ICT tools (2007)
ICT tools, such as websites and
emailing lists, are useful and cost effective ways of disseminating
information to anyone wanting to find out about your organisation,
campaign and can also facilitate partnership working with other
organisations.
Websites
Websites are a constant source of
information about your campaign, project or organisation.
Websites should be updated regularly to ensure accuracy and to keep
people coming back. If you are an organisation running a
campaign you should feature it on your homepage and ensure contact
details are clearly identifiable for any enquiries. In
addition, it is useful to include a section on campaigns your
organisation is supporting. Put up the links to your partner
organisations and ask them to do the same.
One of the benefits of the web is
that you can direct people to trustworthy sources of information,
so ensure that any articles or conference reports you upload
contain links to other websites or sources of information that your
own organisation would use. For example, GLDVP has placed
links to a number of prison reform websites at the end of our
Securing Safety conference summary.
'Can I join your
mailing list?'
Email reduces and can eliminate
your postal costs and allows you to contact your subscribers
quickly and personally. Most organisations listed in this
handout have a monthly enewsletter.
E-Fora / E-Groups
Setting up an e-forum or e-group
allows all subscribers to submit information to the rest of the
group as frequently as they like. Your organisation has
overall control of who joins and which messages are posted.
For example, groups putting together an event have set up e-groups
to facilitate discussion and decision making. GLDVP has set
up an e-group for individuals and agencies working with children
and young people where good practice, peer support and advice is
shared. You can join by e-mailing
gldvp_frontlinechildrensworkers-subscribe@yahoogroups.co.uk
Wiki spaces
Wiki spaces allow more than one
user to edit a page at any one time. This is useful if you
are jointly writing documents with other individuals /
organisations e.g. consultation responses or policies.
Social networks
Organisations are increasingly
harnessing the use of social networking sites such as Facebook, Bebo or MySpace to reach
out to new audiences via the online networks of their friends,
relatives and other organisations.
Getting
started
Commonly perceived barriers to setting up any of the above tools
are lack of money and lack of skills. But it is possible to
use and develop these tools regardless of your organisation's
skills or budget.
You can download a guide on ICT tools for
collaborative working
You can view best practice guidance on building and
designing e-newsletters
IT4Communities
IT4Communities puts charities and voluntary
sector organisations in touch with IT professionals who are looking
to volunteer their skills. An IT4Communities consultant will
speak to you to get an idea of your project before writing up a
brief for circulation to their volunteer bank.
Women's Resource
Centre
Women's Resource Centre runs training events to build
capacity, including getting a database and a website and developing
an ICT strategy. This training is free to its members.
Visit their website for more information.
The providers below
offer ICT tools free of charge
Free
Charity
Provides free web hosting, e-mailing list support and discounted
domain name registration to charities.
Yahoo! Groups
For e-groups.
Doteasy
If you register your domain name with them you receive a free
package including 100mb disk space, 10 personalised e-mail
addresses and their design tool.
Wetpaint
Wetpaint provide free wiki spaces.
Google
Docs
Allow you to share and edit documents and spreadsheets with
other users.
Xdrive
Provides 5 gigs of online storage.
