Published on December 18, 2007
in JISC.
The demise of Eduspaces is a real pity as it seemed to be a community with a decent niche and a well established user-base. That said it is a tough thing to make money from and not everyone is Facebook and the team at Curverider have mortgages to pay like most of us I’m sure.
It seems to me though that this could open up an opportunity for services like this one at JISC Involve but also Edublogs down under (which inspired this service) but maybe more significantly the JANET Collaboration Service that while still in beta is pretty well established by now. An offer of migration support would be a nice Christmas present for alot of users over at Eduspaces.
A hot topic on the Eduspaces forum has been the idea of a ‘Eduspaces Foundation’ to take forward the network and keep it running for its users. I think its a nice idea but I’m not sure the comments about the cost of maintenance, hosting and management are very realistic. I think it’ll be tougher than people realise.
From a personal point of view I never really liked Elgg and found it a bit clumsy compared to Ning or even People Aggregator and while I appreciated its open-source status and the passionate community around it I could never be convinced it could compete with these other services - its only a personal opinion though and I know many people speak highly of it.
Anyway, like I said - its a real pity and I think the timing is a real shame as well - I can imagine many people will be forced to spand more times on their laptops this Christmas than perhaps they’d hoped.
Published on December 18, 2007
in JISC.
Over the last few months I’ve spent alot of time thinking (and reading ….) about this whole ‘amplified conference’ idea - and especially in the last few weeks its been something of an oasis of web 2.0 fun in a desert of mundane web 1.0 activity!
Both Brian Kelly and Andy Powell (sometime together) have been doing some interesting things around this and people as illustrious as Dave Winer (the rather grumpy ‘creator’ of RSS) have been talking about similar concepts.
Anyway like Andy recently mentioned on his blog sometimes you have to stop talking (or writing) about things and just get on and do them. Apart from his unhealthy fondness for SecondLife Andy tends to talk sense!
So anyway it looks like I’m going to put JISCs money (though it has to be said we are sticking to free services!) where my mouth is try some of these concepts out at a JISC event or two (even though I am technically at HEFCE at the moment!) - culminating in a whole heap of activities around the JISC Conference.
Anway these are some of the ideas I’m currently scoping out:
- live microblogging from sessions to a combined Twitter feed
- live (and recorded) video streaming using either Mogulus or uStream - no SecondLife feed from me though!
- ‘near live’ blog summaries of all the sessions (this went down well last year)
- an event specific social network (using something like Ning or Crowdvine)
- all presentations posted on Slideshare (and an attempt to create live ’slidecasts’ of all presentations)
- a conference wiki (though not sure what for at the moment!)
- a conference ‘backchannel’ chatroom (not 100% convinced on this one - I’ll be honest)
- adding pictures to Flickr as we go
- GoogleMap mashups of who is coming from where (not really much more use than the delegate list but could be fun!)
- offline podcasts with speakers - recorded on the day
- using Yahoo Maps to create one RSS feed based on multiple searches and existing feeds
- creating one final ‘portal’ that aggregates all this info into one place (thinking about using the JISC-funded Iugo)
Obviously we’ll make sure the event tag is publicised early and often..anyway I’m looking forward to working on these concepts and it fits in with some wider thinking I have been doing lately about wider issues of using technology to enhance communications and marketing activities - something I keep threatening to blog about but haven’t quite got their yet.
OK it has been pointed out to me by one or two people that my blog post yesterday might have been a little bit negative! I’m not going to pretend I haven’t been frustrated by elements of my new role but things are slowly improving and its just a case of trying to get in to a new mind-set I think.
The framework which all the e-gov activity works within is far more resistant to change than I have become used to working at JISC but it has well established reasons and procedures and is quite obviously dealing with a very different type of audience. Despite its own layers of bureacracy JISC and the wider area of ICT in Education (particularly HE) is far more open to innovation and taking risks, but then I guess thats kind of the point. Organisations like JISC and its many Services, programmes and projects are by their very nature early adopters and that willingness to push the boundaries gave my work in communications more space to roam.
While my interests continue to be mainly focussed on using the ideas and tools of Web 2.0 in enhancing (rather than replacing) more traditional communications models (blended communications?) the more disciplined approach required to take this current project forward is a timely reminder that some of my skillset has become rusty through underuse and it will be useful in the long run to get back into running a more standard web project. It will also give me an opportunity to polish up my diplomacy skills as well!
Later in the week I’m going to get back onto the topic of the amplified conference and more generally into my ideas about blended comms - you know, the more fun stuff!
Published on December 3, 2007
in JISC.
Its becoming increasingly apparent to me that I have been living and, more importantly, working in some kind of bubble for the last couple of years. The great leaps forward in the web that I saw happening around me were actually an illusion and they had failed to take hold in the wider public conciousness (well certainly not the civil service part of it!!) I feel like I am in a particlarly dull and geeky version of Groundhog Day, having the same conversations, facing the same barriers and feeling the same frustrations as I did while at the ESRC five years ago or more!
The slavish commitment to WCAG 1.0 and the hugely outdated WAI-AA stamp of approval seems horribly mis-placed when taken against the Accessibility 2.0 agenda put forward by people like Lawrie, Brian and David Sloan over the last couple of years - plus lets not forget even the WAI realises the problems and has been chugging along on WCAG 2.0 for what seems like an eternity!
The traditional publishing metaphor is rampant as well, layers upon layers of editorial controls, workflows, sign-offs - basically a bureacracts dream! The idea of user-generated content, rapid publishing models, becoming a part of the conversation, social networks as another communications channel - basically anything that gives up control of the ‘message’ is looked on with distrust (to say the least!).
Major web projects are commissioned, project managed and developed with noone with any real strategic level web knowledge involved in the process and considerations like usability, interoperability, future proofing and things like archiving are seemingly completely bypassed.
This obviously a one eyed view of the world at the moment - born out of frustration rather than any kind of in-depth research! Things like the Power of Information report and the fact that there is a eGov BarCamp in the new year proves to me that there are like minded souls working in this environment but I wonder if they are in positions to makeany headway?
At times I complained about the lack of momentum at JISC and the fact that our Communications projects sometimes stalled due to what seemed like an overabundance of oversight and a slow moving committee system - I now see how lucky I was to work in an environment that was always looking to embrace new ideas and models for communications. JISC may not have led the way as often as I would have liked but it managed to stay in the chasing pack. Currently I feel like the chap who did the marathon in a diving suit - finishing days behind!
AArrrrrggghhhhh! Rant over…the thing is everyone is perfectly nice and reasonable and absolutely convinced they are on the right path and to be honest who am I to tell them differently??
