Following changes to the terms and conditions of the Ning social networking service a copy of the IWMW 2008 Ning social network has been taken. [16 August 2008]

Andrew Cormack, UKERNA, gave a talk entitled "Web Security".

James Currall, University of Glasgow, gave a talk entitled "Experiences with XML: Beyond The Hype".

David Christmas, Open University, (together with Ian Roddis) gave a talk entitled "Beyond Brochureware - Building Functional University Websites".

Michael Wilson, CLRC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, gave a talk entitled "SMIL: Multimedia on the Web".

Mike McConnell is the Web Team Manager of the University of Aberdeen's Web Design Unit and currently manages a team of 5 staff who are responsible for the University's central Web presence, and the maintenance of certain departments and sections across the institution. Mike has formerly worked at the Robert Gordon University as an Educational Development Officer, and as a researcher in Information Science. Prior to that 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 produced a number of educational Web applications. Mike has an MA in English Literature and the History of Art, a Pg Dip in Information Analysis, an MSc in Information Science, a PgCert in Tertiary Level Teaching and is a member of CILIP. Mike gave a joint presentation with Iain Middleton on "Centralised Control Or Departmental Freedom?".

Duncan Ireland has been in the Internet Officer role at the University of Strathclyde since late 2002. His time is largely taken up with rolling out the T4 Sitemanager CMS (see http://www.strath.ac.uk/terminalfour/). Before arriving in academia, Duncan could be found at Scottish Amicable (latterly Prudential) where he worked on a project to implement the MediaSurface CMS. Prior to that he worked for BAE Systems where he saw the introduction of standard desktops, internet access and an Intranet. His leisure time is largely spent learning how to duck(!) while training with Caledonian Muay Thai in Glasgow (see http://www.caledonianmuaythai.co.uk/) - he refutes any suggestion that this training was deliberately undertaken to bring more folk round to his way of thinking in meetings. Duncan took part a panel session on "Whose Web Is It Anyway?" with Andrew Cox and Brian Kelly. Duncan can be contacted at Duncan.Ireland AT strath.ac.uk

Andrew Cox is conducting a PhD in the Research School of Informatics, Loughborough University. He was previously a manager of the digital library research centre, LITC, at South Bank University. Andrew took part in a panel session on "The Web Management Community: Present and Future" with Duncan Ireland and Brian Kelly. Andrew can be contacted at A.M.Cox AT lboro.ac.uk.

Professor Mark Clark became the Director of Information Systems at The Victoria University of Manchester in September 2001 and his role encompasses responsibilities for all University IS as well as providing hosting for the Research Council's National Supercomputing Service, CSAR, and the JISC's National Data Services incorporating MIMAS, as well as many other services. With the merger of the old Victoria University of Manchester and UMIST, Mark was appointed as Director of Information Systems, and has overseen the restructuring of computing support for the new institution, The University of Manchester, incorporated in October 2004. Previously Mark held the post of Director of Academic Information Systems at the University of Salford for six years (a converged service where he had responsibility for both Library and Computing). Prior to that he was Director of Computing at the University of Essex where he also held a Senior Lectureship in the Department of Electrical Systems Engineering, researching and teaching in the area of networks and computing systems. Mark holds a BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering (Digital Systems and Telecommunications), and his PhD subject was speech coding using digital adaptive delta modulation. Mark was invited to join the UKERNA Board as HEFCE nominated Director; he also is the Chair of Internet Facilitators Ltd and of Net North West Ltd. Mark gave a plenary talk on "Challenges at The University of Manchester arising from Project UNITY".

Scott Wilson works for CETIS. He was initially responsible for turning the CETIS site into THE portal for learning technology standards. Scott is an Assistant Director of CETIS, and has a special interest in standards for infrastructure and enterprise integration. Scott spoke in a panel session on Web 2.0. Scott can be contacted at s.wilson@bangor.ac.uk.

Michael Webb is Head of IT and Media Services at the University of Wales, Newport. He joined Newport in 2003, and has worked in Higher Education for 15 years. A substantial part of Michael's career has been focussed on making innovative use of Internet technologies to support and improve the student experience, both in a technical and strategic role. Michael gave a plenary talk on "Developing a Web 2.0 Strategy". Michael can be contacted at michael.webb@newport.ac.uk.

