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Friday Mar 31, 2006
200 year old text speak
ICWales reported yesterday that a Welsh poem uncovered in an American museum has demonstrated that text speak was in fashion way back in the 19th century. The poem is written by Hugh Pugh, a young school teacher who lived in
What's interesting is that Hugh substituted phrases with abbreviations, like "CU" instead of "see you". Sounds like he'd have fitted in perfectly if he was still alive and teaching today.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 3:59 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Lawson's TV delusion
Mark Lawson's latest piece in the Guardian is an overview of the way the internet and 24 hour news culture is destroying the dignity of television.
Yes, that's right, destroying the dignity of the revered institution that brought us such masterpieces as The Black and White Minstrel Show, The Comedians and Minipops.
He's view seems to be that when people sell Blue Peter badges online or are married as part of reality television shows it's a massive change in modern values.
I remember a mate selling his Blue Peter badge to someone who didn't want to pay to get into a museum on a school trip almost 20 years ago. Alas, this happened in real-life and therefore isn't responsible for the death of dignity in television - it only counts when someone can do a search on ebay for it.
But it's the idea that some new drive to televise a wedding, and now the recent divorce, is the sign of some terrible lack of dignity that really grates. Does Mark Lawson not remember one of the first 'fly on the wall' shows - The Family?
This show featured a family thrown onto the television and lead to a massive televised wedding that was also followed by a divorce.
So what exactly is Mark Lawson saying? The internet is wrong because it makes what people have always done possible on a bigger scale? Modern 24-hour news is destroy its dignity by doing exactly the same thing they've always done? The internet should be banned for allowing someone to sell something they own?
If there's one idea that seems to have grown up over the last ten years or so, it's that television is drowning under a mass of poor quality shows, dragging it down from its previous lofty heights. Truth is television is a baby, a brand new medium that has barely exsisted in the grand scale of things and looking to blame other, newier, mediums for its faults is both naive and lazy.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 2:59 PM ) Link to this post Comments[3]
Thursday Mar 30, 2006
Not government and not broken
Take a look at this BBC story about government sites with accessibility problems. The story itself is vaguely interesting (although not particularly surprising). What's more curious is the photo they've used to illustrate the article: the PM browsing a website which happens to be do-it.org.uk.
The picture is about five years old, taken when do-it.org.uk was first launched by Tony Blair at a nightclub in London's Leicester Square. Here's how the site used to look. Not sure why they chose this picture of the PM for this story. Maybe it's the only one they could find of him near a computer.
(Thanks Matt and Cath for the link)
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 4:04 PM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Commission On The Future Of Volunteering
It's been a good seven days if you like voluntary sector grand inquisitions.
Hot on the heels of Gordon Brown's Budget announcement that "HM Treasury will undertake a review into the future role and long-term priorities of the third sector in economic and social regeneration" comes the establishment of the Commission On The Future Of Volunteering.
The Commission has been set up by the England Volunteering Development Council "to develop a long term vision for volunteering in England as a legacy of the Year of the Volunteer 2005".
Whether or not you think this work is necessary, surely the point of such a body is to start with an open mind. So why is the Chair, Julia Neuberger, already making statements like: "I do not believe that volunteering should be a way of offering public services on the cheap."?
It's an assertion that is repeated in the organisation's first press release, headed: "Volunteers aren't a way of delivering services on the cheap, says new Commission."
Of course, it sounds like something that no one could disagree with. But it can be phrased another way: Should volunteers help to extend the reach of public services?
It's a difficult and complicated debate. And surely not one to be pre-judged by a Commission with 15 months to go before its final report.
Posted by Tom Green ( 11:00 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Wednesday Mar 29, 2006
Sharon Stone, Sex Advisor
Sharon Stone, plugging her new movie Basic Instinct 2, has this piece of advice for young people:
"Young people talk to me about what to do if they're being pressed for sex? I tell them (what I believe): oral sex is a hundred times safer than vaginal or anal sex. "If you're in a situation where you cannot get out of sex, offer a blow job. I'm not embarrassed to tell them."
Meanwhile, rape convictions are at an all time low.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 1:45 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]Busybody bullies and fumbling morons
There's some, er, plain speaking from Stefanie Marsh in The Times (scroll down), responding to an article by Alison Wolf about "the decline of female altruism."
