UCISA Award for UK Web Focus Blog
Posted by Brian Kelly on 16 Jan 2008
I’m pleased to report that the UK Web Focus blog was awarded a prize by UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association). This blog will feature as a case study which will appear in a forthcoming UCISA Innovation and Communication best practice guide to be published by the Communications, Liaison and Information Working Group of TLIG (the UCISA Teaching Learning and Information Group).
As well as the publication, UCISA is also organising an Innovation and Communication event which will feature the selected case studies. The event, which will be held on 14 February 2008 at the Coventry TechnoCentre, will also include presentations on A Blended Communication Approach (Nici Cooper, University of Wolverhampton), Hi Applicant Community website(Alison Wildish, Edge Hill University – but now based at Bath University), IT Communications (Derek Norris, University of the West of England) and The Teaching and Learning Network (Phil Riding, UCL) .
I am particularly interested in the potential of blogs for staff in IT Service departments to both engage with their user communities and for communicating with their peers in IT Service departments in other institutions. The early adopters in IT Service departments include blogs from several senior managers (Michael Webb, University of Wales, Newport, John Dale, University of Warwick and, more recently, Chris Sexton, Sheffield University) with Mark Sammons (whose In-Cider Knowledge blog was established in 2004, and has migrated to WordPress recently) providing the perspective from a member of IT Services support staff.
Last May I published a post on The First IT Services Blog? which suggested that the Core Services departtment at Edge Hill Univrersity might be the best IT Service department to have launched a blogging service. But are there now more IT Service departments who are making use of blogs to reach out to their users? And have blog policies and Web practices been established? I’d welcome feedback which I can make use of when I give my talk at the UCISA event.
UK Web Focus (Brian Kelly) 
reduxphl said
well deserved. congrats brian.
James Clay said
Congratulations.
Wendell said
Congratulations – well deserved.
Re: IT service blogs. How would/do they differ from official product blogs – other than the obvious difference of them being about a network or institution rather than a product. How would they differ from, say, the official Facebook blog? (Just wondering. Always.)
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Wendell – Re IT Service blogs, my interest is in how they can be used to provide an additional two-way communications channel with the user community. IT Service departments, after all, have a poor reputation with many users, as I alluded to in my use of Little Britain’s Computer Says No catch phrase.
Mark Sammons said
Congrats on ANOTHER award, Brian!
As to IT Services blogging, I think one thing that maybe is an issue is that of time and resources. Blogging is a time hungry thing to do. How long does it take you to write an entry? For myself, for a decent sized post, half hour easily, sometimes a lot longer. If you look at my blogs, none of the entries are posted between 9 and 5 Mon-Fri, and those that are were when I was on holiday! The two reasons are, its my blog so shouldn’t be doing that sort of thing in work time, and secondly, even if I wanted to, there is absolutely no way I could find the time to do it at work.
Of course, I could find time to write a public-facing blog but if I did, something else would have to not happen. It is a case of judging the usefulness of blogging against what you could have been doing in that time.
There is a danger that users notice this as well. Indeed, such an issue has already been raised at Edge Hill where a student complained on their blog over this very issue: http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/webservices/2007/11/15/less-buzzwords-more-content/
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Mark – thanks for the comments.
As someone who used top be an Information Officer in IT Service departments at the Universities of Liverpool and Leeds I have always felt that it is important to communicate with the user community. And, as I commented to Wendell recently, “IT Service departments, after all, have a poor reputation with many users, as I alluded to in my use of Little Britain’s Computer Says No catch phrase.”
Rather than the one-way communication s channel I set up in the when I was an information officer (e.g. the IT Services Newsletter and the NewsFlash alerting service) I now feel that IT Services should engage in two-way communications channels with their users, and that blogs can provide the ideal tool.
To see an example, have a look at a typical post from John Dale, University of Warwick who seems to be successful in generating discussiopns with his user community at Warwick.
You’re right that there are resource implications – but I would argue that IT Service departments need to spend more time talking to users about their plans and listening to their concerns.
IT Service Blogs « UK Web Focus said
[…] by Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) on 10 February 2008 In a post last month entitled UCISA Award for UK Web Focus Blog I mentioned that I’ll be giving a talk on blogging at a UCISA workshop an Innovation and […]
Cultural Heritage » Blog Archive » Introduction: Brian Kelly said
[…] prize for the Information Professional of the Year. In addition my main UK Web Focus blog was awarded a prize by UCISA for its effectiveness in communicating with […]