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Some comments from the Feedback survey have also been posted on the Feedback page along with some short video clips of delegates to download.

We have also added video clips to the Projects Attending page where you can get a short description of the projects from people involved in them.

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.

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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. (more…)

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.

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. (more…)

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. (more…)

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?

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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?

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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.

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This session took the form of a brainstorm, with some of the main discussions tackling issues arising from the sheer variety ‘data’ (from raw to processed/workflows/protocols and between disciplines, methodologies, techniques). We asked why are we keeping it? Do we share now for reuse, preserve for the long term, or make available to validate results?

Some of the main themes included:

• within a research environment – can we facilitate data curation using the carrot of sharing systems? That is, can we build IT systems that both support lab (or fieldwork, etc) data curation and controlled sharing where appropriate?
• additional context beyond the metadata: data provenance is essential, and perhaps wider than previously considered. It could include, for example: a ‘make’ file containing the data and its transformations from ‘raw’ to ‘processed’; and an account of relevant methodologies and hypotheses, perhaps via the original proposal and related documents. This implies join-up between research information and management systems and virtual research environments/researchers’ desktops.
• how do we help institutions understand their infrastructural needs: what are the requirements for institutions (either HEIs or Data Centres, or even hybrid approaches) taking responsibility for curating research data?
• what has to happen with the various archive systems (fedora etc) to help them cope with research data curation, while retaining a link with the library and institutional systems? It might be useful to see whether some common requirements can be documented for IT systems for data curation.

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A frenetic and energetic ‘goldfish bowl’ debate touching on key issues of access management and identity. Starting off as a discussion of the benefits of OpenID systems compared to university imposed identities, the debate moved around the challenges presented by Facebook, identity theft, permanent online records (and the way these can affect personal and institutional reputations) and moved towards a conclusion in which it was suggested JISC could perhaps help set up a framework and comprehensive cross-discipline debating space in which guidelines on personal conduct and control of identity systems might be laid down.

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Richard McKenna’s reflections post-discussion:

“What is clear from the discussion which involved JISC projects, services and other national agencies is that sustainability is not just about the economic business model.

“Successful sustainability of innovation itself needs to address: the problem of accessing the knowledge base of lessons learnt; the need for consistent planning across programmes that compensates for the 2/3 year funding cycle; and guidance for projects on addressing the sustainability and accessing expertise.

“The feedback on the sustainability process, discussion in the session and this blog are really helpful for in developing the Sustainability Handbook which is scheduled for release towards the end of 2008.” (more…)

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Opposing approaches attract

Dave de Roure (MyExperiment) University of Southampton, Mercedes Arguello Casteleiro (eius), University of Salford

The ‘opposing approaches attract’ session looked at two different, but not completely opposing, ways to find out how people use e-infrastructures and how this information can be used to encourage more researchers to use e-infrastructure.

In this session the world of web 2.0 was shown parallel to the work in the JISC user engagement programme.

The web2.0 approach is to directly respond to the actual needs in the community by building and trying possible solutions instantly. Sharing, showing and building go hand in hand with the needs as they pop up.

Parallel the eius Project looks into the holistic scholar’s lifecycle, finding the exact part of the cycle where e-Infrastructure can make a difference. They gather stories to spread and circulate in the community.

These two approaches are more complementary than opposing. Testing and storytelling are like siblings in the effort to take the uptake of e-Infrastructure further.

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A fast and furious debate about whether, how and when to adapt disruptive technologies and if they are indeed useful.

The motion under discussion is:

This house believes that the use of disruptive technologies serves to hinder institutional progression.

The chair is Craig Wentworth and taking the stand are Lawrie Phipps and Tom Franklin.

(more…)

This session looked at generational variations in the usage of Web 2.0 tools, and young people’s expectations of ICT provision at university. The ensuing debate examined whether ICT/Web 2.0 tool usage by universities should be student-led, and discussed whether or not the changing skillset applicable to ‘information literacy’ has affected quality of student work.