Rosie has been a volunteer herself, but doesn't think much of it.
There are a few saints working on the community projects where I live but there are also a lot of busybody bullies and fumbling morons. Log on to www.do-it.org.uk, Britain's volunteering resource centre [run by YouthNet], and you will find all sorts of vacancies aimed at the bored or underqualified who, like the generations of women Wolf praises for their selflessness, would like to do something else.
Crikey. Having a bad day, Stefanie?
Posted by Tom Green ( 12:03 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Tuesday Mar 28, 2006
20% cut in emissions no longer possible
The Guardian reports that today Margaret Beckett, the environment secretary, will admit that the Government's pledge to cut CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010 is no longer achievable.
Volunteering magazine online
Why should an organisation produce a printed magazine when they can put the same information online and save paper and the costs of print and postage?
That, presumably, was the logic behind Volunteering England's (VE) decision to put Volunteering magazine onto their website rather than publishing it conventionally. But their decision has shown some of the pitfalls of favouring new technology over old.
The biggest problem is the difficulty of translating a print magazine into an online one. VE offer a fantastic amount of material in the online Volunteering but it is presented as a list of articles rather than a navigable website, which makes for a lot of scrolling. And articles are of a length that, while easy enough to read on paper, tend to make your eyes glaze over when reading on screen. Will people bother to print articles out? One reader, at least, has posted on the VE site to say that he will not.
Because the magazine is for members only, there is a problem if you want to share an item with someone who isn't a member. Of course, it makes it far easier to share with someone who does suscribe, and you couldn't email someone a printed magazine, but search engines, forums (like UKVPMs) and users tend to like access online to be open.
Online magazines lose the many qualities that print enjoys. Magazines like The Economist and Wired continue to thrive in the digital age not just because ink and paper is easier to read, but because it is portable and easy to share.
A printed magazine also feels special. Whether it arrives on your desk or through your letterbox, it has a physical presence and status. It demands to be read in a way that an email link does not.
Posted by Tom Green ( 9:00 AM ) Link to this post
Monday Mar 27, 2006
Spyware for all
The Register is reporting today on a new cheap way for everyone to get involved in their own spyware scam. It seems that a Russian website is selling a piece of software, known as WebAttacker, for just $15.
According to the register -
The kits come in a script kiddie friendly form with code designed to make the task of infecting computers a breeze. All the buyers need do is send spam messages inviting potential marks to visit a compromised website.
Once you get them there you can then run code to try and install password stealing code and other virus nasties.
The more we talk about how the internet is used by everyone, how every home will have a computer, how we will all use internet banking; the more stories like this really worry me. We all remember those scams that still continue, where some con-artist convinces some poor bastard to give up their life savings by pretending to be the gas man, but this is going to be worse.
Unless something is serious done to prevent spam, which doesn't look likely, then the only option might be to educate people to never click on anything in an email. After all, right now, anyone can become a spyware spammer for less than a tenner, so it's hard to imagine this problem is going to get smaller.
It's all pretty depressing, after all brilliant services like our e-cards, use emails with links inside. If this situation gets worse and the spam gets more intelligent, then sending fun virals round could quickly become a thing of the past. And that will mean people like the creators of WebAttacker will have won, and we'll all have lost.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 4:29 PM ) Link to this postIt's not just about the money. Is it?
I've spent most of today hearing from the digital media elite try to grapple with the ways that they (and most of the participants here) can cash in on the emerging technologies. What models work best for user generated content? What about the "m" factor (that's mobile, in case you're wondering) Ad sales? Subscriptions? Data capturing/research? They are searching for some Perfect Solution and route to profit. Monetising, monetising, monetising...
So it was refreshing to sit in a small session on digital rights management where DRM academic Ian Brown basically said that DRM doesn't and won't work. If the rights owners had spent all the time and energy over the years thinking about solutions which work with people, rather than suing kids and bullying politicians, we'd be in a much better place. Refreshing stuff.
OK, so it's easy for me to say, working for a not-for-profit. But we still have financial challenges; we still have to prove our success to funders. We just put the site users' needs first.
