Other Events
Random Hacks of Kindness #RHoKSoton
November 14, 2013
by Lisa Harris
For the 4th time Random Hacks of Kindness is again coming to Southampton on 7-8 December!
This event brings together developers, makers, and technology enthusiasts with people & organisations working in (international) development, education, and the social sector.
Join us and apply your problem solving and technology skills for the greater good!
A review of last year’s event by Digital Champion Faranoosh Beherman
Twitter hash: #RHoKSoton
Web Science researchers contributing at #DE2013MCUK
October 31, 2013
by Lisa Harris
We will be invading Media City in Manchester next week for the Digital Economy’s Open Digital Conference
You can check out the full programme and follow #DE2013MCUK on twitter but here is a brief summary of the Southampton contributions:
Professor Dame Wendy Hall will be delivering a keynote on Wednesday. She will discuss recent developments in âOpennessâ with specific focus upon the opportunities offered by the convergence of Open Data, Open Research and Open Learning. Wendy will draw upon contemporary examples from the Web Observatory, Open Data Institute and the Web Science MOOC to highlight the aspects of openness that are now working well, and also those which are proving more challenging.
Chris Phethean is demonstrating his work which is titled “Analysis Of Charitiesâ Communication Styles On Twitter” It comprises a novel piece of software for automatically analysing charitable organisationsâ posts and classifying the results into specific communication styles.
Ian Brown is presenting a paper titled “Enabling the adoption of Web 3 in the digital economy”
Richard Gomer is running Workshop C titled “Towards Meaningful: Perspectives on Online Consent”
Craig Allison is presenting a paper titled – “Tracking Orientation within a Virtual Building – Bridging the Gap Between the Inside and Out to Reduce Disorientation”
Ramine Tinati is presenting a paper titled “Exploring the Use of #OpenData in UK Open Government Data Community”
Nada Albunni is presenting a poster titled “Focusing a cultural lens on the growth of trust networks: a Syrian perspective”
Monday’s DE lunch postponed
July 19, 2013
by Lisa Harris
Please note that Ben Mawson’s talk advertised for Monday 22nd July has been postponed until 14th October. A full list of Digital Economy Autumn events will be available from this site shortly.
On Monday you may wish to attend this Web Science DTC event instead:
Our next guest lecture is on Monday (22nd July) in the B32 Coffee Room, starting with a buffet lunch at 12:00
Mary Ellen Zurko is a security architect and strategist at Cisco Systems. Her research interests include security standards and usable security, specialising in the socio-technical aspects of computer and information security. Zurko has an MS in computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is chair of the IW3C2, the steering committee for the International WWW Conference series, and is an active steering committee member and organiser of New Security Paradigms Workshop and the Symposium on Usable Privacy and Security.
Open Data Open Day 26th June
June 21, 2013
by Lisa Harris
Meet the Open Data team! We’re putting on an open day for all members of the university to come and discover what we do and how open data can help. We’ve booked the Access Grid Room and the Coffee Room in Building 32 (EEE) and will be running a series of talks, workshops and general ‘get to know us’ sessions throughout the day.
Currently confirmed:
Talks from members of the University community on how open data has helped them.
Tutorials from the Open Data Service – how to help us to help you.
Demos of some of the cool stuff we’ve done and sneak peeks of what we’re currently working on.
Hacking sessions for technical people who want to get their hands dirty.
Free food and coffee, sponsored by the Digital Economy USRG!
This is a free event, and will be running across the entire day, please feel free to drop in even if you can only spare 10 minutes.
NOTE: If you have any data, no matter how trivial it may seem, please bring it along! We can read most types of database, spreadsheets and documents, and will have hackers on hand all day who will endeavor to make it into something that benefits you, and the wider university community.
Here is the Facebook Page and more information is available
Raspberry Pi workshop
April 26, 2013
by Lorraine Warren
Really enjoyed last nightâs Raspberry Pi Workshop at Southampton University, which was sponsored and organised by the Institution of Engineering and Technology, in collaboration with the Centre for Strategic Innovation and Dirk Gorissen, then part of Engineering and the Environment here. The session began with a demo from Simon Cox and an excellent introduction to parallel processing. 25 folks then got down to business, setting out the basics of getting a Pi up and running with Python and GPIO.
Full report and more pictures on Lorraine’s blog
#WebSci13 is just 3 weeks away…
April 10, 2013
by Lisa Harris
It is not too late to book your place in Paris :-)
The Web demands new ways of working across traditional academic disciplines. Web Science builds skills and expertise in the technical underpinnings of the Web, the social processes that have shaped its evolution, and the impact of the Web on society. The presentations at #WebSci13 will address these contemporary issues across a wide range of applications from healthcare to cybersecurity.
