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A short explanation of each main area of the Equal-Works site is given below.

View all DPs

Select this menu option to see a full list of all Development Partnerships (DPs) in the two Equal funding rounds: 76 DPs ran from 2001 to end 2005, and a further 98 DPs started work in June 2005 and will end in 2007.

You will then be able to select an individual DP by clicking on its name to view a summary of its activities and outputs. The description, logo, partner details and contact details of the DP are shown first; this is followed by a list of activities and associated products. Activities are listed alphabetically with associated products indented underneath. Activities and products are given an icon at the left-hand side, according to the medium in which they were produced. Put your mouse over the icon to see the medium in full as a tool tip.

News/Events

This section of the site contains the latest news stories, events and our electronic newsletter. If you would like to submit a news item or wish us to advertise an event please email us.

Networks

A number of Equal Development Partnerships working in different areas have come together in order to share their learnings with each other in this field through informal Networks. The network pages on Equal-Works allow members to share new learning and emerging best practice, exchange materials and expertise. If you are interested in setting up your own network please email us.

Log in

You can log in once you are registered and have activated your account. Once logged in, you can then access all the available facilities on equal-works such as the debates and connections.

Register  

You will need to register in order to participate with the blogs, debates, connections, reviews or subscription. Click here and fill in the form with the details required. You will then receive an automated confirmation email which will contain a link which will need to be clicked in order to activate your account. Registration on Equal-Works is only required once.

Equal funding theme

You can also select one of the Equal funding themes in the left-hand navigation, e.g. Facilitating access, to see all DP activity within that theme.

Searching for items on Equal Works

By type of activity

The innovations featured on the site encompass a broad variety of types of activity. To help you search Equal Works as quickly and efficiently as possible, every piece of material on the site has been tagged in a number of ways, including by type of activity. There are 38 activities grouped into four subsections.

The subsections may be of particular assistance to those who have an interest in the new ESF programme. The new ESF programme has two priorities, and all activities may be aligned to at least one priority, and in some cases to both. Subsections Priority 1, Priority 2 and Types of activity in both priorities contain activities from the 2002–2008 Equal programme that relate directly to the new ESF programme 2008–2013. The subsection Generic types of activity contains activities carried out in the Equal programme that are not included in the specific activities supported under the new ESF programme.

When searching by type of activity, the search engine presents all the relevant activities and products in alphabetical order. Items include DVDs, good practice guides, reports of good practice, evaluation reports of activities, learning materials, toolkits, user guides and manuals, checklists for best practice, awareness-raising materials and practice and reports of service provision. For example, searching for Diversity: challenging stereotypes produces 141 items in alphabetical order, including Apply Within CD-ROM. This CD-ROM includes practical documents and DVD interviews/case studies to promote the benefits of putting crime reduction policy into HR practice.

By keyword search

You can perform a standard search by entering a keyword into the box in the top menu and clicking on the search button. Items are shown in order of level of match to the keyword. For example, entering mentor returns 36 items, those with a 100% match items being listed first – in this case Equal Invest Mentor Recruitment Report [100%]. This report considers the recruitment and selection of mentors to support the social enterprises that are participating in Equal Invest.

By advanced search

An advanced search is also available; this allows you to set criteria for your search, e.g. a particular location or type of beneficiary. The selection criteria are:
  • development partnership
  • location
  • industry sector
  • Equal theme
  • Equal round (1 or 2)
  • partner organisation
  • beneficiary type
  • industry sector
  • product medium
  • EES theme.

Examples of advanced searches

You can then search by criteria alone or further refine your search using keywords. For example, if your interest is in voluntary work related to women you would go to the Advanced Search button, tick the beneficiary box, and then tick women from the beneficiary choices shown. You would then type ‘voluntary work’ into the keyword box. Four items are returned in % match order, for example Family Link Workers Training [31%]. The aim of this programme is to train local community members to support health and social care professionals, and to help community members gain appropriate skills and qualifications to support their entry into work.

Searches can be by multiple criteria. For example, if you are looking for DVD material of potential relevance to 16- to 17-year-olds, tick both beneficiary and medium, selecting the appropriate beneficiary type and medium. This search will return 37 DVDs, for example Almost Adult Trainee DVD [66%]. Watch a short clip from Almost Adult Trainee DVD (A day in the life. . .) produced as part of the Almost Adult project.

Searches can be by multiple occurrences of a single criterion. For example, if you want to know what partnerships the Learning and Skills Councils across the whole country have been involved with, tick partner organisation and tick all 27 occurrences of Learning and Skills Councils, both national and regional offices. This will return 36 partnerships.

New media terminology guide

Adobe Reader A software application that allows the user to view and print PDF files. Visit the Adobe site to view system requirements and download Adobe Reader.

Blog Short for ‘weblog’, this is a personal online journal. A blog is where anyone can publish their thoughts, opinions or anything else they want to write about on the Internet.

