Laura's Notebook | Technology for Non-profit Organisations, Social Media and Accessible Website Design

Inclusion at Digital Events

laura — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:49:03 +0000

Alison Smith, shares her experiences from a recent event and questions ‘What will it take take for Deaf and Disabled people to be a real part of so called Digital Britain?’. Event organisers take note. Hello Digital : Digital Disaster.

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Blog Action Day 2009

laura — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:06:59 +0000

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers across the world, will all be tackling the same subject today – Climate Change.

I’m not going to write about anything about the ‘big things’ connected with climate change, I’ll let our Governments and the big companies deal with that issue. Instead, my contribution is just a little ramble on the little things, as I feel that by making small changes surrounding your own local environment, it can help lead to change for the wider environment as a whole.

A couple of years ago, the theme for Blog Action Day was the environment, and I’m recycling with some updates with my post today, on what has happened since my post about My Environment all that time ago.

Two years is a long time to some, and looking back at my previous post, and my own concerns about my environment and the way we lived led me to make some big steps that has helped reduce my families’ impact on our environment that surrounds us.

Some of the steps since 2007…

I gave up my ‘day’ job to become full-time freelance in the summer of 2008. I now work from home and rarely drive. (compared to 2 years ago where reliance on the car to ferry to school and work and meetings was a necessity. Not only saving money, but also about 200+ miles a week of extra pollution too.).
However, I am still reliant on a car at times. We never got to move to a town or city as had intended, of which a big part of the idea of moving, was so that we could access efficient public transport services. Am living still in a small but active rural village. The public transport is adequate and slowly improving, although sometimes is still expensive or doesn’t operate at the times when I want to access services to get me from A to B.
My children and I are healthier, we got a place at the local village school and walking each day, not only keeps the dog’s tail wagging with his ‘walkies’ twice a day, but we’re more connected to our local environment. Oh and the bonus of walking to school, chatting. Much more time to chat, laugh and discuss together without having to focus on concentrating on driving along those famous Devon back lanes.
Going freelance meant being more careful with finances than before, especially during those first few months. In turn, this helped us to become mindful of the resources we use, and evaluate what we needed and didn’t need.
Made the effort to enjoy local food, local shopping much more than before. With less time commuting here, there and everywhere and not focussing on what we really need; we produce less convenience food and packaging waste.
I enjoy nurturing and recording the wildlife that visits the garden, especially the hoverflies and also the rare moth that came by last summer. We have a healthy diverse community of birds that visit too (although I do ponder about the mass of sunflower seeds they consume, especially as they are often imported from far away places like China, but that’s another story for the future over on the Garden Birds blog!).

In short, just being mindful of what we do and how we live. Nothing dynamic nor innovative. I could ramble on more about different ways to save energy and resources in the home, but guess most of you know those already!

I look forward later in the day to spending time reading others blog posts for Blog Action Day. It’s the one time I do read lots of blogs, as it’s wonderful to read and learn how we all look at one topic from so many angles. Are you taking part in Blog Action Day?

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In the pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month

laura — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 09:23:45 +0000

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month and is the reason my blog is in the pink for the coming weeks ahead!

Bloggers and website designers like myself are joining in with awareness raising across the globe by turning their sites pink for the month. You can find out more at Pink For October. (If you turn your website or twitter page pink, don’t forget to add yourself to the list at the Pink for October website!)
You can get involved and help to support charities like Cancer Research UK and Breast Cancer Care with events and fundraising.
Other fun ways to get involved easily on the net include Tweets for Boobs and Boobiethon.

Turn your Twitter page pink!

I’ve received a few requests from friends who like my pink Twitter page background, so have created a version that can be downloaded for your use on your own Twitter page.

If you would like to use it on your Twitter page, you can download it here -

Pink for October Twitter Background

[To use on your own Twitter page: download the file, Login to your Twitter, go to 'Settings', then to 'Design' tab, then "Change Background Image' button lower down the page and upload the file.]

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Gear Up for Giving - A month of social media tools and techniques

laura — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 17:21:59 +0000

Gear Up for Giving from the Case Foundation, is providing a series of social media tutorials throughout the month to help nonprofits understand how to use tools and techniques to raise awareness, create action and also to bring new supporters and donors to their cause.