And now I'm in a session where a marketeer just used the word buzzability. God. Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 2:22 PM ) Link to this post
Mobile Phone Mountain
Last Sunday The Observer reported that, according to an exhibition at The Science Museum, an incredible 1,700 mobile phones are discarded in
Guardian Changing Media Summit
A couple of us are down at the Guardian one day event at Victoria, covering all the latest buzzwords around the internet: user generated content; social (or citizen) media; device convergence, DRM etc. I'll try and post a few times today - now that I've got my wifi sorted (for an event which is all about opening up the media, it's been hard to get online).
Martin Stiksle who founded last-fm is currently speaking, doing a show and tell, but here are a few points from the day so far:1. Chris Dobson from MSN reckons Microsoft is moving from being a tech company to a media/advertising company. MSN will be at the centre of the "Microsoft universe". He pointed to all the usual yardsticks that prove that old-media is old-hat: increase in TiVo/Sky+ (and the skipping of adverts); Print media profits down; User generated content getting massive (25m users of MSN Spaces) etc. Usual sort of stuff and nothing overly enlightening but aimed to scare the pants of the media owners and brand people here.
2. Chris claimed that the new consumers are: sceptical; connected; time pressed; ahead of curve; intelligent and have no loyalty to brands. Carolyn McCall of the Guardian questioned the last point and suggested that people trust certain brands and will follow them. I agree and this is crucial to the success or otherwise of TheSite.org.
3. Fru Hazlitt from Virgin Radio may be bonkers but she says some sensible things. Such as "we're all too old" (watch the kids for where we're going; they don't have the history of attachment to other devices) and "most people are boring" (on why social media isn't going to kill 'proper' media).
4. Ben Hammersley has a mantra which has ruffled feathers: "don't make crap products". He reckons that a simple way to get round this changing media and advertising universe is to ensure your product is good to start with. Simple, yet pretty complelling.
5. John Snow loves this new world but sees a real clash between this desire for user generated content and libel laws. It's a challenge which will grow for all of us,
6. So it's odd to hear the Guardian doesn't have community managers. Even now, with it's new Comment is Free site.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 11:23 AM ) Link to this post Comments[3]
Thursday Mar 23, 2006
The Budget 2006
Yesterday's Budget Report provided a good deal for the voluntary sector to digest. NCVO has a summary of the main points, including, from Chapter 5, Building A Fairer Society (pdf) item 5.64, announcing that
HM Treasury will undertake a review into the future role of the third sector in social and economic regeneration. The review, overseen by a crossdepartmental ministerial group, will take a cross-cutting approach to the long-term priorities for the sector, in the context of the future challenges that our society now faces. Campbell Robb, Director of Public Policy at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations, will play a leading advisory role in the review. In its first phase, the review will be informed by the largest consultation ever undertaken with the third sector, seeking views from a wide range of organisations. It will be launched at a conference in May and then taken to every region by the ministerial group.Adding to the Treasury's influence in the sector will be a new Office of Charity and Third Sector Finance within the department, "linking the work of HM Treasury across the range of third sector issues to provide strategic coordinated engagement."
A third sector advisory panel will be established to advise the Office on third sector issues. The advisory panel will include young volunteers, representatives of third sector umbrella bodies and members of different faith communities and will report to the Chancellor.
Also, announced in the Budget was news that over £10 million has been raised from corporate supporters to help finance the post-Russell Commission plans for youth volunteering and that the priority areas would include sport, the arts, media and the environment.
Posted by Tom Green ( 11:34 AM ) Link to this post
Wednesday Mar 22, 2006
French students protest new employment legislation
A perspective from Naima Bouteldja, a French journalist, on the recent protests among students in France, objecting to new legislation implemented by the "faltering" government of Dominique de Villepin to permit "employers to fire under-26s immediately and without reason during the first two years of their employment". Trade union leaders have called for a national strike next Tuesday.
Starting peacefully but with tension, students across the country succeeding in closing 16 universities and disrupting classes at 35 more, last Saturday saw 1.5 million people - mostly students - take to the streets in protest. By nightfall, there was rioting between the police and several hundred protestors in Paris, reminiscent to many of the violence across mostly poor suburbs of France last November.
