One of the main barriers to embracing ICT to help groups' performance is a lack of funding. But there are clever ways of addressing this, and believe it or not, many free or affordable services available to community groups.
Some communities have used the internet to develop inclusive systems that pull local information together in a "one-stop shop". These web based services are often known as "community portals".
Some examples of these are
Shetland - http://www.shetlandcommunities.org/
Orkney - http://www.orkneycommunities.co.uk/
Both these sites are managed by the local council for voluntary organisations (CVS) and have the added facility of inviting groups to create their own website via the portal for a small annual fee. This brings income into the project and will allow it to continue once the set-up funding ends.
Caithness.org - http://www.caithness.org/ - is run by a private organisation but is very much a community enterprise and is sustained by inviting advertising from local businesses.
Future sustainability of services is an important consideration for community projects, especially when providing to the voluntary sector which is notoriously tight for cash. Plexus media http://www.plexusmedia.co.uk/ have developed systems such as spanglefish websites http://www.spanglefish.com/ and an image library (see www.thecromartyarchive.org) for an example of how this works), which use Google ads to generate income that will make these services sustainable.
Here is another source that offers free websites to community organisations
http://www.communitykit.co.uk/
Is your group interested in developing a site like the examples above? Is it already doing so? If so we would love to hear from you - please leave your comments!
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