Chris Scott is one of the three founders of Headscape. He has 17 years experience of working in IT and new media, mainly in project management, consulting and business development roles. Chris has worked both in the Higher Education sector, including as a founder of a highly successful IT consulting unit at the University of Southampton, and for many of Headscape's HE sector clients. Professionalism and quality of service are at the heart of Chris's vision for Headscape. His experience of working with organisations including Boots the Chemist, ICI, Lloyds TSB, Reuters, Somerfield Stores, The National Trust and Unilever have helped set Headscape's standards. Chris gave a plenary talk on Real World Emerging Technologies. Chris can be contacted at chris.scott@headscape.co.uk.

Randy Metcalfe is the manager of OSS Watch, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) national advisory service on free and open source software for UK further and higher education. Randy concentrates his efforts on raising the level of awareness of free and open source fundamentals amongst senior IT decision-makers in UK colleges and universities. He also spends a considerable amount of time exploring aspects of community building prevalent within open source development projects. Years ago, he lived a different life as an academic philosopher researching the nature of disagreement in moral theory. Randy gave a plenary talk on "What Does Openness Mean to the Web Manager?" with Brian Kelly. Randy can be contacted at info@oss-watch.ac.uk.

Mike McConnell is the Web Team Manager of the University of Aberdeen's Web Design Unit and currently manages a team of six staff who are responsible for the University's central Web presence, and the maintenance of certain departments and sections across the institution. Mike formerly worked at the Robert Gordon University as an Educational Development Officer, and as a researcher in Information Science. Prior to that 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 produced a number of educational Web applications. Mike participated in a debate on "CMS: Challenging the Consensus". Mike can be contacted at m.mcconnell@abdn.ac.uk.

Michael Smethurst is a Senior Information Architect at BBC Audio and Music interested in building highly linked data driven websites that are accessible for people, machines and search engines. Michael gave a plenary talk entitled "How the BBC make Web sites" with Matthew Wood.

Joe Nicholls is a Principal Consultant in the Strategy and Enablement Group; part of the Information Services Directorate at Cardiff University. He has over 20 years experience in Higher Education, with a background in Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Learning Technologies and Web related services. His current work focuses on identifying technologies and methodologies that can be employed to improve the awareness, access to, and use of University services. He is particularly interested in the process of gathering and managing service requirements, the educational role of service providers and the potential of enterprise architecture as an approach to enabling organisational change. Joe gave a plenary talk entitled "Servicing 'Core' and 'Chore': A framework for understanding a Modern IT Working Environment" with David Harrison.

Christopher Gutteridge has been running the Web Systems for the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton, since 1997 and still isn't bored. He is also lead developer of the award winning EPrints repository software, used by hundreds of organisations. He strongly believes that tedious work should be done by computers, not people. Christopher gave a plenary talk entitled "Lightweight Web Management".

James Currall is a statistician who has always worked in multi-disciplinary environments. He has been involved in the support of software, ICT planning and user support and training at the University of Glasgow for nearly 20 years. His main job currently is as Director of Information Strategy where he interacts with records managers, archivists, librarians, information technologists, academics and university managers. From a position of being none of the above, James has on a number of occasions been described as an iconoclast as he does not hold dear much of the 'baggage' that these professions have accumulated through time. For two years he was on secondment to the University Learning and Teaching Centre, transforming the support of the University Virtual Learning Environment (Moodle) from a tool for enthusiasts into a well supported and managed service, during which time he was very much involved in the management and strategic planning of ICT in Learning and Teaching. James is also a Senior Research Fellow in the Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), where he has, for the last ten years, been 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 has been involved with the highly successful Glasgow MSc course in Information Management and Preservation since its inception, in which he teaches about the transition from storage of information on physical to digital media, the management and preservation of digital materials, information security, the role of numbers as information and a variety of other topics including risk and information management as an investment. In this latter context he was the Project Director of the espida project which developed a sustainable business-focussed model for digital preservation. James gave a plenary talk entitled "What is the Web?".

Debbie Nicholson has worked in Web and Learning Technology (WaLT) at the University of Essex for 8 years as a Web Developer, and more recently as WaLT Project Manager. Debbie is currently project managing the relocation of all the University Professional Service web content from individual office based sites, to audience based content incorporated in to the corporate site and design. Debbie chaired the day 2 morning session.

Chris Sexton is Director of Corporate Information and Computing Services at the University of Sheffield. Chris will be giving a plenary talk entitled "The Web in Turbulent Times".

