Civil Society Strategy: Building A Future That Works For Everyone, Cabinet Office, Aug 2018 [123pp, PDF] ARTICLES Charities react to the Civil Society Strategy: ‘Good start, could do more’, Kirsty Weakley, Civil Society, Aug 9 2018 Civil Society Strategy: 7 things social entrepreneurs need to know, Laura Kekuti, UnLtd, Aug 9 Civil Society Strategy […]
Net Squared Midlands helping charities do good better
Do you work for a charity or community group in the Midlands? There may be things on the web that would save you, your volunteers or staff, time and money.
Net Squared Midlands is relaunching on September 20th 2018 with a new development plan for bi-monthly meetups. Net Squared Midlands, organised by Pauline Roche and Ted Ryan from RnR Organisation, is a tech for social good group with regular free events for people interested in using the web or mobile technology for social good. It’s part […]
Big data and the social sector – some reading
Reading list on Big data and the social sector
I’m doing a trawl of reading on Big data and charities, the voluntary sector etc and publishing it here so others can also benefit – fill your boots Is big data leveling the playing field for charities? By Alize Cyril, LucyInnovation blog, 27th April 2017 “…What most charities can do now with big data is […]
How do you review your digital footprint?
The first version of this article was published in bvsc Update Apr-May 2016 as the third in a series of three articles on the role of digital technology and data in the transformation of the voluntary, community and social enterprise sector (VCSE)
post revised and updated Mar 2018 TWEAKING SOME PRACTICES: IT’S NOT ALL OR NOTHING Having discussed wider and strategic issues in the previous two articles in this series (Smart Cities: smarter VCSE and Digital governance) we thought it necessary in this article to provide some practical guidance for organisations about how to incorporate such activities into their […]
Why should community arts organisations gather and share data?
Data gathering and sharing as part of a community arts festival - guest post by Jess Harrison, Arts and Heritage education specialist
In Nov-Dec 2017 six Birmingham community arts organisations either based in and/or working with a range of communities from Sparkhill or Sparkbrook, came together to produce Spark: South Asian Arts Festival, a number of events designed with and by local people and curated by local arts organisation Ort Gallery. The Festival consisted of two weeks […]
Data we don’t know we don’t know
Our Special Projects Director Ted Ryan, often refers to the data which smaller voluntary and community sector organisations have, but don't yet share...
This was a topic Ted talked about at our annual Open Data Day event in 2017 at Innovation Birmingham. We know that public policy is being made about resource allocation which excludes data from front-line organisations in our sector Matthew Ryder speaking at NAVCA Future Forward We were therefore delighted to hear our thinking reinforced by […]
Digital skills: looking at the data – Part Two
Part two of two posts which looks at some data on online and digital skills in the UK population
The first of these two posts was originally published in Sept 2016; both posts reflect the latest data in various reports, including the second annual Lloyds Bank UK Consumer Digital Index 2017: Benchmarking the digital and financial capability of consumers in the UK, and the fourth annual UK Business Digital Index 2017: Benchmarking the digital maturity of small […]
Talking Women in tech at 2017 Silicon Canal Awards
I was a member of the Women in Tech panel at the Silicon Canal Tech Awards at Birmingham Rep in Nov 2017...
…along with Anna Walters, Head of GRC at Zenzero Support and Victoria Masso. We had been invited to prepare responses to the questions “Do we have an inclusive Tech Community in Greater Birmingham? If you think we do, could you explain how/why we do? If you don’t, can you think of a way we can […]
Tech for good at a bad time
Non profits, voluntary sector organisations and social enterprises could be using available technology better, possibly in ways they haven’t tried before.
So it snows, and you have to cancel the seasonal market for which you’ve been preparing for the last few weeks, or even months. There are so many disappointed people – you, the organiser, your staff, your stallholders, their potential customers. You and your staff have allocated time and resources, stallholders have prepared and/or refreshed […]
Regional data on charities
Post inspired by the 4th annual Lloyds Bank Business Digital Index
The Lloyds Bank Business Digital Index 2017 measures the digital capability of 2,000 small businesses and charities across the UK The report concentrates on small businesses but it does have a very useful section on charities, especially useful for us being the data about charities in the regions – the two digital demographics diagrams for […]