The ‘Green’ League
I am impressed to read that Manchester Metropolitan University are making big steps forward towards reducing their carbon footprint. They have apparently jumped 24 places up the ‘Green University Tables’ following the implementation of a whole host of measures to get the Uni back on the sustainable track. Including:
- recruited a carbon reduction manager
- begun integrating sustainability learning into staff induction programmes
- spent tens of thousands on water conservation
- signed the national ‘Green Education Declaration’
- run a Zero Waste Week to recycle tonnes of items left in halls of residence
Very impressive and a pat on the back deserved! They also have plans for a new whizzy Business School/Student hub which they claim will the greenest building in Manchester when it opens in 2011.
A quote by Prof John Brookes the VC struck me as the point of all this and which I totally agree with: “Reducing our carbon footprint is not simply about recycling, it is about changing our culture,”
That is what we at JISC have to do, change our culture, if we are ever going to even begin to shave a few inches off the probably very big JISC carbon footprint. I hope that more Universities and likewise conference venues etc. start to think about the future in this way. Who knows, maybe the Green University Table might become something of great importance in the future and the ‘greenness’ of Universities starts to figure in the prospective students choice of institution. How green a University is will also surely help their credentials as the pressure of international competition turns on.
Incidentally Leeds Met tops the table, with Plymouth and Hertfordshire following in hot pursuit. The ‘Green League’ table was actually created by People & Planet a student action group campaigning against poverty, human rights and the environment. I am proud to say I was a member whilst a student! It actually makes interesting reading and I have to admit did not know that it existed: http://peopleandplanet.org/greenleague
Their main point behind the exercise is to try to get institutions, governments and businesses to take responsibility for their impact on the environment. If they don’t, they say, no matter what we do as individuals, we will never reduce our ecological footprint to sustainable levels. A scary thought. So come on all you institutions, pull your green fingers out! Shame on all those in the Fail category!
treehugging
Well, I am feeling rather pleased with myself this afternoon. I have finally discovered how to put the little tree with a windy path symbol into your email signature to go with the ‘Please consider the environment..’ sentence, thanks to some eager treehuggers on www.treehugger.com. Most of you techie webbies reading this probably already know that the tree symbol is not in fact some special logo, it’s actually a Webdings character in Microsoft Word symbols!
In my quest to make the JISC events corner a little ‘greener’, I thought perhaps putting one of these messages on my email signature would be a good start…even if I’m not sure whether that’s being pro-active and actually making a difference or just easing my conscience (a bit like carbon-offsetting..oops did I say that out loud? Best leave that subject for another days blogging). Let’s face it though, my conscience is pretty heavy being part of an industry that creates as much waste as the events industry. A very useful blog which my colleague Matt Jukes pointed me to back in April (http://blog.web2expo.com/2008/04/reduce-reuse-recycle-in-that-order) makes some very good points about needing to think about reduction before recycling…not generating the waste in the first place is far more beneficial to the earth surely? ‘Reducing’ is indeed the real goal. The 3 R’s is now my mantra: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle (and in that order)!
It is with this goal in mind that I embark on the next stage of my ‘green’ quest: to put together a list of ways in which we at JISC can make our events greener.
I have already managed to infiltrate into our events the policy of ‘electronic delegate packs’, whereby delegates don’t receive a wad of documents in a pretty card folder along with a nice new paper notepad. Instead they receive the necessary documents as a pdf or url link to a webbased document in an email. These can be downloaded onto a PDA, saved onto hard drive of laptop or if they really wish can print themselves. Finally, we encourge delegates to bring their own notepad, which means most don’t bother and type notes straight onto their laptop. The point being JISC don’t print anything. This caused a few murmers as you can imagine…but on the whole well received. The main thing you have to ensure, if you are not giving out printed copies of the programme, is that there are plenty of monitors and screens around the venue, showing the electronic version of the schedule for the day.
