UKOLN News » JISC

The Benefits of the ORCID ID to Researchers

Brian Kelly — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 16:59:54 +0000

UKOLN staff have recently worked with Jisc in supporting the take-up of the Open Researcher and Contributor Identifier (ORCID) by the research community. A recent post which explains Why every researcher should sign up for their ORCID ID has been published on the LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog. The post describes how ORCID is a non-profit effort providing digital identifiers to the research community to ensure correct authorship data are available and more transparent. The post also summarises the benefits to researchers who acquire their ORCID ID.

TechWatch Report on eBooks in Education: Call for Comments

lisrw — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 15:08:10 +0000

In association with the JISC Observatory, the Innovation Support Centre at UKOLN has announced a call for comments on the latest TechWatch report to be produced. Preparing for Effective Adoption and Use of eBooks in Education is now available in its preview version together with a summary of its content and significance in a blog post on the ISC Web site. Further details are available in a news feature on the UKOLN Web site.

Launch of JISC TechWatch Report: Preparing for Data-driven Infrastructure

Brian Kelly — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:14:07 +0000

The JISC Observatory has published a report on “Preparing for Data-driven Infrastructure” which offers institutions advice on approaches to managing the increasing demands on their business and other data.

The report describes ways in which institutions can respond to strategic drivers in order to adopt a more data-centric approach across a range of development activities. The report includes a description of data-centric architectures, an overview of tools and technologies including APIs, Linked Data and NoSQL, together with a review of architectural approaches which institutions will need to consider when responding to requirements for greater transparency in their business processes.

JISC RIM CERIF Workshop Report

lisrw — Tue, 10 Jul 2012 14:48:26 +0000

The Innovation Support Centre at UKOLN (together with the JISC RIM and RCSI Programmes) organised a workshop in Bristol on 27-28 June 2012 on Research Information Management (RIM) and CERIF. The Innovation Support Centre has just published a blog posting on this event. Further details are available from the ISC blog.

New JISC Observatory TechWatch Report

lisrw — Wed, 09 May 2012 17:22:04 +0000

The JISC Observatory team is pleased to announce the launch of a TechWatch report entitled Delivering Web to Mobile. Further details are available from a news feature on the UKOLN Web site.

Managing Research Data Hack Days in Manchester

lisrw — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 13:31:25 +0000

The next Managing Research Data Hack Days will take place on 3 and 4 May 2012 in the Weston Room II at the Manchester Conference Centre. MRD Hack days are a free small event (which includes accommodation and food) for developers and experts who are interested in working on ideas in the area of Managing Research Data. These MRD days have been organised by DevCSI, the JISC Managing Research Data Programme and the JISC Orbital Project. They aim to bring together software developers, project managers, data librarians and experts particularly in the area of Managing Research Data.

We already have a number of ideas for hacks posted on the DevCSI Hack Days ideas page.

Further information and a booking form are available from the DevCSI location on the UKOLN Web site.

UKOLN Contributions to JISC Inform

Brian Kelly — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:32:53 +0000

The latest issue of the JISC Inform newsletter was published yesterday and contained two articles from UKOLN. One article provides advice on how institutions should respond to the ‘cookie’ legislation which comes into force on 26 May. A second article entitled Making the most of the open web, in which “three experts discuss how to use the social web to increase traffic to your work and make it more discoverable”, describes sound approaches to the use of blogs as an open practice.

Predicting the Future

Brian Kelly — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 17:53:34 +0000

An article by Brian Kelly entitled Predicting the Future: Evidence-gathering and Interpretation to Inform Planning has been published in Panlibus Magazine (Issue 23, Spring 2012) in PDF format.

In his article, Brian, a member of the Innovation Support Centre based at UKOLN, University of Bath, describes approaches to gathering and interpreting evidence in order to inform planning processes. This work is being carried out as part of the JISC Observatory service which is being provided by UKOLN and the JISC CETIS service.

Further information about the JISC Observatory is available on the JISC Observatory Web site.

Draft JISC Observatory Report on “Delivering Web to Mobile”

Brian Kelly — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:10:01 +0000

The JISC Observatory is provided by UKOLN and JISC CETIS to “systematise the way in which the JISC anticipates and responds to projected future trends and scenarios in the context of the use of technology in Higher & Further Education, and Research in the UK”.

The JISC Observatory is responsible for commissioning reports which cover areas of IT which are felt to be of significance for the Higher and Further Education sector. To this end we commissioned a report Delivering Web to Mobile which is being written by Mark Power, JISC CETIS. As explained on the JISC Observatory blog, a preview version of this report has now been made available for comment (in PDF format).

This report looks at the growth of mobile technologies and the state of the Web while giving an overview of approaches to delivering content and services optimised for the mobile environment. They include approaches to Web design in respect of responsive sites, leveraging access to device functions and capabilities, and the use of Web technologies to build mobile applications.

This preview version of the report is being made available for a period of 1 month to allow for public comment and feedback. A final version will be produced shortly after 23 March 2012, the last day for submitting comments which will be addressed in the final updates.

Please send us your observations using the comments facility on the JISC Observatory Web site. Comments of any nature are welcomed but we would particularly value those pointing out:

significant omissions in your view;
technical errors; or
confusing content.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Launch of Patients Participate! Findings

Monica Duke — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:17:51 +0000

The JISC-funded Patients Participate! Project releases the findings of a 7-month feasiblity study during a ‘TalkScience’ event, chaired by Tracey Brown of the charitable trust Sense about Science, at the British Library on Tuesday 18 October 2011. More information about the launch of these findings on ‘Bridging the Gap between Information Access and Understanding’ can be found in the event’s press release and on the Patients! Participate Web site.