Surf Right Toolbar is designed to make adjusting accessibility  options within Internet Explorer quicker and easier, using either the mouse or keyboard.

Developed by RNIB and the Web Accessibility Tools Consortium it is currently in beta version, and feedback is welcomed, http://www.rnib.org.uk/wacblog/news/rnib-surf-right-toolbar-beta-version-available/.

The Power of Information Taskforce is running a competition on behalf of the government, calling for ideas on improving the way public information is used/communicated, Show Us a Better Way (http://www.showusabetterway.co.uk). £20,000 is on offer to develop the best ideas to the next level.

Various new or previously invisible public information streams are being made available especially for use in the competition. Examples of what they are looking for include Fix My Street (http://www.fixmystreet.com) or http://www.farmsubsidy.org, which compiles obscure information from across Europe. Due to run to end of September.

Rightsnet (http://www.rightsnet.org.uk), the web site which helps welfare benefit advisers to learn from each other, has been praised in a new Cabinet Office report, ‘Excellence and fairness: Achieving world class public services’. The report looked at how user-generated web sites can help socially disadvantaged people.

Community Newswire:
http://www.communitynewswire.press.net/article.jsp?id=4877148.

This year’s TalkTalk Innovation in the Community Awards are open for entries.

This enables charity and community groups throughout the UK to harness the power of the internet, with 30 winners receiving grants of £2,000 each to fund technology related projects, and five overall winners will also get technology equipment of their choice. Last year’s winners ranged from chat rooms on health issues to web-based support networks.

See http://www.talktalk.co.uk/innovation, and apply by 30th September.

The use of the popular Survey Monkey software to create and manage online surveys has been strongly criticised in the past due to its poor accessibility rating. However, they now claim that it is the only online survey application which has received certification to the US Section 508 standard, covering access by users with disabilities - http://www.surveymonkey.com/HelpCenter/Answer.aspx?HelpID=247.

So it may be worth checking out what they can offer - the basic (no cost) account allows up to 100 responses per survey. http://www.surveymonkey.com.

(Source: UKriders list)

The full results of consultants nfpSynergy’s annual Virtual Promise survey of charity use of, and attitudes to, the internet are now available. Download in pdf (converted from PowerPoint) format, 1.3MB.

This month’s NCVO ICT Development (was ICT Hub) feature articles have a ’social media’ focus.

‘What can Social Media do for you?’ has a good run through of the “Web 2.0″ tools and terminology and ways of communicating more widely. http://www.icthub.org/articles/What_does_social_media_do_for_you.html.

The National Assembly for Wales is now streaming on the web video from plenary sessions and committee meetings, both live and recorded. The infrastructure is designed for peaks in traffic during key debates, allowing thousands of visitors to view content simultaneously. http://www.senedd.tv. (Source: Kablenet.com)

In Westminster, it is the independent MySociety which has been adding video of debates and speeches to the written records on the TheyWorkForYou.com site. As they don’t have much funding, help is wanted in matching up video of the House of Commons from the BBC with the text records of Hansard - apparently it is a strangely addictive task. http://www.theyworkforyou.com/video/.

Organisations with initiatives that have used ICT or digital technology “to positively impact on socially disadvantaged or digitally excluded communities” are invited to enter the European e-Inclusion Awards.

The best entrants will be recognised and used as examples of good practice across the EU. Deadline 11th September see http://www.citizensonline.org.uk/e-inclusionawards_eu.

The RNIB Scientific Research Unit’s web site Tiresias (http://www.tiresias.org) provides guidelines on accessibility issues for all types of disabilities, for designers of information and communication technology systems.

Mentioned here in passing previously, Flickr for Good is a charity donation programme managed in the UK by Charity Technology Exchange, giving photo storage, sharing and organisation facilities.

There are a total of 10,000 one year Flickr Professional accounts being made available internationally, which don’t have the various restrictions of the basic account. Some examples of uses are at http://www.flickr.com/good, or to apply go to CTX: http://www.ctxchange.org/about_ctx/donor_partners/flickr/.

The third occasional paper in City Bridge House Trust’s ‘The Knowledge - Learning from London’ series is Making Connections, on the Lasa Circuit Rider project.

The six pages give an overview of the success in helping third sector organisations build their ICT capacity, and some of the barriers. Download via this link.