IWMW blogs

BarCamps have been a part of IWMW for the past two years and they’ve proved to be really popular. A BarCamp is defined in Wikipedia as a user generated conference whose content is provided by participants. At IWMW events they are impromptu sessions that are not planned too much in advance but often evolve through the experience had by delegates at the event – short, informal knowledge sharing sessions!

However we don’t mind a little bit of planning and they are also an opportunity for people to give the presentation they wanted to submit to the call, but for some reason couldn’t get in on time. They are a chance to talk about:

• A technology you are currently working with (you could demonstrate the technology)
• A project you are currently working on
• A discussion area you feel strongly about
• Anything you can think of related to the Web and HE/FE

Alternately you could run a user group or just get a lot of people together to ask what they think about something. Basically anything goes!

This year we have a 1 hour 15 minute slot for BarCamps on Tuesday (day 2) afternoon. We’d like to have 30 minutes for a BarCamp with 15 minutes change over time. We have 9 rooms available but are also happy for people to use the bar, restaurant or sit outside (if the weather suits). There should be good WiFi access around the venue so anywhere goes too. This means that we have 18+ slots for people to use.

We’ll have a sign-up board available in the information area but you are also welcome to float your BarCamp ideas on the blog or send your idea over to me.

Further information is available from the IWMW 2010 BarCamp page.

This blog entry is for people attending the Personal Contingency parallel session to share what they hope to get out of the session. The aim of this session is to explore key maxim’s that will help you prepare for a change of career or a change in your work situation. Whether you’re planning to change roles, find a new job, become self-employed, or set up a business.

Either let me know here or email keith@consequencing.com if you have anything specific you would like covering, otherwise I’ll look forward to meeting you on the day. I’ll have some fun and interesting topics ready for you!

An online BuddyPress group for the session is also available: http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2010/groups/b4-developing-your-personal-contingency-plan-beat-the-panic

Cheers

Keith Doyle

Last year I (Helen Sargan, Web Manager, University of Cambridge) ran a parallel session on choosing Plone for a CMS pilot (Another step closer to a CMS – dallying with Plone). This went ahead and the first site will be published shortly, with several more at pilot stage. If anyone is interested I can catch them up with how the project progressed, or if there are several we could retire to a room and I could show you round the vanilla site that users get on set-up, and what’s been done with it, and what issues we came (and are coming) up against.

This year I will be facilitating a session on Stylesheets for mobile/smartphones. There are strategies with stylesheets that will give a better experience for users of mobile devices and the session will look at how these strategies work and whether they help enough to be worth pursuing. Please do come along.

Helen

I’m (Ben Butchart) putting together material for the workshop on Location Based Services Without the Cocoa and would like your help in deciding how to structure the content. The main aim of the this workshop is to share the experience we have gained during the JISC alternative access project that looked into the potential for delivering Edina Digimap services to mobile.

A part of the technical evaluation strand of the project we ran a series of experiments using different technologies to help us understand the tradeoffs and merits of different technical approaches, code libraries and frameworks available to mobile application developers. The three main technical approaches we investigated were Mobile Web, Native and Hybrid development. In the Mobile Web paradigm, where applications are delivered through the mobile web browser (Safari, Opera , IE etc.) we focused on how mapping frameworks such as OpenLayers can integrate with emerging web standards such as the W3C Geolocation API, HTML5 Canvas and Local Storage. To develop our skills in building native applications, where programming languages and tools are unique to a particular device or operating system, we worked on an iPhone mapping client written in ObejctiveC and Cocoa Touch. We also investigated some augmented reality frameworks and built a demonstration 3D Layar app for iPhone and Android. Finally to evaluate the hybrid approach (where a lightweight web browser is integrated into a skeleton native app), we dipped into the PhoneGap framework and also built our own hybrid agent for the iPhone

We feel that we were fortunate to have a chance to try out these technologies for ourselves and discover the tradeoffs and advantages of each and we thought it would be a good to share this experience with a wider audience. The learning objectives I originally had in mind for the workshop were:

1. Understand different approaches to building applications for mobile devices, e.g. browser based apps, native apps ( Symbian, iPhone Cocoa, Android etc), hybrid apps, Mobile Web Touch.
2. Understand tradeoffs between browser based mobile applications and native applications.
3. Learn how to use W3C Geolocation API to obtain location of user.
4. Learn how to create a browser based (mapping) rich internet application for touch devices, including techniques for converting mouse events to touch gestures.
5. Learn how to use HTML5 Canvas 2d graphics for mobile browsers and understand problems and advantages.
6. Learn how use HTML5 Local Storage and Application Cache to cache points of interest to enable offline access to data.
7. Learn how to use augmented reality browsers such as Layar for displaying points of interest to camera views.

For those of you that have signed up to the workshop or are thinking of doing so, it would be good to know what you are hoping to get from it. To what extent would you like some hands on experience using these technologies?