Quoting sociologist Francois Dubet, Bouteldja considers that:
Middle-class students live in increasing fear that they may end up on the wrong side of the line at any moment. In this sense, "the anti-CPE ["contrat de première embauche", or, first employment contract] movement is for the middle classes what last November's riots were to the suburban poor", who were already on the other side of this boundary and could no longer tolerate it.
See what TheSite bulletin board users have had to say about it. As one person writes, "Why are French students so much more ready to rise in protest than British ones?"
Posted by Kirsten Olson ( 5:44 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]Employer supported volunteering survey
An online survey is being conducted into employer supported volunteering (ESV) on behalf of the Volunteering Hub.
They're keen to hear from all sectors, including businesses that don't currently have an ESV programme. The survey should take just 15 minutes to complete.
Posted by Tom Green ( 11:45 AM ) Link to this postVolunteering bloggers wanted
YouthNet's volunteering website - do-it.org.uk is about to set up a series of exciting blogs looking at the world of volunteering,
We're looking for anyone who feels that they have something to say about either being a volunteer overseas, or who is working as a volunteer for a campaigning organisation.
Bloggers will be provided with full support and training to use our blogging tool, but the main thing you'll need is the enthusiasm to discuss what volunteering means to you right now and your personal experiences of the volunteering world.
For more details head over to our bloggers wanted article on do-it.org.uk.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 11:18 AM ) Link to this post
Tuesday Mar 21, 2006
We Are What We Do
I've just got back from an Employee Supported Volunteering conference organised by Volunteering England. As always, there was a good mix of companies, voluntary sector organisations and brokers that work between the two, but one organisation in particular caught my eye.
"We Are What We Do" is just over one year old now, and Director Eugenie Harvey gave a quick talk on what they're all about. Launched on the back of a book called "Change the world for a fiver", their website allows you to commit to small, everyday actions that will help change the world. For example, Action No.1 is to decline plastic bags wherever possible.
I think as well as being a great idea, it's also a brilliant way of capturing the huge amount of goodwill that's out there and converting it into action. They're just about to launch "Change the world 9 to 5", a similar concept that lists ways that businesses can make a difference through everyday changes to the way they operate.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 5:36 PM ) Link to this post
Monday Mar 20, 2006
MP3 downloads of YouthNet 'Question Time'
As promised on Friday, here's your opportunity to download and listen to the speeches and discussions from our 10th Birthday event.
Download Martyn Lewis' opening remarks (8min 40sec, 9mb)
Download the Panel Discussion (53min 04sec, 49mb)
Or download the smaller version of the Panel Discussion (53min 04sec, 12mb - bear in mind this version is of lower quality)
Download Martyn's closing comments, and a short speech by Chief Exec, Fiona Dawe (6min 12sec, 6mb) Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 12:30 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Remote accessibility testing
A new organisation, Usability Exchange, is offering remote accessibility testing for websites, reports BBC News.
For a fee (paid via PayPal) organisations can submit website tasks through a series of online forms that will be undertaken by disabled user-testers. A report will then be returned detailing how easy or difficult the task was to complete.
It's an interesting idea, especially since, according to a Disability Rights Commission (DRC) report, "as many as 45% of the problems experienced by the [disabled] user group were not a violation of any [WAI] Checkpoint, and would not have been detected without user testing."
The DRC have themselves produced a new report into this problem. The, not very catchily titled, 'Publicly Available Specification (PAS) 78' has been developed by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) in collaboration with BSI to outline good practice in commissioning websites that are accessible to and usable by disabled people.
Of course, while big agencies sometimes make user-testing seem very complicated and expensive, it can be done quite effectively with a handful of people being asked simple questions. Usability expert Steve Krug has lots of good advice about doing usability (and, therefore accessibility) testing yourself.
Posted by Tom Green ( 11:36 AM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Friday Mar 17, 2006
YouthNet is 10!
YouthNet is 10 years old. As way of celebration, we had an event last night in the London Stock Exchange to thank those who already work with us and woo those who could - and should - work with us.
As an organisation, we've come a long way. I joined about seven years ago and at the time there were six employees and the charity was based in a back room in the Disney offices in West Kensington. Our office was known as 'Mickey Mouse's dressing room': every now and again, someone would walk in, don a Mickey suit and walk back out, presumably to entertain visiting children. At least I hope that's what he was doing.
