Through the Phases

Style & Formatting

I spent half a day this week trying to ensure a range of case studies, our service is publishing, were formatted correctly and were all of the same style.  I think this is a largely underestimated part of the publishing process in terms of both time and importance.

Managed Expectations

I maintain a blog for the area of work I’m involved with.  The system is undergoing an upgrade (WordPress) and so I took this as an excellent opportunity to question people on what they’d like to see added in the future.  This was internal at the moment however I’d definitely like to do something similar with our wider audience.

Creating a Video

I wasn’t planning on creating a video for a meeting I was attending but thought it might really improve interest in my area of work, described under networking.  I’m glad I did as it definitely added some fun to the subject, and I’ve never had so much interest at a conference before.  The one thing I struggled with was exporting the video.  I’m going to have to look back through some resources to streamline the process.

Networking

I attended the ‘Employer Responsive Provision’ cross programme meeting on Wednesday; a great day organised to help JISC, and some wider, projects share findings.  The day was well paced with lots of opportunity for networking.  Pre-meeting activities added to the fun with the creation of posters and videos.  You can view my video on YouTube.  As @fredgarnett described it, “Desmond Dekker joins JISC!”

Crying

Not really, but nearly.  Upon arriving back from Birmingham during the week I was shocked to find something had eaten a large proportion of my veg patch!  Mainly the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower leaves.  Bit gutted but hoping they’ll still grow.  Must get that previous action sorted and build some cover!

I’m at a cross programme meeting today learning and sharing information on employer engagement.  Should be a great day with people from across UK further and higher education.  If you haven’s seen it yet, I created a video for the day that gives an overview of business and community engagement.  Ohhhhhh Ohhhhhh B.C.E

Inspired by a colleague, Doug Belshaw, and the passion to improve my writing I thought I’d embark on the phenomenon that is Weeknotes.  I hope you enjoy…

Keeping my blog up to date

It takes some effort to keep a blog up-to-date but I’ve been trying to make a big effort since the start of this week.  I think one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is feeling comfortable enough to just throw things out there.  A lot of it may not appeal to the majority of people but who knows, one nugget of information might really make the difference to someone.  As mentioned above I really want to improve my writing style and speed which I’m using as a carrot to drive myself forward.  A quick tip is that I’ve been drafting blogs when an idea comes to mind and setting myself a target date for publishing it using the schedule feature in WordPress.

Cross projects meeting

I’m heavily involved in the coordination of five projects, part of a larger programme of work I need to maintain links with.  The projects are nearing completion after approx. 18 months (generally).  We bring those projects together every three months to share lessons learned, update on progress and discuss any issues.  It generally helps to keep everyone up-to-date too.  For some reason or other I enjoyed this day more than usual.  We had: an update from one of the projects that had completed; each project drew road maps highlighting their journey to date helping them prepare for their final reports; we had a session on evaluation from someone external to the group; discussed the future of the overall programme; highlighted requirements for the final report; and discussed what we might do in the final meeting due in July.

The one thing I always struggle with is getting rich and engaging information from the day back to those who took part.  Other than general notes we took videos of feedback from the road map exercise, along with images.  For me video is the most engaging format and helps to capture the full meaning of what’s said but it’s the hardest to share with a closed group.  YouTube works as a medium but to share a private video users must have a YouTube account.  Not everyone appreciates having to sign up to yet another service.  I need some time to really test out the various options available in this area.

Meet and Greet, Text and Tweet

I exhibited at the ‘meet and greet, text and tweet’ conference hosted by the beautiful Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.  I had work that needed doing so couldn’t attend the sessions, unfortunately.  I did meet some nice people during the break though and hope they found our information of use.  The bulk of interest seemed to be around e-Portfolios and the Business and Community Engagement projects we’re undertaking.  Interesting to note at such a conference the organiser didn’t know what a #hashtag was, doh.  From conversations on twitter the sessions did seem worthwhile though, which is good.

Reviewing the Mediating Boundaries event

Rather than reinvent the wheel it’s probably worth just pointing you in the direction of our write up available on the Collaborative Tools blog post.  The post is relevant to anyone interesting in communities of practice or business and community engagement.

Gardening

I’ve a new found love for gardening after the wife and I started our own veg patch although now have a new found hatred for anything stealing our cauliflowers and cabbages!  Action: build some cover!