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?".