Now YouthNet numbers 35 fulltime staff, plus over 50 volunteers and hundreds of partners across the voluntary, public and commercial sector. Lots more people and bigger budgets, but the consistent thing has been a real commitment to doing great and useful stuff through the use of technology.
Last night's event was an opportunity to show off some of the work we do. The best way we can do this is have the people we help, speak about their experiences. We brought together a panel of users of TheSite.org and volunteers who work on the askTheSite service to talk openly about their lives and the impact YouthNet has had on them.
Below are a few photos from the event. On Monday we should have the MP3 audio files of the panel discussion available for download.
If you were at the event, it would be great if you left a comment here saying what you thought of it.
Thursday Mar 16, 2006
Drugs testing
I'm sure no one can have missed the current news story about the terrible results of drug tests on six volunteers. It's interesting to see what the reactions have been like from some of the users of TheSite.org's discussion boards.
The thread on drug trials is particularly illuminating, not because it's about the events around the Northwick Park hospital trials, but because it's about people who want the chance to take part in trials for money, regardless of recent events. For example:
There is a company on our campus that does it. I was actually thinking of doing it at one point too, but I decided against it.
and
There is a company in Manchester that always used to advertise round campus
Although this recent study wasn't focused on student trials, much of the discussion here focuses on this element. Now maybe I'm alone in this, but the idea that debt-ridden students are being targeted by drug testing companies doesn't exactly paint a pretty picture of the state of the UK, especially when people in drug trials are lying severely ill in hospital.
In addition, you can't wonder how long it will be before this story is taken up by the pro-animal testing lobby, if any hint comes out that the animal trials of the drugs were restricted in anyway, it's going to be a huge blow for anti-animal testing groups.
Obviously testing is an important part of creating new drugs, but given the way the NHS seems to be going it feels more and more like the poor being asked to trial dangerous drugs, that the rich then benefit from.
Posted by Jim Valentine ( 2:35 PM ) Link to this post Comments[2]Returns on charity investment
Gavyn Davies, former Chief Economist with Goldman Sachs, thinks that there is a lack of hard-headedness about the returns on charitable investment (what non-economists would call donations).
Five years ago he, along with some like-minded friends, founded a charity, New Philanthropy Capital (NPC), to help address the problem and highlight how money can best be spent.
For example, he says, for every £1,000 they get from the Government, the Swansea branch of Age Concern can help the poorest pensioners in the area claim £25,000 of extra benefits - a spectacular return of 2,500% on investment. Yet, with the Government spending only £13.5m on encouraging pensioner's benefit uptake, more than one third of benefits remain unclaimed. Spending more could have a dramatic effect on pensioner poverty.
Measuring the effectiveness of charities is not always straightforward. But, as a survey in The Economist (available without subscription from NPC) points out, major donors, led by the likes of Bill Gates, are increasingly demanding to know in detail what impact their money has.
Many of the new philanthropists are well aware that traditional philanthropy is not sufficiently businesslike. They want to bring about a productivity revolution in the industry by applying the best elements of the for-profit business world they know. That has prompted the industry to adopt (and adapt) some of the jargon familiar from the world of business. Philanthropists now talk about "social investing", "venture philanthropy", "social entrepreneurship" and the "triple bottom line". The new approach to philanthropy is "strategic", "market-conscious", "knowledge-based" and often "high-engagement", and always involves maximising the "leverage" of the donor's money.Posted by Tom Green ( 10:18 AM ) Link to this post Comments[1]
Wednesday Mar 15, 2006
World Water Day 2006
Today is World Water Day 2006.
It's very well timed - tomorrow, Mexico City will host a gathering of interested parties, including major water companies, NGOs, environmental groups, international banks and academics, to discuss the world's water problems.
As John Vidal points out in the Guardian, it certainly won't be a cheery discussion:
There is now no chance that the millennium development goal of halving the proportion of people without access to clean water by 2015 will be met. At this rate of progress, says the World Water Council, "access to clean water cannot be guaranteed until beyond 2050 in Africa, 2025 in Asia and 2040 in Latin America and the Caribbean".
