Tis' the season for giving (and wanting)

The eagle eyed amongst you may have spotted that a few weeks ago the Scottish Digital Participation Charter  flew past 150 signatories but I also totally understand if you didn’t spot it.  It was probably drowned out by #digiscot which was, after all, trending in the UK. The Charter’s aim is simple; get organisations to pledge their support to tackling digital exclusion in Scotland and do so in a joined up and collaborative way. Now we’ve reached a tipping point with the Charter; with this many signatories (and the list continuing to grow) it needs to become more active whilst also becoming more autonomous and self-sufficient as we’re a busy wee team here at SCVO. So that’s the thinking behind the decision, but what are we actually talking about?  Well, here comes the big reveal… We’re building a new platform, accessible via our website, which will enable organisations that are signatories to post offers to the charter or submit asks that will be displayed for all to see and interact with. Sound underwhelming?  Well we think the real beauty of it is in its simplicity.  On a daily basis we hear of spare devices being underutilised, empty rooms gathering dust, free wi-fi that no one knows about and the list goes on; a central, easy to use space that allows everyone to share this knowledge is a bit of a no brainer really, wouldn’t you agree? Many of the current signatories have already been contacted about submitting offers and now I would encourage you to do the same.  You can send us your offers or wants using the simple form to allow us to hit the ground running when we launch by having a whole heap of offers already live on the site. The platform will be launching at an event on the 4^th February so keep an eye out for the invites which will follow in the next few weeks and follow @digiscot to get further updates. In the meantime, I ask you to dig deep this festive season and think hard about how your organisation, no matter how big or small, can contribute to this fantastic movement in Scotland.