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Scispace.net: Exploring the use of social network tools to support collaborative working

Abstract

The rapid expansion and enormous popularity of social networking web sites has many people wondering if they can be used for serious purposes and, if so, how. SciSpace.net is an experiment in the use of social networking tools to support collaboration; as both suppliers and users of this service we have tried to identify opportunities and obstacles. This presentation will describe how social networking software can support collaborative research, and what barriers to adoption there may be.

Bio

Ian Frame is a computing officer in the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Cambridge. Previously, he worked for the National Institute for Environmental eScience (now defunct). He is part of the management team, and the technical lead for SciSpace.net - a web application supporting research collaboration based on Elgg open source, social networking software.

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Subjects, Objects, Blogjects: Researchers, Laboratories and the Experimental Record

Abstract

Laboratory notebooks are a key to efficient and reliable research. There are many advantages of paper notebooks but they are not easily adapted to sharing and discussing information in a distributed research group. Similarly the long term archiving of paper is well understood but the information contained within the paper notebook I not readily accessible. I will describe approaches developed at Southampton using Semantic Web and Web 2.0 technologies to facilitate the accurate, flexible, useable recording, planning and discussion of laboratory experiments.

Bio

Jeremy Frey obtained his Chemistry degree at Balliol College Oxford He obtained his DPhil in 1982 for work on experimental and theoretical aspects of van der Waals complexes, in the Physical Chemistry laboratory, under the supervision of Prof. Brian Howard. A NATO/SERC post-doctoral fellowship (1982-84) took him to the University of California Berkeley & Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, to work with Prof Yuan Lee on molecular beam studies of reaction dynamics. In 1984 he took up a lectureship in the School of Chemistry at the University of Southampton, where he is now Professor of Physical Chemistry and Head of the Structure & Materials Section. Professor Jeremy Frey is committed to a collaborative and interdisciplinary approach to chemical research. The interactions with the Schools of Physics, Electronics and Computer Science (ECS) and the Opto-Electronics Research Centre (ORC), have been particularly fruitful. He is an associate member of the Southampton Statistical Science Research Centre (S3RI).

His research is based on the use of laser spectroscopic techniques to probe molecular structure reactivity and dynamics and organization in a variety of environments from single molecules, molecular beam kinetics and photochemistry, to the study of interfaces and surfaces with interfacial non-linear spectroscopy. As part of his current research he is involved with the UK e-Science programme, as PI of the CombeChem project (http://www.combechem.org) looking at the ways in which e-Science and Grid infrastructure can be developed to provide support for and carry out chemical research, for example in Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELNs) with the Smart Tea Project (http://www.smarttea.org), generating and applying a ’Semantic Chemical Grid‘ and applying Web 2.0 & Social Network ideas with Chemical Blogs and related technologies. Fundamental to the ideas of ’Publication @ Source‘ for scientific data is his work on the interaction of e-print repositories with chemistry in the work on the e-Bank & e-Crystals projects (http://ecrystals.chem.soton.ac.uk).

His most recent laser research, involving higher order non-linear effects, is as the PI of a Basic Technology project to generate a nanoscale ultra short pulse of x-ray source using ultrashort-pulsed lasers and fibre technology aimed at probing the shape of single large molecules of biological significance, such as enzymes, using x-ray scattering (http://www.phys.soton.ac.uk/xray/) and x-ray spectroscopy.

Web Links

• Personal Web Page - http://www.soton.ac.uk/~jgf
• e-Science Web Pages - http://www.combechem.org, http://www.chemtools.chem.soton.ac.uk
• Coherent Soft X-Ray Project - http://www.xray.orc.soton.ac.uk

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Mashups to Meshups and the Web of Data

Abstract

As part of the ReSIST Project [1], we have developed a set of knowledge bases and the infrastructure that surrounds them to support all aspects of the project work and endeavour, using Semantic Web technologies throughout.