I think I could set up some simple examples and ask participants to make some minor changes to HTML/ JavaScript to demonstrate some of the technologies. Although the examples would be really simple, I’m worried the sight of HTML and JavaScript might frighten some people off and it is the lessons learnt rather than full understanding of the technology itself we want to convey.

For managers deciding on a strategic direction organizational needs, sustainability and resource management are just as important as the technical pros and cons. We could do some interesting exercises around these topics too. Also from talking to many people and research groups in HE during the scoping study we learnt a lot about future direction for Location Based Services in teaching and learning with exciting developments in the area of virtual worlds, augmented reality and 3D visualization. Would an overview of this topic be useful too?

I’m more than happy to adapt the material we have to the audience so use the comments to let me know who you are, what your interest is in LBS is and what areas you would like me to focus on. With your help we will be able to create a great interactive session which will bring together participants experience, share knowledge and build an expert group of LBS practitioners.

The dilema over creating inhouse versus buying-in a solution is not a new one for Web managers or IWMW. Over the last 14 years during which IWMW has been running there have been quite a few sessions asking us to think about the pros and cons or both. For example in 2007 we facilitated a panel session entitled Dealing with the Commercial World: Saviour or Satan? and back in 2003 we had a session on Content Management – Buy or Build?.

In the past different institutions have leaned in different directions driven by different agendas. However today we are all united by a common agenda – cost cutting. We are now working in an environmemt where institutions may place much more emphasis on buying cost-effective software rather than use inhouse developement.

At this year’s IWMW you will have opportunity to hear about various products available. As well being sponsored by commercial organisations (Jadu and TerminalFour) we will also have an exhibition where a number of commercial organisations will be able to tell you about their products.

IWMW is also an opportunity to hear about other institution’s experiences with software products. For example James Lappin and Peter Gilbert, University of the West of England will be talking about The impact of MS SharePoint in Higher Education and Richard Brierton, University of Sheffield will be talking about their upgrade of Polopoly: a commercial CMS.

As delegates you should also take advantage of the opportunity to network with others and ask about their experiences. You’ll be able to do this in person at the event and also online through this blog. You can also share your own experiences either online or by giving a BarCamp.

Sheffield has some great places to eat, drink and be merry…you just need to know where to look…

Melissa Nisbett from Eleven has written a few lines introducing us to great places to go and to the Sheffield guide book they produce. All images courtesy of Nigel Barker Photography.

Italian cafe Bragazzi’s

Sheffield has a wealth of vintage, retro and antique shops from the 60s/70s collectibles at homeware boutique Pad to the cavernous warehouse The Sheffield Antiques Centre. Any trip to the city should involve visiting the Abbeydale Road area for a potter around these places plus lunch and coffee at the Italian cafe Bragazzi’s.

Homeware boutique Pad

The Lantern is a tiny Victorian theatre, originally built in 1886 as a private theatre by William Webster, a wealthy cutler who lived in a large adjoining property. The venue was left derelict after World War 2 but was restored to its former glory in the 1950s by a local actress and drama teacher.

The Lantern Theatre

The Sharrowvale Road area is home to a wealth of restaurants, bars and shops. We recommend a walk through Endcliffe Park, visiting the cafe in the park followed by dinner at The Mediteranean, a fish and seafood restaurant nearby.

Endcliffe Park Cafe

Around 60 alpacas live on 40 acres of land in Mayfield Valley in Sheffield. As well as seeing these curiously funny creatures you could combine it with a trip to the David Mellor Design Museum just outside Sheffield in the nearby Peak District. As well as a museum dedicated to the acclaimed designer and manufacturer, there is a shop and cafe, selling and serving a range of delights.

Alpacas in Mayfield Valley

Our Favourite Places is an independent guidebook to the best of Sheffield’s cafés, restaurants, bars, shops, galleries and parks. Designed by Eleven, a team of designers living in the city, Our Favourite Places champions independence, focussing on unique places that can only be found in the city.

David Mellor Design Museum

Described as an informed travel guide for curious folk, it features a handpicked selection of over 50 venues and focuses on places that are independently owned and have immense charm. No one has paid to be in the book, instead they were chosen for their character and because they are run with love and care by people trying to do things a bit differently. From tiny Victorian theatres to tucked away vintage shops, and from chinese fondue to the best Italian delis – these are the kind of places that only locals know about.

The Mediteranean Restaurant

A design publication in its own right, the book is thoughtfully designed with beautiful photographs and illustrations, and a handy pull-out map. Our Favourite Places can be purchased for £4 from www.ourfaveplaces.co.uk The book is also available from selected venues across the city – stockists can be found on the Our Favourite Places website. You can also follow Our Favourite Places on Twitter and Flickr.

Antique Centre

Eleven is a graphic design consultancy that creates intelligent and effective design solutions for print, web and brand identity for clients across a range of sectors.

Sheffield University have been working with Eleven on a visitors’ guide to the city which offers a different selection of venues to the Our Favourite Places guide and is more student focused.

This guide will be available in all delegate packs.