The other trend I have noticed on the JISC and partners event circuit is the gradual abandonment of the old favourite money spinner ‘the delegate pack insert’. A brazen and shockingly wasteful, yet rather effective way to raise a bit of cash for little effort. Yes, we at JISC Towers are guilty of this act in all previous annual conferences. I am determined to put the delegate pack insert to rest, firstly by killing off the delegate bag in general. Lets face it, the only reason we give a delegate bag out at JISC Conference is to put all the inserts in! Some organisers seem to be offering potential sponsors the electronic alternative of a pdf document included on a USB stick, which is handed out to delegates. A step in the right direction, but I believe equally useless as slinging an insert into a bag which the delegate is never going to take notice of. Is Mr Delegate really going to put the USB stick into his laptop and open every single file over a nice cup of tea at refreshment break and mosey through all the adverts? I think not. If however you offered sponsors the chance to buy 1 or 2 slides on a rolling presentation which is shown on monitors around the venue, this might be a more effective way of reaching a captive audience. Particularly if the monitors also show the schedule for the day and information in general about the event. So JISC Conference 2009 will see the dawn of the ‘electronic advert’. The paper delegate bag insert is officially dead, may it rest in peace.
Next Generation Environments Conference 2008 - Staff User Panel
Questions to staff during Staff User Experience Panel:
Q: do you see a difference between yourselves and a younger/older user:
A1: I use the same social technology as my son.
A2: Rather general question. was 1 of 2 members of staff invited to after handing in dissertation party via Facebook. But not really part of that group.
Commment: Even though using the same technology still not part of same social groups.
A3: 85 yr old student who fully uses all social technology as well as 60 yr old so it’s down to experience.
A4: I have colleauges and friends on Facebook and we talk about social stuff not work. Special interest group created on Facebook which I wanted to join but created a dialemma that do I do this with my current slightly silly photograph?
Q: your presence on facebook has given you opportunity to engage with students that you wouldn’ normally engage with. your institution would be pleased with that. so are we saying that all academics should have a facebook account?
A: some attempts to set up a facebook presence would be half-hearted perhaps. although some Uni libraries are setting up facilities in libraries for example.
Q: did you have any problems with engaging with any of the students on the facebook group?
A: I came across it by looking for the alumni group so accidental that I became involved with students online.
A2: I find Facebook good on a more informal level to liaise with some students.
A3: Some students find it easier to engage with me online than they do face to face.
A4: In my masters module none of them want to go on facebook as they are quite anti.
Q: do you feel joining social networks improves your quality of teaching and if so how?
A: yes. becuase students send me messages that they don’t understand and why.
Q: what is the difference between emails and Facebook?
A: emails created barriers. regarded as disturbing recipient. some staff ignore email for example. students realise that with some academics therefore no point using this method. social networking sites give the social touch.
A; social networking offers whole range of teaching opportunities that other normal methods of teaching wouldn’t. getting continous stream of feedback is very useful. they discuss their dissertation supervisors on their walls for example. has improved communications with students and in turn some of our teaching.
A2: I haven’t really used it to teach with. used it to bring it to the table to put it there and re-examine it and look at it with an open mind.
A3: staff can come across as a bit more human and so can the students by interacting using social software! gives staff a window into what life is like for a student these days.
How much are staff responsible for supporing students using this software?
All students should have the same experience of VLEs but their experience is not consistent. Always a small group of staff that are using new technologies and a large group that don’t. Need to move things forward and make it consistent for everyone. Consistency is key.
Dave White, Open Habitat (MUVEs), NGE2 Conf: 29-30 Apr 08
Multimedia social technologies for engagement (MUVEs) - Parallel session at the Next Generation Environments Conference, 29-30 April 2008
Dave White comparing attributes of Second Life to online gaming (World of Warcraft):
World of Warcraft: when you join, the initial thing that happens is that is sets the story and creates a framework/narrative for you to move through. The user just watches at this stage. After 20 minutes, user bumps into a character from the game who gives them a task ( the user also has physical printed manual that can be referred to) and tells them what they will receive when they have completed the task. Feels more rewarding to the user.
Second Life: when you join you are literally just dropped in and you aren’t really given any direction apart from buttons in top corner. You aren’t funneled in the way World of Warcraft does. But you are aware that other users are having the same experience at this stage. You have to move your avatar and make things happen. after 20 minutes in Second Life the user realises there is no point to Second Life and that they have to construct the point. This mainly becomes finding people to talk to.
Second Life environments are like blank World of Warcraft canvases for us to put pedagogical structures in place. There are various options available and we shouldn’t discount the informal or unusual options that seem a little disjointed/messy.
