Bookings are now closed for the Institutional Web Management Workshop 2007. If you would like to put your details on a mailing list please contact events@ukoln.ac.uk or a member of the organising committee [2007-06-01]

Paul Boag has written a guest blog post for "Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-04]

Keith Doyle has written a guest blog post for "Brian Kelly's UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-05]

Peter Reader has written a guest blog post for Brian Kelly's "UK Web Focus: Reflections On The Web" blog [2007-06-06]

An IWMW2007 group has been created on Facebook. Join up now! [2007-06-11]

This year the wiki tool provided for delegates to try out is Wetpaint. Links to pages have been set up for all plenary talks, parallel sessions, discussion groups and the exhibition. You are also free to create any new areas of relevance. [2007-06-18]

Delegate information on venue, registration, travel, accommodation and other aspects of the workshop is now available. [2007-06-22]

Please note that the official closing time for IWMW 2007 is 13.00 on Wednesday 18 July 2007. [2007-07-07]

Dave Lomas, University of Salford, gave a talk entitled "WebTools".

John MacCulloch, UKERNA, gave a talk entitled "Networking For Webmasters.

Mark Cox, UKWeb, gave a talk entitled "Security and Performance Issues".

David Murie, University of Dundee, gave a talk entitled "Charisma or camel? A sociotechnical approach to Web redesign".

After studying Applied Psychology and then Cognitive Science and Intelligent Computing, Stephen Emmott went on to lecture in both Artificial Intelligence and Psychology. After two academic years he ventured into the commercial world with jobs in the emerging 'New Media' industry: Easynet, Cyberia, Netmare and finally Webmedia where he spent his last year as project manager for Which? Online. He joined King's College London as Web Editor in September 1997 and is currently exploring content management using XML. Stephen gave a talk entitled "Events Online".

Victoria has worked at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory since 1989, and was one of the first pioneers of the web within the laboratory. She is currently corporate web manager, and departmental web manager, and is involved in a number of web-related projects including the DataWeb project to be described at the workshop. Victoria gave a talk entitled "DataWeb: Three worlds collide".

With the introduction of variable fees Universities have entered what education secretary Ruth Kelly called "a new era". Financial departments have had to find more creative ways to meet the sector's growing competitive demands and those working within universities have had to take a more business-like, customer-focused approach to many aspects of their work as they compete for students.

Paul Boag, from Headscape, considers how social participation is the cornerstone of the web 2.0 movement and has been spearheaded by sites such as digg.com. One of the underlying principles of these sites is that peer to peer recommendations carry more weight than those from either a search engine or from corporate advertising. The commercial sector has been quick to adopt this peer review mechanism with customer reviews and ratings. This talk proposes to explore how social participation can be applied to the process of recruiting new students and what lessons can be learnt from the approach adopted by the commercial sector. We will also look at what institutional barriers exist that prevent this approach and how these can be overcome.

Peter Reader, University of Bath explains that E-communications, e-marketing and social media are hot topics for university marketers and communicators, with old ideas of 'control' looking more and more unrealistic. Now the talk is of 'influence', viral marketing, students as customers, and of client management, with the web and web technologies seen increasingly as the university's most important marketing tools. So what are the challenges, and what are the issues with which marketers will face us? Expect more of "why" and "want" than of "how"!

During Keith Doyle, Salford University talk, delegates will discover how, by taking the information architecture approach as their next step, they can improve the user experience and business benefits. Information architecture gives delegates a framework and benchmarks for managing web provision at an institutional level. This should be an engaging and entertaining talk which would help delegates decide whether a formal IA role is appropriate to their organisation. Helping delegates consider their institutional strategic approach: What is IA? How is the role covered at the moment? Should it be a specific post rather than something that's squeezed in with everything else we do?

