Kaptur – seven months into the project (7/18)
Posted: May 9, 2012 Filed under: monthly reports | Tags: digital curation, jiscmrd, modelling, mrdhack, RDM policies, technical analysis, ukdcc Leave a comment »This is our update for the end of the seventh month:
WP1: Project Management
- a budget report was delivered to JISC (covering months 1-6)
- the project team met at Glasgow School of Art and this included a meeting with Martin Donnelly, Senior Institutional Support Officer, Digital Curation Centre
WP3: Technical Infrastructure
- The Technical Manager attended the MRD Hack days in Manchester
- The Technical Analysis report was completed last week. Appendices include comparison of different systems as well as the requirements of the four institutions.
WP4: Modelling
- University of the Arts London (UAL) held its first Research Data Management (RDM) working group meeting on Tuesday 10th April; the Kaptur RDM discussion paper was amended for UAL’s use and went forward to their Research Standards and Development Committee on 1st May.
WP7: Dissemination
- The Project Officers were asked to suggest three ways to increase the profile of the project, including: an internal event, an internal website/newsletter/email, and something innovative.
- The GSA Project Officer has had some Web training with a view to adding information about the project to the Research Web pages; Kaptur has already been promoted on the GSA Facebook page.
- The Goldsmiths Project Officer has given two presentations about the project on 26 April and on 2 May for Library and Research Office staff; an item will also be in the May edition of the Goldsmiths Research newsletter.
- The UCA Project Officer gave a presentation at the Staff Research Conference about the challenges and opportunities of running an institutional repository which included information on the Kultur, Kultivate, eNova and Kaptur projects; a targeted email will be sent to faculty librarians to provide more information about Kaptur.
- The UAL Project Officer will submit a paper for the UAL Information Services Staff Conference (September), and an article for the Library Services Newsletter.
- Watch this space for more creative dissemination ideas, several are in discussion including events, videos, music and artwork!
4. Issues/challenges
Following the original vision of the Principal Investigator (Project Director) the collaborative aspect of KAPTUR is working really well, as in particular at this month’s meeting we were able to learn and reflect on different approaches at each institution regarding the modelling workpackage.
The challenge this month has been to select the system for the KAPTUR pilot technical infrastructure. The research method led to a short-list of five systems, all of which were similar in ‘score’ based on the user requirements, this required the application of an additional selection process. A blog post will be forthcoming about this.
Kaptur – six months into the project (1/3)
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: monthly reports, project posts | Tags: British Library, CARDIO, DAF, Digital Conversations, DMP Online, environmental assessment, funders, implementation plan, jiscmrd, modelling, RDM policies, Research Councils, technical analysis Leave a comment »One third of the way through the project, and this is our update for the end of the sixth month:
WP1: Project Management
- the second steering group meeting has been arranged for July in London (before the Olympics!)
- the implementation plan is available as a blog post
WP3: Technical Infrastructure
- The Technical Analysis report has been through several iterations; the user requirement component has been sent to the partner institutions for final feedback; once this is received the requirements testing will take place leading to the choice of technical system for the pilot.
WP4: Modelling
- The Project Officers reported on the trends in funding at their institutions (blog post)
- Three of the four Project Officers attended the JISCMRD two-day workshop on institutional RDM policies (12-13th March, Leeds); this was extremely beneficial for Kaptur for several reasons:
- using the Chatham House Rule the JISCMRD projects could talk openly and plainly about the reality of creating and seeking approval for institutional RDM policies
- we had an opportunity to really understand the processes and workflows from more experienced projects (i.e. those who had received funding in the previous JISCMRD round 2009-11 or who already had institutional RDM policies)
- it was very interesting to hear how other JISCMRD projects were making use of the CARDIO and DAF tools from the Digital Curation Centre – we will be discussing this at our next project team meeting in April
- there was also the opportunity to ask questions of select representatives of the Research Councils UK (RCUK) which was very illuminating, particularly in terms of the EPSRC Expectations
- as most of the project team were able to attend we could discuss and share our own views over the course of the two days and come to a consensus of opinion – i.e. that we were aiming for a high-level aspirational policy based on University of Edinburgh’s policy
- An RDM Discussion paper was drafted and was an agenda item at the UCA Research and Enterprise Committee meeting on 30th March; this Committee also have the role to approve an institutional RDM policy.