Patrick Lauke works as Web Evangelist in the Developer Relations team at Opera Software ASA. In a previous life he worked as Web Editor for the University of Salford, where in 2003 he implemented one of the first thoroughly web standards based sites in the sector. Patrick has been engaged in the discourse on standards and accessibility since early 2001 - regularly speaking at conferences and contributing to a variety of web development and accessibility related mailing lists and initiatives such as the Web Standards Project. Published works include a chapter in Web Accessibility: Web Standards and Regulatory Compliance, released by Friends of Ed in 2006, as well as various articles for .net magazine, where he sits on the advisory panel. An outspoken accessibility and standards advocate, Patrick favours a pragmatic hands-on approach over purely theoretical, high-level discussions. "I'm an idealist by nature, but a pragmatist by trade. I'd never class myself as an expert and I certainly don't have all the answers...I'm just an opinionated guy eager to find real world solutions 'where the rubber meets the road'." His personal corner of the web can be found at http://www.splintered.co.uk. Patrick will be giving a plenary talk entitled "HTML5 (and friends)".

Richard Brierton has been working in the Web team at the University of Sheffield since 2003 - initially as a Web Developer, and since 2007 as head of the web team. Since graduating with a degree in Multimedia Technology (video, animation, web etc), he has run through a wide-range of activities at the university - web development, design, usability, server setup and administration, improving resilience of systems, video streaming, collaboration tools plus a whole host of other things he cares not to mention. The team also spend a lot of time working with their Web Marketing team on cross-cutting work! Current fads are creating an editor community; training up the web editor community; upgrading/replacing their CMS; increasing user support and buy-in, most of which he'll be talking about at the conference. Richard will be giving a plenary talk entitled "Replacement CMS - Getting it right and getting the buy-in", part of the Doing the Day Job session.

Nicholas Watson is the media account manager for Corporate Projects for Learning and Teaching Solutions (LTS) - the media production arm of the Open University (OU). He is responsible for production of Open Educational Resources such as OpenLearn, iTunes U and YouTube. Nicholas facilitated a workshop on "Podcasting and iTunes U: Institutional Approaches to Scaleable Service" with Jeremy Speller. Nicholas can be contacted at n.watson@open.ac.uk

Debbie Nicholson has worked in the Web Support Unit (WSU) at the University of Essex for 6 years. As well as working as part of the Web Design Team, responsible for the maintenance and development of the University corporate pages, Web site design and Web related support and training for staff, Debbie is currently working as a project manager for the Unit. Debbie has just project managed the rebuild of the new University Web site, and is busy planning phase 2 which will look at delivery of web information from departments and sections and the introduction of new Faculties. Debbie facilitated a workshop on "Hands Up if You Haven't done Yours Yet..." with Keith Brooke.

Dan Jackson is the Web Team Leader at City University London. He is part of a small team responsible for the maintenance and development of the University Web site, CMS and related systems and applications. During his time at the University Dan has overseen a site redesign and an accessibility audit. He has over 7 years experience in Web development, and his interests include Web standards, usability, accessibility, client-side coding and PHP. Dan facilitated a workshop on "Coping with Forms: Implementing a Web Form Management Application".

Claire Gibbons is now the Web Manager for the University of Bradford (previously the Web Officer since September 2000), working within the department of Marketing and Communications, and responsible for the management of the University's new Web Team. Claire is responsible for the University's 'corporate Web' and works closely with departments and Schools to ensure consistency of University brand and message as well as compliance with standards and legislation, such as SENDA and the University's own Code of Practice for Web Based Materials. Claire is nearing the end of the Chartered Management Institute Diploma in Management - which has sparked her recent (and slightly obsessive) interest in organisational culture, 'people' and 'behaviours'. Claire has been a member of the Web CMS Project core team since October 2005. Claire facilitated a workshop on "Web CMS and University Web Teams Part II - the Never Ending Story?" with Russell Allen.

Drew McLellan has been hacking on the Web since around 1996 following an unfortunate incident with a margarine tub. Since then he's spread himself between both front- and back-end development projects, and now works as a Web Developer for Yahoo! Europe in London, UK. Drew gave a plenary talk on "Can Your Web Site Be Your API?".

