Nov 21, 2024, 12pm EST

Sydney Giacalone, doctoral candidate in anthropology at Brown University, researches multigenerational farmers and ranchers across the U.S. who are transitioning away from conventional practices towards environmentally and social repairing approaches. This experience often involves questioning past education and internalized ideologies and learning to collaborate with nonhuman life to repair degraded ecologies. Join Giacaloneto learn more about her research.

Building: Curtis Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Ave., Medford, MA)
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Alumni and Friends
Event Type: Academic Date/Deadline, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Event Sponsor Details: Environmental Studies Program
Event Contact Name: Sinet Kroch
Event Contact Email: sinet.kroch@tufts.edu
RSVP Information: RSVP only needed for virtual attendants
More info: tufts.zoom.us…

Nov 20, 2024, 6:30pm EST

Students in the Private Lessons program perform solo works. 

Recital I at 6:30 p.m., Recital II 8:15 p.m.

Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Distler Performance Hall
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Event Type: Performance
Subject: Music
Event Sponsor: School of Arts and Sciences
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Music
Event Contact Name: Anna Griffis
Event Contact Email: anna.griffis@tufts.edu
Event Admission: Free, no tickets required.
More info: go.tufts.edu…

Nov 20, 2024, 12:15pm EST

Speakers:

Bruno Ciceri, Stella Maris



Chris Williams, Fisheries Section Coordinator of the International Transport Workers' Federation



Noel Adabblah, Fisherman



Moderated by Jess Sparks, Assistant Professor, Friedman School

Online Location Details: Details provided via email
Building: Jaharis Family Center for Biomedical and Nutrition Sciences
Campus Location: Boston Health Sciences campus
City: Boston, MA 02111
Campus: Boston Health Sciences campus
Location Details: *Jaharis 118 and Online, Please note that this Speaker Series event will NOT be held in Behrakis Auditorium
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: No
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate)
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Diversity/Identity/Inclusive Excellence, Health/Wellness
Event Sponsor: Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy
RSVP Information: No RSVP necessary
Event Admission: Free

Nov 18, 2024, 6:30pm EST

Join Tisch College for a private screening of a new documentary based on the groundbreaking work and leadership of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Frances Hesselbein. A true "pioneer for women, volunteerism, diversity, and opportunity,” Hesselbein was one of the most important figures in the leadership movement, where her influence extended from nonprofit management to corporate boards to the U.S. Army. Defining Moments shares the extraordinary impact of Hesselbein’s work, while exploring how her ideas can help leaders today safeguard a democracy under threat.

Building: Barnum Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Barnum LL08
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Event Contact Name: Jessica Byrnes, Senior Communications Manager
Event Contact Email: jessica.byrnes@tufts.edu
More info: www.eventbrite.com…

Nov 18, 2024, 12pm EST

This seminar is part of the Animal Matters Seminar Series presented by Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy.

Housing insecurity for tenants has increased in severity in the last several years as rents have skyrocketed and eviction rates have, in many cities, climbed higher than even pre-pandemic levels, according to a 2024 Harvard study. Today, more renters than ever are experiencing at least moderate rent burden as unaffordability in the rental market hit an all-time high in 2022.  Housing insecurity directly impacts peoples' ability to acquire and keep pets for life. There is a small, but growing body of research to better understand the impact of rental housing conditions on pets, pet owners, and animal shelters in the U.S. and how this issue relates to broader affordable housing and tenants’ rights social justice advocacy.

This presentation will share the results of three research projects, co-authored by our guest speaker Lauren Loney, a licensed attorney, researcher, and advocate crafting policies and lobbying on a variety of issues at local, state, and federal levels. Her talk will address the impact of restrictive pet policies in rental housing on pets, animal shelters, and the tenants who love them. Join us to learn about trends in pet relinquishment due to housing issues and several programmatic tools that may be most useful to mitigate the flow of these pets into animal shelters.

