About The Workshop

Are you responsible for running your University’s web service?  Do you find it time consuming?  Do you find it difficult to keep up with the latest Web developments? Are you uncertain which tools to recommend for your information providers?  If so, then read on …  UK Web Focus will be hosting a workshop on Running An Institutional Web Service which will address these issues.

Who Should Attend?

The workshop is intended primarily for those involved in running an institutional web service.
It will be most suitable for staff whose responsibilities include managing a web server, managing authoring tools and managing desktop clients. Computing Service webmasters, applications staff involved in supporting HTML authoring tools and web browsers will find this workshop of benefit.

Note that priority for bookings will be given to members of the UK Higher Education community.

Location

The workshop was held at Kings College London. The workshop started at lunchtime on Wednesday 16 July and finished at lunchtime on Thursday 17 July 1997.

About UK Web Focus

The workshop is being arranged by Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus.  UK Web Focus is a national web coordination post, based at UKOLN (UK Office For Library and Information Networking), University of Bath.  Responsibilities include technology watch, information dissemination and representing JISC on the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).

Workshop Topics

Plenary Talks

The following plenary talks were given:

  1. Charisma or camel? A sociotechnical approach to Web redesign
  2. Information Flow
  3. Networking For Webmasters
  4. WWW / Database Integration
  5. Security and Performance Issues
  6. Web Tools
  7. WWW Caching
  8. Next Year’s Web

Parallel Sessions

The following discussion group sessions were held:

  1. Design Issues
    facilitated by Alan Leavy and David Murie
  2. Information Flow
    facilitated by Astrid Wissenburg and Colin Work
  3. Web Tools
    facilitated by David Lomas
  4. Caching
    facilitated by Paul Collins & George Neisser
  5. Metadata
    facilitated by Andy Powell & Amanda Boe Jeremy Speller & Damon Querry
  6. Trials and Tribulations of a Web Editor
    facilitated by Jeremy Speller & Damon Querry

Costs

The cost of the workshop is £70 (non-residential) or £105 including one night’s en-suite accommodation. The workshop fee covers attendance at the workshop and workshop materials, refreshments and lunch on arrival. Note that as the Hall of Residence is self-catering, no evening meal or breakfast is provided. However there are many cafes and restaurants available nearby.

Event Report

A report on the event was published in the Ariadne ejournal on 19 September 1997 (Web Focus Corner: Running an Institutional Web Service).

In addition, as described on the event web site the following recommendations were made:

UK Web Focus will look into the possibility of hosting a regular (annual?) workshop aimed at members of a Web Team.

The following points which emerged at the workshop will be taken into account:

  • It is desirable to run a number of discussion groups sessions, to allow participants to have an active role in the workshop
  • It may be desirable for the workshop to last longer than the initial workshop (which lasted from lunchtime to lunchtime)
  • It may be desirable to include a hands-on session
  • It may be desirable to run parallel sessions. Note that several participants at the initial workshop felt that a workshop should cover non-technical issues (such as people management), whereas several others felt that a workshop should cover technical issues in more depth.
  • A series of case studies would be useful (rather than just presentations on generalities)

Event Summary

Location: King’s College London

Date: 16-12 July 1997

Length: 2 days

Cost (including 1 night accommodation): £105

No. of plenary talks: 8

No. of plenary speakers: 8

Gender ratios: 7 M (88%) and 1 F (12%)

No. of workshop sessions: 6

No. of workshop facilitators: 11

Gender ratios: 9 M (82%) and 2 F (18%)

No. of participants: 95

Total length of sessions: 4.5+3.5=8 hours

Delegate contact time: 8*95 = 760 delegate hours

Evaluation: 3.6 out of 5 (content) and 3.5 out of 5 (organisation)