Arthur Clune works at the University of York as an IT Security Specialist, but is also a member of the UK Honeynet Project. In the latter role he is involved in developing the Honeynet Project's "Honeymine" data analysis tool and in helping with other aspects of Honeynet development. In the past he has worked on simulations of Internet traffic, studies of road traffic and in pure mathematics. Arthur give a plenary talk on "Trends in Web Attacks".

The Institutional Repository (IR) had a meteoric rise to fame. In a brief blaze of glory, it was heralded as the facilitator of a free exchange of information within the academic research community - a faster, cheaper and more effective way to conduct scholarly communications in the twenty-first century. Then, just as quickly, fame changed to infamy. The technology, the ownership, and the very ideal of the IR has been called into question by many and varied voices in the wider academic community and beyond. I would like to explore the really controversial aspects of the IR, and ask my audience to consider that perhaps, just perhaps, there was something useful there all along.

Rob Bristow, JISC as Programme Manager for e-Administration gives a plenary talk on Institutional Responses to Emergent Technologies - What JISC is Doing. As users of all sorts become more familiar with new technologies (including both Web 2.0 type software tools and user-owned devices) and become used to, and expectant of, managing their own data through 'self-service' applications and systems, questions are asked of institutions as to how they will respond to these new demands. JISC has been investigating this area through strands within its e-Learning and Users and Innovation programmes which have been focussed in the main on the learners' and users' experience. JISC has recently funded a further series of projects that address the way that institutions are responding to these new challenges, looking at organisational policies, practice and strategies, as well as funding pilot projects that demonstrate actual institutional responses. This work is in its early stages but the scope of the responses to the call for projects and some of the early results of the landscape study will provide some interesting real life information about institutional responses from across the sector. This talk will describe the work that JISC is doing and relate it to the Institutional Web Manager world.

Helen Aspell, Head of Digital Marketing, University of Southampton and James Souttar, Precedent give a plenary talk on Web 2.0 and Brand: Theory and Practice. There are thousands of Web 2.0 technologies available online right now, from Twitter to Second Life, all with tangible marketing benefits but not necessarily to every organisation or audience. In the current climate of Web 2.0, marketers are being expected to prove their understanding of new technologies and demonstrate how their brand is using and responding to the changing environment by incorporating social media into their digital strategies. This challenge is particularly acute in large, devolved organisations such as universities where technology decisions are often made at arms' length from the marketing function by IT teams or individual departments, neither of whom may consider the implications that building an online presence in Web 2.0 may have on an audience's perception of the organisation's brand. During the talk, Aspell and Souttar will outline how the changing landscape of digital technologies will shape the agenda of brand development in the future. This will include the principles of branding in the modern age with its application and embracing of Web 2.0 technologies. Moving from theory into practice, the reference will be the re-brand of University of Southampton with isoton used to demonstrate how Web 2.0 technologies can reflect and enhance an institution's brand.

Cameron Neylon, STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory gives a plenary talk on how Web Based Tools are Enabling Open Research Practice. Communication of data, results, and models is at the centre of research science. Yet while our understanding of our surroundings across a wide range of research disciplines has been transformed in the last 20 - 50 years the means of that communication remains trapped within the now centuries old convention of the published research paper (and the traditional stand and deliver presentation). In the initial phase of the development of the World Wide Web publishing practises remained fundamentally the same with the printed page being transferred online but remaining in fundamentally the same format. The advent of user-centred Web-based tools for information gathering, publishing, social networking, and collaborative working has challenged traditional models of publishing and archival. These tools have an enormous potential to make scientific communication more effective, timely and comprehensive. Examples of such approaches include tools for sharing of data and technique protocols via wikis, image, and video sharing sites, collaborative authoring of research papers using online office suites and discussion of the published literature, research practise, and the life challenges associated with a research career through blogs. The availability of these tools is also associated with a growing interest in some sectors of the academic research community in adopting more 'open' approaches to research practice. The logical extreme of this 'Web 2.0' based open approach is to make the researcher's laboratory notebook freely available online or even to carry out the preparation of a research grant in public. While examples of the application of these approaches in academic research are currently limited they nonetheless raise serious questions about the future of both the traditional format of research publication and of peer review in its current form. Responses to the advocacy of 'Open Science' therefore, understandably, run the gamut from fanatical support, through amused tolerance, to derision and, in some cases, extreme hostility. In this talk I will discuss examples of Web-based and Open Science practices, including the experience of adopting these approaches within my research group, the state and usefulness of tools available to support these approaches, and the current position and future prospects of the Open Science community more generally.

