Rural development charity, ruralnet|uk, has won £14,500 in its recent bid to the Baring Foundation, to support an action research project on ICT for collaboration. The funding comes from the Foundation’s ‘Strengthening the Voluntary Sector’ programme, and will help to develop an understanding of how ICT helps organisations work together.
The project, due to start in the Autumn, will observe and analyse how organisations collaborate, using both ruralnet|uk's existing online services, and new developments. ruralnet|uk already supports over 20 networks - more than 2500 organisations, both rural and urban - using ICT, and has been developing online services since the 1990s.Says ruralnet|uk CEO Simon Berry,
"As a social enterprise, much of our delivery and development is linked specifically to contracts. We rarely have the time or the resources to step back and ask ourselves - or our clients - what really works best, and why, or how we might collectively do things better. We are interested as much in human and organisational issues as in ICT tools. This fund is a marvellous opportunity to help both us, and the wider sector understand key issues and share lessons learned."
The grant will fund 8 workshops, for both new and existing partners and clients interested in working with ruralnet|uk. These will explore a range of possible ICT applications - from group-working forums to online databases, blogs, and RSS feeds, and relate opportunities to participants' exisitng systems and future needs. ruralnet|uk has pledged £10,000 of its own reserves to the project, to support technical development needs that emerge. Participating organisations can then try these out in their daily work. Both the activity and support available to participants is expected to expand, with further funding currently pending confirmation.The award comes hot on the heels of ruralnet|uk's recent paper: Collaboration - can ICT help? published in Rural Focus, the newsletter for decision-makers in rural Britain, in June, and any organisation interested in the issues raised are welcome to make contact.
Contact: Simon Berry
Notes to editors
1. ruralnet|uk is a rural development charity and social enterprise. For more information see www.ruralnetuk.org/index.htm
2. ruralnet|uk is a rural development charity and social enterprise. For more information see www.ruralnetuk.org/index.htm. A pioneer in building online communities, ruralnet|uk shares its online services with over 20 different networks, both urban and rural, under the banner of Networks Online. Details of the Networks Online concept can be seen at www.networksonline.org.uk/extranets.htm
3. ruralnet|uk expects to share learning with the NCVO Collaborative Working Unit, and other relevant support networks. See www.ncvo-vol.org.uk/collaborate
4. The Rural Focus supplement, Collaboration - can ICT help? May/June 2005 can be sent by post - contact ruralnet|uk - or be downloaded from the rurlanet|uk website.
5. Full copies of Rural Focus with the above supplement on collaboration are available for purchase from Editor Johann Tasker, Ruralcity Media Ltd, National Rural Enterprsie Centre, Stoneleigh Park, CV8 2RR. Tel: 024 7685 3056 email: [email protected] web: www.ruralcity.co.uk
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