Posts Tagged “weeknotes”
Weeknote 5
by andystew on June 21, 2010
Preparation
Not a great deal to report back on from work this week. The first two days were taken up helping out another project that required some input. I have a presentation coming up in a week or so on the use of YouTube which I’ll post on this blog so it might be worth keeping an eye out for that. I’ll be talking about basic video capture, editing and publishing using a Flip Camera and YouTube. It’s on Flip Cameras because that’s what we have available, yes I know the Kodak Zi8 has an external mic jack (sigh). Anyway, as my friend in the army would say “Prior planning and preparation prevents piss poor performance” (the 7 P’s). I couldn’t agree more.
Event Organisation
The rest of my week was taken up by organising an event. For anyone that hasn’t come across it yet, Eventbrite is an excellent online tool for allowing people to register on your event. A colleague of mine will be writing a post on it’s use soon which I’ll point to but for now some of my favourite functions include:
- You can add all the relevant event details for promoting the event e.g. map, times, background etc.
- It allows you to set up different ticket types e.g. organiser, speaker, delegate etc.
- It allows you to customise the completion page and confirmation email automatically sending it upon completion of the registration form. It also sends you a copy just for info.
- It allow you to embed a widget into your own webpages/blog etc.
- You can download an iPhone app for the day to check delegates in.
Fathers Day
We invited my parents over for a fathers day meal on Saturday night and I think it’s my favourite meal that we’ve ever cooked. We started off quite simple with grilled goat’s cheese on a nice baguette accompanied by some rocket and caramelised onion. I was actually surprised how easy caramelised onion was was to make. We then had chicken cacciatore for a main with a chocolate pate for desert, followed by cheese and red wine. We always have slices of baguette available to dip in olive oil and balsamic vinegar which I’d recommend anyone try! In terms of drinks we started with our favourite mojito followed by some champagne from a previous birthday or something. For anyone interested, we use the following recipe for mojito’s.
Elderflower Champagne
My wife and I set out the other night picking some elderflower heads to try and make some of our own homemade elderflower champagne. If it works I’ll post the recipe. We’ll find out in two weeks!
Visiting Peacocks
I also fed some peacocks this week which isn’t all that usual…
Weeknote 4
by andystew on June 14, 2010
Resource Writing
I’ve been working closely with some colleagues on a project due for completion later this year. We’re determined to get the resource finished on time and so decided to block 3 days out of our calendar this week. It was extremely productive concentrating solely on the resource and time well spent. We managed to review all the material we have, create a skeleton structure and start highlighting what might fit where. we also managed to fully organise our showcase event. Watch this space – Collaborating Across Boundaries.
Presenting & Facilitating(ish)
I was in attendance at a recent event where I was presenting on work my more formal team are responsible for – Business and Community Engagement. It was a fantastic day and I felt my presentation went well. I also took part in various group activities in which I played a facilitation role. I prepared quite well in that I had thought through some questions and answers to provoke conversation although I rarely had to call upon them.
[slideshare id=4489262&doc=jiscadvancerscsandbce-100613150606-phpapp01]
Google Analytics
I’m involved with a small working group looking at future technologies and we were lucky enough to have some input from an expert in Google Analytics give us an in-depth tour of what’s possible. I’ll try to write this up in a later blog post
Sport Galore
I’ve been watching loads of football and loving it! the world cup absolutely rocks and even though England could only manage a draw I remain hopeful. I was really impressed by Ghana and thought Germany were fantastic. It was also a great weekend for us Brits in F1. Hamilton and Button were awesome!
Homemade Fat Balls
Ver and I made some homemade fat balls this weekend. Hope the birdies like them! We used a recipe from the BBC.
Homemade Mint Sauce
We also made our own homemade mint sauce which you can see the recipe for here: Mint Sauce Recipe
Weeknote 3
by andystew on June 7, 2010
Procurement
Having recently put out a call for tender it was decision time this week. It’s such a difficult thing to do. the quality of tenders received were unbelievable and it’s more often than not somebodies livelihood. The thing that stands out for me is that information in the tender is well ordered, tells you everything you’ve asked for, provides relevant experience and has a slice of personality. I’m confident we’ve made the correct decision and look forward to working with the successful applicant!
Soundbites
Publicised some soundbites that we had recorded in August 2009. Their main purpose was to help staff internally understand what was going on in and around the subject area. From memory I believe we used a Zoom H4n recorder for anyone that might be interested.
