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by m.guy

Five minute Interview: Danny Blanchette

11:01 am in interviews by m.guy

Who are you?
My name is Danny Blanchette, 31 years old and new (as of September 2009) to the HE/public sector! I’ve been in IT since I was 19, working for BT Labs, then as an Analyst Programmer for Jobserve.com.

Where do you work and what do you do?
I work for the University of Essex as their Systems Programmer. The title is a bit misleading as I look after any web related servers whilst also doing my fair share of programming.

What are your main areas of interest?
Whilst I am primarily focused on looking at server technology, I’m an analyst programmer at heart with a particular interest in making code shareable, testable and stable. In terms of IWMW and what with coming from a very different background, I am really interested to see how other institutions are working.

Are you working on anything exciting?
The universities web servers are due for renewal very soon so I’m busy looking at IIS7 web farm options and the possibility of using webdav to allow our devolved authors to have editing access. The challenge to tick all the boxes for our userbase and yet satisfy our own demands for a scalable IT solution is immense, but that’s part of the fun right??

Have you been to IWMW before?
No. I only just accepted my new position here just as IWMW @ Essex Uni was finishing. Which was a bit of a shame as it would have been ideal to get an insight from day one. However I’ve heard a lot of good things so I’m hoping it was worth the wait :)

What has been the best bit this year so far?
All of it has been brilliant. By far the highlights were Sid and Paul Boag’s p5/p6 talks, however the StudentNet portal was a great technological demo. If pushed to select just a single highlight, I would go with Josef Lapkas StudentNet – to save me having to decide between Sid & Paul! The project management parallel session also deserves a mention.

What will you take away?
I think it has given us all a lot to think about. It seemed the theme or emphasis was on being more like the commercial world, and I think that personally is where I want to spend my efforts focusing us. We need to be flexible, dynamic and enthusiastic about change and I felt IWMW really pushed that message out.

Will you do anything differently as a result of IWMW?
I don’t know I will do anything differently as I am still relatively new here and so I already want to do things quite differently to how they were/are. However IWMW has provided that ‘caffeine boost’ to make sure I carry out those changes that I can and hassle people to make the changes I can’t.

What do you think would be the impact on you or your organisation if there was no IWMW?
Having never been to one I really was quite sceptical it could live up to what other people were saying. However I thought it was fantastic. It was great to actually meet people in similar roles in other institutions and talk to them face to face. Much of what I got out of IWMW was actually in the breaks between talks, forcing myself to talk to people I hadn’t come with and so I could learn how places like Oxford, Bath, Kent, Canterbury, Colchester Institute and more differed in their web and overall IT approaches.

Not having IWMW would definitely isolate the institutions from each other a lot more, and in the current climate I don’t think we can afford to do that.

by m.guy

5 Minute Interview: Rich Manley-Reeve

12:00 pm in interviews by m.guy

Who are you?
Rich Manley-Reeve

Where do you work and what do you do?
Northumbria University, Senior Web Developer

What are your main areas of interest?
Java, PHP, AJAX

Are you working on anything exciting?
Currently we are developing an iPhone/Android app for our prospective
students

Have you been to IWMW before?
Yes, Aberdeen 2008

What has been the best bit this year so far?

Really enjoyed Patrick Lauke’s plenary on HTML5 and bar camp on making mobile-friendly sites.

It has been very interesting getting an insight into what others are
doing, especially in the mobile/app field.

What will you take away?
I am eager to start looking into HTML5 after seeing a taster here.
Some good ideas & inspiration for mobile services

Will you do anything differently as a result of IWMW?
What I’ve seen here especially in terms of mobile services/apps will
inform our future developments/enhancements in this area.

What do you think would be the impact on you or your organisation if
there was no IWMW?

We’d be a lot more insulated and would lack awareness of what others are doing. It is very helpful to see how other institutions approach common problems.

IWMW10 Take Away: Martin Hamilton

1:03 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

IWMW first-timer Martin Hamilton from Loughborough University explains what he will be taking away from the event and the value of the experience in this short video interview …

Video clip of Martin Hamilton at IWMW10 from the UKOLN Vimeo account. If you are unable to view this video, please view the video on Vimeo.

IWMW10 Take Away: Chris Gutteridge

12:56 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Chris Gutteridge from the University of Southampton explains why he has found IWMW10 really useful and what he will take away from the event as a result in this short video interview….

Chris Gutteridge at IWMW10 from UKOLN on Vimeo.

If you are unable to view this video, please click here.

IWMW10 Take Away: Adrian Tribe

12:43 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Adrian Tribe from Birkbeck, University of London gives us his impressions of IWMW10 and his reaction to winning the Twitter Buzzword Bingo in this quick interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to view this video, please click here.

IWMW10 Take Away: Josef Lapka

12:41 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Josef Lapka of Canterbury Christ Church University explains what he finds valuable about IWMW10 and summarises his presentation about the StudentNET portal in this quick interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to view this video, please click here.

IWMW10 Take Away: Melius Weideman

7:07 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Professor Melius Weideman from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa explains why he attended IWMW10 and gives us his impressions of the event in this interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to view this video, please click here.

IWMW10 Take Away: Miles Banbery

6:49 pm in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Miles Banbery from the University of Kent tells us about his favourite session at IWMW10, gives his impressions about the impact and value of IWMW event for the sector, and updates us following his conversion to Twitter at last year’s event in this video interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to see this video, please click here.

Developing Your Personal Contingency Plan: Keith Doyle

7:10 am in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Keith Doyle explains the purpose of his parallel session: “Developing Your Personal Contingency Plan: Beat The Panic” in this short video interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to see this video, please click here.

Taxonomy: Creating Structure Across Content Using Metadata – Matthew Hoskins

7:08 am in interviews by kirsty-pitkin

Matthew Hoskins discusses his parallel session: “Taxonomy: Creating structure across content using metadata” in this interview with Kirsty Pitkin…

If you are unable to see this video, please click here.