22 September 2008
September President's reports highlights: President's reports appear monthly following Socitm Board meetings.
Highlights this month:
- Socitm Board report
- Proposals on the new Membership model
- Forthcoming meeting of the National Advisory Council
- Meeting to discuss improved engagement with private sector
- Future management of Socitm events
- Collaboration with central government on identity management and authentication
- Benchmarking the effective use of ICT
Plus
17 September 2008
Socitm settles with consultancy over copyright infringement: Socitm has reached an amicable settlement with a communications consultancy that infringed its copyright by quoting extensively from Better connected in a report commissioned by a leading local authority. The consultancy was not entitled to access the Better connected report because it was not a subscriber to Socitm Insight. In addition, no permission was sought to quote from it. The consultancy has agreed to take out a subscription to Socitm Insight and to pay Socitm's legal costs. Socitm decided to take action and make the issue public in order to deter others from attempting to benefit from intellectual property acquired illegally.
16 September 2008
1. Socitm is looking for a member to represent it at meetings of the ADASS (Directors of Adult Social Service) Information Management Group: Most meetings are in London and the next one is in November. ADASS IMG is keen to involve Socitm because of the changes Social Care is going through that nearly all rely on ICT, and they want to involve ICT colleagues in the process. If you are interested please respond to adrian.hancock@socitm.gov.uk with some information about your interest in and experience of ICT in social care.
2. Byte Night" is the IT Industry's annual sleep out in aid of NCH, the children's charity: This year sees the event celebrate its 10th anniversary and I'll be part of a team of 4 CIOs taking part on the night of Friday 3rd October. Your support this year will enable NCH to work with vulnerable young people facing homelessness (75,000 of them this year, 90% forced to leave home because of conflict with their parents). NCH helps them find, often for the first time in their lives, a safe place to call home. For every £300 we raise, NCH can remove a young person from the harmful situations they face on the streets, by providing secure supported lodgings for a month. You can sponsor me online by clicking on the link at the foot of this message, or through my Blog, which will include an account of my night under the stars, after the event. Please support my night sleeping rough for NCH - the Children's charity - on Byte Night. http://www.justgiving.com/siliconcomrades
3. Embrace Web 2.0 - read our new report and visit www.socitmweb2.net: All you ever wanted to know about Web 2.0 and were afraid to ask can be found in the latest report from Socitm Insight. The report - Web 2.0: what it is and why it matters - a briefing for public sector managers - describes the wide range of Web 2.0 practices and technologies and discusses their potential contribution to transforming services and enabling engagement with communities. The report is available for download from the associated microsite (www.socitmweb2.net). So, once briefed you can start walking the web 2 talk by generating your own content and feedback in the site's blogs and forums, and using and sharing the site's resources, and bookmarks.