Steven Warburton will discuss how the notion of community continues to be recognised as a fundamental aspect within descriptions of shared human activity and group bonding. In his socio-cultural analysis of the work place Wenger defined a particular type of communion, which he termed a community of practice (CoP). The concept of a CoP has been somewhat abused in current literature yet it does provide valuable insights into how communities evolve, behave and sustain themselves. By elaborating dimensions of community such as shared practice, dialogue, legitimate peripheral participation and negotiation of boundaries, Wenger has provided a model that can be applied to a number of differing groups of activity. This talk will explore what we can draw from the work on CoPs, in terms of the role and identity of institutional web manager, one that is inseparable from a field of practice that remains dynamic, fluid and under constant negotiation.

Chris Young, Netskills, University of Newcastle and Paul Trueman, Netskills, University of Newcastle will be looking at accreditation systems. You may be new to a Web-role or you may be more experienced, with a set of useful skills. Either way, increasingly there is a need for recognised individual development and accreditation in order to progress in within your organisation and with your own career.

Philip Wilson, University of Bath will ask how do people make use of the data you publish on the Web? If you publish a staff directory, how do people currently add contact details to their address books? Copy and paste has had its day, Microformats are a way of making the data you already publish not only useful, but re-usable and re-purposable for relatively little effort. This session considers how these data formats can help you solve specific data problems on your site.

Adrian Stevenson, Internet Services, The University of Manchester will give an introduction to the SMIL standard and show how it can be used to create rich multimedia presentations. We will explore some of the problems and issues that arise when creating SMIL presentations, such as quality and copyright issues, and we will look briefly at some of the alternative technologies for creating time based presentations, comparing these to SMIL.

This session will be run by Michael Day, DCC, UKOLN, Maureen Pennock, DCC, UKOLN and Lizzie Richmond, University Archivist, University of Bath. Institutional Web sites have become an increasingly important tool for disseminating key institutional information to and between staff, students, researchers and the general public. They are widely recognised as key front-office mechanisms for the communication of important information, but the long-term survival of Web site resources and data with non-transient or enduring value is often overridden by the short-term benefits of on-the-fly Web site management. As a result, even institutions with Web site archiving policies can find themselves falling victim to the so-called digital dark ages and fail to preserve valuable information.

William Mackintosh, Web Manager, University of York and Damon Querry, Senior Web Development Officer, University of Newcastle upon Tyne will be looking at Search Technology within the University Environmen. The University of Newcastle upon Tyne has implemented a Google Search Appliance. The University of York is committed to the purchase of the Google Mini. The session will discuss the reasons for selecting these products and how they add value to an institution's Web site.

Keith Doyle, University of Salford will facilitate this session. A small group of people are working towards setting up a peer group to share good practise and knowledge. In this session, there will be the opportunity for delegates working to develop University Intranets to share their thoughts on developments around intranets and portals. We will also discuss how the peer group could develop.

Duncan Davidson, Information Manager, University of Abertay Dundee and Donna Wilkinson, Information Specialist, University of Abertay Dundeed will look at their University's development plans, the related projects - University Portal and Information Architecture, where we have been, current work and the road ahead.

Barry Cornelius, Computing Services, University of Oxford will explore how to make RSS work in your institution. Recently, the University of Oxford has risen to this challenge: it has delivered a devolved institutional newsfeed system. This workshop session will discuss how this system was produced and will demonstrate how easy it is to produce news items and get them displayed on a Web page or delivered through RSS.

In December 2005 the Web Development team at the University of Bath set up a departmental wiki where they could keep track of information. In this workshop Philip Wilson, University of Bath will explain the reasons for using a wiki, not just for education but for codifying knowledge and working practices in departments and how they can best be utilised so that it is used by everyone in the department, and how to stop it becoming an unmaintained silo of archaic data.

Debbie Nicholson, Web Support Officer, University of Essex will show how putting quality measures in place can prevent getting a brief for a Web design job that reads "not blue, a bit random, and not too Scottish". Don't laugh, this actually happened! This hands on session will get participants thinking about how they can introduce quality assurance procedures within the web design process. It will cover establishing a 'quality loop', creating measurable standards and will introduce ways to enable clients to be better informed about what they want from their new Web site.

