NEW PARTNERS!
Share, protect and enhance your internet connection. Check out SMOOTHWALL.

FREE SOFTWARE
We are now running OPEN SOURCE workshops.

Open Source gets the go-ahead from OGC
Public bodies urged by Office of Government Commerce to "develop skills in open source development and deployment". (Kable)

Geek quote of the day:
LINUX is not The Answer.
YES is the Answer.
LINUX is The Question.

ITAID - Empowering people through technology
Community Technology ITAID, assist not-for-profit organisations and community groups by helping them to use computers effectively to deliver their services to beneficiaries.

The project sustains itself with a combination of income derived from commercial networking projects, server-building, bespoke programming, means-tested fees to the organisations concerned and work-based learning income. We started in 1994, and have been working in partnership with comm-tech since 1999.

In our experience, all organisations face some or all of the following issues using computers in the workplace:

• Acquiring computers and peripherals.
• Sharing data and devices between the computers - Networking
• Use of the internet resource in a safe and reliable fashion
• Keeping hardware and software functioning optimally
• Incorporation of existing business process into systems that make optimal use of computers to lessen the workload on staff.
• Ongoing management and development of IT systems, and sensible investment in IT infrastructure.
• Effective data backup and access to disaster-recovery expertise.

For expertise we rely mostly on volunteers. Volunteers get valuable work experience working through us. We try where possible to train up long-term members of our clients' staff to provide basic maintenance and first-line technical support on the systems that we set up. Technical expertise is canvassed from experts in the field from our extensive contacts prepared to donate time and knowledge to the cause. For equipment resources we rely on private and commercial donors in the London Area.

Our Goals

• To provide a high-quality low-cost IT support service for NFP groups working toward a better world.
• To assist in the development of software through the open source movement, to help ensure that new technologies are affordable for NFP's, and accessible to all people.