We’re really pleased to announce what we think is the first officially accredited course in understanding and using social media for those with no previous experience. We Share Stuff has developed the course and it’s now part of the OCN framework (WSS are an OCN Centre), as three units of 10 learning hours each.

As it’s platform agnostic (it doesn’t prescribe certain sites or tools) and also driven by the learners as to use, it’s applicable to anyone that wants to get to grips with the social web and gain the confidence to get involved.

We envisage it being useful to businesses, young people — almost anyone — with the bonus of a real qualification at the end of it. We’re now looking for opportunities to deliver it… the fun starts here.

Check out the full details and the course itself here.

Just a quick update on proceedings. As you can see, we’ve trimmed down our logo and site. The site is now a tad faster, looks cleaner and we’ve tried to explain what we do a little better too. A lot of behind the scenes stuff is happening, we’ll update on new projects as and when we get the go ahead.

The Digital Mentor bid, led by UK online centres is starting to move along quite nicely now. On Thursday, they are hosting a workshop / meeting for all the organisations that put themselves forward for a lead role on the work packages. We originally intended to put ourselves forward too, knowing full well that there are some pretty big and vastly more experienced orgs than ourselves who will probably get the work. However, I thought this would be ideal experience for us and I believe we have plenty to offer in terms of defining how the digital mentor role should be shaping up. After much pondering and discussion we’ve decided not to attend the meeting, pretty much down to travel costs! While it would be great to attend the meeting, be involved with the structure of the roles, network with contemporaries etc., a trip down to London would not really suit our financial standings at this particular time. While there is some really exciting stuff going on that we’re chomping at the bit to get involved in, we have to remember that the ‘We Share Stuff’ project has only been operating, in reality, less than six months. The ‘to do’ list is looking quite meaty and for the project to succeed, we need to focus on our priorities.

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Time for another quick update on things here at ‘We Share Stuff’. As you can see, we have finally gone live with the website – we had a makeshift photo shoot so you can see who we are – yes real human beings not robots (debatable?) Anyway, the whole web site thing will evolve over time, just like the ‘Net does! While we have the usual web site stuff going on, we also have a nifty blog system set up allowing us to provide blogs to organisations, individuals etc – anyone we work with basically! It’s a really simple system, great to use and was set up by Mr Jon Bounds. Bravo, Sir…

A quick mention on Blog Action Day, Wednesday 15th October. We were planning on attending as one of the social media ‘surgeons’ to offer advice but it seems we have been included on the ‘patients’ list! which is cool, because we can quiz some of the ‘experts’ on some of the finer details of blogging! We hope plenty of organisations get involved here, the technology can really help make a difference. Maybe it can be a platform to providing more frequent, similar events too.

Last, but by no means least, Some awesome work being done on the Digital Mentor role, by Dave Briggs – From recent consultation he has already set up a blog and a wiki, encouraging social media types to get involved with the discussion and possible direction of this role.

A couple of things to update on. Firstly, the whole digital mentoring thing, found some earlier actions and debate on this issue, check out Dave Briggs stuff on this. Secondly, the taster sessions are starting to fill out. Looks likely that we’ll be working with some NEETs linking in to the young offenders, also the Aston Pride project has a number of groups including another NEET project linked into the Salvation Army, also some Parent groups and possibly some Adults for who English is a second language (ESOL). Furthermore, a disability group are keen for a session too. I hope to bring all these projects together with more details as and when we have them. The technical side of things is gaining momentum. The main site is up but no content there just yet, also Kev has completed the logo for the project so we can start branding some stuff. The OCN accreditation is in progress and we have secured some vital 3rd Sector Peer Mentoring alongside some training sessions and conferences booked. Plenty there! and i’ll elaborate on these over the next week or so.

Been a bit busy on all fronts with those concerned with We Share Stuff. Apart from the holidays and new born babies, things are getting back on track. The project visited the UNLTD awards event in Manchester to officially recieve their award and certificate. A decent event where other award winners spoke about their projects and plenty of networking ensued.

We are currently finalising the identity and web presence for this stage of the project. Nothing too fancy, just something to give the project a face. We are hoping to have the site up and active at the beginning of October. We have also nearly completed our taster session module ready to roll out and we are currently looking at places in the North Birmingham area to deliver. The taster sessions are free (to both providers and clients) so if your establishment would like to participate, please get in touch.

We have also completed our policies and procedures to enable us to become OCN accredited and we are close to gaining centre status which means we can then look at delivering qualifications from the OCN portfolio.

Finally, there is plenty of “behind the scenes work” more info of which, will get blogged in due course. Including project sustainability, aims and objectives, technical stuff and loads more.

Not much time this morning so i’ll make it quick and we can elaborate later.

• The meeting with UNLTD took place on Friday 27th and was very positive and gave us some kind of timeframe in the short term. (more later!)
• I’ve set up a Google Apps space for the project which will allow us to manage the project a little better from now on. Anybody who comes into the project will get access to this. It’s currently a place for files, ideas, links – just about everything related to the project for those involved.
• Attended Pete Ashton’s Blogging workshop for community groups last week and gained some useful insights.

erm, that’s all I can think of just now! I hope to update the blog on the above in the next week or so.