The system includes more than 30 individual knowledge bases, many containing over 10 million RDF triples, along with knowledge capture utilities, knowledge publishing facilities, and the infrastructure required to enable the interoperation of these resources and other external Linked Data sites. It is thus able to give users a unified view of the system as whole [2], as a Meshup of semantic data, which is similar in character to that provided by Mashups of conventional Web 2.0 sites.

We present an overview of the system, and discuss certain aspects in more detail, particularly the components that deal with multiple URI references to the same resources.

[1] "ReSIST: Resilience for Survivability in IST" EU-funded Network of Excellence, http://www.resist-noe.org/ [2] RKB Explorer Application, http://www.rkbexplorer.com/explorer/

Bio

Hugh Glaser is a Reader in Electronics & Computer Science at the University of Southampton, UK, researching on Linked Data and Semantic Web Technologies. He was heavily involved in the development of the CS AKTiveSpace application. Prior to this he worked in Parallel and Distributed Computing and was involved in the early work on pure Functional Programming languages.

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Managing and discovering research papers like music?

Abstract

This talk will discuss the principles behind social music applications and explore their usefulness in the domain of academic research. We will then describe the reasoning behind the user experience design of Mendeley, a desktop- and web-based research paper management tool modeled on social music applications, and highlight the usability challenges we have encountered.

Bio

Victor Henning is a doctoral student and lecturer at the Bauhaus-University of Weimar, where he is writing his thesis on the role of emotions in decision-making. Since October 2007, he is also the co-founder and director of Mendeley, a combination of desktop- and web-application for managing and sharing research papers as well as discovering like-minded researchers. In February 2009, Mendeley received US$2m from the co-founders and executives behind Skype, Last.fm and Warner Music Group.

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Digital Lives: Usability for Personal Digital Archives for Usability

Dr Jeremy Leighton John
Directorate of Scholarship and Collections, The British Library
WITH Dr Ian Rowlands and Peter Williams Department of Information Studies, University College London

Abstract

Throughout their increasingly digital lives people are creating and acquiring increasing numbers of personal digital objects (termed eMANUSCRIPTS at the British Library) such as word documents, PDFs, digital photos and audio and video recordings. The difficulty of efficiently and effectively organising, storing and finding these personal digital objects is a familiar experience for many people; as is the need for archival repositories to find ways to handle and process these materials appropriately. This presentation will give an overview of the Digital Lives Research Project, a project being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and led by the British Library. A key component of the project is an investigation of the way academics and the digital public generally manage their personal information. Such research aims to help provide a basis for informed improvement of the usability of tools for personal information management. Effective usability will enable the continuing preservation and informational value of personal digital archives. Among the most advanced forms of usability are those that are founded not only on the behaviours of people generally but attempt to specifically match and adapt to the preferences, past behaviours and idiosyncrasies of the individual. Such information occurs in abundance (latently as well as explicitly) in the complete personal archive. Thus it is suggested that the personal digital archive – dynamically accessed – has the potential ultimately to serve as a fundamental resource for adaptive usability. This presentation will conclude by reflecting on this dual nature of personal digital archives.

Bio

Dr Jeremy Leighton John has been working since 2000 with personal digital archives at the British Library, and was appointed as its first Curator of eMANUSCRIPTS in 2003. He is responsible for the Digital Manuscripts Project. This is a project that has been developing procedures for the capture, holding and access of eMSS: pioneering, for example, the use of authenticating forensic processes as well as exploring perspectives and practices of enhanced and proactive curation and future access. He is interested in the adoption of web 2.0, usability and evolutionary techniques in this research and development, and has previously participated in a workshop on usability with a contribution on note-taking in the field. Holding a DPhil. Degree from Merton College, University of Oxford, he is the Principal Investigator of the Digital Lives Research Project funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, which is researching the behaviour of creators, the expectations of scholars and other users, and the requirements of curators and archivists.