Whilst there are clearly an awful lot of political and social issues that cloud the provision of this basic human necessity, some of the stats are shocking:
One sixth of the world's population still do not have access to clean, safe water.
Over two million people die from diseases related to unsafe water, inadequate sanitation and poor hygiene every year.
If you think this is unacceptable, WaterAid have organised lots of ways for you to do something about.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 11:29 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Tuesday Mar 14, 2006
Volunteering information on Government sites
Good news from the Home Office last week:
A new Home Office programme to break down barriers to volunteering received a £3 million boost today. Volunteering For All will be a two-year strategy led by the Home Office and reaching across Government to identify and remove barriers to volunteering and to promote these opportunities to potential volunteers.One area that they might like to look at is the Government's own websites. A couple of years ago we tried to get those with remits relevant to volunteering to include a listing of do-it.org.uk but met mostly with frustration. Finding the right person to speak to was incredibly difficult – all power over website content seemed to be outsourced to someone unobtainable.
In some respects things have now improved. The Directgov site ("Public services all in one place") has some good information (although no mention of do-it) and a search on the Home Office site also provides plenty of advice about how to volunteer.
Other Government sites, however, leave something to be desired.
The NHS is one of the biggest involvers of volunteers in the country with an estimated 36,000 people directly involved, as well as tens of thousands more with health-related charities. But a keyword search on the Department of Health site offers lots of reports but no information for potential volunteers. The NHS site is little better, offering information solely, so far as I could find, about volunteering by NHS staff.
Similarly, despite the importance of prison visitors and other volunteers, I couldn't find any information about how to volunteer on the Prisons Service website.
The Courts Service gives a link to Department of Constitutional Affairs. But while they provide a volunteering strategy there is no actual information that I could find about how to volunteer in law centres, for Citizens' Advice Bureaux or with the Witness Service.
Of course, these are big websites and I might have missed something. But if I did, so will other people.
Other poor performers include the Department for Work and Pensions, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (aiming "to create prosperous, inclusive and sustainable communities"), all of which provide studies and reports but no apparent practical information for would-be volunteers.
Thins improve with The Department for Education and Skills, which, despite a very bad keyword search, does have information if you dig for it. And, finally, The Department for Culture Media and Sport is good for sports, but the Arts Council, which it funds, seems to have nothing at all.
Posted by Tom Green ( 10:30 AM ) Link to this post Comments[5]
Monday Mar 13, 2006
God and government
It pays to have God on your side if you're doing charitable work in the USA.
Since George Bush entered office, he's steadily increased the percentage of federal aid given to religious-based charities. It's a real shift for a country that has always made a point of separating church from state. But as the Guardian reports, Bush doesn't see a problem with this:
"It used to be that groups were prohibited from receiving any federal funding whatsoever because they had a cross or a star or a crescent on the wall," Mr Bush told religious leaders at the annual White House conference on faith-based initiatives on Thursday, adding: "and that's changed for the better."
This thorny issue of faith and its role in government is presenting itself in a different location in the UK - in the classroom. Should faith-based schools be funded by the state? Should we even allow faith-based schools? The arguments often spiral into the micro-detail - such as whether or not creationism and intelligent design should be taught alongside evolution.
Rod Liddle waded in on this argument in a recent Channel 4 Dispatches. His programme was subtle as a sledgehammer and took a swipe at the admittedly weird new Academies which push Christianity in new and strange ways. It's hard to disagree with him on much of this, but these fundamentalist Christians are easy targets. As Nick Cohen might have pointed out, why didn't Liddle have a go at the (state funded) Muslim schools too?
Ignoring the role of religion in the lives of many British people is naive. Although the number of practicing Christians may be dropping, the populations of some other religions are growing. This diversity obviously presents challenges but faith schools hardly seem like the answer. Why not teach all kids about all religions? There's a simple reason why this doesn't happen: fundamentalists from all religions don't encourage diversity or open thought - it's our way or the highway (to hell).
Perhaps it's up to the government to ensure it happens.
Posted by Dom Waghorn ( 12:46 PM ) Link to this post Comments[1]NGO's and Trade Unions left out of "CSR Alliance"
The European Commission have just announced that they will launch a "European Alliance for CSR" on March 22nd, in the company of Chief Execs from major companies in Europe. Great news, but for the fact that the Alliance will be completely non-regulatory and will exclude Trade Unions and NGO's.
