IWMW 2011 blog » DevCSI http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011 Supporting UKOLN's IWMW 2011 event Fri, 20 Apr 2012 08:43:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 Plenary 8: The Strategic Developer http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/08/08/plenary-8-the-strategic-developer/ http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/08/08/plenary-8-the-strategic-developer/#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 15:42:05 +0000 kirsty-pitkin http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/?p=658 Continue reading →]]> Paul Walk from UKOLN introduced us to the idea of the strategic developer and the work of the DevCSI project to foster innovation through local developers in order to create an environment in which strategic developers can emerge to benefit the sector.

“ Walk: “Successful companies innovate in a down market” #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011

The Cost of Innovation

Paul began his presentation by questioning the costs of the current trend towards outsourcing development and IT expertise in HE institutions, highlighting the lost capacity of innovate that can result from the practice…

“ Walk: Discussing the temptation for universities to cut away the ability to innovate #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: Asks whether local IT expertise a sunk cost? Outsourcing IT capacity has a cost, including loss of tacit knowledge #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: Innovation happens in a local context – it needs to be driven by user demands and needs #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011

DevCSI

Within this context, Paul introduced the work of the JISC-funded DevCSI project, which seeks to foster innovation by supporting local developer.

He outlined the results of their research into the general standing of local developers within the institution, and described the training and community building opportunities that the project has facilitated, particularly through their Dev8D event.

“ Walk: The #devcsi stakeholder survey showed widespread agreement that local developers understand local context better #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: 70% of those surveyed by #devcsi felt that local developers were undervalued #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: #dev8d saw the building of an interactive whiteboard out of a nintendo wii and a sheet of tracing paper #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: We think we delivered £85k worth of training at one 2-day event using peer-to-peer training #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: A well connected community of developers is greater than the sum of its parts. You haven’t just got one or two guys #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011

Strategic Roles

Paul concluded by describing the lack of career progression for local developers and the clear need for strategic leads as technology becomes increasingly important to universities.

“ Walk: The strategic role is missing – the technical guide #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: Good management of URLs is going to become very important – this is the new currency for institutions #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011
“ Walk: Key information sets will become a big deal over the next few years, whether we like it or not #iwmw11 #p8
iwmwlive
July 27, 2011

Reactions

The web managers had the following comments to make about Paul’s presentation…

“ RT @iwmwlive Can web managers and developers work well together? #iwmw11 #p8 <– Definitely especially if they can talk the same language
webpackets
July 27, 2011
“ Can highly recommend #dev8d! #iwmw11 #p8
MikeNolan
July 27, 2011
“ @iwmwlive Don’t be afraid to enter the testosterone den of the developers’ office! #iwmw11 #p8
KateLLin
July 27, 2011

Further Information

Paul’s slides from this presentation are available in PDF form at the IWMW webpage for his talk.

More information about the work of the DevCSI project in this area, including the case studies Paul cited during his talk, can be found at the DevCSI Local Dev Impact page.

You can view Paul’s talk in full on Vimeo.

]]> http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/08/08/plenary-8-the-strategic-developer/feed/ 0 Increasing Demands on Course Data http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/15/increasing-demands-on-course-data/ http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/15/increasing-demands-on-course-data/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2011 09:11:24 +0000 m.guy http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/?p=336 Continue reading →]]> JISC Call

JISC has announced a HEFCE funded programme designed to help prepare the sector for increasing demands on course data. Information about the call is available at: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities.aspx

All eligible institutions are invited to take part in Stage 1, by submitting a letter of commitment (deadline 12:00 noon UK time on Wednesday 7 September 2011) signed by key senior staff, in order to receive £10k of JISC funding. For the full call document, including details of an online briefing about the call to be held between 15.00 and 16.30 on Tuesday 19 July – go to http://goo.gl/nv6ec.

Eligibility:

Letters of Commitment may be submitted by Higher Education (HE) Institutions funded by HEFCE. FE institutions in England that teach HE to more than 400 FTEs are also eligible to bid providing involvement in this programme supports the HE in FE agenda. HE and FE institutions in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not eligible to bid.

Stage 1 funding of £10,000 is available for all eligible institutions which submit a Letter of Commitment which provides evidence of support from Senior Managers responsible for Teaching and Learning, Marketing, Management Information Systems/IT and the institutional course web sites.

Relevance for IWMW

Increasingly those involved in the provision of institutional Web services are finding that their responsibilities are going beyond the provision of quality information related to institutional activities to providing access to data related to the institutional activities.  The importance of data for those involved in the provision of Web services is being recognised at the IWMW 2011 event with a DevCSI workshop on “Open Data and the Institutional Web” beginning on Monday 25 July, the day before the start of the IWMW event.  This event, which is free to attend, is aimed at both developers and those with an interest or responsibility for institutional data who may be looking for ways in which such data can be reused.  If you would like to attend please complete the online booking form.

]]> http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/15/increasing-demands-on-course-data/feed/ 0 Extension of Bookings and Day Tickets! http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/extension-of-bookings-and-day-tickets/ http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/extension-of-bookings-and-day-tickets/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 13:49:24 +0000 m.guy http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/?p=224 Continue reading →]]> On Friday we announced that a DevCSI workshop on Open Data and the Institutional Web will take place on the day before IWMW 2011.

This will allow those involved in institutional Web management activities who have a particular interest in open data to participate in the workshop. The workshop will continue on the opening morning of the IWMW 2011 event. DevCSI participants will have the opportunity to continue their development activities whilst those who have signed up for IWMW 2011 can attend the opening two plenary talks.

Note that since there are only 30 places available for the DevCSI workshop you should book your place soon.

In light of this late announcement, we will be keeping bookings for the IWMW 2011 event open until Friday 8th July, and we have decided to provide day tickets for those who are unable to attend the full 2-day event.

]]> http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/extension-of-bookings-and-day-tickets/feed/ 0 DevCSI Workshop on Open Data and the Institutional Web http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/devcsi-workshop-on-open-data-and-the-institutional-web/ http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/devcsi-workshop-on-open-data-and-the-institutional-web/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:35:32 +0000 m.guy http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/?p=168 Continue reading →]]> Beginning Monday 25th July, the day before the Institutional Web Management Workshop 2011 starts, DevCSI will be running a free event for developers looking at hacking content, systems and services for institutional/open data. Lunch, refreshments and accommodation will be provided.

The event is aimed at developers, web developers, information specilists, data managers and policy makers working in Further or Higher Education who are interested in the provision of open data to support a variety of institutional activities.

The event, which takes place from 10am on Monday till 12:30 on Tuesday, includes presentations which outline various examples of use of open data. Time has also been allocated for a number of lightning sessions where delegates can talk about projects, technologies or issues that they think other attendees will find interesting.

In addition to the talks there will be opportunity for participants to
suggest ideas for open development activities which could be developed during the day. Results from the event will be presented at the Institutional Web Management Workshop 2011.

The event is being organised by the DevCSI project and staff from the
University of Southampton.

DevCSI is about helping software developers realise their full potential, by creating the conditions for them to be able to learn, network effectively, share ideas, collaborate and innovate creating a ‘community’ of developers in the learning provider sector which is greater than the sum of its parts.

There will be opportunities for attendees of this event to proceed on to the Institutional Web Management Workshop.

See the Open Data and the Institutional Web event page for more information.

]]> http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/blog/2011/2011/07/01/devcsi-workshop-on-open-data-and-the-institutional-web/feed/ 1