Colleges and universities are legally obliged to provide a safe learning environment for staff and learners.  Reasonable steps must be in place to prevent foreseeable harm.  What steps are ‘reasonable’ will, of course, depend on particular circumstances.  The age of learners, any characteristics that make a learner more vulnerable in the online world, and the availability and accessibility of the environment are all likely to need careful consideration.

In my role at Jisc Legal I work closely with colleges and universities to offer relevant and practical guidance on e-safety.  As part of Safer Internet Day, here are my top 5 tips to help ensure you meet your duty of care:

1.  Be pro-active, don’t wait for something to go wrong

• Always consider risks and where appropriate, take reasonable steps to minimise them
• Establish and share fair rules of acceptable use, procedures and sanctions
• Raise awareness of good e-safety practice.

The National Education Network’s e-safety audit tool can help you to assess current practice at your college or university.

2.  Make someone responsible for e-safety within your college or university

Arguably everyone is responsible for e-safety, but having a named person in place means advice will be readily available and activities and responses will be co-ordinated and consistent.  Ideally, your e-Safety Officer should be a senior member of staff with child protection training.

3.  Use Jisc Legal’s policy checklist and template to write your e-safety policy

Ensure your policy reflects current technologies and the use of social media. It’s important that it is clear, relevant and easy to understand for your learners and staff.

4. Respond immediately and fairly to any breach in policy

It is important that learners and staff understand the importance of internet safety. Any action taken in response to an incident, including an investigation or sanctions imposed, should be proportionate and documented in line with your procedures.  Any criminal activity must be reported to the police.

Have a look at the Janet website for some useful guidelines on dealing with computer crime.

5. Support all your staff and learners to be e-safe

Regular training will help staff deal with concerns and reinforce good practice.  Education on managing relevant issues, such as privacy, will help learners to safeguard their online presence.  Bear in mind though that specific guidance for more vulnerable learners may be appropriate.

Training resources and other useful links are available on the Kent e-Safety Officer’s blog. The Information Commissioner’s Office also provides advice on how young people can protect personal information.

You can also read about how Jisc is supporting colleges and schools with raising awareness of internet safety standards.

I hope you’ve found my tips helpful. For further help, why not have a look at Jisc Legal’s Supporting Safer Internet Day page on our website.

I know that many larger universities and colleges, and those who have found themselves in the FOI spotlight, have already invested in their own systems to help them log and track the requests they receive. However, I’m also aware that there are many more universities and colleges out there for whom the business case did not stack up. They were unable to invest in specialist software, but are now finding that their existing, largely manual, processes are struggling to keep pace.

As part of my role at Jisc infoNet I have been working to develop a possible solution to the management of these requests. I’ve helped create the Information Request Register; this is an Excel based tool which has been developed in conjunction with FOI practitioners from a number of universities. The register offers assistance to universities and colleges, allowing them to:

• Centrally coordinate requests received under different access regimes
• Manage requests with limited staff resources, therefore reducing cost
• Automatically calculate the appropriate deadline of a request response
• View ‘at-a-glance’ visual prompts as to the status of each request
• Use readymade reports which enable providers to view the current state of requests or analyse them during a given period
• Customise the system to meet their specific requirements.

Lastly, another benefit of the register is that it provides information for the annual Information Legislation and Management Survey. The survey’s results are widely accepted as the definitive source of data about the impact of information compliance legislation on the sector, but it takes considerable time and resource for people to submit their data each year. The register collects the data needed for the survey as you go. So, rather than representing a significant body of work each January all that is required is for you to copy the relevant worksheets to a new file and email it to us, and the job is done.

Now that’s what I call a win-win situation!

I hope you decide to give the InformationRequest Register a try and do let me or my colleague Teresa Tocewicz know how you get on as any feedback would be appreciated.

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The EC’s position supports OA to research papers encouraging both Green and Gold routes, in line with recent proposals from the UK Research Councils. It seeks to address the sustainability issues relating to increased subscriptions as well as accelerating the benefits of digital distribution on the web.

The Communication nicely expresses some of advantages as helping to:

“accelerate innovation (faster to market = faster growth); foster collaboration and avoid duplication of effort (greater efficiency); build on previous research results (improved quality of results); involve citizens and society (improved transparency of the scientific process).”

Research data is also addressed, as you’d expect.  The EC proposes that they will implement a pilot with regard to research data deposit in a similar vein to their previous OA pilot to publications. It recommends that research data from publicly funded research is publicly accessible and re-usable. These are welcome proposals, and I think JISC can support universities in the UK in response to them.

The other communication – A Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth (pdf) – sees open access to publications and research data as essential and encourages open innovation between what they term the “knowledge triangle”, research, business and education. It’s great to see that the EC have brought together open access to research, alongside the development of research infrastructures (see their roadmap) to support world class research and facilities and collaborations with business, small and medium size enterprises  and wider society. This is a major contribution to achieving a thriving European economy, as well as sustainable research production and use. This reflects the UK department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) policies on Research and Innovation and the Strategic Vision for UK e-Infrastructure (pdfs).

