Subject Centre C&IT meeting

16.7.08 Kings College London

Subject Centre updates

A round-up of subject centre activities included

Developing Content Management Systems for SC sites (where a Central service was not suitable)
Redesign of websites following community feedback
Using MyBB code to support forums
Mini-sites for students or specific topics
E-journal developments
Creating wikis using MediaWiki and PBwiki
Exploring open source solutions (Php/MySQL)
Shared calendaring
Video recommendations
Podcasting and Video editing
Creation of surveys
XML search via url (interoperability)
Approved comments/ratings for resources
Online E-learning tool to create learning objects
Using Digital Object Identifiers and cross-ref tools
Exploring web 2.0 resources - Microblogging with Twitter and Twhirl
Establishing social networks,
use of SC social bookmarks
supporting JISC/HEA collaboration
exploring mobile technologies and services e.g. QR codes, and the creation of mobile phone specific SC websites e.g. http://m.llas.ac.uk
Expanding delivery of Subject Centre content through distributed and established services including YouTube, Pbwiki, SlideShare, WikiPedia, WikiVersity, Wordpress/Akismet, Intute, Amazon, Google Books, AddThis, Google Video, Del.icio.us,
Improving search
Using slideshare content with Subject Centre websites
Exploring Firefox add-ons (firebug & fireshot) and PicLens
Embedding video on Plone / Zope
Using tagging and SmartFolder functionality to develop automated content
Experiences with the Academy CMS
Implementing AIRDIP resource database with Intute on Centre websites
Integra work
Using SUGAR CRM for task management
Using Wordpress for blogs
Exploring e-portfolio tools (Mahara VS PebblePad)

Academy / Intute combined resource databases (Intute, Bioscience and HSP)

This was followed by a presentation on the combined Subject Centre and Intute resource databases under the AIRDIP pilot project. Diana Massam and Hilary Jones from Intute demonstrated how links to an HEA Subject Centre resource catalogue which is part of the AIRDIP database can appear in the results of an Intute search, leading more visitors to subject centre websites. Subject Centre search views were also demonstrated, illustrating the appropriate priority ranking for each site.

There is potential for the AIRDIP project to be extended to other subject centres, who may wish to export their resource data to Intute, to be added to the AIRDIP database. Discussions are still underway with Intute and the HEA over scoping an extension of the project. However, any subject centres who are interested in joining the AIRDIP project should contact Diana as soon as possible at Diana.Massam@manchester.ac.uk

Tailoring Google Site Search

Brett Lucas and Payman Labbaf (English SC) demonstrated how a tailored service could be purchased from Google and be used for searching centre websites, subject networks and related communities. This was a technical presentation and readers are invited to see the slides and implementation notes for further details.

View slides here

View Payman's implementation notes here

Swapshop: using website logs effectively

A discussion of current techniques, software tools and findings from logfile analysis. The consensus was that the diversity of SC websites and disciplines made it very difficult to have meaningful comparisons of the actual metrics. These are however useful for monitoring trends of browser usage and screen resolution which can then be feed into site redesign. However, the range of software analysis tools discussed (Clicktracks, Analog, Awstats and Google Analytics) offered views where areas of the SC sites which are not performing well can be easily identified and boosted.

Most sites used the logs to identify the profile of browsers visiting the sites. If legacy browsers were a minor issue then it was agreed to allow these to depreciate i.e. not tailor services for those who did not upgrade their browsers.

Academy Gateway Project (Mike Clarke and Gateway members)

Mike Clarke described the project and the services that the Gateway was seeking to offer for Academy-wide reference services and communication, principally to improve internal communications, manage documentation, maximise collaboration and generally improve overall efficiency. The scope covers Finance and Administration, HR, Projects and Events. Subject centre C&IT staff are represented in the project through Terry McAndrew and Danni Lamb who will work with C&IT staff to communicate priorities to the gateway team and identify the technical standards and tools needed. The working space wiki, where subject centres could add links to information sources for the Gateway to consume e.g. calendars and feeds and links to central services, was demonstrated. This led on to a wider discussion of the technical formats for calendars.

View slides here

Sharing Calendar information and current methods

Martin Poulter (economics) described some of his work using hCalendar and iCalendar. Tools were compared for their potential for the network to deploy for the aggregation and management of event calendars; Software and Google tools to display calendar feeds are being explored by some subject centres. It was agreed that we should encourage all subject centres to adopt and implement these standard formats for calendars across websites and leave the aggregation of their content to individual choice of tools. This recommendation will be put forward to the Gateway project.

Web 2.0 strategies - recent experiences and suggestions

Each subject centre had been exploring ‘Web 2.0’ services and tools. Individual and project blogs were in use and project Wikis were becoming more widespread. It was recognised that penetration of the Academy subject centres into Web 2.0 would require content to be presented through many different domains from ‘Addthis’ to Wikipedia. Each subject centre C&IT staff member has the opportunity to use the technical community blog to share these experiences and is recommended to do so.

http://ancientgeeks.wordpress.com/

Some SCs reported using Ning (www.ning.com) for building social networks around topics or interest groups and techniques to improve the profile of these are likely to become more valuable as the communities grow.

Tagging strategies

A discussion followed on the use of recommended ‘tags’ for discipline communities to identify resources of interest. For example, Bioscience had recommended ‘heabio’ as a simple tag but it was suggested to use ‘subject centre bioscience’ as a tag sequence as this is simple to remember and as easy to use as a search string in sites like del.icio.us or similar. An additional strategy was to have an account which could receive recommendations e.g. http://del.icio.us/heabio

Economics have used del.icio.us to expose learning and teaching resources through tags.

The long term preservation of resources outside the domain of SC websites i.e. in other ‘web 2.0’ sites must be carefully considered as the 3^rd party dependence on the provider may become an issue

General discussion and ways forward to continue to improve Subject Centre C&IT collaboration

The previous sessions had overran a little and a room booking demand 15mins before the scheduled close also reduced the time available. However, the following key points were agreed.

· Continue advocacy of useful technologies

· Share experiences through the community blog

· Continue to discover, evaluate and describe useful online services

· Keep the excellence visible – no-one will know what you are doing unless you tell them

· Use the SC management structure to report issues which require non-technical or management decisions; don’t be tempted to work around it as it is not informative, reliable or productive. Feed up to the appropriate loop.

· Recognise strengths – communicate areas of interest and expertise – perhaps document competencies or register them through the community blog.

4pm - Close

View photos from the day here

Acknowledgment

Thanks expressed to Kwansuree Jaimton and Health Science and Practice Subject Centre for hosting the meeting.

Next meeting

Host for the next meeting to be discussed.

A suggestion for Academy York offices was made as this was close to the AY team (it was recognised it appeared difficult for AY members to attend) and geographically central for many Subject Centres. Date would have to be after the Web Portal Pilot outcomes, probably November 2008, as this would give Subject Centres an opportunity to plan future developments based on the conclusions.

If other subject centres wish to volunteer this would be most welcome.

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