Online Location Details: tufts.zoom.us…
Building: Agnes Varis Campus Center
Campus Location: Grafton campus
City: North Grafton, MA 01536
Campus: Grafton campus
Location Details: Agnes Varis Auditorium (AVA), Joining remotely? Register in advance here., After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Alumni and Friends, Faculty, Parents, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate), Students (Postdoctoral), Students (Undergraduate)
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Education, Health/Wellness, Humanities, Politics/Policy/Law, Public Service/Government, Social Justice/Human Rights, Veterinary Medicine
Event Sponsor: Center for Animals and Public Policy, Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts Center for Animals and Public Policy
Event Contact Email: capp@tufts.edu
Event Admission: Free
More info: go.tufts.edu…

Nov 18, 2024, 12pm EST

Join a behind-the-scenes conversation with journalist, MSNBC anchor, and author, Chris Hayes as part of the Edward R. Murrow Forum on Issues in Journalism. Hayes is the Emmy Award-winning host of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes, the weekly MSNBC podcast Why Is This Happening?, and is editor-at-large of The Nation. He previously hosted the weekend program Up w/ Chris Hayes and served as a frequent substitute host for The Rachel Maddow Show and The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell.

Building: Barnum Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Barnum LL08
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts University's Political Science Department, the Film & Media Studies Program, Tufts Archival Research Center, the Tufts Democrats and Murrow Center for a Digital World at the Fletcher School.
Event Contact Name: Jessica Byrnes, Senior Communications Manager
Event Contact Email: jessica.byrnes@tufts.edu
More info: www.eventbrite.com…

Nov 15, 2024, 12pm EST

All are welcome to come to Sophia Gordon Hall, Room 100 (15 Talbot Avenue, Medford), on Friday, November 15 at noon to hear Professor Barbara Graziosi from Princeton University discuss the impact and interpretation of Sappho. This event will be moderated by Gregory Crane, chair of the Tufts Department of Classical Studies.

Graziosi is the Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature and the department chair of the Department of Classics at Princeton University. Her research focuses on ancient Greek literature and the ways in which different readers, through time and across the globe, make it their own.

This event is available in person and on Zoom. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Building: Sophia Gordon Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Somerville, MA 02144
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Room 100
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate), Students (Postdoctoral)
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Humanities, Innovation
Event Sponsor: School of Arts and Sciences
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts University
Event Contact Name: Amanda Pepper
Event Contact Email: amanada.pepper@tufts.edu
Event Contact Phone: 2037639353
RSVP Information: No RSVP needed
Event Admission: Free
More info: humanities.tufts.edu…

Nov 14, 2024, 6:30pm EST

The Center for Humanities at Tufts (CHAT) invites the Tufts community to join us on November 14 for a poetry reading with Daisy Atterbury and Adrienne Raphael, moderated by Professor Sarah Akant.

Daisy Atterbury is a poet, essayist and scholar. Daisy’s most recent book, The Kármán Line (2024), investigates queer life and fantasies of space and place with an interest in unraveling colonial narratives in the American Southwest.

Adrienne Raphel is the author of Thinking Inside the Box: Adventures with Crosswords and the Puzzling People Who Can't Live Without Them and the poetry collections Our Dark Academia and What Was It For. She teaches writing at CUNY Baruch and lives in Brooklyn.

All are welcome. Contact humanities@tufts.edu with questions.

Building: Fung House 48 Professors Row
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Somerville, MA 02144
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Conference Room
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate), Students (Postdoctoral), Students (Undergraduate)
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Humanities
Event Sponsor: School of Arts and Sciences
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts University
Event Contact Name: Amanda Pepper
Event Contact Email: amanada.pepper@tufts.edu
Event Contact Phone: 2037639353
RSVP Information: No RSVP needed
Event Admission: Free
More info: humanities.tufts.edu…

Nov 14, 2024, 4pm EST

All are welcome to come to the Fung House (48 Professors Row, Medford) on Thursday, November 14, at 4 p.m. to hear Professor Barbara Graziosi from Princeton University discuss how AI can be used in the reconstruction of ancient texts. This event will be moderated by Gregory Crane, chair of the Tufts Department of Classical Studies.

Graziosi is the Ewing Professor of Greek Language and Literature, and the department chair of the Department of Classics at Princeton University. Her research focuses on ancient Greek literature and the ways in which different readers, through time and across the globe, make it their own.

This event is available in person and on Zoom. All are welcome. Refreshments will be served.

