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.

During this session there will be an exploration of the use of Web 2.0 technologies in brand based marketing. The session will use the results of the recent collaboration between the University of Southampton and Precedent Communications http://www.southampton.ac.uk/isoton to demonstrate how developing a consistent approach to the adoption of Web 2.0 technologies can be acheived by considering your institution's corporate objectives and audiences. Discussion Groups will consider how the Web 2.0 technologies used in brand based marketing can be applied to their institution. The session was facilitated by James Souttar, Precedent.

This session will review how a number of Web 2.0 technologies that are both internally and externally hosted and can be used to future proof the way that teams in institutions can work effectively together. The session was facilitated by Andy Ramsden and Marieke Guy, University of Bath.

Tony Brown is a Web developer at PPARC (the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council), where he responsible for the development, hosting and running of Web, Intranet and Extranet applications. He has grappled with computers since 1987, starting on mainframes moving through client server to Web-based applications. For the last ten years he has specialised in information retrieval and display, and, for reasons he still can't work out, content management. For purely pragmatic reasons he has sold his soul to Microsoft, and has an ongoing love/hate relationship with .NET. Tony gave a plenary talk jointly with Matt Thrower on Socrates: Building an Intranet for the UK Research Councils.

Helen Sargan, University of Cambridge will show that there are several realistic alternatives to using a slide presentation tool such as Powerpoint or similar. she'll give an overview and demo of several Web-based alternatives with the pros and cons of using them, a profile of the constituencies who would benefit, and what skills and support they might need to succeed.

Stuart Smith, MIMAS considers that we live in a time in which a plethora of portable computing devices are available such as mobile phones, handheld computers, gaming devices and movie and music players. These devices offer powerful computing power, often on a par with desktop computers of only a few years ago. Additionally, they are increasingly have wireless connectivity to the Internet. These devices are in wide spread usage and are considered affordable by many students and academics. The array of portable computing power can be bewildering this session will look at options available and how they might used by institutions to increase the learning value for students.

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.

The call for speakers and workshop facilitators is now open. Messages were sent to the website-info-mgt and web-support JISCMail lists. [2007-01-08]

The call is now closed, but if you do have an idea that you would really like included in the workshop please contact Marieke Guy, chair of the workshop as soon as possible. [2007-02-26]

A photograph of the bag which will be provided to IWMW 2007 delegates is now available. [2007-07-12]

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".

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"!

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.

Paul Trueman, Netskills, University of Newcastle will be facilitating this session. Web services technology provides the opportunity to integrate applications and business functionality in to existing Web enabled VLEs. A Web service exposes business functionality by both consuming and producing data in XML format. Future online learning environments may be fully developed and maintained using a web services infrastructure. Web services solutions as yet still need to reach their full potential; particularly in the academic sector. In this session Paul will demonstrate potential uses of web services to support e-Learning and present guidelines on how to consider making best use of this emerging technology.

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.

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?

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.

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".

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".

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.

Ranjit Sidhu from Nedstat gave a talk about how after discussions with various people in the education sector it became clear that there was a requirement for some industry wide statistics about Web site activity. These Sector Statistics will provide organisations, specifically universities, with a means of benchmarking the performance of their Web site.

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