Peter Williams has spent the last twelve years investigating the use of ICT applications in the fields of education, health, and the news media. He has worked at City University, the University of East London (UEL), and University College London (UCL), where he is a Senior Research Fellow. His main interest is in looking at how ICT can be exploited to help adolescents with learning disabilities with basic skills, communication and self-advocacy. He is also interested in mainstream youngsters’ electronic information behaviour, and played a big part in the recent ‘Google – Generation’ project. By contrast, he is currently examining how scholars and other eminent people create/acquire, manage and archive digital information in a joint project with the British Library. Peter has published extensively, and is lead author on over forty journal articles and a book.

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Collaborative Astronomical Image Mosaics

Daniel S. Katz
Center for Computation and Technology

Abstract

Montage is a toolkit that allows astronomers to build scientifically accurate image mosaics, using many small images to build a single large image. While a single astronomer can use public virtual astronomy datasets or private data to build a mosaic, collaboration with other astronomers can also be valuable and can lead to new products as well as new science results. This talk will describe Montage, explain how it works, and give examples of how it could be used collaboratively, thus providing a use case for current and/or future Web 2.0 tools.

Bio

Daniel S. Katz is Director for Cyberinfrastructure Development in the Center for Computation and Technology (CCT), Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Louisiana State University (LSU), and TeraGrid GIG Director of Science. He has previously been JPL and Cray, where he had a variety of titles associated with technology development and project and program management. His research interests include: numerical methods, algorithms, and programming applied to supercomputing, parallel computing, cluster computing, and embedded computing; and fault-tolerant computing. He received his B.S., M.S., and Ph.D degrees in Electrical Engineering from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, in 1988, 1990, and 1994, respectively.

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Interacting with the Humanities

Ruth Kirkham
Project Manager for the BVREH project University of Oxford

Abstract

In this presentation I will discuss the 'Building a Virtual Research Environment for the Humanities' (BVREH) project and in particular how we have worked with humanities researchers to gather comprehensive requirements to inform our VRE developments. Though not at all the stereotypical lone scholars working in isolation, Humanities researchers do span a very wide range of technical knowledge and involvement and as such their needs are often very different from those working in the sciences and technical fields. It is essential therefore to ensure that the interaction between the users and technical developers is as smooth as possible in order to build tools and services, which are genuinely useful and support real research needs.

Bio

Ruth Kirkham is the Project Manager of the 'Building a Virtual Research Environment for the Humanities' (BVREH) project based at the University of Oxford. Ruth is currently working on a 'VRE for the Study of Documents and Manuscripts' working with Humanities scholars to enable researchers working with manuscripts (including obscure, fragmentary and other "hard to read" texts) to select, store, organise and annotate textual and image data in a personal workspace and which can be shared by collaborating researchers in different locations. Prior to coming to Oxford, Ruth worked as a project and technical manager at Ingenta Plc.

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The Open Cirrus Cloud Computing Testbed

Dr. Marcel Kunze
Steinbuch Centre for Computing (SCC)

Abstract

Open Cirrus is an open cloud-computing research testbed designed to support research into the design, provisioning, and management of services at a global, multi-datacenter scale. The open nature of the testbed is designed to encourage research into all aspects of service and datacenter management. In addition, the hope is to foster a collaborative community around the testbed, providing ways to share tools, lessons and best practices, and ways to benchmark and compare alternative approaches to service management at datacenter scale. Open Cirrus is a collaboration of several organizations: HP, Intel, Yahoo!, IDA Singapore, KIT and UIUC.

