Microsoft’s cash cows of Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint continue to sell hundreds of millions of copies. OpenOffice may offer a free, open source alternative, and Apple has its iWorks suite, but in terms of numbers they are relatively small. The latest version of Microsoft Office – version 10 – stores your documents on the internet so that they can be accessed wherever there is a connection. OpenOffice allows you to run a copy of itself, plus all your documents, from a USB drive. Both products, however, are inextricably linked to the traditional PC.
A new option is emerging, however. After years of dominance by Microsoft, the way we use computers for everyday tasks is in the midst of a huge transition. As we shift to using applications that are online only, we are entering the age of the cloud and one of the main challengers to Microsoft in this new race is Google Apps.
ICT Champions Julie Harris and Mark Walker complied a review of Google Docs for the Civil Society magazine in summer 2010, which is available now as a free download from this site. Take a look now to see how it works and what they think it can offer.
There are plenty of free productivity tools that are available to help you be more efficient and effective. This Top Five is picked up from Simon Duncan, ICT Champion for Yorkshire and Humber and is a great list to uncover some gems you may not know about. 
NCVO has published a series of short guides on a number of topics about what the future will look like for the third sector, including one about how we will use new technologies in five years’ time. It considers a number of drivers for change and how they will affect us, such as access to low cost high quality printing, new ways to engage with people and the ability to work flexibly. I thought it was very useful – it’s not a technical review but looks at the implications of how technology will change the work of the third sector.
There are lots of free training resources available through the Microsoft site, as there are across the internet. Many can help staff and volunteers support themselves when using common tools, but which ones work best? Techsoup, based in the US, is running a free online training event/webinar (what an ugly word) at which Microsoft staff will guide you through what is available. It will take place at 7pm GMT on Wednesday 10 June – register at 
If you have anything to do with web design you’ll know that there are more and more robust open source tools available to run a site built around a content management system [CMS]. WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Plone are amongst the most popular and have been reviewed in an excellent article by Idealware – a US-based site that reviews software used by not for profit organisations. 
Sarah Peverell at Community Action Hampshire has posted a great article about how you can use lots of free and low cost stuff to save money. It includes ideas such as how to organise meetings using free web-based tools, using Skype for free calls and lots about open source software. Definitely worth a visit in these cash-strapped times!
ICT Champion: South East England 