While the deadlines for presenting have now passed, registrations from businesses, academics, policy makers and students who would like to attend the event are most welcome.
Some of the highlights you can expect at the Conference are:
Day 1 – Thursday 2nd May
Keynotes from Vint Cerf, co-inventor of TCP/IP and âFather of the Internetâ, and Cory Doctorow, novelist, technology activist and co-editor of the popular weblog Boing Boing. There will also be paper presentations on a wide range of cutting edge Web Science projects, a lively Pecha Kucha session of short sharp talks and an evening Reception.
Day 2 – Friday 3rd May
A full day of poster sessions, papers and panels – followed by an evening banquet on the Seine.
Day 3 – Saturday 4th May
Debate how the web is revolutionising society, and the event concludes with a final selection of papers.
A draft programme is now available
Digital Literacies Conference 2013: Online Learning and MOOCs
March 22, 2013
by Lisa Harris
The second Digital Literacies Conference will take place in Garden Court, Highfield   Campus on 24th April. This year’s theme is “Online Learning and Massive Open Online Courses” (MOOCs)
There will be contributions from people involved in the development of MOOCs from Edinburgh and the Open University (including Futurelearn) as well as the student perspective of what it is like to participate in a MOOC.
On the theme of online learning, we have contributions from students on the Curriculum Innovation Module âLiving and Working on the Webâ about their experience as “blended learning” students.
We will be demonstrating educational uses of some new social tools such as Google Hangout, with the help of the Student Digital Champions
For more details of the timetable and speakers, and to reserve your place, see Fiona Harvey’s CITE post.
Digital Literacy Workshops
February 27, 2013
by Lisa Harris
Fiona Harvey and myself have a number of workshops coming up over the next few weeks that may be of interest to staff and students â more information and booking links are here
These are informal sessions with coffee and cake and all are welcome ï
Thanks
Lisa
Blogging Workshop
January 11, 2013
by Lisa Harris
Graeme Earl, Alison Simmance, Fiona Harvey, Peter Wheeler and myself went down to Avenue Campus the other day to run the first in a series of interactive blogging workshops. We were demonstrating the new University blogging system and we included a number of examples of how and why academics and students should be blogging effectively.
Workshop Organiser Graeme Earl
The attentive workshop crowd :-)
Thanks to Karen Woods for the photography!
The full pack of slides is here:
We trialled the Panopto lecture capture system to record our efforts, and if you are really keen you can watch the whole session…including the infamous lollipop scene at 1 hour 17 mins :-)
My experience as a Digital Champion at Random Hacks of Kindness (#RHoKSoton)
by Farahnoosh Berahman
Random Hacks of Kindness was a delightful experience for the Digital Champions. Before the event we met twice to learn more about #RHoK, our tasks, and technologies that we were not familiar with, and that we were supposed to use during this social hacking weekend.
Ivan (@IvanMelendezCh) was responsible for managing the Digital Champions and arranging the meet ups before the event, to let us know about the required tasks and technologies used during the weekend. He suggested that we make a Google account, so that we could use Google docs to share information about the essentials proposed by the organiser of #RhoKSoton, Dirk Gorissen(@elazungu). Google Hangouts is used for communicating with all the other #RHoK people all over the world. We practiced using it in case hackers needed help with Google hangouts and then we could be able to assist.
In contrast to the previous events that the Digital Champions participated in, we formalised the way videos were produced, recorded and uploaded. We assigned the tasks of recording and editing to specific people. Ivan was responsible for editing and uploading the videos on the #RHoKsoton Youtube channel. Furthermore, he was responsible for uploading all of our photos on the #RHoKSoton Flickr
Amir (@amir_arya) was the only person responsible for tweeting from the main account of #RHoKSoton, as well as his own account. Additionally, he made a really beautiful Instagram photo gallery during the two days of this event.
I (@farnooshbr) was responsible for tweeting, taking the videos, photos and interviewing the organisers and sponsors of the event. I also helped each team make a one minute video about their project and the outcomes of it, as shown in Lisa’s Storify
Nikoletta Toumazatou(@speckidea), Nader Tibi(@ntibi04), and Evi Sopasi(@ESopasi) were responsible for taking photos, tweeting, and supporting people with the use of devices (yes, in a room full of hackers you might need support with technology).
In general, this event could be considered as one of the most successful events aided by the Digital Champions. Our social media activity was highly regarded by the main organisers of this global movement. We discovered some areas of opportunity, for example if all the Digital Champions could gain video editing skills, our presence could become even more helpful.
Note from Lisa – yes we are planning a #digichamp video editing workshop :-)
Here is Dirk’s summary of the event.