IT, Online

The Lancashire branch of St John Ambulance is communicating by text message using a web-based service, enabling unit leaders to contact volunteers and staff quickly in the event of an emergency, resulting in quicker response rates.

Civil Society Media news item at http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/it/news/content/6812/.

An increased role for the third sector in public services will demand a new approach to data management, according to the chief information officer of Belfast City Council speaking at a recent public sector IT conference.

She says "We need to focus on common data standards across all sectors" (rather reflecting what VolResource was saying some years ago!) and also need "a better understanding of the third sector, in which there are some very small organisations, and need to think about how we enable that sector."

Digital Activism Decoded is claimed to be the first book to map the field of digital activism - how we can use technology for political activism - in its entirety. The book covers dynamics, practices, misconceptions, and possible futures of this field.

TSO (aka The Stationery Office, the official government publisher) has created the OpenUp challenge, looking for ideas of how to make government data more accessible, from school league tables to crime statistics or public transport availability.

The best idea will get a £50,000 development fund. Ideas by 29th October, http://www.tso.co.uk/openup.

NCVO's ICT Newsletter points out the Green ICT Handbook available from the Green ICT website, http://greenict.org.uk/handbook.

This seems to be mainly for large organisations to reduce the impact of their technology facilities, but others may find some useful tips.

A new article from the American nonprofit software review site Idealware is 'A Few Good Tools for Online Data Backup'. US based examples, but which generally can be used internationally, and the issues are common, http://www.idealware.org/online_data_backup.

Volunteer Centre Brighton and Hove have been testing the use of social media in volunteering support services over six months, documented in a Community Connected case study - in pdf, 1.25MB from Improving Support.

Civil Society Media reports that the Charities Security Forum is considering the creation of a mentoring scheme to give smaller charities access to the security expertise of larger organisations, http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/it/news/content/6646/.