It’s all free!

With all the free social networking, blogging and web site design software that is around now, it is vital that tenant groups and panels are in a strong and visible position with web-based information. To help groups achieve this, Make it Happen (MIH) is running a 3 day residential training course called ‘Tenants on the Web’ (TOW) at the National Communities Resource Centre at Trafford Hall from 26th-28th March 2012. The course costs only £15 for social housing tenants in England.

Using this free software, MIH will guide you through the process of developing and designing your own web presence, and you will leave Trafford Hall with a ‘live’ working web presence that you have designed yourself. You will learn skills that you can pass on to others in your group or community, to bring them up to speed in the new web-based world. MIH have been running this course for the past 5 years with some really exciting results! Groups have set up web presence/s using free platforms such as; WordPress, Blogger, Facebook and Twitter. 

£500 grant opportunity

Delegates from groups who complete the course can apply for a grant of up to £500. The grant must be used to give your group the chance to disseminate the learning to a wider local audience, or to begin to develop projects related to the course you attended.

Gain a proper qualification!

The TOW course is accredited by the Open College Network, so you get a proper qualification if you complete the course. It’s a great opportunity!

For more information contact:

Dane at Make it Happen. Or, to book a place, contact Claire Lawton at Trafford Hall on 01244 300246 or email her at: MC.Lawton ‘at’ traffordhall.com (insert @ instead of ‘at’).

A new dawn in tenant empowerment!

And we wanted to find out:

How can TPAS eNetwork help empower tenants and residents?

We asked members how they might want to use TPAS eNetwork and what features they’d like to see. Here are some of the ideas that came up:

Some uses for TPAS eNetwork

• Good for tackling social isolation
• Good for connecting with young people
• Use it to address both providers and tenants
• Use photo & video evidence to ‘name & shame’ providers
• Put paperwork online instead – but think about security
• Slogan: ‘inclusive not exclusive’
• Useful for community cohesion
• Address disability access issues
• Buddy system
• Silver surfers
• Intergenerational – young and older users offering mutual help – e.g. adopt a granny/grandad
• Self-moderating groups will develop with tenant involvement in the TPAS eNetwork
• Make sample policies available for others to use/adapt to avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’

Features wish list

• Jargon buster
• Links to BBC security site/info, e.g. Staying Safe, and CEOP
• Web page (form) to assess users’ skill levels (computer/internet literacy)
• Functionality for iPhones & mobiles
• Make it clear: What’s private? What’s public?
• Site user policy – code of conduct
• Facebook plugin? – a possible future development?
• Creative commons – using copyright-free/open media – e.g. photos on Flickr
• What about Twitter feeds – tweeting?
• Linkedin network?
• Link to FixMyStreet.com – highlight this online service
• Link to TPAS Flickr group (plugin feeds from… install widget?)
• Link to TPAS YouTube channel (plugin feeds from… install widget?)
• Linking to many other relevant sites & organisations is very important
• Web conferencing – a future development
• Highlight useful web conferencing services/tools:
  • Skype
  • dimdim
  • Flash Meeting (online video conferencing), part of LearningSpace from the Open University
  • Moodle & TPAS e-learning

Other issues

• Training for newbies – face 2 face & online – e.g. BBC raw: Introducing the internet and BBC Webwise Guides
• How to involve those without computers?
• Moderating online conversations – how will this work?
• Open to non-members?
• Promote security of TPAS eNetwork site (i.e. compared to other big social networks which would be more attractive to hackers and scams)

Thanks to the TPAS e-learning @mbassadors, who are the key member bloggers at TPAS eNetwork, for helping to facilitate the workshop and their great contributions to the lively discussions.

TPAS (Tenants Participation Advisory Service) have been successful with their 3 year Empowerment Fund application and in partnership with Make it Happen are now developing innovative and exciting e-learning training courses and a ‘Virtual Learning Environment’ (VLE). Make it Happen and TPAS are working together to develop a range of topical and relevant training courses for the first year pilot which will take place from Jan 2010. If you are a Tenant’s group and are interested in registering your interest for the courses taking place in Jan 2010 please contact TPAS at:

T: 0161 868 3520
E: training@tpas.org.uk

My friend, Kirsty McGill, recently blogged some enlightening thoughts about using the web and social networking tools to amplify public events:

Online amplification is basically any live, online activity which gives a digital dimension to the proceedings thus enabling remote participation and creating an online record of the event.  There are therefore two parallel aims – to generate conversation/interaction and to archive.

Any social networking tools could be used to amplify an event, although some are perhaps more suited to this purpose than others.  Twitter is fast becoming the mainstay, but it is by far the be all and end all.  Blogs, video streaming, live chat rooms, slide sharing and services such as Cover It Live all have a role to play and can effectively allow multiple entry points to the event so participants can engage through whichever single or combination of services best suit their needs.

But how do you co-ordinate all of this stuff? Should you try to co-ordinate it?  And how do you get your flesh participants involved without distracting them?

For some potential answers to these questions, read more here: Big Digital Feet