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This session was chaired by Joy Davidson (Digital Curation Centre) and took the form of a brainstorm.

Three main areas were covered. The session began by thinking about the careers of researchers, and discussion centred on how data management can be embedded from the earliest possible opportunity, right across people’s lives (looking at digital literacy from primary school to the skills of experienced data scientists). The fact that data management skills are not seen as important was discussed, with a need for reaching into different disciplines and raising awareness (particularly badging and tailoring training in ways that researchers are likely to recognise and respond to) a recommended response.

The session also discussed the need for a canon of digital curation practice, from which more disciplinary research and training can be drawn - is it possible to define a canon of generic data curation practice that is valid across disciplines, and should that canon be called ‘curation’? (would data science or managment be a better term?).

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• strategic issues (policy and governance)
• technical issues
• practice and people issues

The room then split into four groups to look at the issues in more detail.

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Emma Beer from The Strategic Content Alliance at JISC shares her thoughts on the session:

“We heard from four entertaining speakers on business models and sustainability. Key themes from all speakers were a need to create usable content that would be effective and useful to the intended audiences, and also a need to look beyond funding to bring in extra income streams.

“There was a great deal of interest in this session and I am very pleased the SCA is planning to invest a great deal more in understanding this complex field that I hope can in turn inform the debate on JISC funding policies going forward. From a personal viewpoint, I think it’s important to encourage a great deal more innovation in business models so that a great deal more projects and initiatives can benefit from JISC funding.

“Government initiatives aimed at opening up public sector information (see for instance the signing of the Seoul Declaration on the Future of the Internet Economy by OECD countries in the last month) and the business models to underpin this sort of work will also be key to this debate.”

Speakers’ presentations are available to download at the end of this post.

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IPR has long been a back-shelf issue. That’s to say, many people don’t want to engage with it because it’s seen as complex and can have worrying implications. It’s an issue that should be prioritised but it’s tempting to take the ostrich approach…

The aim of this session was to help people take their heads from the sand - and to show that once people do engage, the tools are there to provide a pathway through the thorns and briars of intellectual property.

Indeed, this is one of the ways that JISC can provide protection for your own work, as well as helping you to avoid stepping on other people’s toes.

The talk was presented by Naomi Korn & Dr Neil Witt

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Alex Voss (e-uptake project) National Centre for E-Social Science.

In this session the e-Uptake project from the JISC User engagement programme looks at the present barriers in uptake of e-Infrastructure in academia. This project is one of three working closely together to get to grips with the issues.
The e-uptake project takes an in-depth and multi layered approach to handle such a complex field of work.
There are many ways to tackle the technical issues involved, which are described in this session.

But, how far can you go in describing the issues, without getting stuck in the human aspects of cultural change?

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This session was a workshop rather than a formal presentation and panel debate, and was led by a project team who have worked on projects to elicit students’ ideas and experiences of the technologies they use in their studies. The group activities included trying out some of the elicitation techniques and feeding back on how effective the methodologies are.

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The motion being debated in this session is “Curating and sharing research data is best done where the researcher’s institution asserts IPR claims over the data”.

Initial discussion centred around what was the right approach to IPR and copyright that would enable curation and data sharing to take place. Some people argued for the Science Commons approach (ie that as soon as possible, all data should be put into the public domain with all rights waived) which was seen as a simple and effective way of sharing data. Others felt the challenge here was to get researchers to accept this approach - and thought that licensing data was the way forward. There was discussion around who was the rights holder - it’s not clear (a) what the rights are and (b) who owns them.

An interesting point was made about EU legislation, which requires any public sector institution creating data to supply it at cost price for commercial organisations to re-use. Universities may in time be included under this proposed legisation.

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She talked about how JISC development activities have started to be called innovation and acknowledged questions such as “Is this just lip service?” “What do we mean by innovation?”

Innovation isn’t just about change but about creating something new, according to Wikipedia’s definition. “This captures what JISC is trying to do” said Sarah.

