on a small, very local scale.

This echoes a campaign being led by NAVCA called Sustaining Grants – why local grant aid is vital for a healthy voluntary and community sector and thriving local communities.

Jill’s article can be found on HVA’s website: HVA – paper_030

More details of the NAVCA Campaign can be found on its site http://www.navca.org.uk/publications/sustaininggrants/

Community-sector Drupal Conference

Drupal is a powerful open source tool for creating websites that can be managed by people without a high degree of technical skills. It is a very popular tool with a large community of users, and it is free.

Many people around the world use Drupal to set up sites for not for profit organisation – we’ve been using at SCIP for several years, including our own site at www.scip.org.uk. The initial set up stage still requires a specialist web developer, but once it’s in place it can offer very powerful features to anyone with basic keyboard and mouse skills.

These sites are becoming increasingly popular for small and medium sized community organisations, alongside the growth of personal sites such as Blogger. You can change content quickly and easily, add photographs and useful links to other sites, add news stories and tidy up loose ends, such as when staff or job titles change.

Drupal has developed thanks to the commitment and collaboration of a wide range of people across the world. This conference in Coventry in late August is for web developrs with a specific interest in creating sites for the voluntary sector. It’s just £15 and is being organised by Illuminate ICT.

Our Drupal Conference | www.illuminateict.org.uk

TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards

Win £2,000 for your technology related project.

TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards

Upgrading to QuickBooks Pro 2008: A Warning

Quickbooks is a very popular accounting package, often used by organisations that have graduated from using spreadsheets but who don’t need the full power of Sage.

Given its popularity it’s interesting to see 12 out of 12 stinking reviews on Amazon, including one that simply says ‘Whatever you do don’t upgrade to Quickbooks Pro 2008′. Take a look at the reviews to see why not.

Amazon.co.uk: QuickBooks Pro 2008: Software

Free manuals for open source products

Floss Manuals is a great website that lets you build manuals for a wide range of free software. You can pick and choose which software you want to know about and it will build a manual that you can download as a pdf.

There are loads of free open source tools out there that can do the same thing as software you can pay for – free software available online you can download and use without paying a license fee. So far so good, but, unlike Microsoft and other standard suppliers, it can sometimes be hard to find user-friendly information about how to use it.

It’s all very well installing a free copy of Open Office if you’re confident about learning new software skills, but it’s a lot harder for people who aren’t happy clicking about trying to make it work. And there aren’t that yet Dummies’ Guides for even the most popular open source products.

That’s why Floss Manuals is a great idea. It’s a well-designed website that let’s you select the products you want to know about and download pdfs of the manuals. Follow the link to see how it helps you get the most from OpenOffice, which is a free alternative to the suite of Microsoft Office applications including Word, Excel and PowerPoint. OpenOffice manuals

SurveyMonkey is accessible

Do you need to run online surveys? There are lots of free tools for building surveys on websites but one of the easiest to use and most popular is Survey Monkey. It’s now been certified as fully accessible, which means it can be used by people who use screen readers, such as blind people. It has a lot of free features that can be used for smaller surveys or it can be rented cheaply by the month when you need to build bigger surveys.

SurveyMonkey.com is accessible

Big money for young people

The Big Lottery Fund has announced £190m of funding to create new spaces for young people. Looks like a great new initiative but it will be interesting to see in what ways computers, the internet and other technologies feature in the projects that are funded.

It’s often assumed that young people know everything about technology and that us adults are lagging far behind. My experience, however, is that many young people do not have access to laptops, wifi or home computers. They cannot afford them, or they can only use them at school, where they may be face all sorts of restrictions in their use.

They may be evolving massively muscular thumbs but beyond the social aspects of texting, mobiles phones and Instant Messaging there can be a distinct lack of opportunities for more meaningful use of new technology. They may also be short of teachers, parents or carers with enough confidence or creative skills to help them.

I did some work many years ago in Brighton Young People’s Centre. They have had an IT suite for many years – originally ste up with UK Online funding – and recognise that although many kids have Playstations very few will have had a chance to ‘play’ with creative tools like video, music or the web.

The young people I worked with wanted to work together on a video project, or learn about music technology and make songs with their friends. What they needed was a space where they could access cameras, keyboards and editing software, which is those days was not available in schools.

More importantly they were lucky enough to be in a space where the youth workers considered these activities to be an important part of their work. They recognised that it help gives them confidence, build relationships and create stories which reflect their lives. It helps create the sort of buzz which draws in young people who are put off by formal education and can help tackle social exclusion.

They could build on their youth work training to learn relevant technical skills, or see when they needed to bring in experts to help with things like DJ skills, video editing or web design. In contrast to my work in schools at the time they seemed more open to these ideas than the formal education system, where technology was often seen as creating as many problems as it solved.

That was all before MySpace and bebo and IM and even texting, so the landscape has no doubt shifted enormously. There may be more ready access to the web but that brings new issues into play, such as personal safety and responsible uuse of social networks.

What hasn’t changed is that young people will continue to benefit from access to high quality technology, supported by knowledgeable and supportive youth workers with relevant skills. I know there are lots of young people’s projects that have seen how IT can help transform lives. Hopefully the BLF will see that and encourage applicants to think big when it comes using new technology.

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