Julie Allinson and Mahendra Mahey, UKOLN will give an overview of the current repository landscape, looking at the different types of repositories, their use within education and the range of issues relating to repositories, including cultural, social, legal, technical and policy considerations. Current JISC work in this area will be highlighted, focussing on how this work will contribute to raising quality standards in repository development, through interoperability and the use of open standards.

James Souttar has been part of the Precedent team since its inception in 1989. Prior to working at Precedent, he worked for the corporate identity specialists Wolff Olins. His area of expertise is branding and communications within the education sector specialising in working for universities: Cambridge University, Universities of Sheffield, Southampton and Reading, Oxford Brookes, Middlesex and Hertfordshire. James extensive experience has led him to be invited to write and lecture extensively on both sides of the Atlantic. For two years he was consultant lecturer at Central Saint Martins (now part of the University of the Arts). He also taught at the Lincoln College of Art (now part of the University of Lincoln) and Epsom School of Art. In addition, both he and a colleague were invited to give a week long charrette to the School of Communication at Virginia Commonwealth University. James gave a plenary talk on "Web 2.0 and Brand: Theory and Practice" and facilitated a workshop on "Using Web 2.0 Technologies to Support a Brand Focused Marketing Strategy".

Cameron Neylon commenced a joint appointment as Senior Scientist in Biomolecular Sciences at the ISIS Pulsed Neutron and Muon Facility, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in 2005. Since then, in collaboration with Jeremy Frey (University of Southampton) he has been involved in the development and optimisation of blog based electronic notebook systems for the biochemistry laboratories and the development of systems for monitoring and capturing data from the laboratory, the so-called 'Blogging Lab'. Through this work he has become a prominent member of the international community advocating the adoption of a more open approach to research practice. His group is currently moving to a fully Open Notebook approach where the research worker's laboratory notebook is made public as it being recorded. This process is being recorded and analysed in his Blog, Science in the Open. Cameron gave a plenary talk on "Science in the You Tube Age: How Web Based Tools are Enabling Open Research Practice".

Ewan McIntosh is a teacher and social media specialist based in the Edinburgh area. He advises on how social media can be harnessed for public service and education management and used to improve learning. His edu.blog shows how social software is not just a gimmick and can provide exciting opportunities for learning. Ewan gave a plenary talk on "Unleashing the Tribe".

Derrick McClure is a Senior Lecturer in the English School of Language & Literature at the University of Aberdeen. Derrick gave the opening address.

James Currall has been employed in the University of Glasgow for almost 20 years. His main job currently is as Head of Learning Technology where he has overall responsibility for the University VLE. Previously he was the Director of Strategy and Planning in IT Services, where he interacted with archivists, librarians, information technologists, academics and university managers. James is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), where he is developing applied research into information issues drawing on his service and strategic experience and also more theoretical work on the nature of digital objects and the problems associated with their management, security and retention. James gave a plenary talk on "The Tangled Web is but a Fleeting Dream ...but then again...".

Mike is the manager of the University of Aberdeen's Web Team. The team comprises seven developers who are responsible for the majority of the University's web sites and web applications. The team also works for a range of commercial clients. Mike formerly worked at the Robert Gordon University as an Educational Development Officer, and as a researcher in Information Management. As a callow youth he worked at the sharp end of IT user support in the oil services industry. Mike has published on technology issues in education, Web usability and Web management. Mike gave the opening welcome speech to Aberdeen with Derrick McClure.

Marieke is currently a member of the Interoperability Focus team at UKOLN. Interoperability Focus is a national activity, jointly funded by JISC of the Further and Higher Education Funding Councils and the MLA. Marieke is a member of the IWMW 2008 organising commitee and facilitated workshop sessions on "Embracing Web 2.0 Technologies to Grease the Wheels of Team Cohesion" with Andy Ramsden and on "Approaches To Web Site Preservation" with Brian Kelly.