Building: Fung House 48 Professors Row
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Somerville, MA 02144
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Postdoctoral Fellows, Staff, Students (Graduate), Students (Postdoctoral)
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Subject: Humanities, Innovation
Event Sponsor: School of Arts and Sciences
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts University
Event Contact Name: Amanda Pepper
Event Contact Email: amanada.pepper@tufts.edu
Event Contact Phone: 2037639353
RSVP Information: No RSVP needed
Event Admission: Free
More info: humanities.tufts.edu…

Nov 14, 2024, 12pm EST

Attorney Keith Ainsworth will offer a perspective on a 34-year career in conservation law through the reflections on the career path of a 1980’s environmental science graduate by sharing highlights and takeaways along the way and Tufts’ role in the trajectory. Ainsworth will also discuss the Private Environmental Enforcement in American Law—what environmental law looks like from the trenches.

Building: Curtis Hall
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: Curtis Hall Multipurpose Room (474 Boston Ave., Medford, MA)
Wheelchair Accessible (for in-person events): Yes
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Alumni and Friends
Event Type: Academic Date/Deadline, Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Event Sponsor Details: Environmental Studies Program
Event Contact Name: Sinet Kroch
Event Contact Email: sinet.kroch@tufts.edu
RSVP Information: RSVP only needed for virtual attendants
More info: tufts.zoom.us…

Nov 13, 2024, 3pm EST

Join a conversation with physician, scientist, and the activist who exposed the Flint water crisis, Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha. Dr. Mona is the associate dean for public health and C.S. Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, and the founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative, a public health program of MSU and Hurley Children’s Hospital in Flint, Michigan.

Named one of Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World and recognized as one of USA Today’s Women of the Century for her role in uncovering the Flint water crisis and leading recovery efforts, Dr. Mona has testified before the U.S. Congress and advocates for children in Flint and beyond.

Online Location Details: tufts.zoom.us…
Campus: Boston Health Sciences campus
Location Details: DuBlois Auditorium
Open to Public: Yes
Event Type: Lecture/Presentation/Seminar/Talk
Event Sponsor Details: Tufts University School of Medicine
Event Contact Name: Jessica Byrnes, Senior Communications Manager
Event Contact Email: jessica.byrnes@tufts.edu
More info: tischcollege.tufts.edu…

Chatbots are software applications designed to provide a conversational speech based interface to Web sites and services. Brian will be able to answer questions on the Workshop and this year's Workshop location, Bath. [2006-05-12]

A UKOLN Open Forum will be held on Wednesday 14 June from 10.00-12.00, prior to the official opening of the Institutional Web Management Workshop. The Open Forum will provide an opportunity to hear about some of the wider activities UKOLN is involved in. IWMW participants are invited to join the Open Forum. [2006-05-16]

Adrian Stevenson has put together an IWMW 2006 Blog entitled Web Idol. He will be adding blogs during the workshop. Any other interested bloggers are invited to get in touch with the IWMW 2006 team. [2006-06-02]

As part of the evaluation of collaborative technologies a plenary talk and a panel session at IWMW 2006 will be available on the Access Grid. Please contact your local Access Grid support team if you would like to participate. [2006-06-13]

Dec 25, 2024

The university observes a holiday on this day.

Open to Public: Yes
Event Type: University Holiday

Dec 24, 2024

The university observes a holiday on this day.

Open to Public: Yes
Event Type: University Holiday

Nov 15, 2024, 1:30pm EST

Robert M. G. Reinhart is an associate professor and the director of Reinhart Laboratory at Boston University. Research in his laboratory seeks to understand the nature of visual perception and cognition (e.g., attention, working memory, executive control, learning) in the healthy adult brain; how these processes break down in normal aging and neuropsychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia; and how we can leverage insights from basic and clinical science to develop novel interventions for optimizing cognition in healthy people and restoring abilities in aging and clinical populations.

Building: Joyce Cummings Center
Campus Location: Medford/Somerville campus
City: Medford, MA 02155
Campus: Medford/Somerville campus
Location Details: JCC 270
Open to Public: No
More info: tufts.app.box.com…

Nov 14, 2024, 12pm EST

All Tufts students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the Cherish Chinatown Challenge Kickoff! Come and learn more about the Cherish Chinatown Challenge and how you can help support locally owned Chinatown businesses during the month-long challenge! Delicious treats from a local bakery will be served.

