The charter is supported by 21 organisations, including government and tourism bodies, marketing consortia and industry trade associations.

Signatories undertake that their pricing for the period around the 2012 Olympic Games will be both fair and reasonable and that they will not artificially inflate prices for goods or services; in turn, Charter members will be promoted to organisers seeking venues and suppliers via Visit London’s enquiry service and through Visit Britain’s network of overseas offices.

This is indeed an intelligent and welcome move by the tourist board and I hope that lots of UK venues and suppliers sign up!

http://business.visitlondon.com/news/2012charter

We do have a budget but we also rely on commercial exhibitors and sponsors to help us pull off this free of charge extravaganza every year. Without them we would not be able to do it. We are therefore currently looking for a main conference sponsor, full details on the conference website. Previous conference sponsors have been Eduserv and OCLC. If you think your organisation might be interested or you know of one that might be interested then do please let me know!

Grace Porter

Events Co-ordinator

JISC

g.porter@jisc.ac.uk

We will be amplifying the conference again this year with livestreamed keynotes, blogging of the sessions, micro-blogging via twitter, photo-sharing and videos. We have learned from last year that we need to make sure that the livestreamed keynotes not only show the video but the slides that the speaker is presenting to as well. Furthermore we need to provide some kind of live commenting facility - for those watching the keynotes via the web - essentially so people watch and listen, see the slides and comment, and do it all live. We are still currently investigating the best way (and most cost effective way!) to do this, with Hector Peebles leading the way on this. More updates on all this stuff to come!

A new feature that we will be launching in 2009 is assisted 1-2-1 networking. The JISC Conference consistently offers great networking opportunities. However, delegate feedback tells us that it also difficult to network effectively due to the size of the event and tightly packged programme. So I wanted to try and enhance the delegate experience this year by improving the networking opportunities - something I think that can often get overlooked with our efforts to amplify.

We hope to achieve this by introducing a web-based tool that delegates will be able to log into via the conference website and search for people that they would want to network with on the day. They can send an automated secure and private invite via the system to people they want to meet, and if the invite is accepted the system automatically allocates a time-slot and a table in a dedicated networking area at the conference venue. The system works out mutually free timeslots based on each individuals schedule for the day, which the system knows already as it is linked to the main delegate registration system. Its very clever and I think a fantastic idea.

The delegates then just need to go to the networking room at the relevant time and sit at the right table number. Easy! Hopefully! I hope that this will be useful to many delegates who predominantly attend for the networking experience. Exhibitors will also be able to benefit from this by putting up profiles of themselves and inviting and accepting delegates to 1-2-1 meetings on their stand.

Finally, I have introduced a set of environmental standards which relate specifically to the JISC Conference 2009. I have been working to introduce environmentally friendly practices into the organisation of JISC events in general. I felt it was important that we make as much effort as possible to reduce the impact of the JISC Conference 2009. One major change that we have made is to abandon the conference delegate bag altogether, and get rid of the sponsor delegate pack inserts. The main reason for this was the delegate bag was really only to put all the inserts in - a huge waste! So no delegate bag, attendees will just get their badge and a significantly reduced in size event guide. Everything else will be online including delegate list etc. The delegate pack inserts will be replaced with electronic adverts which will be displayed on a rolling basis on the fixed plasma screens located all around the venue. We shall see if exhibitors like this idea or not…but essentially they have to get used to it as the delegate pack insert is no more!

Look forward to seeing you in Edinburgh next year! If you are coming do try to help us reduce the environmental impact of your event by taking public transport, perhaps car-sharing. Info on the conference website.

With Barcamps and Unconferences being the latest in a surging trend of what I am going to call Events 2.0 (see great blog post also by Julius on 5 signs your event is Web 1.0) , giving the control back to the user seems to be the way forward for event organisers, with no going back!

It is like a revolution is taking place. Potential delegates are forming online Communities and rebelling against the Event 1.0, and doing their own thing, either as completely alternative events, or as ‘fringe’ style events, going against the grain and doing their own version of a well known big event. You only have to check out what was going on at F-ALT (A fringe event coinciding with ALT-C back at the beginning of September) to realise that this sort of thing really is happening and isn’t just a phase.

Delegates or ‘users’ as Julius calls them have immense power. Julius believes, and I agree, that you can’t compete with these guys:

“You can’t compete with your users. You can’t tell them that what you planned is better than what they will achieve in a community effort.”

So what do we the event organisers have to do? We have to start accepting the fact that we need to lose control a little and rather than telling delegates what they want to hear or know, start listening to them. Julius lists in his blog post, top 10 tips on how to keep up with this new trend, which really do give food for thought.

I do think however (the hardcore barcampers out there will probably disagree) that there is still a place in the conference and events world for a structured programme, some people like that….but we need to start thinking outside the box when putting together programmes in the first place, and adding that element of creativity.

One idea that was suggested to me recently which got me thinking was perhaps as part of the pre-conference online networking and discussion, ask delegates to post ideas/questions/themes that they want to talk about, let the discussion start online and then choose the top 10 open online forums (perhaps conduct an online vote?) and give them a physical space on the day, whether thats a corner somewhere, a proper room, a couple of sofas, or whatever, and allow them to continue the discussions on the day, and blog about them.Now there’s a thought…giving delegates freedom to talk about what they want to talk about? Whatever next!

As the article points out, this revelation highlights that the ‘grass isn’t necessarily greener even if a venue or hotel has a CSR policy in place’. For example, a venue could be doing as little as putting posters above light switches reminding people to switch off lights when they leave the room, and claim to have an energy saving programme. The problem is that although venues and hotels are now increasingly aware that meetings and events buyers make venue purchasing decisions based on the venue’s ‘green credentials’, most hotels still focus predominantly on gross profit, at a huge cost to the environment.

More and more venues are starting to pull their green socks on now and introducing their own sustainability and CSR policies. However event buyers need to make sure they read the small print to find out what the policy entails.

The Conference Care survey does at least show that the majority of venues have woken up to the fact that they need to take responsbility for their impact on the environment. This is good news. Many are doing really good things, for example Cavendish Conference Centres in London have 4 venues in central London all of which are Green Mark accredited and they aim to be landfill neutral by the end of this year.

The more event buyers ask venues about their sustainability/environmental/CSR policies the more venues will realise it will benefit their business by having policies that actually do meet the new demands of their customers. It benefits everyone, but most of all the environment!

- 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!

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.

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 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.

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.