In previous IWMWs sessions have focussed on issues such as: Should we buy or build our CMS? Which CMS should we implement? How do we implement our CMS? How can we measure the impact of our CMS Implementation? And how do we address The CMS Challenge? But last year it was claimed that "There is no such thing as a silver bullet" and that a CMS will not solve all your problems. Has the CMS bubble bust? Has content management become content mis-management? In the light of new approaches, such as Web 2.0, and new 'ways of doing things' is there a feeling of disillusionment with 'ye old CMS'? Or does a CMS remain the backbone of a good institutional Web site? In this debate you will hear the arguments for and against content management systems and will have an opportunity to express your views.

Randy Metcalfe, OSS Watch and Brian Kelly, UKOLN gave a plenary on openess and the Web manager. Openness appears to be all the rage: open standards for interoperability, open source for software development and deployment, and open content for sharing knowledge. What brings these phenomena together is a commitment to openness. But how do colleges and universities engage with openness? And more particularly, what does it mean for institutional Web managers.

Kate Forbes-Pitt, Systems Manager, Web Services, London School of Economics will talk about aims aims to problematise the document, asking the following questions: what is a document? How does it impart information to its reader? Can it be replicated on screen? It proposes answers using the arguments of Hughes and King (1993) who contend that the document is a layered social artifact that exists to 'wrap' content. This 'wrapping' provides the reader with the knowledge they need in order to apply social rules to their reading of the document, and so become able to interpret its content. Some information systems writers argue that the need for social knowledge in a task negates the possibility of its automation. Following the logic of this argument, delivering a document (a container of rule) through the existing set of social rules that govern Web interaction, means that the full function of the electronically reproduced document becomes masked or confused. At best this makes the role of the document superfluous to its content, making the content difficult to interpret. At worst it makes the content incomprehensible to the user. This raises a further question: what purpose is served by reproducing documents online? Following from the above arguments, it is possible to argue that 'pure' content, rather than the imitation of printed paper, is likely to be a more successful way of imparting information through the Web.

Universities undertake research through a mesh of partnerships, collaborations and contractual relationships. Major research funding bodies, such as government departments, are increasingly encouraging their contractors to adopt formal quality assurance standards - such as ISO 9001:2000. If you haven't come across this already, you are likely to see it very soon! In this talk John Gilbey, Institute QA Manager, IGER discussed the impact of quality standards on the way Web resources - internal and external - are defined, delivered, managed and reviewed in academic environments. An over-view of the quality requirement is presented, along with some pragmatic suggestions to help you deal with it.

Chris Scott from Headscape gave a talk on "Real World Emerging Technologies". Falling University entries and top-up fees have contributed to a step-change in the operational environment for the HE sector. This change has resulted in an acute pressure on institutions to innovate for success. This presentation will explore some opportunities for institutions to capitalise on new and emerging web technologies in response to such changes. While there is much hype about Web 2.0, there are some genuine opportunities for straightforward applications of Web 2.0 technologies in institutions that are low risk and low cost, and have potential for significant returns if they are introduced and managed correctly and the right people are involved.

IWMW 15 Institutional Web Management Workshop 2011: Responding to Change held at the University of Reading on 26-27 July 2011

IWMW 14 Institutional Web Management Workshop 2010: The Web in Turbulent Times held at the University of Sheffield on 12-14 July 2010

IWMW 13: Institutional Web Management 2009, held at the University of Essex on 28-30 July 2009

IWMW 12: Institutional Web Management 2008: The Great Debate, held at the University of Aberdeen on 22-24 July 2008

IWMW 11: Institutional Web Management 2007: Next Steps for the Web Management Community, held at the University of York on 16-18 July 2007

IWMW 10: Institutional Web Management Workshop 2005: Quality Matters, held at the University of Bath on 14-16 June 2006

IWMW 9: Institutional Web Management Workshop 2005: Whose Web Is It Anyway?, held at the University of Manchester on 6-8 July 2005

IWMW 8: Institutional Web Management Workshop 2004: Transforming The Organisation, held at the University of Birmingham on 27-29 June 2004