To learn more about the Cherish Chinatown Challenge, please visit: go.tufts.edu…

Campus: Boston Health Sciences campus
Location Details: Tufts School of Dental Medicine, 1 Kneeland Street, Dental Alumni Lounge Rm 1514
Open to Public: Yes
Primary Audience(s): Faculty, Staff, Students (Graduate), Students (Undergraduate)
Event Type: Community Engagement
Event Sponsor: Tufts University
Event Sponsor Details: Office of Government and Community Relations and Tisch College of Civic Life
Event Contact Name: Aaron Braddock
Event Contact Email: communityrelations@tufts.edu
Event Contact Phone: 617-627-3780
RSVP Information: tufts.qualtrics.com…
Event Admission: Free
More info: go.tufts.edu…

Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus - a JISC-funded post which provides advice for the UK Higher and Further Education communities on Web developments.

Andy Price has been the Head of Corporate Communications at the University of Teesside for 18 months. He spent two years as Head of New Media at North East Evening Gazette, seven years as a Marketing and Business development consultant. Andy has had a varied career in both the private and public sector and have spent almost half his working life self employed. His main discipline is Marketing, but he has increasingly been involved in developments in new media and digital imaging. He has worked on early on-line 'business to business' developments in the music industry as well as managing a very early international on-line digital photography event in 1995. Subsequently he put local newspapers on-line, created local community portals, put Premiership footballs clubs in cyberspace and created national business databases as well as being directly involved in a wide variety of other on-line initiatives. In the past he has been the managing director of a graphics company, a community development worker, a language teacher in Spain and has helped establish a community circus, so he feels ideally suited to life on the web!

Christopher Harris is Executive Director of HERO. He has been seconded from Newcastle University for a period of 3 years to undertake this task. At Newcastle he was Director of Communications and Public Affairs, which included responsibility for NUInfo, the University's Internet service.

The workshop is fully subscribed. Email events@ukoln.ac.uk is you would like to be added to the waiting list. [2005-05-23]

The slides and handouts for the parallel session on "Hey! You! Get Offa My Web! Hidden Desires and Unforeseen Circumstances in Web Management" are now available. [2005-07-28]

An Ariadne "At The Event" article entitled "IWMW 2005: Whose Web Is It Anyway?" by Miles Banbery is now available. [2005-08-01]

Web content is increasingly produced by authors without extensive web design skills - whether by staff using CMSs, VLEs and courseware or by students publishing their coursework online. The challenge of making sure this content is as accessible as possible becomes much more significant, and inevitably a burden on the individual or institution. The quality of the authoring tool in supporting accessible content creation becomes critical - however support for the W3C's Authoring Tool Accessibility Guidelines (ATAG) by authoring tool vendors seems to be seen as a specific (and usually low priority) customer request rather than a fundamental quality of the tool. For institutions considering selecting a VLE, CMS or other tool that supports web content publication, how can they best express accessibility requirements so that the tool takes its share of responsibility for accessible output? And if existing tools fall short of ATAG conformance, how can the effect of this on the accessibility of content best be managed? The session was facilitated by David Sloan, University of Dundee.

Lawrie Phipps is the TechDis Senior Advisor for Higher Education. His background is in staff development and e-learning, designing and developing virtual field trips and courses and supporting science lecturers in learning and teaching. Lawrie is also a Visiting Fellow at the Special Needs Computing Research Unit at the University of Teesside. The research group is looking at a range of issues including disability and mobile learning, the use of multimedia to support disabilities, computer assisted assessment and the development of Virtual Learning Environments to support students with learning difficulties.

Brian Kelly is UK Web Focus - a post funded by the JISC and MLA which provides advice and support to the UK Higher and Further Education communities and the museums, libraries and archives sector on Web issues. Brian is based at UKOLN. Brian has been chair of the programme committee for the Institutional Web Management Workshop series since he established the event in 1997. Brian's interests include Web standards, technical architectures for Web services and innovative Web developments. Brian is chair of the Programme Committee and a member of the Organising Committee. Brian gave a plenary talk on Life After Email: Strategies For Collaboration in the 21st Century, contributing with Lawrie Phipps to the talk on Beyond Web Accessibility: Providing A Holistic User Experience, and co-facilitated a workshop session on QA For Web sites - What Goes Wrong And How Can We Prevent It? with Amanda Closier.

Scott Wilson, CETIS, Ben Ryan, KaiNao, Manchester Metropolitan University and Vashti Zarach, CETIS will invite attendees to critique the XCRI concept and comment in particular on the challenges and opportunities for implementing XCRI in their own organisations.

Pete Walker, Internet Development Manager, ILRT, University of Bristol and Stuart Church, Pure Usability Twill provide an insight into common pitfalls of Web sites and outline some easy methods to undercover how your site is being perceived and how it can be improved.

