IN THIS ISSUE:

• Few Council Websites Ready For Mobile Revolution
• Kenya Law Committee To Probe Election Technology Failures
• 'Health Hubs' To Use Digital Inclusion As Fitness And Wellness Tool
• New standard for GOV.UK drafted
• Technology4Good Awards open nominations
• Report finds digital skills gap for young people
• Special report: Evolving the networked neighbourhood - BeNeighbors.org one year on

NEWS: Few Council Websites Ready For Mobile Revolution.

Only 17% of UK local authorities are creating websites that can be viewed adequately on a mobile device, despite the fact that almost a third of people accessing online council information are now using such devices, according to the Society of IT Management (Socitm)...

Read full story here, Councils still not living up to mobile expectations...

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NEWS: Kenya Law Committee To Probe Election Technology Failures.

Major failures in two pieces of high-profile technology that were intended to make the recent Kenyan national elections run more smoothly are to be investigated by a special committee of the Law Society of Kenya (LSK)......

Read full story here, Kenyan elections hampered by tech problems...

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NEWS: 'Health Hubs' To Use Digital Inclusion As Fitness And Wellness Tool. A series of 'digital health hubs' are being set up across the UK to teach digital skills and train people to use the internet to improve their knowledge about health, nutrition, wellness and fitness issues... Read full story here, Digital health hubs... Back to index

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NEWS IN BRIEF:

Setting Standards: A new standard for UK government digital services has been drafted as part of the Government Digital Strategy. The ‘Digital by Default Service Standard’ sets out criteria that online government transactional services must meet before they are launched on the government portal GOV.UK. Examples include data privacy standards and making all source code is open source for reuse. Services will be required to meet the standard, after a final version has been agreed, by April 2014.

Quick link: Setting Standards

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Recognising Goodness: Nominations for the third Technology4Good Awards, which celebrate the power of IT to drive positive social change, are now open. Organised by technology charity AbilityNet, the event features eight categories, including awards for projects that help with digital inclusion, improving digital skills, community digital projects, and the IT Volunteer of the Year Award. Any individual, business or organisation can enter, with nominations closing on 3 May:

Quick link: Recognising Goodness

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Skills Gap: Some 17% of young people not in employment, education or training did not apply for jobs which require basic computer skills, and 10% could not send their CV online, according to this year’s Prince’s Trust Digital Literacy Survey. A further 17% believed that they would be in work if their computer skills were better:

Quick link: Skills Gap

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Report: Evolving the networked neighbourhood
BeNeighbors.org one year on

One year ago, E-Government Bulletin published a special report on BeNeighbors.org, an initiative from the pioneering non-profit E-Democracy.org to connect communities in two neighbouring US cities using online forums. The project had only been running for a few months when we talked to its leader Steven Clift in March 2012, but had already generated substantial interest. We spoke with Clift again and project coordinator Jennifer Armstrong to find out how the project is progressing... Read full story here, Connecting communities over time Back to index