Bio

Heading the department for "Integration and Virtualization" at Steinbuch Centre for Computing, Dr. Marcel Kunze is a technical lead in the Open Cirrus Cloud Computing testbed. He received a Diploma degree in Physics at Karlsruhe University in 1985. In the following years he was delegated to CERN to head a group for the construction of the trigger system and data acquisition for PS 197. After his graduation in 1990 he went to Bochum University where he started to work in the field of distributed systems and neuro-informatics. In 1996 he received his habilitation on the use of artificial neural systems in particle physics. Since then he joined the BABAR collaboration at SLAC / Stanford University to investigate and further develop the Grid Computing paradigm for distributed processing of particle physics data. As an associate professor he was teaching particle physics, neuro-informatics and software design. In 2002 Dr. Kunze joined Research Centre Karlsruhe as a department leader for "Grid Computing and e-Science" to work on the establishment of the LHC Computing Grid. In the recently founded department for "Integration and Virtualization" at Steinbuch Centre for Computing he is now committed to R&D in the field of service oriented architectures, virtualization techniques and system development for Cloud Computing. His working groups are active in many national and international projects such as D-Grid, EGEE, CrossGrid, Int.Eu.Grid, g-Eclipse and OpenCirrus.

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Web 2.0: The Impact of Bottom-up Research Innovation

Abstract

In this presentation, Meyer & Power will discuss the various impacts Web 2.0 research tools are having on users. This theme will be developed using data from several projects: a survey of users that indicates the importance of bottom-up innovation in research, a project looking at topics science bloggers address, an analysis of the JOVE online journal for visually sharing and commenting on laboratory methods, and a project to develop a toolkit for measuring the impacts of web-based resources. These projects each illustrate an aspect of how we can understand uses of these new technologies as they move from the innovation space of tool developers into the everyday use space of normal researchers.

Bio

Meyer is a research fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute of the University of Oxford. He is also a researcher on an ESRC/NCeSS-funded project examining the social, institutional and legal aspects of e-Research. His PhD is in social informatics and focused on the ways in which scientists adapted technology, in that case digital cameras, to their needs as scientific researchers, but also saw unintended consequences in terms of changing work habits and organizational structures occur as a result of this new technology.

Power is a research assistant on the Oxford E-Social Science project and a doctoral student at the Oxford Internet Institute. She is investigating the impact of Web 2.0 on life science research practices.

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Time for a REST: Introduction to RESTful services

Abstract

In this talk, and the later tutorial session, I will be talking about Representational State Transfer, or REST. This is a simple, but powerful, set of concepts for developing highly-interoperable tools, and is considered one of the cornerstones in the development of Web 2.0 services and mashups.

Bio

Hugo Mills has extensive experience in Semantic Web research, through his work on the EPSRC e-Science programme Combechem project at Southampton University, where he was instrumental in developing an electronic laboratory book system for use by chemists, using Semantic Web technologies. Following Combechem, he worked for OMII-UK, acting as a systems developer and representing the organisation in both consultancy and dissemination roles. Most recently, he has been working at Reading University for the VERA project, developing a cross-database search system and 3D visualisations for archaeology.

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IBM and Dynamic Infrastructure

Doug Neilson,
IBM Systems Group

Abstract

IBM has developed a strategy for a dynamic IT infrastructure that will help organizations address higher service expectations, rising cost pressures and new risks and threats, while also laying a foundation for breakthrough productivity, accelerated value creation and the increased velocity needed to achieve the faster pace that business and society demand. This new approach spans physical and digital assets, data centre systems, distributed computing resources, business processes, and software solutions to address emerging business imperatives.

Bio

Doug Neilson is a Systems Consultant working for IBM's Systems and Technology Group. He has had more than thirty years experience as both an IBM customer and employee. Doug is responsible for the development and promotion of IBM Systems strategies to major European customers, the press, consultant and software vendor community. He is also a vigorous advocate for IBM servers within IBM. Doug's main areas of expertise are systems strategy and directions, Linux, virtualisation, consolidation and IBM Systems technology, deployment and applications solutions. Doug is a frequent keynote speaker at substantial IT industry conferences, hardware and software events and major IBM customer events.

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"Walking the walk: The experience of using Web2 tools in active experimental research projects"

Cameron Neylon,
STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Abstract

While there is much discussion of the potential of Web2 tools for science there are relatively few actual examples of their use in practice, particularly for experimental research. This talk will discuss a number of experimental projects that have used blogs, wikis, and other web based read-write tools as the primary means of communication and give examples of what works (and what does not).

