Audio talk about accessibility for website content administrators

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

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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New Potentials for ICT in Rural Areas - publication available

‘New Potentials for ICT in Rural Areas’ is a downloadable publication that shares fascinating case studies including those from Africa, Asia and Latin America. It provides insights into how Web 2.0 solutions offer people and communities in rural areas a platform for networking and knowledge exchange.

Read the full background article and download the publication from Christian Kreutz’s informative site at Crisscrossed.net.

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