As part of the programme for the month ahead, organisations can also ask experts in the field with live online sessions. The site also provides a range useful links to other sites on the web which can help organisations to get started the best from social media.

Finally, don’t forget to watch the introductory video with ‘Click Daly’ on the site too!

Visit the Gear Up for Giving website to find out more.

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Jaded About Social Media For Change?

laura — Thu, 21 May 2009 21:21:20 +0000

Joe Solomon shares his and others responses with a collaborative conversational article over on the Netsquared blog - ‘Jaded About Social Media For Change? - Let’s Talk About It!‘

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Resources and examples of nonprofits using twitter

laura — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 14:00:06 +0000

Head over to Beth’s blog where Beth Kanter shares some great examples of nonprofit organisations who are using twitter, resources to help get you started and the post includes a slideshare presentation by Laura Lee Dooley on Why Twitter Matters. View the article - Nonprofits That Tweet: Roundup of lists, resources, and examples.

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Audio talk about accessibility for website content administrators

laura — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 14:31:40 +0000

Recently an event was held WxWM (West by West Midlands) which brought together a wide range of people coming together to network, discuss the web and social media. One of the talks during the event was from Andy Mabbett who spoke about web accessibility and delivered an enthusiastic and vibrant overview aimed at content administrators of websites (and useful for designers and those commissioning websites too!).
As well as hearing the talk (link to MP3 audio file here), you can listen to questions from the audience.
The recording was made by Rhubarb Radio (a Birmingham Community Radio Station), listen to more of the recordings from the day at Rhubarb Radio’s West by West Midlands featured page.

Listen to the MP3 Audio on Web Accessibility (opens in a new page).

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The Dog’s Trust shares it’s successes with using social media

laura — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 18:47:57 +0000

Many charities are reaping the benefits and the value of using a mix of different media can reach out to supporters and help to raise awareness of their work. Earlier in the week, I read and mentioned Allan Benamers’ thought inspiring post on Build a Nonprofit’s Technology Assets from the Ground Up which starts at the baseline of your organisations mission and climbing up the pyramid of technology needs.
A good example of one charity climbing up that pyramid is The Dog’s Trust, a UK charity with not only a strong clear mission, but is also using and integrating a vibrant mix of media to reach out and connect with supporters.

Alex Goldstein, Social Media and Community Editor working for the charity the Dog’s Trust shared her experiences of using the ever popular Twitter in a recent interview by Graham Charlton at Econsultancy.

As well as providing some examples of how and why the charity uses Twitter and the benefits it has brought to them, Alex also offered some valuable tips to help other organisations looking to use social media to connect and build support. And, Twitter is not the only social media tool they use to communicate with, the Dog’s Trust have a blog, use Facebook, MySpace Flickr, YouTube and more, as well as having their main website. All in all the Trust is using a wide mix of media to reach a wide audience.

As well as the examples of how using Twitter has made a difference to the Dog’s Trust I really enjoyed this of part of the article, where Alex shared some valuable tips with their approach for other charities:

Excerpt - “The only tip that really matters to my mind is to be authentic. Have a name, a personality, and a sense of humour. Guide the conversation so that you have a comfortable, productive balance of professional posts (links, campaign, info etc) and personal moments.

People don’t follow a mailshot, but they do follow a person who also happens to tell them about some important work that’s of interest to them. You’re in someone’s virtual living room online and you have to treat that as their personal space.”

I highly recommend reading the full article. Head over to the article at - Should more charities be making use of Twitter?

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Pyramid of nonprofit technology needs

laura — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:57:11 +0000

Allan Benamer shares an excellent first part of a two part posting on how nonprofits should have a Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when it comes to implementing technology, starting at the baseline of your organisations mission and climbing up the pyramid of techonology needs. Essential reading for small nonprofits, head over to - Build a Nonprofit’s Technology Assets from the Ground Up.

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Social Media and accessibility reminder

laura — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:06:59 +0000

An article on Third Sector website shares insights from at a recent social media conference raising awareness that by focussing too much on social media such as Twitter, Flickr, blogging and podcasts for campaigns and marketing, it could exclude people with visual or hearing impairments as well as those who have no access to the internet. Read the full article at Social media ‘might alienate disabled’.

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