The Alliance will be a loose "political umbrella for new and existing CSR initiatives by large companies (and) small and medium-sized enterprises" BUT there will be no obligation that businesses show the results of any initiatives they undertake.
I can't help thinking this is all pretty disappointing. I know I might be hopelessly naive in thinking that CSR commitments could and should be enforced and regulated, but surely there's a middle ground we can aim for.
Instead, it looks like we've got another Chief Exec's club, where they can pat themselves on the back for being so accountable and socially responsible, knowing that it doesn't really matter if they don't hit the targets that they have set themselves..
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 9:37 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]
Friday Mar 10, 2006
FTSE 4 Good gets tough
The FTSE 4 Good index of socially responsible businesses has just removed 19 businesses for failing to meet their criteria for inclusion. Inclusion on the list is based on companies meeting different criteria relating to transparent reporting procedures, environmental impact and human rights standards, amongst other areas.
Although the list has been criticised for including some companies like BP, I think it's a good benchmark for companies to aim for, mainly because it has encouraged people to think about ethical investment of their money. When more companies make the link between being socially responsible and still making money then I think we'll be heading in the right direction.
Posted by Sam Thomas ( 11:11 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Who volunteers?
The latest Volunteer Development Agency (VDA) statistics from Volunteering England, sent with their members' mailing, show that they are doing more business than ever before.
The average number of enquiries per VDA was 1559 for 2004/5, up from 1153 in 2003, and from 521 in 2000. It's almost impossible to know how many of these people actually go on to volunteer but an increase of around 40% in the number of people wanting to volunteer is pretty impressive.
It's a big challenge for the VDAs, of course. All those extra enquiries (many coming through YouthNet's volunteering site do-it.org.uk) have to be dealt with, and they rarely get extra funding to match their success.
The new statistics show that more enquiries are coming from younger people – 60% were aged 18-24 in 2004/5, compared with 51% in 2003. For the first time the 18-24s are the biggest single group (jointly with the 24-34s). That also matches the experience with do-it. As does the increase in applications from people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. Online recruitment seems to be reaching people who might not have found it easy to get information in the past.
One final statistic stands out. VDAs in 2004/5 received 65% of their enquiries from women (up from 61% the previous year). On do-it the gender imbalance is even more pronounced – almost 80% of our registered users are female.
Most national studies show that volunteering is split equally between the sexes, so why should we have this huge difference? (I have a hunch that men lie about their volunteering in surveys in order to make themselves seem nice people. But there are probably better explanations).
Posted by Tom Green ( 10:13 AM ) Link to this post Comments[0]Sex toys, housing help and autism
Other stuff we've found interesting this week:
Youth Health Talk: new health site for young people
Brown to cut condom tax
Sex toys being sold in vending machines
Shelter runs interesting campaign with estate agent
Stereotyping of young people: Irish report (pdf)
Keep your staff happy - let them volunteer (via Phatgnat)
Autism community forges virtual haven
Channel 4's Iran podcasts (via journalism.co.uk)
Thursday Mar 09, 2006
McDonald's MSN evil
Everyone's favourite evil guy, McDonalds, is under attack again - this time for offering a theme pack to children on MSN. I'd link to an article about it on New Media Age, but it costs £99 a year to read it, and it ain't that well written.
So to summarise, McDonalds is being criticised by MPs and consumer watchdog Which? for providing a theme pack, which customises the appearance of MSN messenger, in order to advertise their products to children. This is a bit of a political hot potato (or should that be chip?) as it comes just as Ofcom are about to announce guidelines that are expected to restrict adverts for fast food during children's programmes.
Mary Creagh, Labour MP for Wakefield said, "This is the sort of irresponsible targeting of children by junk food companies that currently slips under the radar"
Though given that advertising toys to children is seen as immoral for the problems it causes poorer parents, fast food adverts apparently cause obesity (as opposed to not exercising), and video games will make you murder people, you have to wonder what adverts will be allowed for children.
I can just see the future now...
'You remember those great adverts from when you were a kid?'
'Yeah, that one for tax returns was brilliant!'
'I know, and what about that one for Accident Direct, genius!'
