Final Digital Mentor specification issued

The next stage of the digital mentors process is now underway, with the specification for the tender now sent out to the 5 consortia bidding for the fund.

You can download a PDF of the document here.

We hope that all Voiceboxers will take a good look at the document and see how they could contribute, both in terms of ideas and also where they could take a lead in developing that part of the bid and being an integral part of the consortium delivering it.

Please do leave your comments in this post - or write a blog post of your own. If you haven’t got an account to do this, all you need to do is email admin@voice-box.org.uk to get one.

Voicebox shortlisted for the digital mentor tender!

We are delighted to announce that the open, collaborative Voicebox bid has been shortlisted, and therefore will be invited to tender for the digital mentor fund from CLG.

We are very pleased with this outcome and can now really start planning our bid - which we can only do in co-operation with the organisations who have put themselves forward as potential partners in Voicebox.

To help others get up to speed with the many online discussions that have been had over the last month or so, Anne Faulkner has produced a summary here on Voicebox.

An important part of this is the drafting of a potential model for how the digital mentor project might be co-ordinated. Please do read the post in full and leave any feedback you might have in the comments.

Digital mentors and a social media consultants

In this video, shared by Stuart Parker of We Share Stuff, Michael Grimes of The Citizenship Foundation and Jon Hickman of Birmingham City University discuss the difference in the role of digital mentor and social media consultant:

Digital Mentor vs Social Media Consultant from We Share Stuff on Vimeo.

Birmingham Social Media Surgeries

One great way that training is already being provided in Birmingham - free of charge by volunteer experts - is through the Social Media Surgeries.

This video from Stuart Parker of We Share Stuff shows the surgery in action on Wednesday 26 November 2008:

Free Social Media Surgery, Birmingham from We Share Stuff on Vimeo.

Introducing the big picture!

We thought there was a gap on this blog: we needed somewhere for people to post some of their thoughts which were a bit more general and less work package specific. Musings on the digital mentor project as a whole, or maybe hints and tips for the Voice box bid to consider as we move forward through this process.

So here it is! Remember, Voice box is a blog to which anyone can contribute. Just get in touch with us using admin@voice-box.org.uk and we wil arrange for you to be able to post your thoughts to this site.

Introducing Training and Development

This is the training of the people who are the digital mentors (and not the training of people in the communities).  Training may be online and face-to-face, and we want to develop toolkits to support digital mentors building on work that has already taken place. We will aim to disseminate all materials developed to a wider audience beyond the demonstrators themselves.

Welcome to Voicebox!

Voicebox is the site through which we are going to be managing the public face of our project to tender for the digital mentors fund from the Department for Communities and Local Government.

We need your help to make our bid as strong as possible, so please let us know your thoughts on our various work package streams and inform us of what you can offer using our Contribute form.

Please do get involved and help us give an online voice to disadvantaged communities!

Introducing Sustainability

We want to make sure that what is achieved is continued and (if possible) grown.  At least in the places touched by the demonstrators we need to make sure that the skills and enthusiasm for communicating using digital media remains. We will build sustainability in from the beginning.

Introducing Research and Mapping

We aim to conduct a comprehensive consultation and review of existing work related to digital mentors. This work stream will make recommendations about commissioning of demonstrator projects.

Introducing Project Management

This is where the project gets held together and we deliver to CLG what we said we would.  This work stream includes: the co-ordination of the work of consortium partners and the two-way communications between partners; financial monitoring; communication with CLG and overall project reporting; levering additional funding (cash and in-kind) from sponsors and supporters.

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