New feedback page created

A new page has been created to provide a link to the Feedback survey (please complete if you haven’t already done so) and as a place to add any general comments on the event that you wish to make publicly.

Over the next few days we will also be adding a number of short ‘talking head’ videos filmed at the event of people’s impressions and experiences.

View the feedback page

July 24, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Did you come home with something you shouldn’t have?

A number of people have asked what they should do with their room keys…

Please return them to

Keele Conferences
Darwin Building
Keele University
Keele
Staffordshire
ST5 5BG

July 18, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Closing Plenary: Sarah Porter, Head of Innovation Group, JISC

Sarah Porter, Head of Innovation at JISC, brought the conference to a close with a round-up of some of the key issues from the last 2 days, and thanked delegates for a fascinating and invigorating conference.

There was just 15 minutes for the closing plenary, and so Sarah galloped through a dazzling summary of the conference, pointing out the incredible energy and level of engagement of delegates across a huge breadth and depth of subjects. Read more

July 17, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Thanks for coming… but don’t stop talking!

A big ‘thankyou’ to everyone who attended the event for participating so enthusiastically and creating such a brilliant atmosphere; particularly those that gave so much time and thought to organising and presenting the sessions.

We hope you enjoyed the two days and found it useful - please visit the feedback survey at http://survey.jisc.ac.uk/jif08feedbacksurvey/ to let us know what you thought and how we might make future events even better.

As Sarah said in her closing session this blog will remain open as a discussion forum for the near future so please continue to use it to share ideas and comments with JISC and project colleagues.

July 17, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Session 3: Understanding the audience: what are the lessons learnt from other sectors

Audio from the session

To downlod the MP3 click here

Chris Batt gave a relaxed and extremely informative presentation on why we should be understanding e-content audiences, how best to do so, and why it’s so critical to e-content sustainability.

Delegates raised several interesting points in the Q+A at the end of the presentation, including the difficulty of grouping individuals who have different needs at different times, and also the question of whether or not we are stifling innovation in our eagerness to give users what they say they need. Read more

July 17, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Forum: Green Computing

This session looked at how universities can reduce their electricity consumption in PC use.

As well as discussing who should be responsible for reducing ITC electricity consumption, delegates were treated to a demonstration of a project currently being tested at Oxford University which monitors and optimises PC use. Read more

July 17, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | 2 Comments 

Session 3: Survival of R&D and Repositories

Audio from the session

To downlod the MP3 click here

This session focused on the idea that the uptake of technology and innovation is not only a technical issue.

The human aspects that came up in session 1 were discussed in this session - from the software and repositories perspective.

Neil Chue Hong from the Engage project explained why good software sometimes dies and what we can do to save it! He defined the human factors needed to build successful sutainable comminities and feed the ‘Free Puppy’ of open source software…

Bill Hubbard reviewed the history of the ‘mountaineering’ initiative to get repositories generally supported by the UK academic community. 80% of the community completely supports it now, but that is not the end of the discussion…
Obstacles and policies were discussed at a dazzling speed and from great hights What is the future for repositories?

Read more

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | 1 Comment 

Keynote: Jason DaPonte, Managing Editor, BBC Mobile Platforms

Richard welcomed Jason DaPonte, managing editor of BBC Mobile Platforms. He’s going to be covering the BBC angle to inspire us all in the innovation work we’re involved with.
Read more

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | 1 Comment 

Forum: e-Framework

JISC-funded projects produce a great deal of valuable outputs, in terms of software, data formats, formal models and other more informal guides and reports. But how can those outputs be made more visible, and disseminated more widely, and how can their context be captured to ensure their sensible reuse? 

The international e-Framework is intended to be part of the answer. It is built on the principle that information on technical services should be collected and shared. But what about other supporting information, such as the applications which use those services, or the working practices and processes in which these applications are embedded, and in turn the recipients and beneficiaries of this work? 

JISC is now starting to prototype a higher level knowledge base to capture these further types of knowledge. As well as better supporting the technical e-Framework, this also has the potential to capture and make available the findings of a much wider range of JISC projects than just those dealing with technical services.  It is planned that the structure (ontology!) as well as the content, be developed in an agile, i.e. iterative and participative, way with all the stakeholders involved. 

This raises some thorny questions, if not all to be answered or even addressed in this event, then certainly over the prototype’s development - how do you feel the context, learning and outputs of your project should be made visible to others in the community so that it can be most effectively taken up and used by others?

Read more

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

Session 3: Bridging the gap

Audio from the session

To downlod the MP3 click here

Session 3 of the student experience theme was called Bridging the Gap. The intent was to stimulate discussion and thinking following up from the previous sessions about dissonances between students and institutional expectations. The panel members are project leaders on initiatives that have talked to students about their experiences of learning using technologies or initiatives that use new technologies in learning, and one is a student who talked about her experiences during her degree course. One issue that recurred in the question-and-answer sessions was the problem of institutional email and whether students actually check it, and who the onus should be on to ensure that university communication reaches them; and again, the discussion entered the territory of whether teaching staff should be led by students’ use of technologies by implementing social networking tools in courses.

Read more

July 16, 2008 | Filed Under jif08 | Leave a Comment 

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