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Tomorrow each of the sessions will be live blogged. The main page will be very busy with posts from each of the sessions to which you may add comments. The complete set of posts for a particular session can be found from links which will be placed in the theme and forum pages.

For more information on the session and to leave comments for Mercedes, and her co-presenter Dave de Roure, visit the Barriers to take up of technology & innovation theme pages.

This session is taking place in room CBA1.072 at 15.00 on Day1

Please be aware that there will be no delegate packs handed out at the Forum; everything you need is here.

The Forum will bring together over three hundred colleagues from further and higher education to meet together to discuss the role of technology in supporting innovation in education and research. Participants come from over a hundred different organisations and include representatives from JISC projects, JISC services and JISC committee members and staff as well as representatives from funding bodies and government organisations.

We hope that the 2-day forum will provide many opportunities for discussion and sharing experiences and practice, through keynote presentations and a wide range of parallel discussion sessions that are supported by online discussion forums, covering themes such as barriers to the take up of technologies, research data, the changing student experience, innovation and sustainability, and user-owned technologies vs institutional infrastructures. The forum also provides an opportunity to feed into planning for future JISC programmes and activities. I look forward to meeting you in Keele.”

Previously, he was Executive Producer for bbc.co.uk, the world’s largest English-language website that covers a range of content from news to entertainment and user generated content. He was responsible for working to shape the overall editorial portfolio and strategy in line with audience needs and emerging technologies.

As part of this work, he lead a change programme across the BBC’s online producers called “Ensuring Excellence.” This programme aimed to build a stronger culture of excellence across hundreds of editorial staff in different production areas. It focussed on how editorial standards, guidelines and training need to change in the rapidly changing environment that is digital media. The programme is part of the corporation’s BBC 2.0 initiative, which aims to fundamentally re-invent and improve the website over the next three years.

DaPonte originally joined the BBC in 2002 as an editor and has also led the corporation’s efforts in the areas of Search & Navigation, which has resulted in a multi-million pound programme of work in this area being recently kicked off.

Before working at the BBC, DaPonte was Producer of Economist.com where he product managed the website and launched the digital brand into various new editorial areas.

Before moving to the UK in 2000, he worked in New York for CitySeach/Ticketmaster where he managed the design and production of a network of city guide websites and at FOX where he was a web producer and production manager.

His early career began with working on the early versions of a number of major American media sites. He is proud to have been a member of the launch team for WashingtonPost.com and worked on an early site for U.S. News and World Report. He also worked as a consultant and freelancer for a number of small start-up companies during the “dot com boom.”

Jason will be speaking after lunch on Day 2 at 13.30 in the Westminster Theatre

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Mabel Abgenorto (a student from the University of Hertfordshire) is replacing Jane Alexen Shuyska.

Read more about the session here 

Jason DaPonte is Managing Editor, BBC Mobile Platforms and in a previous role was the BBC representative on the Strategic Content Alliance.

Jason’s session will take place at 13.30 on Wednesday 16th July.

Further information on both our key note speakers will be posted here soon.

Many thanks to those of you who have already registered for the event. If you have not yet done so please check previous emails (from jiscinnovationforum@livegroup.co.uk) for your access code and register as soon as you can at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/2008/07/jif08.aspx. Registration will close on the 13th June and we have a waiting list of project staff who would like to attend.

UCU greylisting of Keele University

JISC is aware that the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) has instructed its members to take industrial action starting on 13th June by greylisting Keele University http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=3334.We have been in contact with the Union and Keele who both assure us that they are doing everything they can to resolve the situation and avoid the greylisting. However, given the number of delegates, presenters and Executive staff that this action would affect, holding the event at Keele is not viable if the boycott does go ahead. Arrangements are being made to move the event to an alternative venue in South East England and we will inform you promptly of any change of venue. Hopefully the issue at Keele will be resolved.

Key to successful and sustainable innovation is sharing ideas, developments and discussion. This blog provides you the opportunity to join the discussions and contribute to the Forum your ideas and developments.