There comes a point in second life when a first time user needs help from someone. World of Warcraft all help is contextual and can do it on your own but only because it’s a structured environment. But Second Life is free and can be more liberating, however could benefit from combination of structured approach that World of Warcraft takes.
What makes Second Life powerful is the freedom. People just need to be told what to do but it has to be relevant.
Simon Hodson, ticTOCs and Gold Dust (NGE2 Conf, 29-30 April 08)
Session covering RSS feeds, the information overload and the 21st century researcher.
Growth of RSS feeds has meant a rather confusing picture for users with multiple feeds and icons.
ticTOCs:
Deal with tables of contents alerts. It is a Project to develop a freely available current awareness service making easy for academics and researchers to find, display, store, combine and resuse scholarly journal tables of contents.
TOCs by email - some users find alerts are a form of self-inflicted spam.
These are some of the challenges that lie in the path of academics wanting to take advantage of the info available thru RSS feeds.
ticTOC aims to provide solutions to these challenges:
- huge database of RSS TOC feeds
- search by key words in journal title and in RSS metadata
- TICK to save journal to\My TOCs
- Link thru to full text
- export feeds to other readers
- export bibliographic management services
Gold Dust
- seeks to innovatory solutions to the problem of info overload. aware of the challenges posed by information overload.
- availability does not mean accessibility.
- availability does not mean significance or usefulness
Commentators are observing that alerting systems are actually contributing to info oveload (email alerts, RSS feeds)
Gold Dust will research technologies which might provide:
- efficient ways of keeping users informed of current info
- while intelligently mitigating the danger of info overload
Principles of Gold Dust:
- aggregation of new content
- efffortless discovery of relevant materials
- delivery via service of users’s choice
Both projects aim to:
- enable the academic communities to take advantage of RSS
- balance the challenges of current awareness with dangers of info overload
Questions:
Q: Any expectation of how much usage data required before Gold Dust starts to filter through RSS feeds?
A: Takes key words and hunts for them which is the finding aspect but there is also filtering out aspect. Not just filtering in and out, trying to find models of information.
Comment: Might need various filters?
Q: any plans for how it would link to other researchers?
A: not in this project but is a good idea. if successful one step towards using intelligently created scholarly profiles.
Comment: use as a collaborative tool - if you form a research group - go through a gateway could then see what each of the group are being alerted on.
Comment: I currently rely on social networks to do filtering for me
Q: what does ticTOC do that zeTOC (?) doesn’t? Is it federated?
A: the federation is an issue, no real answer at the moment. aware that users will click through to the full article and find the institution doesn’t subscribe. re. zeTOC: ticTOC aims to be current awareness, latest issue, about keeping uptodate rather than trawling through whole database of past issues.
Q: any users expressed concern about identity security?
A: no-one has as yet. is something that have spoken to Web2Rights to be sure.
Managing your online identity, NGE2 Conf 29-30 April
Lawrie Phipps and James Farnhill from JISC take about managing your online identity at the JISC Next Generational Environments Conference, 29-30 April, Aston Business School.
James Farnhill
Identity now a big issue in the media. Survey done by Sophos that 41% of users happy to reveal personal details on Facebook.
2 government CDs that were lost. Issues around sensitive data going missing and going into public domain. They in fact turned up on eBay!
A guy had credit card details stolen and those details were used by a paedophile ring that the police were tracking. took months for him to recover because of the repurucssions of this.
So why JISC looking at Identity?
- FAM - more stringent IdM needed
- increasing use of online tools demanding more sophisticated identity management
- institutions are asking for help and advice in dealing with identity
- students and staff are asking for help and advice in dealing with identity
What are JISC doing now?
- Institutional level - Identity Project: survey of all UK HE institutions, detailed audit of 10 London institutions, reports available on JISC website, how to carry out the audit available on JISC website
- student level - FLAME: looking at how much info students will give to access resources and their attitude to privacy
- contextualising resources: projects under way in e-Learning and the information environment, more to come!
What are JISC looking to do?
- raise awareness (events, workshops etc.)