The Web sites for all IWMW events since it was started back in 1997 are still available. Over the past couple of years we have migrated information about the events to a series of RSS files, including RSS files of the speakers and workshop facilitators at the events. Yahoo Pipes has been used to merge together these files. These files contain geo-location information of the host institution of contributors at the event: as can be seen from the images below speakers and workshop facilitators from around the country have shared their experiences over the past 13 years.

It seems that there have been about 152 plenary speakers and 278 facilitators – although note that these are estimates and are not based on unique individuals (i.e. if a speaker gives a talk and runs workshop session they will be included twice and will also be included for every contribution made over the years). Also note that the locations typically gives the location of the host institution of the speaker (and we have not included location information for speakers from the commercial sector).

If you would like to explore this geo-location information for yourself you can use Yuan  to view information about the location of the workshop facilitators or, to demonstrate how an alternative mapping service can be easily used, use Acme.com to view the location of the speakers.

Also note that you can also make use of the Yahoo Pipes used to merge the speakers and facilitators RSS files. A page is also available which provides links to all of the RSS feeds we have provided.

We are pleased to announce that, thanks to the sponsorship provided by Statistics into Decisions (or SiD), we are able to offer a limited number of free places to participants who would like to attend the IWMW 2010 but are unable to do so due to lack of institutional support.

Statistics into Decisions help clients understand their online space with intelligent analysis. The company was founded by Ranjit Sidhu who will be giving a plenary talk at IWMW on So what do you do exactly?’ In challenging times justifying the roles of the web teams.

The sponsorship will cover the costs of the 3 day event and two night’s accommodation.

If you would like to apply for a sponsored place you should send an email to Marieke Guy, the programme chair of IWMW 2010 by 17:00 on Friday 25th June with details of:

• The benefits you feel that attendance at IWMW 2010 will provide for you and your institution.
• How you feel you can participate at IWMW 2010 in order to enhance the event.

You should also provide details of the reasons you are seeking funding to attend.

Note that in case of the number of applications exceeding the numbers of sponsored places the IWMW 2010 organising committee will allocate the places based on the information provided in the submissions.

The economic challenges faced by web managers in the HE sector are a key theme of this year’s IWMW. Providing effective website search can be a surprisingly efficient way to ensure that the results from your web investments are maximised and can even save you money.

Offering fast and usable access to your online information ensures that users can find what they’re looking for on your websites. This makes your sites more usable, maximises the productivity of staff and enhances the ROI on your business information. It can also reduce the support costs associated with enquires and customer service, and improve the promotion of courses and research.

Benefits of effective website search for Higher Education

There are a number of ways in which investment in effective search can deliver handsome returns:

1. If prospective students can’t find the information or course that they’re interested in, they are likely to leave the website and look at the next institution on their hitlist. The easier it is for them to find course information, the more likely they are to enrol at the university.
2. Easy access to information on the web, for both students and staff, can significantly reduce support costs related to handling email, telephone or in-person enquiries.
3. Staff productivity can improve with time-efficient location of policies, procedures and other online resources.
4. Potential donors, investors, and business partners may be deterred if they are unable to find the information about staff, projects, activities and research in which they are interested.
5. The university’s media profile can be increased if journalists are able to locate appropriate people to interview and quote.
6. Monitoring searches on your website through the use of reports can help to highlight areas of the site which need to be tweaked to meet user demand, and can also highlight documents which need to have their content or metadata adjusted to improve their search visibility –also benefiting SEO for external search engines.

Things to consider for your Website Search

There are a huge number of factors to take into account when appraising and improving your website search, or when selecting a new search product. These factors will depend on your website objectives and the needs of your users, but s a starting point, think about the following things:

1. Given the importance of these potential returns from a high quality search facility, it is worth clearly assigning the responsibility of monitoring and maintaining the search function within the web management team, ideally to a dedicated “SearchMaster”.

2. Consider the additional features that you need from a search solution, beyond effective search results. Features such as analytics, reporting, alerts, faceted navigation, spelling suggestions, multi-lingual capabilities, query autocompletion and contextual navigation can all play a vital role in improving the user experience and search effectiveness.
3. What is the most appropriate deployment option for the search facility? Whether you go for a hosted, cloud based or installed solution will depend on the level of your in-house technical resources, how much support you will need and the degree of flexibility, security and control you’d like to have over your search.

We’ll be on hand at the IWMW to discuss these and other issues, and will also be offering demos of Funnelback Search, our Website and Enterprise Search solution, as well as our Content Management System, MySource Matrix. Be sure to pop by and see us.

By Hannah Cooper from Squiz and David Hawking from Funnelback. Squiz will have a stand at the IWMW 2010 exhibition.

In these cash-strapped times, I believe any sensible Institution should be increasing their web professionals as they can provide many efficiencies and savings by web enabling processes and reducing printing costs (among other things).

So do you find that you are less valued than you used to be or more? Are you seen as the person who can save money by web enabling processes, or as someone who can be replaced by one of those web ‘experts’ who lurk in every organisation?

If this is the case then you will benefit from my plenary Are web managers still needed when everyone is a web ‘expert’?

See you there.

Susan Farrell