Bio

Cameron Neylon (STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory) is a biophysicist who has always worked in interdisciplinary areas. After undergraduate studies in metabolic biochemistry he has pursued research in molecular biology, biophysics, and high throughput methods. In 2001 he took up the position of Lecturer in Combinatorial Chemistry at the University of Southampton and in 2005 he commenced a joint appointment (80%) as Senior Scientist in Biomolecular Sciences at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Facility where he manages the Biomolecular Science programme. While at Southampton he was a key participant in several large scale interdisciplinary projects. At STFC he continues to work between disciplines to increase the use by biological scientists of facilities traditionally dominated by chemists and physicists.

Through these projects he has gained extensive experience of the challenges of working within and managing complex multidisciplinary research programmes with recent papers in journals as diverse as Cell, Nature Physics, Complex Systems, and Journal of Combinatorial Chemistry. In 2005, in collaboration with Jeremy Frey (University of Southampton) he obtained funding to develop and optimise an electronic notebook system for biochemistry laboratories which has lead to his involvement in the Open Research movement. His group is currently moving to a fully Open Notebook approach which is being recorded and analysed in his Blog, Science in the Open. He is a regularly invited keynote speaker on Open Access, Open Research, and the development of laboratory recording systems for academic research.

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The Attraction of Cloud to Enterprise, vision and reality

Abstract

The excitement about Cloud Computing has captured the interest of many in the ICT industry, on the user and supplier side. The reality is that Cloud as a concept is not really new; it shares a lot in common with established outsourcing and utility computing models. What is new is the provision of ad-hoc, on-demand services from web service providers such as Amazon and Google. However, life within the enterprise will remain largely untouched in the short to medium term, because the practical constraints on business IT infrastructure are more to do with siloed applications and fragmentation of infrastructure caused by continual addition of new applications with their own dedicated capacity. For Clouds to become meaningful, we either have to sweep away the existing infrastructure and applications and replace with new, a non-trivial task, or find an evolutionary way of establishing an in-house infrastructure which eventually can be extended to public services. This talk will discuss the challenges involved and some possibilities for progress.

Bio

Ian Osborne is Director of the Grid Computing Now! Knowledge Transfer Network, Vice President of Enterprise for the Open Grid Forum (a global distributed computing standards body) and a Principal in the European FP7 Project, OGF-Europe. Established in 2005, Grid Computing Now! is funded by the UK Government's Technology Strategy Board, and aimed at transferring the knowledge and capabilities necessary to demonstrate the value of Grid Technologies in public and private sectors. See www.gridcomputingnow.org.

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Digital Identity for Researchers

Abstract

Your Digital Identity (DI) is how other people see you on the Internet - it forms the interface between you and the communities that you interact with. With the increasing use of the “Web2.0” paradigm for user contributed content, it is easier than ever to build a rich DI, but also easier than ever for it to become diluted or even poisoned by third parties. The Eduserv funded “Me” project is working to uncover best practices and provide learning materials to help people understand issues with their DI, from being to focussed (and appearing two dimensional), through building your online reputation and trust networks to methods for mitigating “PR” disasters. The session will explore what your DI is, what you might consider to be an “ideal” DI for you personally, how others might see you through the lens that your DI provides, and ways of managing your DI.

Bio

Mr Parslow, BSc, MSc, MBCS is a research assistant in the School of Systems Engineering. He is the Technical Manager on the Eduserv funded This Is Me Project, designing learning materials to help learners explore their Digital Identity. He is also working on the JISC funded MeAggregator project which is designing a user-owned tool to help users manage their resources and DI. He has recently been working in the Muvenation, Mobiblog and LLL3D projects, and is involved in research into life-long learning assistants (Intelligent Tutor programs). He has industry and adult education experience in designing and delivering IT courses. He has research interests in Open Learner models and collaboration software for both learning and productivity, and how the concept of self relates to the learning experience.

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arts-humanities.net – from community website to (social) knowledgebase?

