Recent Projects

National Relay Service

The National Relay Service is a telephone relay service that allows Australians who are deaf, or who have a hearing, speech or communication impairment to communicate with anyone who uses a standard telephone and vice versa.

See www.relayservice.com.au

Healthy Kids

The Healthy Kids site is a key component of a government strategy to improve the health of children. Social Change has developed the AIMS-Lite based site for the NSW Department of Education, NSW Department of Sport Leisure & Recreation, Heart Foundation and NSW Health.

See www.healthykids.nsw.gov.au

Independent Education Union of Western Australia

IEUA WA represents the interests of employees in Catholic and Independent schools and English Language Colleges in Western Australia. This is another AIMS-Lite based site.

See www.ieuwa.asn.au

Goolarri Media Enterprises

Goolarri Media Enterprises is the not for profit, Indigenous owned company arm of the Broome Aboriginal Media

See www.gme.com.au

UNISON Barnardos - Virtual Union Branch site

Social Change has developed with Unison, a UK union with over a million members, a pioneering virtual branch site that provides an online solution to organising needs of the union's more than 1100 branches. A key benefit of the virtual site approach is that it is a very cost effective way of providing powerful branch sites.

The first virtual branch site has been provided for the Unison Barnardos branch that represents workers employed at Barnardo's throughout England, Scotland and Wales. See www.unisonbarnardos.org.uk. The sites have been designed to make the best use of web facilities to communicate, involve and organise. For example the member only voting and online discussion are perfect for encouraging participation by far flung members who find meetings difficult to get to, while the wealth of information about the union activities on the front page of the site such the virtual branch secretary "Ask Bob" FAQ, shows how efficiently the web can communicate workplace issues to members.

Additional virtual branches will be rolled out over the coming months. Other unions around the world have also expressed interest in the virtual union branch model.

Social Change writes Australian Government eStrategy Guide for not-for-profits

The Australian Government's eStrategy Guide for not-for-profits was recently launched by the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts. The Guide was written by Social Change CEO Sean Kidney and consultant Ian Close.

It covers:

• Getting Connected
• Getting more from the internet
• Making email work for you
• Making more creative use of the web
• Special purpose websites
• Building your website
• Phone business (VOIP)

The Guide is available online at http://www.e-strategyguide.gov.au/

Webcasting for local government

The growth of the internet has seen a corresponding growth of interest in the potential of e-democracy to improve citizen access to government and to support greater participation in decision-making processes.

In the UK many Local Councils have taken to webcasting Council meetings as part of making them more accessible. A small number of Australian Councils have also taken up the idea.

Social Change Online recently completed a consultancy for Randwick City Council looking at the technical, resource and legal issues surrounding webcasting of meetings, and what would practically be involved in doing so.

For more information contact Sean Kidney at sean@socialchange.net.au