IWMW 2011 blog » Introductions

Welcome to Reading

guest — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 08:00:36 +0000

Alex Brannen, Director of Communications at the University of Reading, has written us a guest blog post introducing Reading, the University and the Digital Development team.

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We’re looking forward to welcoming you all to Reading later this month. For those of you who don’t know us or the town – yes we are still officially a town but we hope to have city status by next spring – I hope the following whets your appetite!

The Maiwand Lion, Forbury Gardens, Reading by Jim Linwood

Built on biscuits, beer and bricks in the nineteenth century, Reading is better known these days as a university town and the main population hub for the one of the wealthiest areas in the European Union; one that is home to a thriving business community, with particularly strong emphasis on ICT. Whether we are Europe’s ‘Silicon Valley’ or not, employment in ICT is certainly a main stay of the region and is some 300% above the national average. Not surprising perhaps when businesses based locally include 13 of the world’s top 30 global brands, such as Vodafone, Microsoft and Cisco. As a consequence, Reading has the third highest percentage of employees in knowledge-intensive businesses after Oxford and Cambridge. I am also assured by those in the know that Reading is a great shopping destination and still sells beer!

The University and town mirror each other’s fortunes to some extent. Reading has weathered the worst of the economic downturn – it was awarded the accolade of ‘best European city for infrastructure’ in the Financial Times’ Foreign Direct Investment awards for 2010. The employability of our 2010 graduates is the best it has been for a decade. Reading is a multicultural town with the third most ethnically diverse local authority area in the south east. At the University, our first international student came to study here in 1904 from Kenya and these days we have well over 100 nationalities represented on campus.

The University’s main Whiteknights campus is situated in 130 hectares of lovely parkland a mile from the town centre (buses every ten minutes for those of you coming by public transport). The campus, which will host IWMW 2011, is a real selling point of the university, especially to under graduates. As I write we have just had our busiest summer Open Day for a decade with over 4000 prospective students enjoying the good weather with hardly a mention of tuition fees.

Foxhill house, Whiteknights Campus by pandrcutts

Where does the University fit into the increasingly complicated structure of higher education? We’re a member of the 1994 Group of research-intensive universities, combining world-class research with excellent teaching. We have a top 200 world ranking, strong applications per place, a sense of history but looking forward to an international future. Maintaining the high satisfaction levels for the Reading student experience is at the heart of much of the current thinking at the University and we hope you’ll see and enjoy much of the recent £380 million investment in the campus while you are here.

Our digital communications sits within the University’s communications department and has responsibility for developing plans, policy and codes of practice for our digital presence, co-ordination and management of digital communications across all platforms and improving the University’s digital presence in terms of technical, editorial and visual quality. The team aim to provide the support and platform to allow staff across the University to generate and own the information and to be innovative with our digital presence. We are currently undertaking a review of our digital activity and structures within the university to respond to a growing demand for digital services in the university and to set a clear strategy for future delivery of digital comms.

We want to reach a point where the digital presence forms part of everyday operations of the University. Key to the success of this aim is a requirement not to stifle innovation and experimentation. We see digital communication co-ordination as a soft delivery with an informal style. One initiative we are considering is further developing a system of part chargeable, part free work. We cannot provide the University’s digital presence ourselves but we can provide direction, facilitation, training, project management and up-skilling for colleagues throughout the university.

The Digital Development Team at the Univeristy of Reading

Do take the chance to talk to my colleagues in the digital team about our digital plans while you are here and I trust you enjoy the accompanying Reading experience.

Alex Brannen
Director of Communications

Introduction: Events Team (Michelle Smith)

michellesmith — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:33:08 +0000

I am Michelle Smith, the Events Organiser at UKOLN, responsible for all the logistical arrangements for IWMW. I am there to ensure that you receive all the information you need before and during the event so that your experience of IWMW is a positive one. I will ensure you know where you are going, that you attend the right sessions and have a point of contact throughout the event.

If you have any questions (sensible or otherwise!) before IWMW please do not hesitate to contact me at events@ukoln.ac.uk and during the event you can find me at the registration desk.

Introduction: Marieke Guy

m.guy — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 09:00:03 +0000

I’m Marieke Guy. I’ve been with UKOLN for 11 years working on lots of different projects connected to the Web, organising stuff on the Web, preserving stuff on the Web, using Web tools and so on.

I’m currently working on a number of projects:

IMPACT, a European project that aims to speed up the process and enhance the quality of mass digitisation in Europe
The JISC Observatory, a JISC-funded initiative to systematise the way in which the JISC anticipates and responds to projected future trends and scenarios in the context of the use of technology in Higher & Further Education, and Research in the UK.
Greening Events II, a small exploratory project into how to minimise the sustainability impacts of academic related events.

I’ve been attending IWMW since 2000 and have been co-chair with Brian Kelly since 2006. I do a lot of the organisation, pull together the programme, create the Web site and blog and add my feminine touch to the event!

Introduction: Brian Kelly

briankelly — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 09:50:47 +0000

I’m Brian Kelly. I’ve been with UKOLN since November 1996. In 1997 I thought it would be a good idea to bring together people working in institutional Web Management teams and so organised a two-day event entitled “Running an Institutional Web Service“. Fourteen years later the event is still running – probably the longest-running event for those involved in the provision of large-scale Web services in the country.

If you’ve not attended an IWMW event previously attending this year’s event will provide an opportunity to meet your peers, explore shared issues and discuss ways in which Web managers can be approaching the new challenges which we face. If, on the other hand, you have attended in previous years you will discover that although the event is returning to a 2-day format for the first time since 1997 we will continue to be providing a full programme of talks and workshop sessions as well as opportunities for you to interact with others working in similar roles within the sector.

BTW in case your confused by my portrait, if you zoom in you’ll find it is made up of images of the people I follow on Twitter. It was created using the Frintr service. I’ve used the image to make the point that many of the ideas I have are based on the discussions I’ve had and the suggestions which have been shared by members of my professional network. Thank you!