NetSquared, an initiative of TechSoup.org - SYFAB

September update

simonfairway — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 11:28:52 -0400

Just a very quick post this time to draw your attention to the latest Digital Makeover video in which Danny from SYFAB provides an update on SYFAB's progress over the last month or so.

In praise of.... Wordpress!

simonfairway — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:58:29 -0400

As reported in a previous post, as a first step in working towards a more immediate and interactive online funding service, Danny from SYFAB set up the Funding News Wordpress blog. By providing news, comment and background information that is tagged, categorised and searchable, Danny hopes to create a much more useful resource than the old system of adding funding news to the home page. The new blog also gives service users an opportunity to comment and feedback on the content.

Spreading the word! Without wasting your time....

simonfairway — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:35:07 -0400

There are plenty of advisory organisations like South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau, SYFAB, whose remit is to keep their service users abreast of the latest issues in a particular area. For SYFAB it is news about funding in South Yorkshire, but for other organisations it could be information about equalities in London, or service provision in rural areas. Creating regular digests on these "niche" topics can be an incredibly time-consuming job involving the regular scanning of various news sources to generate content, collate it, prioritise it, and re-purpose it in the appropriate form for the reader.

The power of the brainstorm

simonfairway — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 09:55:31 -0400

A slightly different post and video this time, reporting back on a fascinating meeting last week to brainstorm some ideas improve SYFAB's funding service using web based tools. It is amazing what you can come up with in a couple of hours when you get a few heads together.

Digital Makeover: Looking at the first steps

amysampleward — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:54:39 -0400

You may have heard of the Digital Makeover from Simon Fairway already. It focuses on the South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau and hopes to examine and improve the use of technology and online collaboration/web 2.0 tools by the organization in a public way so we can all learn together.

Google Analytics

simonfairway — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 14:45:08 -0400

As mentioned in an earlier post, one of the early initiatives that SYFAB adopted as part of the Digital Makeover project was to set up their website with the Google Analytics.

In the most recent video, Danny Anthrobus describes the process of setting up Analytics on their website, and picks out some of the key insights that SYFAB have gained as a result. A selection of these:

Some good Web 2.0 examples

simonfairway — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:07:12 -0400

Whilst SYFAB's digital makeover is moving forward, I thought I would take the opportunity to have a look at some of the clever ways other nonprofit organisations have found to use new technology to refine the way that they are working.

Are you making the most of the Internet?

simonfairway — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 14:50:13 -0400

Whilst South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau continue with their Digital Makeover, I though I would draw your attention to some research from nfpSynergy about charities use of the Internet. In their annual "Virtual Promise" research for 2007, I was interested to see that:

Digital Makeover starts in earnest

simonfairway — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 12:53:54 -0400

I am happy to say that things are really starting to progress with the project. The last entry took a look at how South Yorkshire Funding Advice Bureau (SYFAB) provide funding information to their service users and how this could be improved by taking some of this information online. SYFAB are also keen to look at how they can encourage service users to provide some of their own insights to create a more "rounded" information service.

How do you create a cutting edge information service?

simonfairway — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:32:28 -0400

Those of you that have seen my first post for the Digital Makeover project will now be familiar with South Yorkshire Funding and Advice Bureau (SYFAB). This latest post and video (at the bottom of the post) take a closer look at how SYFAB provide funding information to the voluntary and community groups that they serve. Information comes from a variety of different sources, and the system has evolved over the last few years as information requirements and the funding landscape have changed. SYFAB are keen to streamline their system and incorporate valuable feedback from their service-users into their service. Is there a web-based solution here?