Thinking Digital 2014

Registration will soon be open for “Thinking Digital” 2014 at the SAGE Gateshead from the 20th April 2014 to the 22nd April 2014. Having attended the conference for the first time this year I can highly recommend it as an inspirational and thought provoking few days. By far, this was the best conference I have attended (and I have been to many) with an excellent depth and breadth of speakers and a variety of subject matter.

ReCap

So, my first experience of ReCap was last week at the meetings held for staff. What an excellent service and a useful product. My only criticism was that it could have been edited but as that was down to me I will take that one on the chin. When I think of my first attempt at Higher Education in 1981, this would have been ideal for me. I went to Leeds University and missed a lot of lectures in my first term and although I “borrowed” notes from others I never really got into the course and left after the Christmas holidays – and before the exams. I wonder if reCap had been invented whether I could have survived a bit better. I won’t go into why I missed so many lectures but having ReCap would have given me a chance to succeed, as I hope it does for many others now.

Jane’s IT strategy workshop

Although I attended most of the workshops over the summer, I didnt get the chance to give my thoughts and opinions. I dont think they have changed much over the 6 months but I am much more aware of how important it is that IT is customer focussed and driven, as well as being one of the core linchpins to achieve the University’s vision. So here are my workshop outcomes: Strategy Workshop of One

Common Themes from the Workshops

It’s been ages since I blogged and feels like even longer since I was on holiday. I had a trip to the states this summer and was once again surprised about how far behind the time they seem in card security (debit and credit). All I had to do was to sign my name on a bit of paper or on an electronic signature thingy. This has been the same for at least the last 20 years. Does anyone know why they aren’t using the available technology like chip and pin or verified by visa/ mastercard on the web? Interestingly, in contrast, to join a casino (for the free dinner of course) I had to produce a passport and was finger printed. It just doesn’t make sense to me, especially when the casino only took cash.

Anyway…. I digress. I wanted to share with you a list of common themes and Headings from workshops that have come up in the strategy sessions so far in strengths and weaknesses. We are now getting towards the end of the consultation cycle and its interesting that so many common themes have emerged.

It is currently planned that a draft IT strategy for the University will be available at the end of the year and then some form of consultation will follow from focus groups. It is unrealistic to again consult the 500 or so that have been to the workshops and so this will need some careful thought. As always, thoughts and comments are more than welcome,

 

 

iworkers and the consumerisation of IT

I was listening to a webinar earlier and the speaker said “IT can no longer dominate the user, consumerisation of IT has occurred”. The more I think about this statement the more I find myself intrigued by the threats and possible opportunities for the future University wide IT strategy . People are so savvy with technology now that their own devices that they bring to the office are often more sophisticated than the hardware on offer from the University.  Things are tested in the personal world and brought into the professional world, a shift in trends, not demanding change but driving it, merging the barriers between work and home.

If the University was to embrace and capitalise on the wave of innovation being unleashed by this consumerisation of IT, the potential leverage is enormous – in terms of organisational flexibility, a more engaged and productive workforce, the ability to leapfrog established competitors, and, possibly save some money?. But what about the challenge of compliance and security of university data……

 “ But while the use of personal devices such as smartphones, laptops and tablets is liberating workers, it is handcuffing many IT departments. For every salesperson using his or her personal iPad to access corporate email or CRM, there are IT managers behind the scenes scrambling to manage personal devices, protect corporate data and intellectual property, and ensure compliance”.

http://www.cio.com/article/689944/_Consumerization_of_IT_Taking_Its_Toll_on_IT_Managers accessed 15/8/12

And then the challenge that a BYOD strategy would have to encompass IT support for a huge array of personal devices e.g. Android phones and tablets, Blackberry, iPhone/iPads, windows 7 and 8 phones, kindles and kobos for staff and students  – and have staff that can be up to date and ahead of the game with emergent technologies.

Anyone want to have ago at mapping a strategy or plan around this or do we just let it happen organically????