As I say there have been several key policy documents in the last month or so, the Royal Society ‘Science as an Open Enterprise’, the UK Government open data white paper and the Finch report: expanding access to research publications, all of which suggest concerted movement toward a more open research environment.

So what about implementation of these policies for UK universities?

Open access

In terms of OA to articles JISC is working on practical implementation in partnership with other stakeholders:

• for example JISC Collections can support the licensing recommendations in the Finch report and the JISC development of repository services is underway via EDINA working with universities and research funders.

• In the UK transition to OA, maintaining an efficient and competitive scholarly publishing market is important. Key processes, such as peer review and academic publishing, must be sustained and evolve, and incentives will be needed to enable all stakeholders to play their part. Importantly, progress toward open access to UK published research will need to be measured. Methodologies for this purpose are being developed in the UK by the Open Access Implementation Group (OAIG).

• On behalf of OAIG, the Wellcome Trust and JISC are working to specify the role of an intermediary in enhancing the management of ‘gold’ article processing charges (APC’s); this is seen as a key role in the transition. Recently the OAIG report Going for Gold? shows economic modelling of OA adoption: it looks at both Green and Gold and finds that with worldwide Gold OA, all universities would see savings if article processing charges were at the current average levels.

Open data and software

The Royal Society report makes the case for open inquiry being at the centre of scientific enterprise; it calls for data to be “intelligently open” – more on that later.  Open data and software are themes in the EC communications, and in the UK we’re seeing policies from research funders and universities on these issues.

Last week the Software Sustainability Institute hosted a workshop at OR12 in Edinburgh where the early plans for a software repository for NERC research was discussed. In order to replicate and access data for research often the software used for related simulations and analysis have to re-usable too, this issue is now gaining serious attention.

• The EC Riding the Wave report called for a collaborative data infrastructure. The Knowledge Exchange report (pdf) gives a good overview of actions that are underway to realise this in the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Demark and the JISC led European project, Sim4RDM, is working with European partners to develop shared policies and practice. Global coordination, from the US, to Europe to Australia is under active discussion with the proposal of an international Data Web Forum where essential interoperability issues will be addressed to help develop a sustainable data infrastructure.

• The JISC Digital Curation Centre and research data management programme are providing practical solutions to the deposit and re-use of research data, for example they support the use of data management plans for universities to implement research council requirements.

The building blocks of a more open research environment are here, but I would say the “intelligently open” phrase from the Royal Society report is important, it’s about the right data being shared in a usable way and accessible to researchers, business and the public.

So yes, stakeholders (universities, researchers, funders, publishers and infrastructure providers) must work together to develop policies, technical tools, infrastructure and capacity to enable the ‘intelligently open’ research that we see promised.

I welcome the EC positions, but what do they mean to you?

Image by Loop_oh on Flickr

The issue of making Open Access books discoverable was discussed in nearly all of our focus groups that we held earlier this year as part of the OAPEN-UK project. It’s not just about putting the PDF onto a platform and hoping that readers will find it, it’s about getting metadata out into the web, search and library systems where the users are. The 29 Open Access titles in our pilot are available on the OAPEN Library platform which also provides MARC records for libraries, exposes its metadata and is joining up with library discovery services. But our 29 titles are just a small part of the whole, how then do readers find out about all the other Open Access books available?

In the journals market we have the Directory of Open Access Journals to help and now, thanks to OAPEN, we have the Directory of Open Access Books – a central place where users can search and discover Open Access books by publisher, subject area or by keyword search. This is a great step forward for the discoverability of Open Access books.

I’m particularly encouraged that this marks a further step forward in allowing UK researchers a way in to open access resources from across Europe.  During our recent OAPEN-UK focus groups, what was clear in all three groups was the awareness that issues are often at a local level, while in an open access model, it has to work at an international level also. Publishers publish authors from across the globe and authors want to be published by publishers who are based outside the UK. Whatever the model, the need for infrastructure and funding models to take account of this was made apparent by the groups.

Discoverability is just one aspect that will affect the future of the monograph. If you are a humanities and social science researcher interested in that future, can you spare twenty minutes to help us understand your views? You could win one of several £100 Amazon vouchers by completing the OAPEN-UK Researcher Survey.

Search open access books

For more information on the directories or to get involved, please contact Eelco Ferwerda, director of the OAPEN Foundation, e.ferwerda@oapen.org, +31(0)629565168.

For someone choosing to follow a conference remotely, it is rarely now a one-way communication channel. With the benefit of more sophisticated technology and social media, taking part in many conferences online can now be an immensely beneficial and interactive experience.