Starts: Tue, 04 Feb 2025 18:30:00 -0500
02/04/2025 04:00:00PM
Location: Montreal, Canada

Smart planning policies and room for expansion is ensuring Melbourne keeps its affordability and acclaimed quality of life as it becomes Australia’s biggest city over the next few decades. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, Melbourne will overtake Sydney in population by 2053, projected to be home to over 7.7 million people. Currently 4.35 million people live in Melbourne compared to 4.76 million in Sydney but more people are moving to Melbourne than other Australian capital city, drawn by a vibrant and cosmopolitan culture, great public amenities and transport infrastructure and a geographical location that allows the city to expand outwards to accommodate new arrivals at lower cost than other major Australian cities.

US-based global investment management firm, T Rowe Price (TRP), has opened a new office in Melbourne. Head of Australian business for TRP, Murray Brewer, said TRP in Australia is going from strength to strength.

Chobani Australia is exporting yoghurt to Singapore less than 18 months after the American company set up in Victoria. Within 18 months, Chobani has grown production at its A$30 million yoghurt factory in Victoria from 25,000 cases a week to 25,000 cases a day, and become one of the biggest yoghurt manufacturers in Australia.

A new Victorian Government medical technology strategy will position Victoria as an internationally competitive developer of medical technology. Victoria’s Medical Technology Industry Strategy will create more high value jobs and attract investment for the state’s advanced manufacturing sector.

President Bill Clinton, founder of the Clinton Foundation and 42nd President of the United States and artist / activist Sir Bob Geldof will be among the high-level speakers who will join thousands of the world's top AIDS researchers, scientific and community leaders, people living with HIV and policy-makers at the 20th International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2014) taking place on 20-25 July in Melbourne. Their presence is set to further enhance the very strong program that has been put in place for AIDS 2014. President Clinton has a very strong track record in advocating for HIV/AIDS treatment in disadvantaged communities around the world. Sir Bob Geldof has the ability to motivate millions of people as we have seen over decades of activism. His music and such events as Live Aid and Band Aid have raised global awareness of famine and poverty.

International consumer management company, Gigya, has opened an office in Melbourne as part of its expansion into the Asia-Pacific region. The move comes after strong growth in 2013 for the US-based company, during which it processed more than 800 million logins for clients in 46 countries, including Tommy Hilfiger, the Independent, the Globe and Mail, KLM, L'Occitane, Next Media, Japan Airlines and Canon.

Fonterra has opened a new A$6 million ricotta manufacturing plant in north central Victoria that will deliver global opportunities for the Victorian dairy industry. Built with $250,000 grant from the Victorian Government, the Perfect Italiano Ricotta project demonstrates Fonterra’s ongoing commitment to maintaining a presence in northern Victoria and boosts the company’s Stanhope workforce to 126.

Australia’s world ranking for biotechnology innovation jumped from seventh to fourth on Scientific American’s latest ‘Worldview’ scorecard. The publication’s scorecard provides a balanced assessment of biotechnology innovation around the world and indicated that Australia’s biotech market is undergoing a resurgence.

The new Japan-Australia Economic Partnership Agreement (JAEPA), signed on 8 July 2014, will strengthen economic ties between the two nations. Japan is Australia’s third largest direct foreign investor with A$130 million worth of investment stock in Australia in 2013.

Wilcox Industries’ manufacturing and assembly facility in Victoria will be a joint venture with its Melbourne-based distributor and partner, Aquaterro – a leading supplier of law enforcement and defence equipment in Victoria.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) has grown its Australian service locations to Melbourne. The expanded company will roll out Amazon CloudFront - a content delivery Web service that offers both businesses and developers an easy way to distribute content with low latency and high data transfer speeds.

The Victorian Government’s investment agency has created 20,000 jobs since December 2010 reaching its target six months earlier than predicted. The jobs were created as a result of the Office of State Development attracting A$8 billion worth of assisted investment.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's (S&P) has reaffirmed Australia's triple-A credit rating and stable economic outlook, stating that the sovereign credit ratings on Australia benefit from the country's strong institutional settings, its wealthy and resilient economy, and a high degree of monetary and fiscal policy flexibility. “These factors provide Australia with a strong ability to absorb large economic and financial shocks, as was demonstrated during the global recession in 2009,” S&P said.