Keith Doyle, Salford University explains that the aim of information architecture is to improve the information ecology which is made up of the interaction between users, content and context. What is the process and methodology required to develop an information architecture? What are the key tools and enabling services which are required to implement information architecture? How is this process evolving at Salford? There will be a chance to look at the information architecture of institutional web sites, tips for improving the design of sub-sites, and we will look at and discuss real world examples.

Ed Bristow is the Technical Manager of the PKI Project within the Information Technology Services Group of the Australian Taxation Office. Ed has worked for the ATO for most of the last 12 years, moving from database to mainframe applications to his current role in electronic service delivery. Ed has spent periods working in the private sector and prior to finding his way into IT was a librarian with the Commonwealth Parliamentary Library in Canberra.

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

Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath, gave talks entitled "Introduction" and "Next Year's Web".

Brian Kelly is employed as "UK Web Focus" - a national web coordination post. Brian is based at UKOLN, University of Bath. Brian has been involved in web activities since January 1994 when he was involved in setting up the institutional web service at Leeds University. Brian gave a talk entitled "Deploying New Web Technologies".

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".

Brian Lantz, after a background in environmental and local politics in Arizona, came to London in 1975 to qualify as a librarian. Captivated by the dream of 'cycling Europe', he was lured by the brilliant summers in the latter half of the 70s into staying. He hung up his bicycle in 1982 after moving to Birmingham where he had risen through the ranks to Assistant Director of Information Services. His current role as 'Webmaster' focuses strongly on developing web based services to support marketing and teaching/learning at UCE. For his sins, he also created and runs the bookshop cum library supply services of UCE Books. Brian Lantz, University of Central England (UCE), gave a talk entitled "Dumbing Down".

Emma Tonkin, UKOLN and Adam Hardy will consider that User testing is often considered to be prohibitively expensive, complicated and time-consuming; the good news is that at least two of these assumptions are wrong. This hands-on session demonstrates how to use scenario-based user testing to check out the usability of a small application. It concentrates on accessible and practical real-world techniques for user testing, analysing the results, and working out how to apply them - as quick fixes, long-term aims or feature requests.

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.

Tim Matschak, Cass Business School, City University, will consider writing for the Web - is it so difficult? Which models for success should those involved in institutional Web management follow? This session looks at accessible language, using the expertise of professional writers from other media areas such as newspaper journalism.

Brian Kelly, UKOLN and Lawrie Phipps, JISC will review the barriers which we may face when implementing a Web 2.0 strategy and will outline a model and strategies which can be be used in order to address such barriers.

David Burden, Managing Director, DADENLIMITED and Marieke Guy, UKOLN will consider questions like: Can chatbots make sites more accessible or do they break fundamental usability rules? Do users like them, or find them irritating or even patronising? Are they the next best thing or a 5 minute wonder? Can they really benefit the education sector? Can a chatbot ever really learn?

Rob Bristow, Information Services Manager, Graduate School of Education, University of Bristol and Mark Lydon, i2a Consulting will look at Access Grid Node (AGN), an exciting area of development in communication within the academic, research and commercial worlds. Using open standards to transmit video and audio using IP Multicast networking, it is a type of video collaboration that allows a rich and immediate means of communicating with remote sites, while also being able to share presentations, data, complex visualizations and video. AGN is a technology that scales; from a single user node running with a Webcam on a laptop, up to a lecture theatre with multiple cameras and projectors. It also scales from one-to-one conversations to multi-site meetings, seminars and conferences.

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.

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

Rob Bristow is a Programme Manager at the Joint Information Services Committee (JISC) where he has responsibility for e-Administration as part of the Organisational Support and User Technology team. Prior to moving to JISC last year he was Information Services Manager at the Graduate School of Education at Bristol University and before that he as Web Manager at Cass Business School. Rob give a plenary talk on "Institutional Responses to Emergent Technologies - What JISC is Doing".

Brian is UK Web Focus - a post funded by the JISC and MLA which provides advice and support to the UK Higher and Further Education communities and the museums, libraries and archives sector on Web issues. Brian is based at UKOLN. Brian's interests include Web standards, Web accessibility, quality assurance for Web services and innovative Web developments, including collaborative Web tools. Brian is a member of the IWMW 2008 organising committee.

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.

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.