Abstract

The arts-humanities.net project has been developed as a community site for arts and humanities researchers with an interest in using information technology in their research. Based on online discussions, blogging and user contributed content, the site has supported an interdisciplinary network beyond the UK. Recently, the project merged with the ICT Guides knowledge base that is also supporting arts and humanities researchers. In this presentation, I will outline the history of the project, its interaction with the user community, future plans and the challenges of developing such a site that now has to find a new identity between the social (network) and the knowledge base.

Bio

Torsten Reimer is Development Manager, Community Infrastructures and e-Learning, at the Centre for e-Research (CeRch) at King's College London. At CeRch, he manages the group developing the community site and knowledge base arts-humanities.net. He has worked on the use of Web 2.0 technologies for information sharing in research and has worked extensively with interdisciplinary groups of researchers using ICT. Coming from a background in digital humanities and historical research, he has extensive experience in managing digital projects.

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Cloud-based Security Services

Professor Richard O. Sinnott
Technical Director National e-Science Centre University of Glasgow

Abstract

The NeSC at Glasgow are involved in a wide range of projects where fine-grained security is essential. We briefly outline some of these projects and explore the security models that are supported. Based upon the experience of these projects we review and classify cloud-based security models and assess what they can do, what they can't do, and importantly what would they have to do to be adopted by the security-oriented communities we currently work with/support.

Bio

Richard Sinnott is the Technical director of the National e-Science Centre at the University of Glasgow, Technical Manager of the National Centre for e-Social Science and Deputy Director of the Bioinformatics Research Centre at the University of Glasgow.

In these roles he is responsible for organising and administrating both UK-wide work and local Glasgow University activities associated with e-Science/Grids and associated technologies. He is principle investigator and/or co-investigator on a wide spectrum of projects covering the e-Research landscape. The common denominator across these projects is in supporting finer-grained security models.

He has a BSc in Theoretical Physics, a Masters in Software Engineering and a PhD in Distributed Systems. He has edited several international standards in the area of open distributed systems. Prior to working at NeSC in Glasgow he ran his own company in the area of real-time systems with specific focus in the telecommunications domain.

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Web-Based Tools for Visualising and Sharing Geographic Information

Abstract

Web 2.0 technologies are revolutionising the way in which we present, share and analyse geographic data. This seminar discusses GeoVUE, one of seven nodes in the National Centre for e-Social Science, whose mission it is to develop web-based technologies for the social and geographical sciences. The Node at CASA UCL has developed a suite of free software allowing quick and easy visualisation of geographic data in systems such as Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. These tools are aimed at the non-GIS trained academic or professional and are designed to overcome common technical hurdles in visualising and sharing spatial data.

Bio

Duncan Smith is a 3rd year PhD student at CASA UCL. His research interests include applying GIS to urban research and planning, and encouraging public participation in planning using web software. Duncan holds an MSc in GIS from the University of Edinburgh.

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Which scholars use Web 2.0, and how? Conceptualising Web 2.0 innovation in academia as a researchable concept.

Abstract

This presentation introduces a study-in-progress of the use of Web 2.0 in Scholarly communication in the UK. We review some of the different research and policy approaches that provide insights into the use and adoption of Web 2.0, from science studies to IT implementation, and discuss the usefulness of the approaches in thinking about how Web2.0 is used in scholarly practices.

Bio

James Stewart is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Science, Technology and Innovation at the University of Edinburgh. He researches in the area of Innovation and Appropriation of ICT services and systems.

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MoSeS: Finding a way to a Promised Land

Abstract

The UK e-Science Programme began in 2001 and has provided significant funding for research, some of it targeted at getting computer scientists working with other scientists to develop applications in science.

I came away from the meeting: full of enthusiasm for SIM-UK; excited about my future use of Information Technology (IT); and, aware of the utility that internet enabled laptops provide in meeting/forum/symposium/conference conditions. I appreciate how computers in general can be used to search for and access additional information and help capture information about a meeting leading to a reference resource that can be shared and used as a memory and to help follow the steps taken. The SIM-UK meeting gave me a vision of the way I wanted to be working. It involved: blogging, using wikis; working in small steps towards a grand vision; capturing and re-using information about the process of research and condensing it, as well as, the development of the application and the results.

