Content Release form

One of the documents that the Bloomsbury Media Cloud team has worked on during the project has been a content release form, which we ask contributors to sign when either providing brand new content or allowing us to re-purpose existing content. The document protects the project and provides appropriate safeguards that mean the project cannot be held accountable if any individuals offer us content that they shouldn’t i.e. copyrighted material. It also allows the project to use content without infringing the contributor's copyright.

You can see the form here and re-purpose it for your own use.

Media Services in the Cloud

Today, in the education sector, we are seeing increasing use of Cloud Services to deliver institutional services in innovative ways such as delivery of multimedia content. What value are such developments seeking to provide? And how can the benefits be measured in order to ensure that, at a time of reductions in funding, investment in such developments is worthwhile?

Sarah Sherman, the Bloomsbury Media Cloud's project manager has been invited to present and answer these questions at a UKOLN workshop on 7th December at Birkbeck. "Institutional and Social Web Services: Evidence for Their Value" is a one-day event based around "Evidence, Impact, Metrics". The workshop will aim to explore ways in which evidence can be collated in order to demonstrate the impact of online services and the metrics which can be used to support such evidence.

For more information about the event, including the full programme, visit:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/eim-2010-12/

Bloomsbury Media Cloud Project Activity Reports

Greetings!

Recently, the Bloomsbury Media Cloud Project team members took some time to reflect on the work we have done over the past 6 months. We are excited about far we have come and how our experiences can inform those who are doing similar work. As Neal reported earlier, we recently found out that ITunesU will not be a workable platform for us as a shared service, given its preference for single institutions. Despite this setback, our technical adviser Rob Mertling-Blake has gained valuable knowledge about shared services over the past few months. Rob spent a considerable amont of time participating in workshops with the JISC funded Steeple Project, and got the chance to hear insight from other university shared service projects as well as contributing to the dialogue as well. As the year continues, Rob will be focusing his energies on identifying the best repository and storage facility for the media content. Meanwhile, the media team has been hard at work producing content as well as performing an audit of all existing content. One of the first and most critical tasks of the media team was undertaken by media adviser, Carlos Chirinos, who spent much of the beginning months of the project researching and developing a common media licensing framework. After consulting with other institutions who have pursued similar projects, Carlos suggested that we use a Creative Commons license for online content. This license allows our content to be downloaded and shared but it will always link back to our website, and the material cannot be used commercially. In support of this, Carlos has developed a contributor release form that all media contributors will sign. The media team, which consists of Carlos and media officers, Neal MacInnes and Alexandra Jacobs, have spent the majority of their time working on the audit of existing content in the Bloomsbury community as well as overseeing all content production. The team discovered a wealth of content among the colleges and are now tackling the project of identifying the hosts of this content and the best way to access it for the Cloud Project. The team is proud to announce the production of the following content:

• Six interviews with the Heads of Bloomsbury Colleges
• Six keynote presentations by LIDC and Bloomsbury Scholars
• Nine 'infomercial' podcasts from International Development Distance Courses
• Several repurposed podcasts such as 'Development Matters' from SOAS and LIDC

Over the next few months the media team will be focusing on dissemination and especially on increasing student involvement in media content production. The media officers have drafted publicity literature to be shared throughout the Bloomsbury community, and Carlos has recently presented the Cloud Project to a group of interested research students.

The team is excited for the months ahead and how our project will continue to unfold. Keep watching this space!

Autumn Update

After a busy summer investigating the numerous options for our media portal and continuing to source content it is coming down to the wire. Recently we were made aware that an iTunes U page would be an unrealistic outcome at this point. While this was indeed a blow dealt to our long term thinking in the short run it doesn't have much bearing on the contet we ahve produced so far. We have been using an Open Source Media Portal based on the Mediacore back end as a proof of concept and in terms of delivery of the relatively small batch of content we have it has some very credible features.

Some other developments in the works are moving the backend platform and the production workflow to a cloud based service to fully integrate the notion of a shared service structure within the cloud concept. A number of options have been investigated in this regard including, Amazon S3 but for the scale of this project a more locally served option based out of the ULCC is more pertinent.

Check back soon for further updates.

More Great Interviews from the Heads of Colleges

We have just finished up some more interviews with the heads of colleges. Please check out the interviews with Professor Geoff Whitty of the Institute of Education, and Professor David Latchman, of Birkbeck College. We have more exciting content on the way so keep an eye on this space for more soon.

New Content is up and Running

It's exciting to have some content up and running. There are a number of podcasts available to listen to. This is just a beginning and we are in the process of fine tuning this content and working on bringing many more podcasts from the Bloomsbury community and international development practitioners. Hopefully listeners find these initial productions compelling and we look forward to any feedback on them.