Cleared the Air
A decision was made this week that really did sit well with me. Instead of holding back and letting the issue eat away at me I decided to speak out as soon as possible. It resulted in those involved sitting down together and discussing exactly what we are trying to achieve, why and how. I think it resulted in a much better feeling amongst the group with everyone more informed. It’s always a difficult thing to do but one thing I must emphasise is that an argument you put forward must be constructive not destructive!
Veg Cover
I actioned my action and now that pesky pigeon won’t be eating my cabbages, broccoli and cauliflower! The image below was work-in-progress; I now have a mechanism that allows me to open the net for easy access – oh yeah!
Weeknote 2
by andystew on May 31, 2010
Style & Formatting
I spent half a day this week trying to ensure a range of case studies, our service is publishing, were formatted correctly and were all of the same style. I think this is a largely underestimated part of the publishing process in terms of both time and importance.
Managed Expectations
I maintain a blog for the area of work I’m involved with. The system is undergoing an upgrade (WordPress) and so I took this as an excellent opportunity to question people on what they’d like to see added in the future. This was internal at the moment however I’d definitely like to do something similar with our wider audience.
Creating a Video
I wasn’t planning on creating a video for a meeting I was attending but thought it might really improve interest in my area of work, described under networking. I’m glad I did as it definitely added some fun to the subject, and I’ve never had so much interest at a conference before. The one thing I struggled with was exporting the video. I’m going to have to look back through some resources to streamline the process.
Networking
I attended the ‘Employer Responsive Provision’ cross programme meeting on Wednesday; a great day organised to help JISC, and some wider, projects share findings. The day was well paced with lots of opportunity for networking. Pre-meeting activities added to the fun with the creation of posters and videos. You can view my video on YouTube. As @fredgarnett described it, “Desmond Dekker joins JISC!”
Crying
Not really, but nearly. Upon arriving back from Birmingham during the week I was shocked to find something had eaten a large proportion of my veg patch! Mainly the cabbage, broccoli and cauliflower leaves. Bit gutted but hoping they’ll still grow. Must get that previous action sorted and build some cover!
Weeknote 1
by andystew on May 24, 2010
Inspired by a colleague, Doug Belshaw, and the passion to improve my writing I thought I’d embark on the phenomenon that is Weeknotes. I hope you enjoy…
Keeping my blog up to date
It takes some effort to keep a blog up-to-date but I’ve been trying to make a big effort since the start of this week. I think one of the biggest hurdles to overcome is feeling comfortable enough to just throw things out there. A lot of it may not appeal to the majority of people but who knows, one nugget of information might really make the difference to someone. As mentioned above I really want to improve my writing style and speed which I’m using as a carrot to drive myself forward. A quick tip is that I’ve been drafting blogs when an idea comes to mind and setting myself a target date for publishing it using the schedule feature in WordPress.
Cross projects meeting
I’m heavily involved in the coordination of five projects, part of a larger programme of work I need to maintain links with. The projects are nearing completion after approx. 18 months (generally). We bring those projects together every three months to share lessons learned, update on progress and discuss any issues. It generally helps to keep everyone up-to-date too. For some reason or other I enjoyed this day more than usual. We had: an update from one of the projects that had completed; each project drew road maps highlighting their journey to date helping them prepare for their final reports; we had a session on evaluation from someone external to the group; discussed the future of the overall programme; highlighted requirements for the final report; and discussed what we might do in the final meeting due in July.
The one thing I always struggle with is getting rich and engaging information from the day back to those who took part. Other than general notes we took videos of feedback from the road map exercise, along with images. For me video is the most engaging format and helps to capture the full meaning of what’s said but it’s the hardest to share with a closed group. YouTube works as a medium but to share a private video users must have a YouTube account. Not everyone appreciates having to sign up to yet another service. I need some time to really test out the various options available in this area.
Meet and Greet, Text and Tweet
I exhibited at the ‘meet and greet, text and tweet’ conference hosted by the beautiful Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art. I had work that needed doing so couldn’t attend the sessions, unfortunately. I did meet some nice people during the break though and hope they found our information of use. The bulk of interest seemed to be around e-Portfolios and the Business and Community Engagement projects we’re undertaking. Interesting to note at such a conference the organiser didn’t know what a #hashtag was, doh. From conversations on twitter the sessions did seem worthwhile though, which is good.
Reviewing the Mediating Boundaries event
Rather than reinvent the wheel it’s probably worth just pointing you in the direction of our write up available on the Collaborative Tools blog post. The post is relevant to anyone interesting in communities of practice or business and community engagement.
Gardening
I’ve a new found love for gardening after the wife and I started our own veg patch although now have a new found hatred for anything stealing our cauliflowers and cabbages! Action: build some cover!