- future identity work
- build capacity
- provide resources eg. study due to come out on open id
Lawrie Phipps
- 68% of employers use search engines to check on candidates
- 20% of employers use ’social networking’ sites to run searches on job applicants
- boundaries online and our online identity are blurring
Online social identity that employers see of potential candidates significantly sways their decision as to whether they want to employ that person.
Comment: Medical profession are quite flexible about it and don’t seem to mind so much that you can search for your doctor online and might find personal information about them. Gives them a public face.
Comment: Issue of employers raised at a Focus Group that some employees felt that if an employer used the potential candidates online social identity as the final decider as to whether they get the job or not, many potential employees do not want to work for these employers.
What about academically? If you were interviewing for a prestigious research/teaching post. Top ten offs academically?
- plagiarism
- incosistent of academic experience or too consistent shows no depth
- what if no references about them at all..?
- all blogs posts and no papers or also the other way round
- bad spelling
Top tips for managing your identity online:
- treat your online identity information with the same care that you would give to your bank cards
- use the same rules for revealing information about yourself online as you do offline
- make the most of the new tools out htere and don’t let fear of what might happen stop you using them altogether
post-conference thoughts
well, it’s all over folks! months and months of planning paid off and it was all over in a flash! The JISC Conference 2008 seems to have been a real success. I know we always say that every year, but this year seems to have been a success on many different levels. There was a real ‘buzz’ this year in the atmosphere and from reading the various twitter posts and blogs from the day, the conference seems to have got lots of people thinking and talking. I have just read a blog post from someone who attended the conference and was still up at 11pm at night unable to sleep due to all the stuff he was thinking about from the day…so he just had to blog it all. seems the buzz has really got to some people! Got them thinking and asking questions and wanting to continue with the conversations and discussions they had on the day. This for me is the greatest achievement of the day.
The day is about informing the Community of all the cool stuff JISC are doing and funding at the moment but its also about providing a forum (be that a physical or online) for people to network, meet, catchup, discuss, chat etc…that is the most important issue for most of the delegates and we need to keep building on this and making sure that this is fostered for future years. Its not so much the excellent line up of sessions and the great keynotes, that make it a success, although they are of course a large factor contributing to it, its more I think the other stuff that happens around that - the buzz, the talking, the networking over a coffee that provides a true indication on how successful it has been.
This year we introduced a new online element which allowed people to start networking before the event online and hopefully continue to do so after. It also provided a platform for twitter, blogs and photos posted about the conference to be aggregated. It very much a soft launch, to see how it went and if it launched. All in all I think it did. As I wrote a few days ago, it provided perfect ‘background noise’ to the day - which is what as I said before this amplification is all about. Some might say that does it really add value/any meaning? I say yes, it does, it creates a buzz and shows that people are engaging with whats going on and provides a window into an individuals day at the conference. It means that we could plug into what people were thinking as they stroll around, how they see stuff, what they are talking about..and it was great!
Even more of a success was livestreaming the keynotes. 80 people tuned in to the opening keynote which was fantastic. I think we have really set the standard now and next year we can announce with confidence what we are doing and make a much bigger splash of it - get everyone blogging, twittering and snapping!
Benefits of Edinburgh are that the venue has excellent wifi and throughout the building..so should be great. I’m looking forward to reading the feedback report from delegate feedback - particularly about the new online stuff. We can improve lots of stuff around the online activity but its a really great step in the right direction and there’s no going back now!!!
The ‘tremors’ of conference amplification
Since the JISC Comms teams launched Crowdvine as the social networking site for the JISC Conference 2008 last Friday, interest amongst delegates has been slowing picking up and now beginning to gather pace. People are joining up, having a look around, putting up their blog and twitter feeds and making the odd comment or two. So it seems to be working..!
Discussions have been flying around our office about how effective Crowdvine will be, what delegates will use it for, how it will be used etc… There are various camps of opinions on this one, but on the whole everyone agrees that it is definitely adding to the buzz around the conference and it certainly helps us lot in JISC towers tap into what delegates are discussing in the run up to the JISC Conference, what they are planning and who they are interested in hooking up with. It can all surely be a good thing?
