So, what's been happening on EGRET lately?
Many people involved with the project have been on summer holidays.
I've gathered (already!) a lot of fascinating examples of issues relating to institutionalisation of software, particularly with reference to CamTools, which is further along the path than Talks.cam. CamTools relaunched in a new version at the end of July, and we are now brainstorming ideas for next generation CamTools next year. One aspect of Camtools09, or CamToolsWow, or whatever we decide to call it, will be Talks.cam integration, and there will also be new social applications.
We'll be having a big team brainstorm about ideas for social applications within the university this afternoon. There are a lot of different angles for this, from academic apps to purely social ones, as well as many different user groups (students, researchers, administrators). I hope some of the ideas will be relevant to EGRET as well as our other projects which will have social aspects this year.
Do comment below if you have any suggestions for great apps we should think about!
BarCamb2
I was at BarCamb2 last Friday - a day of interesting talks and demos, held at the Sanger Centre near Cambridge.
Last year I'd given a presentation about AlertMe.com, but this time I just gave a short talk on Talks.cam (and by extension, EGRET). This was well-received, and it was fascinating to get feedback from audience members, who were a cross section of Talks users, people who used Talks but hadn't really realised they did, and those for whom it was new (many of whom had a go with the website on the day).
There was a lot of interest in syndication, unsurprisingly for a techie audience generally familiar with Ruby, RSS and iCal, and a wide range of ideas about how social features could tie in with Talks.cam, as well as some concerns. Some users felt the documentation was lacking and couldn't figure out how to get started with the site - definitely something which we'll be looking at, and an important consideration as projects get bigger, and users become less expert (or get less individual help to get them started). EGRET will definitely be looking into this issue. Others said they thought some kinds of social network functionality would be great (such as Amazon-style recommendations) but that "just having a facebook app" would be rather pointless; a range of interesting points, which will feed into our work on scoping out social networking.
Thanks to Matt Wood for organising another great event!
Last year I'd given a presentation about AlertMe.com, but this time I just gave a short talk on Talks.cam (and by extension, EGRET). This was well-received, and it was fascinating to get feedback from audience members, who were a cross section of Talks users, people who used Talks but hadn't really realised they did, and those for whom it was new (many of whom had a go with the website on the day).
There was a lot of interest in syndication, unsurprisingly for a techie audience generally familiar with Ruby, RSS and iCal, and a wide range of ideas about how social features could tie in with Talks.cam, as well as some concerns. Some users felt the documentation was lacking and couldn't figure out how to get started with the site - definitely something which we'll be looking at, and an important consideration as projects get bigger, and users become less expert (or get less individual help to get them started). EGRET will definitely be looking into this issue. Others said they thought some kinds of social network functionality would be great (such as Amazon-style recommendations) but that "just having a facebook app" would be rather pointless; a range of interesting points, which will feed into our work on scoping out social networking.
Thanks to Matt Wood for organising another great event!
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