Reviewing the ICT Review Form

JAN11

Agenda for a ½ Day Session:

Time Activity
10.00 – 10.15 COFFEE
10.15 – 10.50 Defining & agreeing what the document will be
(beware of design by committee!)
10.50 – 11.30 Identify New Section & Create the Sections (working
in groups)
11.30 – 11.45 COFFEE
11.45 – 13.15 Evaluate each sections then amalgamate into
document.
13.15 Congratulate ourselves and close

Key Themes for Change:

1. Shared document between C2.0 Staff & Clients
2. Recommendations and a clear progression path need to be included
3. Reflect the fact that CR focus is Mission based, Enquiry based and capacity aware
4. Use of open questions to generate creative strategic thinking, such as ‘Magic Wand’ idea
5. Shine light on opportunities around social media and online communications strategy to
increase awareness, members, donors and funding
6. Solutions should highlight available training opportunities within C2.0 sphere and beyond
7. Potential to adapt document into ICT Handbook for the organisation

Some Starters for 10:

 Your Mission / Aims  Timescales & working patterns
 Role of ICT in you org  Responsibilities (who makes decision
 General & Specific (ICT) issues & who implements)
 What currently works well, what  Legal Issues (H&S, DP & Risk
doesn’t Assessment)
 Magic Wand  Training needs
ICT Review Form Comments:
John Paul:
I'm thinking something along the lines of a 3
column working document  with questions ...
answers ..and possible solutions maybe also
additional private notes identifying blockages
to progress within the organisation. The
outcome would be that we gather relevant
information to inform ourselves, we then
show a clear path towards progression which
is also on the same document with dates for
follow up or resolution.
 
maybe also bring marketing in to look at how
organisations sell themselves as in my
experience ..they all want a
website/Facebook/twitter/MySpace ad
nauseum ...but have no idea about marketing,
akin to the idea of walking 50 miles to the
market and forgetting to bring the stuff to
sell!  of identifying solutions and unmet needs.
As a field officer meeting an organisation for
possibly the first time I find that most groups
don't actually know the answers ...they might
not know who supplies their broadband ...
they might not know what social media is or
video conferencing ... if you've got msn then
you’ve got video conferencing.  So I think the
questions need to be re-approached and
toned down a key or two.  A document that
will help to inform as well as gather
information that is relevant to us as field
officers.
I'd be more than happy to spend an afternoon
looking at redeveloping the form ..maybe use
some of the techniques that the professor
chap talked about yesterday.  first contact, and if the form is going to move
Chris Allman:
I think the form needs changing to reflect a
more process/communication orientated
approach rather than an emphasis on
hardware. I think the future of Circuit Riding is
going to be more analogous to helping a
cyclist (see what I did there!) plan their route
than teaching them how to index their gears.
We need some open questions like the
‘Miracle question’ (how would it be if you
could ‘miraculously ‘ achieve whatever you
wanted with ICT – what would be different
about your organisation and its
communications and functioning?) to
encourage creative strategic thinking and free
up individuals from fixating on wiring together
boxes with all the attendant techno fears, and
to raise aspirations to take full advantage of
Web 2.0 and beyond. Its only when we know
where they want to get to that we need to
inventories what they have available as part
Another point is that since we do not need to
collect this data for project target purposes
any form design should reflect the need to
use forms (if at all) as creative interview tools
to facilitate the process of strategic review
and facilitate the identification of achievable
goals and priorities.
Karlis:
I agree will all comments made so far!
Perhaps it may be worth using the form to
also capture information about any specific
training an organisation may be interested in
as well - particularly if the form will be used at
away from being an equipment check list.
1) would you organisation/staff benefit from
free training in:
a. Social Media & Web 2.0 (I think
we should push this one)
 b. Digital security for your
organisation
c. Etc etc
Or something along those lines?
This would provide us with a solid progression
route to directly support that organisation
and get them up over 7 hours.
May be stabbing in the dark here – any
thoughts?
Matt:
Hi All,
I agree, I think the form would be best used
for mutual benefit to us to capture
information and also to leave the client with a
useful document to start what could be seen
as an ICT handbook of sorts. I’ve attached one
I picked up, way too complicated but some
useful things. Some of this information would
help them control their ICT a little more and
take more ownership with this information
being added to over time thus freeing them
up to, like Chris says, take advantage of the
technology and not be tied down by it.
We need to be clear on what we are using the
document for and what we want to use the
information to do. Filling this document out
away from the client doesn’t make sense if we
want their involvement and for them to buy
into taking control of their own ICT. The
document would benefit from explaining
certain things like why it’s good to have an ICT
budget, only a couple of lines but this again
will encourage a good practice mindset.
I agree discussing this would be a good idea as
there seems to be a good consensus on where
we are going with it and what can be achieved
through an effective review.
Regards and happy new year all,