Digital Campus working groups

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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

4 thoughts on “Digital Campus working groups”

  1. From my point of view this is certainly a good idea. Anything that encourages communication and discussion within the University’s infrastructure is a positive step.

  2. I think its a good idea to have a group to focus on the operational issues of Digital Campus – we need more ‘Lets’ do it’ and ‘How will this work in practice’ implementation groups. However the remit of this group is very broad, and suggests that perhaps more groups will be required (or perhaps already exist) for this group to liase with. It seems this group will have an overview of these issues, but I think that for this group to come up with all the policies would be a stretch…? Perhaps more groups or discussion forums (possibly informal) would be naturally created from this central group which would co-ordinate others. so yes, I think this group is an excellent idea but I think it could be further extended.

    I am particularly supportive of the need to get as many people as possible involved, but I think that many people would have an interest in a specialised area (perhaps this is more the case in ISS). Whilst the workshops do facilicate communication, and there are a number of groups that have been newly created I feel there is still a wide range of people being excluded from the process in some way – the workshops enable those who are outspoken to get their point across but there are others that perhaps are relunctant to come forward or who perhaps have no specific interest in Digital Campus. I think working groups is the way to get these people involved.

    As such I would welcome the creation of an environment in which everyone from campus that feels excited about change can form discussion forums on topics of interest that they decide on, and I believe this should be encouraged from the top, with time made available from their existing work (1 hour a week)?. Such forums/informal groups could be self-organising, with volunteer membership, driven by a passion to improve things. They could see an area they want improved, get formed and report to this principal working group. Ideally I would want everyone,and I mean everyone, who wants improvement to be involved in some way, and feel they were helping to drive the change.

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