Neal

New Content

We have been hard at work recording some new content that should be posted soon. Keep an eye on our site for research presentations by Jasmine Gideon of Birkbeck College, Charlotte Watts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Angela Little of the Institute of Education, Nick Short and Andrew Hagner of the Royal Veterinary College, and Ian Bates, Mike Rouse and Sarah Whitmarsh of The School of Pharmacy.

- Neal

Let us introduce ourselves...

Just a quick update on what has been happening at the Bloomsbury Media Cloud and an introduction to the two newest members of the project.

The two newest members are Media Officers Alexandra Jacobs and myself, Neal MacInnes. We are both postgraduate students at the School of Oriental and African Studies. For more details on our academic and work backgrounds please feel free to check out the project team page on the Media Cloud's Google site: http://sites.google.com/site/bloomsburymediacloud/project-team

Having just started on this project a few weeks ago Alexandra and myself have been hard at work to continue to source content and interview scholars and practitioners working in development related fields leading up to the launch of the Media Cloud's web portal.

On behalf of Alexandra and myself, we look forward to working on this project and will keep the followers of this project updated as new developments arise.

Regards,

Neal

Heads in the clouds?

The project team has been quietly plodding away at producing initial project documentation, which is available to view on the homepage of the website. News of our project has been reaching far and wide, from our own Bloomsbury websites (e.g. Pharmacy and the Royal Veterinary College) to the JISC website and beyond!

Right now, we are starting to plan the first of our recordings featuring courses in International Development offered by the six Bloomsbury Colleges. We hope to be employing a part-time Media Officer to assist with this work. If you are interested in applying for the post, please send your CV to Sarah Sherman by 9am on Monday 22nd March.

The Bloomsbury Colleges to publish digital resources online

The latest thinking on international development from leading academics will be shared online via podcasts and videos as part of a new project. Interviews and lectures will be recorded and made publicly available online to raise awareness of major challenges in developing countries, including animal health, climate change, education and water supply.

The 15-month initiative is led by The Bloomsbury Colleges – a consortium of six internationally renowned institutions within the University of London (Birkbeck, Institute of Education, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Royal Veterinary College, School of Oriental and African Studies, and The School of Pharmacy). It is being undertaken in collaboration with the London International Development Centre – an academic organisation which brings together social and natural scientists to facilitate interdisciplinary research and training.

£90,000 has been awarded to the consortium by JISC ­(Joint Information Systems Committee) - a UK government body, which works with the UK education community encouraging the use of digital technologies. Innovative internet-based approaches are central to the project, including the storage of digital resources in ‘the cloud’ – a virtual space online.

Material generated by the project will include:

· Programmes on key international development topics, including:

o Access to medicines

o Animal and human health (including bird flu and swine flu)

o Climate change

o Future of the Millennium Development Goals

o Water resources

· Specially commissioned programmes to coincide with major events in the international development calendar, including:

o International Women’s Day, 8 March

o World Tuberculosis Day, 24 March

o Peace one day, 21 September

o World AIDS Day, 1 December

· Short presentations profiling the international development expertise and training offered by the Bloomsbury Colleges within various categories, including:

o Health and health promotion

o Food production and security

o Environment and biodiversity

o Rural development

o Water and sanitation

o Education

o Sustainable development

· Interviews with each of the six heads of the Colleges about their experiences in international development

Professor Quintin McKellar is Principal of the Royal Veterinary College, one of the Colleges participating in the initiative. He said: “International development issues increasingly impact on all of our lives, from climate change to the threat of diseases like swine flu. Online resources are an effective and appealing way of engaging new audiences and informing them about these matters in a clear and concise way. We are delighted to have secured funding for this project from JISC.”

Bloomsbury Media Cloud project

The Bloomsbury Colleges comprise six internationally renowned HE institutions within the University of London: Birkbeck College, Institute of Education (IoE), School of Pharmacy (SoP), School of Oriental & African Studies (SOAS), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), Royal Veterinary College (RVC). The Colleges collectively have over 15,000 undergraduate and 14,000 postgraduate students.

In January 2010, JISC awarded the Colleges £90,000 to deliver a project - the Bloomsbury Media Cloud, which builds upon their portfolio of shared licenses and collaborative approaches to supporting learning, teaching and research. The project, running in partnership with the London International Development Centre (LIDC) aims to establish a shared media platform across the Colleges, including working with Apple iTunes U to create a consortium site with a focus on issues relating to international development.

This blog will be maintained by members of the project team with progress updates and related news.