CISA Connecting up conference- Adelaide 1-2 May 2006, Australia

Have just finished attending the CISA conference where part of the conference focus was on development of a National Not-for-Profit ICT Coalition (NNIC)- essentially a peak body to represent the ICT needs of the NFP/NGO sector. Excellent focus, and sorely needed. The key aspects that stood out for me? Most organisations are still struggling with the fundamentals of ICT plumbing and infrastructure, CEOs are inadequately equipped to manage and understand the ICT that is part of their responsibility, and that Australia has about 700,000 NFP/NGO organisations.

Compare this with South Africa, where there about 100,000 NGOs in operation and represented through SANGONET and the UK, which operates an UK NGO ICTHub with approx 30 million pounds at their disposal, and it's clear that Australia is well behind. Which is inexplicable given the enthusiasm for the move to increased delivery of services by NGOs by the Australian government- still, the ball is starting to roll. Here's hoping the NNIC (as it is currently known) takes the time to cherry pick from what I'd consider as best-of-breed approaches to important aspects of ICT governance (using CoBIT as a starting point, even in its abridged Quickstart format) and ICT project management (e.g PRINCE2 which I note has been adapted by the UK ICT hub), and avoids wheel-reinvention and resource wastage. Time will tell..

Took the time whilst I was there to deliver a presentation on CMS Selection for the NFP sector, which is available from the Resources page on the LaughingMind site, under conference presentations. Let me know if you found it useful at all, or other information that people would like to see.

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