@ukcharitycamp.bsky.social is back this Autumn. More here: www.dxw.com/2025/07/ukch... Tickets here: UKCharityCamp 2025 Date: Nov 13 • 9:30 am www.eventbrite.com/e/ukcharityc...

Just been in a session at #thirdsector when an org used a case study written by ChatGPT, that included a verse it claimed was from the Koran *which it had made up.". Please, please *keep a human in the loop*, and develop AI powered services that *cite their sources* for "verbatim quotes."

Do I know anyone here, I wonder? ....I can't find a hashtag. www.thirdsectorsconference.com

Neontribe is offering a free summer project to a charity that wants to experiment developing a service that uses AI. Let us know if your charity is interested, or has any questions, - we'll choose at the end of this month. More here: www.linkedin.com/posts/harry-...

At an unconf run by the marvellous folk at @connectedbydata.org - we did a "three words" intro, and here's the tags folk used to describe why they were here... (Also, thanks for having me @jenitennison.com et al.)

*Cracking* talk from Andy Dudfield at Data Bites ... I'm sure you'll be able to find the recording, it's probably here bit.ly/databites53

Amused by Google's summary of Connected By Digital, a fine company of folk: ...and not just Tim.

Is good, is this: public.digital/data-bites-s... (Also recommend this unconf: connectedbydata.org/events/2025-... to those similarly interested.)

This, from Lita Currie, appealed. Although I'd advocate the d12. Best of dice. www.linkedin.com/in/lita-currie

Everyone is talking AI but there are remarkably few projects engaging with its possibilities. (Honourable mention for the Ai Incubator ai.gov.uk) This is one; we're real proud of working with young people to see how we might help them engage thoughtfully with AI. www.dxw.com/2025/01/unde...

There's an online spreadsheet version of the #ukgc25 session grid available via j.mp/ukgovcamp which contains link to the session notes. #unconference

I was once a very poor Zoologist, and I wonder if evolution, explained as punctuated equilibrium, might be a useful way of thinking about "digital transformation", as in - we should *expect" change to vary in pace. #ukgc25

#ukgc25 The grid too big for one photo...

Imagine the crowd below... #ukgc25 has stated

#ukgovcamp Second best day of the world year. (It's not you, it's me. Or to be specific #ukcharitycamp Sorry.)

My hopes and fears for AI, digital inclusion and digital as BAU.... I've read a few future-gazing posts: David Scurr listed a few here - www.linkedin.com/feed/update/... Didn't stop me scribbling my own down, informed by conversations at UKCharityCamp, of course. www.dxw.com/2025/01/hope...

My favourite photo of me from #ukcharitycamp, by arielletye.bsky.social That expression is the pure joy of standing in front of 90-odd folk, from charities and orgs who work with them, who're about to have an inspiring day of mutual support and sharing good practises. I'll forgive the cropping...

If you were at #ukcharitycamp yesterday - or even if you weren't, but wish you had been - this is the starterpack to follow. ht the redoubtable @pigsonthewing - ask and he'll add you too, I'm sure. go.bsky.app/16ijY71

Oh, this is good stuff... #ukcharitycamp ht @pigsonthewing.org.uk

#ukcharitycamp My favourite day of the (work) year. 28/11/2024, 9.30-5pm. www.linkedin.com/posts/harry-...

A couple of weeks ago, I moaned that folk were optimistic about AI, but didn't really know what was in it for them, specifically. And here's a neat list of 55 use cases for AI, with some risk management thinking next to each one. Top work from The Wildlife Trusts docs.google.com/spreadsheets...

I'm in my first trio-writing session - digitalpublicservices.gov.wales/blog/produci... - and it's a real revelation. We're using Welsh as a way of thinking deeper about the English *as well* as a way of communicating clearly to folk in their own language. It's great - thanks Basis for the practise.

Data Orchard launch their "State of the Sector - Data Maturity in the Nonprofit Sector 2024" report next week: WED 23 OCT, 12-1PM www.dataorchard.org.uk/events/launc... (Betcha folk at #UKCharityCamp on 28/11 will be talking data; tix at www.ukcharitycamp.com. Thx Data Orchard for sponsoring.)

Love this project. Youth-centred, cohort approach, NCS-funded, our Q: "How might we support young people to understand, examine and positively influence how they use and engage with Generative AI, becoming thoughtful makers and critical users of this technology?" www.linkedin.com/posts/cast-c...

Now here's a thing - an AI-powered search of the subject of grants by Wellcome using @360giving.bsky.social - by mantisnlp.com and open and reusable at github.com/wellcometrus... huggingface.co/spaces/manti...

Brilliant question - I've been taking that as read, but now I realise... That's an assumption, and that's an unreliable narrator at best.