It took me a while to get my act together and in a way this is still just the start of the story. My first attempt at a concise reflection on this that I prepared electronically was for The Oxford e-Research Conference 2008 [1]. I have been though an iteration since and much has gone on in the intervening period. This has been somewhat captured in blogs and wikis, but it is time again to reflect on the process, its benefits and its costs, what are the issues we face adopting enhanced and pervasive ways of working. The Influence and Impact of Web 2.0 on e-Research Infrastructure, Applications and Users event provides an almost ideal opportunity. I will be attempting to condense and blog information as we proceed and will provide presentation slides and perhaps an extended abstract via the following URL: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.turner/events/NeSCWeb2.0e-Research2009-03/

References [1] Turner A.G.D., (2008) Experience of e-Social Science: A Case of Andy Turner and MoSeS. Revised paper presented at The Oxford e-Research Conference 2008 and available online (http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.turner/publications/papers/conference/OxfordeResearch2008/OxfordeResearch2008_2.0.1.doc).

Bio

For a biography please see Andy's website at: http://www.geog.leeds.ac.uk/people/a.turner/research/

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Personal Learning Environments as VREs?

Abstract

As research is a discovery and learning activity, there is a potential for learning support environments to be used as VREs. While patently some learning support environments, particularly Virtual Learning Environments, are not up to the task of supporting research activities, other learning support environments may be able to support research activities. Those environments that seem most likely to support research activities are manifestations of an educational culture that is concerned with encouraging learners to take control of their own learning – typically within the context of learner groups that engage in peer-assisted learning. These learning environments are generally called Personal Learning Environments (PLEs).

There are two strands of PLE development: Firstly, the mashed-up PLE, composed of discrete Web 2.0 services (blogs, wikis, social bookmarking systems, etc.) that are selected by a learner in order to support a particular style of learning. Secondly, the integrated PLE, which is a PLE that is a single web service, or that, at least to its users, appears to be a single web service. Either kind of PLE may support research activities.

The Manchester Personal Learning Environment is an integrated PLE that supports a social constructivist approach to learning; i.e. it is designed to support group-based peer-assisted learning. In its realisation, the Manchester PLE consists of a social networking ‘substrate’ that is combined with re-purposable multi-user multi-media spaces to help support learning activities. These learners may be in different places, and may engage in learning activities at different times. The PLE benefits from many advanced techniques that are combined to create both a highly usable system and, in the near future, an extensible system.

In this talk, Mark van Harmelen will introduce the PLE ‘movement’, differentiate between different kinds of PLEs, and describe the Manchester PLE; relating it to other Web 2.0 systems that might be used to support research activities. Mark will discuss forthcoming user trials, and how researchers can become involved in this activity from late April 2009.

Bio

Mark van Harmelen is a computer scientist who works predominantly in the areas of learning support systems and resource discovery and utilisation, often with a Web 2.0 and personalisation emphasis. Mark is currently the lead designer of the Manchester PLE and is, inter alia, also working on the development of a UK-wide resource discovery architecture for the Joint Information Systems Council. Previously Mark worked in the areas of human computer interaction and the software engineering, and is responsible for a novel unification of the two areas. Mark is currently the Director of Personal Learning Environments Ltd, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of Manchester, from whence he gained a PhD in Computer Architecture in 1986. Mark's previous roles include Lecturer at the University of Manchester, Senior Researcher at National Panasonic's Tokyo Research Laboratory, and as a South African Cabinet appointee directing a high-level team that designed, planned and facilitated the establishment of South Africa's Mareka Institute.