To help you get the most out of following JISC11 online, I have put together a list of suggestions. We realise we won’t be able to have your full attention for the whole day, with your workload and emails undoubtedly being a major cause of distraction! Nonetheless, I hope this list will help you ensure the time you do spend online with us next week is time well spent.

1. If you are tweeting, blogging or sharing photos/videos/slides/other materials related to this event, make sure that you use the event hash tag: #jisc11. Following the conference hashtag is a good way of finding and connecting with other people that are either attending in Liverpool or following online.

2. Sign up on to the JISC11 Lanyrd group – you can see who else is actually attending or tracking the conference. Another good way of finding new like-minded people to follow on Twitter.

3. Join the JISC11 LinkedIn group. It is an open group so anyone can join. This is a good way to find people that are also intending on going to the conference, make new professional connections and take part or start discussions. Try introducing yourself, your work and what you are hoping to get out of JISC11.

4. Follow the @JISCEvents Twitter account for updates and announcements live from the conference.

5. You can get to know other participants in advance of the event by following @JISCEvents/delegates, @JISCEvents/remote and @JISCEvents/speakers. Please send a tweet to @JISCEvents to tell us if you are planning to attend in person or follow the event remotely so we can add you to the relevant list.

6. Follow the @JISC Twitter account to make sure you don’t miss any official conference announcements in the run up to the conference.

7. Familiarise yourself with the live streaming interface provided by Mediasite. See how to submit questions and take part in live polls.

8. Don’t suffer in silence – we actively encourage you to let us know directly if there is something we can do to help such as turning the volume up on the live stream or retweeting a useful link.

9. There will be an Online Engagement Team (@JISCEvents) who amongst other responsibilities, will be acting as your voice at the physical conference. We want you to take part in audience Q&A too, so use your voice!

10. Tell us about your experience of following the conference online so that we can continue to make it better in the future.  Sign up to take part in post-conference feedback interviews.

If you are using different platforms to those described above to discuss this event, please let us know so that we can share links where appropriate and ensure that your views are represented.  If you have other tips or suggestions we would love to hear from hear from you. The JISC11 conference is your conference so get involved!

For a full amplification guide for JISC11 participants go to: Amplification Guidance for Participants

Those of you unable to come and see us at the JISC11 conference in Liverpool next week will no doubt be keeping one eye on what is happening throughout the day with the help of your laptop, phone or tablet. As an event organiser I love experimenting with new and interesting ways to amplify events as well as enhance the physical delegate experience.  Sometimes we get it right and sometimes we get it wrong. But this is all part of the learning curve and helps us make the ‘online’ experience of the conference better each year.

For those just dipping their toe in the event amplification waters it can be daunting. Here at JISC we have been experimenting for a few years with different ways to ‘amplify’ an event using digital technologies. I’ve come up with a top ten list of things to think about when planning the digital amplification of your event.

1.    Technology should be a means not an end.  Make sure your conference starts with what you want people to get out of it, and with your organisation’s strategy, not with the tools you want to use.

2.    Before you do anything check the broadband and wi-fi capabilities at the venue. There is nothing worse, than putting in all that hard work to amplify the conference and the wifi letting you down on the day and none of your delegates being able to get online or worse still your live streaming cuts out.

3.    Have a plan. Creating a proper plan for why, to who, what, how and when you are amplifying is essential. Ensuring that everyone involved in implementing the plan has seen it and signed it off is also important.

4.    Find your audience, and go to them.  If you are targeting students, use Facebook; if it’s staff you want to attract, try setting up a Linked In profile.  It’s easier and more effective than trying to attract them to a new online community.

5.    Live streaming plenary sessions is an excellent way of allowing online followers to participate in the conference highlights and an easy way to build the online element.

6.    Use social media to help start conversations. For example: set up and use a memorable Twitter hashtag early on (e.g. #jisc11). Use Lanyrd to promote the event to Twitter users. Creating a LinkedIn or Facebook group audience can help delegates and online followers alike network, make new connections and start their own conversations.

7.    Consider having a dedicated microblogger to tweet live as the event unfolds.  This will also ensure that you have succinct notes of the event as a record and the microblogger can act as the physical voice of people following online at the actual event eg. during Q&A sessions.

8.    Inform your speakers.  Make sure you tell all your speakers/presenters/facilitators about any amplification plans so they are prepared and more crucially get their permission – some of them might have sensitive information in their presentations that they may not want broadcast.

9.    Consider accessibility.  Deaf and disabled people should not have to fight for their access needs to be met.  Check out JISC Techdis’ accessibility guide.

10.  Find a home for the conference outputs.  After the event, collect the materials and online conversations together for people to access after the event and put them in a logical place on  your website – then add to them and ask people to comment on what would be useful next time.  Let the life of the conference extend beyond the day itself.

There’s still time to sign up for this year’s conference – booking deadline is Friday 4 March 2011.