Last words... Use your privilege for good. Move from equity to justice. Stay focussed on what's important. Support each other. Excellent footwear. "I love chairing you." from the excellent chair. #NPCIgnites24

"Iterative, is the word I held on to.", from the pandemic and that rapid digital change. (I'd like to claim a miniscule credit for that - @neontribe.bsky.social were working with Place2Be back then. :-), used it a lot in the design/dev of parentingsmart.place2be.org.uk thx Nominet ) #NPCIgnites24

The one question. I wish I'd asked... @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social enquired "How many of you are interested in AI?" and a forest of hands went up. I wish I'd had to space to ask: why? Specifically, why? What do you feel is in it for you? #NPCIgnites24

Catherine Roche, Place2Be,taking a systemic approach. System change; a holistic approach, focus on the child. Collaboration; partnership with schools, which takes time, understand/checkin w/ each other, in a shared language, w/ pooled cash. Businesses; play active part in communities. #NPCIgnites24

Q: Given we're all in a tough place, where's the hope? A: "Outcomes. Stories we show the rich to make them donate" "In the last 8 years, generational changes in social justice; BLM, MeToo" "Listening to YP, inventive, exciting ideas." "Look to gov, act as a consumer, citizen agency." #NPCIgnites24

Q: Funders are pausing. Que? A: "Really difficult" Pandemic, MH crisis, Cost of living has left civilsoc. in a difficult place, and applies to funders too. "Staggering" levels of need and applications, and funds also being caught by global issues: eg Ukraine. tl:dr; It's tough. #NPCIgnites24

Q: There's an observed lack of willingness to collaborate. Bad w/ small orgs, worse w/ large ones. A: "Logos, egos, siloes" get in the way. Find shared outcomes, shared visions, listen to lived experience. And funders should role-model collaboration. #NPCIgnites24

Q: The New Covenant, the relationship between gov and charity - what should it do? A: Be less transactional, take into account lived, learned and practicioned experience. There's no shortage of evidence of what works; early interventions, and listening to diverse voices. #NPCIgnites24

Q: How do you use the language of social justice? A: Moving from equality to equity to justice... Charities making small changes might not consider themselves part of a social justice movement, and they might be just doing +ve things instead. (qv: jerrardwayne.com/blog/why-the... #NPCIgnites24

To avoid the downsides, we should... 1. Alter the narrative 2. Build movements 3. Make alternatives 4. (...another one I missed.) ...says Rachel from www.careful.industries #NPCIgnites24

And AI does decrease trust. The bias is there, the fakes are there, the hallucinations are there. Concerns are growing, and AI won't save a broken system. "FOMO is not a strategy" - (nice line) - we seem not to be as careful in the UK as the EU or US are being? #NPCIgnites24

AI: "It's a tool for intensifying effort:". It doesn't have to happen. We don't have to use it. It's led to incredible breakthroughs, but it might not lead to the efficiencies we're promised, for us. And it costs. In energy, and in water use, and in mineral extraction. #NPCIgnites24

Tech lobbying in Brussels: 131Bn. ...if they're that keen to hang on to their power, it must be worth it? "Move fast and break things"; what have they broken? Tech. has power. Those algorithms have power. When they're in a few hands, that's an issue. (And environmentally dangerous...) #NPCIgnites24

And now @rachelcoldicutt.bsky.social on "Making AI and tech work for 8Bn people not 8 Bnaires..." Tech can happens out of sight, with impacts you might not notice right yet. The way we relate to it should be defined by more than just market and gov. Civil society should help. #NPCIgnites24

In case you didn't get it... That book by Dan Corry. www.waterstones.com/book/tales-o... #npcignites24

Focus on impact is diluted by conflicting pressures of funding, tech, policy, politics... 1) Impact matters 2) Impact has ridden up the agenda; but has plateaued 3) NPC has changed; this agenda isn't static 4) Impact can't be achieved solely by charities, but by lobbying gov too. #npcignites24

Do charities work with those more in need, or those easiest to reach and measure positive impact on? Charities can't change the world on their own, and for major impact we need systemic change which requires campaigning, influencing, nudging policy and (hardest of all) public opinion. #npcignites24

We use more qual and more user experience in impact. We push agile strategies, and try make the gov. share their data too eg MoJ. so charities can get the data they need to show that what they does, works. #npcignites24

Dan Corry: reflections... This sector builds a pluralist, society based on social justice, and if we could do more the country would be a better place. Funding mechanisms guarantee competition not collaboration. It's a system that almost works against impact. #npcignites24

What's an acceptable balance of time/money between delivery and evaluation? Who cares if you evaluate your impact, when you are delivering outputs which are known to be effective? #NPCIgnites24

Evaluating systems change can be problematic for individual charities who may need to "prove" outcomes to funders in a complex system where the outputs of more than one programme will have an impact on the same issue. #NPCIgnites24

Causalities (circular, indirect, unclear interdependencies) Time (change taking time, will not be linear), Responsibility (we are actors too) , and Strategy (we should learn and adapt as we go), and read this: scholarworks.gvsu.edu/cgi/viewcont... #NPCignites24

First afternoon session: Evaluating systems change (in a broad sense!) - "System change - systems thinking applied to a social change." It's an approach. (This feels like Complexity from Cynefin...) #NPCignites24

Changing the world needs bravery and trust. #NPCignites24