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Welcome and Introduction to Day 4 of the Workshop

Claire Warwick
Senior Lecturer, Department of Information Studies, University College London

Bio

Claire Warwick is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Information Studies at University College London. She is the Programme Director for the MA in Electronic Communication and Publishing , and teaches modules on electronic publishing and its legal and social aspects and XML. She is also a member of the UCL Academic Board and Deputy Vice-Dean for Research for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Her research is in the area of digital humanities, particularly in the development and use of electronic texts and digital libraries. She is the founder and head of the CIRCAH research group and an associate director of the VERA project. She was also principal investigator of the LAIRAH project, and co-investigator of the UCIS project. She is a member of the executive committee of the Association for Computing in the Humanities, and chair of the International Programme Committee for the Digital Humanities 2009 conference. She is also a member of the British Computer Society Specialist Group on Electronic Publishing and the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing. She serves on the of the advisory boards of several digital humanities research projects, and is a member of the Arts and Humanities Research Council Peer Review College for Librarianship, Information and Museum Studies.

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An Introduction to Cloud-based Services

Abstract

Cloud Computing is becoming increasingly important for both commercial computing and e-science. In this talk we will give an overview of why clouds are of interest to e-science, look at different types of clouds, and consider what a science cloud might offer users and developers. We will give examples from the CARMEN project (www.carmen.org.uk), which has designed and built a Cloud to support data sharing and analysis by neuroscientists. The CARMEN science cloud is structured as a set of cloud “middleware” platform services (workflow, security, dynamic service deployment, data and metadata storage & search,) that sit on an underlying cloud storage and processing infrastructure.

Bio

Paul Watson is Professor of Computer Science at Newcastle University, Director of the Informatics Research Institute, and Director of the North East Regional e-Science Centre. He graduated in 1983 with a BSc in Computer Engineering from Manchester University, followed by a PhD in 1986. From 1990-5 he worked in industry for ICL as a system designer of the Goldrush MegaServer parallel database server, which was released as a product in 1994. In 1995 he moved to Newcastle University, where his research has foucssed on scalable information management.

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Digital Identity

Abstract

We use the term Digital Identity to describe the persona a person projects across the Internet. Your Digital Identity as perceived by other people is made up of material that you put their yourself (for example your own web pages, contributions to Wikipedia) but it also is made up of material other people put there about you (blog posts that mention you, hyperlinks to your work). In the session we will give more details of what a Digital Identity is, and how to control your own. Additionally we will provide a series of activities that participants can use (individually or in small groups) to help them explore their own Digital Identity, and investigate ways of producing a professional researcher's Digital identity Support will be provided for working through these activities.

Bio

Dr Williams (BSc, PhD, CEng, CITP, CSci, FBCS, FHEA) is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Systems Engineering, and holds a University Teaching Fellowship. She has worked extensively on projects related to technology and learning. Current projects include the EU-funded: Muvenation (aiming to help teachers understand the potential of Virtual Worlds to encourage pupil motivation), LLL3D (building, connecting and supporting communities using concepts such as virtual worlds to benefit Lifelong Learning), Mobiblog (developing a web-based service on European level for exchange of experiences of individual mobile students), EduServ funded This is Me investigating aspects of Digital Identity.

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"Techniques for developing usable VREs"

Dr Judith Wusteman
UCD School of Information and Library Studies

Abstract

I will discuss how the use of Agile software development methods (such as iterative design) coupled with user-centred design (in particular usability testing) can maximise the usability of Web 2.0-powered Virtual Research Environments. I will also introduce the Science Foundation Ireland-funded OJAX++ VRE project, the aim of which is to investigate how concepts from the social web and recommender technology can be applied to the research environment.

Bio

Dr Judith Wusteman has been lecturing at the School of Information and Library Studies at UCD since 1997. Before that, she lecturered in computer science at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Judith's research interests are Web 2.0, Virtual Research Environments, digital libraries, XML and text encoding for digitisation. She has been involved in various digital library projects. Judith is currently the Principal Investigator on the Science Foundation Ireland project "OJAX++: A Next-Generation Collaborative Research Tool".

Further details: http://www.ucd.ie/wusteman/

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