I recently read on Lorcan Dempsey’s (OCLC) blog about the ‘tremors’ that conference amplification causes and how having something like Crowdvine for a conference allows you to keep track of what is going on if you are not there, without going to a huge amount of effort….”it happened in the background. it was like weather”. this I think hits the spot with what Crowdvine is for, and what we hope to achieve with this first step into ‘conference amplification’ for the JISC Conference. It provides background online noise for the physical conference.
Now I am fully aware of the varying opinions on Facebook but we figured that we might as well create a Facebook event for the conference anyway but not really to make too much of it, but at least it was there. No-one was really invited, just a couple of JISC Comms people that I was friends with. People slowly came out of the woodwork though and signed up to the Facebook group (those tremors again). A commenter on Lorcan’s post about ‘tremors’ questioned the effectiveness of having so many different channels (Facebook, Crowdvine) and suggested it ‘dilutes the buzz or creates virtual cliques’. Probably true I guess, but I have noticed that since we launched Crowdvine last week, the Facebook event group has slightly increased in numbers after having stayed at a certain number for a while….so those tremors must still be doing their thing…?! I actually think that perhaps it enhances the buzz..as the more channels there are, the more people know about what is going on, even if they are not going..? Perhaps I am completely wrong, but it just struck me as quite funny that the Facebook event group has increased in numbers since the Crowdvine network was launched and there is a definite link. I think if anything it has helped enhance the buzz around the conference, rather than dilute it. but I am probably wrong about this…and I’m not sure what I think about the ‘virtual cliques’ issue yet either…surely being online it’s impossible to create a ‘virtual clique’ as a physical clique is something that is difficult to penetrate and become part of? but being virtual or online - surely anyone can access,view, read, comment if they want to or go to the effort of looking for it…? again I am probably wrong about this too!
interesting things to ponder though…! maybe next year we should have a debate session in the programme about this kind of stuff!!
JISC National etextbook debate - 14 April
The JISC National E-textbook Debate debate is taking place the night before the JISC Conference from 5.30 to 7.30pm near the ICC (details below)The event will be live blogged:
<http://librariesofthefuture.jiscinvolve.org/>Tag: librariesofthefutureIf you wish to attend the debate please register at:
http://www.jiscebooksproject.org/events/national-e-textbook-debate/audience-registration-form. The JISC National E-textbook Debate provides a unique opportunity to quiz a panel of experts and to openly debate the future role of the library in the provision of electronic textbooks.JISC’s Executive Secretary, Malcolm Read, will be chairing the event. The panel of experts consists of publishers and librarians. Representing the publishing community we have Tom Davy, CEO of Cengage and Dominic Knight, MD of Palgrave. Representing the library community we have Sue McKnight, Director of Libraries and Knowledge Resources at Nottingham Trent University and Mandy Phillips, Information Resources Manager at Edge Hill University. Each will have their own viewpoint, some arguing that in order to meet expectations and demand the institution/library purchase model must continue and some arguing against the institutional/library purchase model of e-textbooks on the grounds of sustainability and diversity of needs.
If e books are restricted to electronic facsimiles of the printed book and this stifles does not support innovation
Event Details:
Date: 14th April 2008
Location: (2 minutes walk from the ICC) Kingston Theatre, Austin Court, 80 Cambridge Street, Birmingham, B1 2NP
Maps: Google Maps or Street Maps
Times: 17:30 - 19:00 - Wine and nibbles will be served in the Lounge Bar from 17:30 and the Debate will start at 18:00 and run till 19:00 in the Kingston Theatre
Charges: This event is free
JISC Conference 2008 - fully subscribed!
well, it seems that everyone is mad for it this year and we have had to close registrations for the annual conference already and still a month to go…numbers well over 750! we have also had no problem selling exhibition stands this year and again..we have a full house already. lots of new faces in the exhibition hall this year which is great and quite a few publishers have come back out of the woodwork! work on enabling the live social networking platform underway, enabling attendees to network before, during and after and also non-attendees to see whats happening live including live video-streaming of keynotes, twitter streams and it goes on! it also seems that more and more non-academics are interested in coming along to JISC, traditionally we have kept them at arms length but when you have the likes of Cicso, Coutts and Unilever knocking on the door asking to come, then that only has to be a good thing? Decision taken this year to let them come, to use as an opportunity to inform them about JISC and the sector as they may well become involved in information solutions in the future….