I-See-T developments blog

We have kicked off our process for designing the next generation of ruralnet|online over at http://www.ruralnetonline.org.uk .

In its current guise ruralnet|online has been going for almost 10 years and with the changes in technology its time to make the most of this and move ruralnet|online onwards - but where?
We’ve got our ideas about what ruralnet|online 2.0 hould be, but we need your help. There is no point in us building YAS (Yet Another Silo) and expecting people to come and use it (and pay for it). Which is why we’re open to suggestions and ideas from old, new and potential users.
Should it be an aggregation of other existing services - a kind of rural ‘dashboard’, or a dreaded ’social network’ for the sector - you can join in at the site by commenting anonymously or registering so you can post your thougthts as blog posts.
(PS Your suggestions for what ruralnet|online should be in 10 words or less/fewer are welcome here)

prices for electric fencing test

• Defra, UK; Rural Social and Community Programme
  should ruralnet|online be a place to link up disparate networks like this one? - a true network of networks
  (tags: ruralnet)
• Country Land & Business Association
  Another network for ruralnet|online?
  (tags: ruralnet)

• Should Your Organization Use Social Networking Sites?
  Great insight into whether or not you should be using social networking sites - should ruralnet online be a social networking site for the sector or just leverage the likes of Facebook
  (tags: web2.0 socialnetworking ruralnet)
• http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/jotspot_to_spawn_google_sites.php
  Are extranets now Google’s domain too?
  (tags: ruralnet)
• Ed Mitchell: Platform neutral » Blog Archive » Membership engagement story
  Interesting take on communities and membership
  (tags: ruralnet)
• http://beamends.typepad.com/simons_blog/2007/12/thoughts-on-the.html
  Simons initial thoughts on ruralnet online 2.0 with a slideshare show
  (tags: ruralnet)
• http://www.slideshare.net/paul_ruralnet/web-20-forums-and-groups
  Simon’s slideshare show on ruralnet online 2.0
  (tags: ruralnet)
• http://beamends.typepad.com/simons_blog/2008/01/ruralnetonline.html
  A bit of history from Simon
  (tags: ruralnet)
• Simon’s Blog: Planning for the next generation ruralnet|online
  (tags: ruralnet)

You know you’ve been busy when…your last blog entry was in August which was teasing for a service which is now live!

Anyway yesterday was spent away from chalk/coal/silicon face at the last of the ICT Foresight meetings. In the morning we discussed Megan’s think piece about ICT and service delivery. We explored all sorts of topics including interface design, identity, data protection even the way our new Experts Online widget is being piloted delivering a national service through a local source.

In the afternoon NCVO hosted a Third Sector Foresight Seminar focusing on the impact of new technologies on the VCS. Megan Griffith gave a great overview of the subject including the outlining the wealth of information out there, the effect fo online communities and social networking, the expectations of interactive/’social’ websites (ratings, reviews etc), the lower barriers to publishing and the ability to work more flexibly. (note to Megan - pop your slides up on Slideshare then I could link to them!)

Four other members of the ICT Foresight group and myself then gave a 5 minute pitch about five different areas where new technology was having an impact and why it was important to the attendees to consider and exploit them (strategically and practically) where appropriate.

Andy Dearden spoke about Campaigning, David Wilcox on Membership, Karl Wilding on Transparency, Steve Bridger on Fundraising and me (Paul Henderson) on Collaboration.

I outlined a way of running a project from start to finish based partly on the way the bid for the Open Innovation Exchange went ahead, partly on the I-See-T project and partly how i saw the way projects and organisation will ineviitably change in the way they operate. (Which is why I’ve been prompted into writing this up straight away and trying to show it really does happen and really does work)

Once the pitches were over we had 3×20 minute chunks to discuss the issues raised on our particular topics with the attendees, with everyones thoughts being distilled by a friendly NCVO facilitator (in my case Katie Hall, thanks Katie). Lots of themes crossed over but we had first hand accounts of the successes and failures of technology and hopefully we opened some people’s eyes to the possibilities.