Space for innovation

One of the common themes from the workshops is the opportunity to provide space and time for innovation, a sandbox hub for networking, learning and experimenting. It set me thinking, what would it actually look like? I am a visual thinker and learner and sometimes can’t understand a concept without a picture next to it. Then I found this link: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/146/the-idea-lab.html

Stanford’s Design School “idea lab”….. And my logical thinking kicked in and I can see the concept but how could it work in reality? Who would run it? Does it need organisation? Structure? How would you know who was working with what and whom? How would you match common interest groups? How would you deal with knowledge transfer?  

Surely the pure concept of an innovation sandbox would be to create space (and time) for thinking and playing to include anyone who wants to take part i.e. a history student looking at new forms of social media with a lecturer in Maths and Stats a Phd Modern Languages student and an administrator from the library – why not? Technology is moving far beyond the technical scientific sphere it once inhabited and is now more accessible and open to all for experimentation.

But I don’t quite get how you would control something this organic whilst allowing freedom to fail. Am I way off the mark?

The Death of e mail?

I read Ian Pitchers blog about his children not “doing e mail” yesterday.https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/ianpitcher/2012/07/10/but-i-dont-really-do-email/

By coincidence at last week’s congregation ceremony I came across the problem first hand. A number of students turned up without tickets and instructions because they hadn’t been told anything. Of course they had, by e mail! I was working with some bright sparks last week and I tested Ian’s idea of a communication promulgation system (suspect that’s a hub in layman’s terms) that would sift messages and send them by an individual’s preferred method of communication. The younger contingent agreed that they only used e mail for work purposes and used other methods of communication at home. In other words they don’t do e mail either but they are constantly carrying and checking their phones for communications.

How far could you go with this? Tweet when someone is due at a lecture? A text reminder for an exam? IM when they are late? Megan Quentin-Baxter is organising a conference and if I have got this right, the communications during the conference will be done by SMS/IM?  e.g. Workshop 2 Room 29 3pm til 5pm. Apologies Megan if that’s not the case.

It’s a brave new world, are we ready for it? I read recently some conference notes (Cloud communications stuff) where the presenter asked participants under 25 to raise their hands. There were none apparently. Is there a lesson there? That under 25’s don’t get sent to conferences perhaps, or maybe that we are not listening or even exploiting young minds enough in emergent technologies and communications.

I wrote this last week and today I am told that 4500 students logged into their e mail since the end of term….

Digital Campus working groups

I met with some colleagues the other day over coffee and we came up with the idea of a “Digital Campus Working Group”. This would consist of ISS staff and computing officers from each of the faculties (not all would attend each meeting but an agenda would determine which one (s) would be most applicable). The working group would be concerned with IT policies and not strategy. Some suggestions for the meetings would be:

  • Procurement
  • Security
  • Software
  • Programming language
  • Education
  • Project management
  • Communication
  • Infrastructure

The initial challenge is how to get as many people as possible involved and not just the same volunteers? Or does it matter if its the same people? Who should lead/ facilitate the meetings? Do they need a chair or a more informal setting? And my final muse – should this group deal with operational issues of Digital Campus as they arrive over the next few years and become a more formal group as part of Governance?

all comments most greatfully accepted

Strategy workshops and NU-IT

I thought that this might be useful as a reference point as to the purpose of the IT strategy workshops. Following discussions with a colleague, I followed up the conversation with this email…………

I thought I would send you a note after our chat today and you are welcome to forward it to anyone you think may be interested. 

It’s just to reiterate that the IT strategy workshops are just that – they are intended to find out what the University wants from an IT service in the future, that meets the needs of staff and students and looks ahead to the changing environment. They are not about consulting on a structure or strategy for NU-IT, this will come later, once the University has decided what it needs to deliver. Of course, there will be full consultation and discussion before any progress on NU-IT can take place and this will be carried out after the workshops have taken place and an IT strategy formulated.

 Incidentally, and as you would expect, there is already an IT strategy for ISS but not a University wide one that encompasses all requirements. The Digital Campus initiative would surely be doomed to failure if it didn’t gather these requirements.

thanks

Jane