The Jisc Conference

Earlier this week we went to Edinburgh to the JISC conference. We did a demo about the project which was a bit disappointing with only a couple of people at it, but it was the first session and people were still registering. Also, it can be a bit difficult selling a project on Validation, it isn’t the most glamorous subject at the conference though perhaps one that will help the unsung heroes of academia. After all where would our star lecturers perform if there were not awards to shine in!

There were the usual luminaries there, a keynote by Prof. Goodman, bafta award winning, globe-trotting, dancing guru at Smart lab, I have a vague idea of the content but I must admit I drifted off half way through with thoughts of “Raoul, my dance teacher”, and drifted back to some pretty amazing stuff done with technologies to support disabled people. I met lots of interesting people, including most of the other projects in the programme, lots of inspiring people who are doing some really clever stuff. I went to a couple of great sessions, one on identity which gave me something to think about. I certainly have a better idea of some of the issues of Identity Management that Sam and Co have been looking at, and another on Geo-Spatials, not something I’ve had much to do with in the past but certainly gave me a few ideas about using technologies in different ways.

The Conference timing was good, it’s kicked me off into thinking about the questions I need to ask about getting the project back on course, not that it’s drifted much but all projects seem to suffer a bit from time to time, thinking about what we’ve achieved has actually reassured me that we getting there. I’m not sure how anybody else achieves anything between twitters, the whole conference seemed to be filled with people posting one-liners, before during and after (I was going to type sessions but perhaps I should leave it there!)

It’s April next week and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in again so watch this space for more postings, off to do some twittering now, I feel drawn to find out what it’s all about!