***UPDATE*** Natalie Williams at NCVO has blogged about the seminar too.

Sadly this was the last ICT Foresight group meeting, so a big thanks must go to Karl Wilding and Megan Griffith (I’ll bring my proper camera next time…) and at NCVO for getting this group together - I know I’ve learnt a lot from it and met up with some fantastic people and I think all the members have found the sessions and the reports they produced really valuable.

Hopefully we can carry on in one form or another but in the meantime head over to their excellent new Third Sector Foresight website which covers lots more besides ICT.

Finally David W, Nick Booth, Andy D, Simon Berry and I ‘carried on the conversion’ in the nearest local before heading off our separate ways. Nick and I had to go via St Pancras to check out the new architecture and exchange notes on cameras…

But Steve Bridger beat us to it though with his great picture…

PS this brings me back to my 5 minute piece about technology helping collaboration - how did I know Steve had posted his pic… RSS. I’m subscribed to his Flickr photostream. Do yourself a favour and if you subscribe to just one RSS feed today, subscribe to his gems.

As we mentioned in this post, we have been working hard on a new, updated version of Experts Online service. Subscribers to the Networks Online family of extranets can ask a question to a panel of experts in areas such as Business Planning, Grant Funding, Employment and Legal Issues and receive a comprehensive reply in around 24 hours which is shared with all the other users of the service.

Currently this popular service for the voluntary and community sector is provided via a mixture of client software and web interface which has served us well but we recognise could be easier to use and doesn’t work well with other web services that we and others provide. We are now transforming it to become a service that that can be easily accessed on the web and integrated with other third party suppliers using a single sign-on in the future.

What’s new

• A fresh new look and easier navigation
• Answers enhanced with images, slideshows and video
• Comprehensive search and answers ‘tagged’ to help you quickly find what’s useful for your organisation
• New ways to keep up with latest postings like RSS feeds for questions and alerts straight to your desktop
• No extra software needed to ask a question or see an answer - all done using a web browser on any computer, anywhere with an internet connection
• Links to latest questions and alerts can be be put on other websites, intranets and extranets and updated automatically
• Other services like headlines from xPRESS Digest are alongside relevant questions and answers
• Single sign-on to other trusted services

What stays the same

• Quality of both answers and experts. Real questions, answered by real people - our users say “It’s like having an extra member of staff“
• Speedy responses that are shared by all the users - this is not a one-to-one service but one that grows every day driven by questions from voluntary and community organisations
• The archive of sample documents, tools, answers and alerts
• The areas that are covered: Business Planning, Community Engagement, Computers & Communications, Employment Issues, Finance Management, Grant Funding, Legal Issues

Take a look at the annotated screenshots posted here.

Well in a small upgrade, xPRESS Digest is open for comments and trackbacks. We’re not quite sure how to make the most of this feedback yet, as to date the email version of xPRESS Digest has been limited but its format and hasn’t garnered much in the way of interaction.  But now that we have a healthy number of comments coming in what should we do with them? Very often the items that we link to cannot be commented upon so perhaps xPRESS can be a spark for debate and campaigning, judging from some of the comments so far.

The most recent comments and trackbacks are now published to the front page and we will try and respond any queries that come in via the site.

We have noticed that some of the commenters have asked us for more information about the items posted in xPRESS. Every item is always linked to the original article - just click on the word Weblink to take you there.

Another quiet few weeks while we’ve been beavering away, but we were able to share some of our new developments at the collaborate|2007 event. Not least of which was the new ruralnet|uk site which went live last week. Its new backend (Wordpress if you must know!) means that the rest of the ruralnet team can now update the site as necessary and it’s really easy to embed other media like photos and presentations. For example here is a slideshow of the day

More excitingly for our conference junkies, we have also been able to put the presentations on the day using Slideshare for example: