About The Workshop

The eighth Institutional Web Management Workshop was held at the University of Kent on 11-13th June 2003.

This year’s theme is “Supporting Our Users“.

The workshop provides a number of parallel sessions, which provide an opportunity for participants to contribute actively on topics of interest to them. Parallel sessions cover topics such as strategy issues, accessibility and usability, Web site redevelopment, quality assurance, etc.

We will provide a number of features which were introduced at last year’s workshop include a panel session and a debate.

The cost workshop is £350, which includes attendance at the workshop, 3 nights’ accommodation, the social events, meals and coffee.

The workshop is suitable for all those involved in managing and supporting institutional Web services, including managerial staff and Web developers – the parallel sessions will enable participants to follow their interests, whether that is managerial, technical or both.

Programme Committee

Members of the Programme Committee are responsible for the content of the workshop. The committee members represent a cross-section of the Web management community.

  • Brian Kelly, UKOLN (Chair of Programme Committee)
  • Miles Banbery, University of Kent
  • Diane McDonald, University of Strathclyde
  • Kriss Fearon, University of York
  • Tracey Stanley, University of Leeds
  • David Supple, University of Birmingham
  • Catherine Ewart, PPARC

Organising Committee

Members of the Organising Committee were responsible for the organisational and financial aspects of the workshop:

  • Sara Hassen, UKOLN (Chair of Organising Committee)
  • Brian Kelly, UKOLN
  • Miles Banbery, University of Kent at Canterbury

Workshop Topics

Plenary Talks

The following plenary talks were given.

  1. The Web Of Higher And Further Education: How To Deal With The Spiders
  2. JISCinfoNet: Helping Web Managers Support Our Users
  3. Web Strategies: Bridging a Continent
  4. Focussing On Users: Gathering Users’ Requirements
  5. Semantic Web Technologies for UK HE and FE Institutions
  6. Content Management – Buy or Build?
  7. Community Portals – A False Dawn Over The Field of Dreams?
  8. E-learning: The Strategy Continuum
  9. Beyond Your VLE: Strategic Challenges

There were also two debates:

  1. Web accessibility is difficult to implement
  2. The Web should be driven by needs not visions

Parallel Sessions

Parallel session A:

  1. From Vision to Reality : Implementing a University Web Strategy
  2. Integration, Integration, Integration: Issues Involved in Providing Web Access Across Institutional Systems
  3. Practical Approaches For Gathering Users’ Requirements
  4. Promoting Online Collaboration and Virtual Community: Benefits For The Web Team
  5. Search Facilities For Web Sites
  6. The WWW Web – Widgeted, WebDAVed and Write-enabled Web
  7. Whose Web Is It Anyway?
  8. Professional Development For Managers And Providers Of Web Content – The Way Forward
  9. Supporting The Research User

Parallel session B:

  1. Can Librarians Transform The Institutional Web?
  2. E-learning And Accessibility
  3. Online Research and Technology Transfer Expertise Systems
  4. Catching Mistakes: QA for your Web site
  5. ‘One Query To Rule Them All’ – Cross-database Searching and Finding
  6. Institutional E-print Repositories
  7. Open Source Software – The Developers View / The User’s View
  8. Implementation of a Commercial Content Management System

Parallel session C:

  1. Vertical Learning Environment to Community Portal
  2. Managing People in an Educational Environment
  3. Ubiquitous Computing and the Institutional Web
  4. Learning Technology Interoperability Standards Update
  5. Web Services and the Institutional Web
  6. Beyond Accessibility – Thinking Holistically About Your Web Site
  7. Bandwidth Management Techniques: Technical And Policy Issues
  8. Managing People and Projects

BoF Session:

  1. Semantic Web BoF

Evaluation

Catherine Ewart, a member of the IWMW 2003 Programme Committee, gave her thoughts on the IWMW 2003 event in an Ariadne article, issue 36, 30 July 2003.

Event Summary

Location: University of Kent

Date: 11-13 June 2003

Length: 3 days

Cost (including 3 nights accommodation): £350 (£325 for 2 nights accommodation)

No. of plenary talks: 9

No. of plenary speakers: 11

Gender ratios: 10 M (91%) and 1 F (9%)

No. of workshop/BoF sessions: 26

No. of workshop facilitators: 32

Gender ratios: 16 M (50%) and 16 F (50%)

No. of participants: 156

Total length of sessions: (3.25+3.5)+(3.5+3.5)+3.25=17 hours

Delegate contact time: 17*156= 2,652 delegate hours

Evaluation: Ratings for the content and organisation are not available.

Special features:

The social event on the first evening featured a formal three-course dinner and a jazz band during the dinner followed by a comedy club.

On the second evening there was a 45 minute tour of Canterbury Cathedral followed by a drinks reception in the Chapter House.