Bitmap (.BMP) As the name implies, this format is a map of bits or numbers that represent the coloured dots in an image. Most file formats work in this way. The Windows bitmap is probably the most compatible graphics format. Almost all Windows graphics applications can work with bitmaps, including the Paint program that comes with all versions of the Windows operating system.

File sizes for bitmap files are usually large because the data is not compressed: so an 800 kB bitmap file contains about the same amount of information as a 100 kB JPEG file.

Cover page (.CVR) This format simply allows a graphic format (usually PCX) to be used as a cover page by a product’s PC faxing software.

DCX (.DCX) A scanned image format that can consist of multiple PCX images in one file. It is primarily used for faxing. Most graphic applications do not support this format, although it can come in very handy when used with some faxing software.

File sizes for colour PCX files can be fairly large: an 850 kB DCX file is equivalent to a 100 kB JPEG file.

FlashPix (.FPX) FlashPix was designed for the Internet, speed and cutting edge technology. A FlashPix file contains multiple versions of an image at various resolution levels. You can view the image at one resolution on your computer screen, and download a different resolution for printing. This greatly speeds up your viewing and printing times, and produces high-quality images. Currently the only drawback to using this format is compatibility, because not every computer can view files in FlashPix format. An applet may be required the first time an image is viewed on the Web. Many HP All-in-One products have a viewer that will save and open this enhanced graphic format.

File sizes tend to be very large: a 1.3 MB FlashPix file is equivalent to a 100 kB JPEG file.

Graphics Interchange Format (.GIF) This very popular graphic type was created by CompuServe and is used primarily on the Internet because of its small file size. The small sizes is achieved by using LZW compression algorithms, licensed from Unisys. No data is lost during compression as long as the colour depth is 256 colours or less. Another reason that the GIF format is so popular is that the GIF 89a format (useable by most newer Internet browsers) allows animations.

File sizes for colour GIF files are very good: 150 kB GIF file is equivalent to a 100 kB JPEG file.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) Most web sites are written using HTML. HTML is a programming language that allows web designers to arrange text, images and links in a document that is viewable on the Internet.Internet and World Wide WebThe Internet is a network of millions of computers that spans the world. The World Wide Web is the collection of all the web pages stored on these computers. The vast majority of information on the Internet is available to read free of charge and is largely uncensored.Internet browsersA browser is a program that allows you to view web pages on the Internet. The most widely used application is Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, but others are available, such as Firefox.

Joint Photographic Experts Group, JPEG (.JPG) This popular graphic type has the smallest file sizes out of all  the most popular graphic formats. JPEGs can reduce images down to 5% of the original graphic file size. Most current graphic software now supports JPEG images. The main drawback is that some data is lost when converting to or saving as a JPEG. Usually the loss is minor but it can affect how sharp and colourful the image is. JPEG files are also very handy for e-mailing.

File sizes for JPEG files are the best out of the other graphic formats.

Microsoft WordA word processing application; part of Microsoft Office.Microsoft ExcelA spreadsheet application; part of Microsoft Office.

PC Paintbrush (.PCX) This image format was originally created for a PC Paintbrush program. Another program called Frieze can be used to cut and paste images in and out of PC Paintbrush. It is sometimes used as a fax file format. The main drawback to the PCX format is its compatibility with other software programs.

File sizes for colour PCX files can be large: 850 kB in PCX is equivalent to a 100 kB in JPEG.

Portable Networks Graphics (.PNG) PNG was adopted by the World Wide Web Consortium to replace the GIF format on the Web to avoid the Unisys’ licensing requirement. PNG format has no patent and no licensing requirements, so it can be used freely. File sizes and popularity of this format are not as good as those of GIFs.

PDF (Portable Document Format) This format was developed by Adobe as a means of representing a document on screen as if it were a printout, looking exactly as it was originally created, without the person reading the document needing to have the same software or hardware as the person who created it. A PDF file can contain any combination of text, graphics, and images. When a file is saved as a PDF, it takes the file extension .pdf.

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) This is an alternative means of accessing frequently updated material on the World Wide Web, such as blogs: instead of the user having to browse web sites to see if there is anything new, notification of updates is sent directly to the user. Search enginesA search engine allows you to search for and find information on the Internet using keywords or categories.

Tagged Image File Format, TIFF (.TIF) This is one of the most popular image file formats, originally created for compatibility between desktop publishing and scanning applications. TIFF is compatible with most office software applications. This format can also use a lossless form of compression (LZH) to reduce the file size.

File sizes for uncompressed colour TIFF files are average: a 750 kB TIFF file is equivalent to a 100 kB JPEG file.

URL (uniform resource locator) This is the technical term for an Internet address.

Equal-Works debates

Equal-Works hosted a series of five online debates between November 2006 and the end of the programme in December 2007. Debates were open to all: those who registered beforehand were able to post comments or questions, and participants were also able to log in and question speakers on the day via computer. Speakers responded via webcam, and participants were able to continue the discussion with other online users once the live broadcast was over. The full proceedings were transcribed and made available on the site, together with a video record of the whole discussion with the guest speaker.

Contact us

If you have any further queries about our site, please feel free to contact us.