- Representatives from 2 of the partner institutions attended the JISCMRD Data Management Planning (DMP) end of project event (23rd March) – this was useful in terms of discussion throughout the day, lessons learned from other projects, and also take-home resources which we may be able to implement – as well as a sneak peek at the new and improved version of the DCC’s DMP Online tool due to launch soon.
WP7: Dissemination
- As mentioned above, 3/4 institutions attended the JISCMRD policies workshop and 2/4 attended the DMP end of project workshop (both March 2012).
- Promotion of the Environmental Assessment report (blog post)
- Beginning of an idea for more creative publicity material for Kaptur, to be followed up at our next project team meeting
- The Project Manager gave a presentation on Kaptur to British Library staff as part of their Digital Conversations event (blog post)
- The Project Director and Project Manager co-authored a written paper on Kaptur for the EVA London 2012 conference
4. Issues/challenges
As we are now a third of the way through the project it is a good point for reflection on both the work already accomplished as well as the work still to be done. Our focus continues to be on producing a pilot model for the visual arts sector and drawing on the strength of the collaboration across four partner institutions. Added to this is a growing sense of community across the JISCMRD programme (2011-13) which has benefited the Kaptur project team.
Kaptur – five months into the project
Posted: March 6, 2012 Filed under: events, monthly reports, project posts | Tags: DCC Roadshows, environmental assessment, modelling, RDM policies, steering group, technical analysis 1 Comment »This is our update for the end of the fifth month:
WP1: Project Management
- consortium agreement – waiting for the fourth institution to sign
- steering group meeting held (presentations available on SlideShare), minutes circulated, blog post
WP2: Environmental Assessment
- as reported previously, this phase is completed, although it is also feeding into the Technical Infrastructure phase
- environmental assessment report – this has gone through a series of iterations and we have received very positive feedback; it will be available from early next week to download: UCA Research Online
- the implementation plan was part of the original draft, and presented at the Steering Group meeting, but was then removed for clarity, and will now be made available as a series of blog posts this week
WP3: Technical Infrastructure
- The Technical Manager has met and interviewed IT staff from three institutions.
- In addition the four Project Officers have been involved in providing feedback on the technical requirements originating from the 16 interviews with visual arts researchers (from the Environmental Assessment phase).
- Last week the first draft of the Technical Analysis report was sent to the Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator.
- The Technical Manager is installing DataBank and DataStage for requirements testing and comparison with other software.
WP4: Modelling
- The Project Officers have been contacting and meeting a range of stakeholders from across their institutions, and also working with the Project Sponsors.
- One institution has established a working group which will meet every 4-6 weeks; another institution has established a working group due to meet in early April.
- The other two institutions are in the process of forming their working groups, including identifying relevant stakeholders.
WP7: Dissemination
- This has occurred on a local basis during meetings held at each institution over the last month as part of WPs 3 and 4.
- Steering Group meeting
- The Technical Manager attended the PHP UK Conference 2012
- The UCA Project Officer attended the Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Roadshow, Loughborough
4. Issues/challenges
The past month was about transition, so there were a variety of challenges!
The environmental assessment report was drafted last month, but following the Steering Group meeting it went through a series of iterations which took longer than expected, and it has also been verified by the 16 interviewees.
The relationships built up during WP2: Environmental Assessment are leading into WPs 3 and 4; however as we are in the process of getting the working groups together this is naturally throwing up a lot of questions and queries from all parties.
The Project Sponsors have been very engaged with Kaptur and they have been working closely with the Project Officers.
All Project Officers, and the Technical Manager, have now attended the excellent Digital Curation Centre (DCC) Roadshows. This has provided us with a solid base to move onwards with the aims of Kaptur, however the next challenge is to grow that same awareness amongst the stakeholders at each institution. The following DCC Research data policy briefing (PDF) document is being used as a starting point for discussion for WP4: Modelling. This was discovered through a DCC blog post by Sarah Jones (December 2011).
Kaptur – four months into the project
Posted: February 3, 2012 Filed under: events, monthly reports, project posts | Tags: Emergy, environmental assessment, jiscmrd, steering group Leave a comment »This is our update for the end of the fourth month:
1. Project Outputs
- consortium agreement – this has been signed by 3 out of 4 institutions (so nearly there!)
- environmental assessment report – a draft version is available which will be published and promoted very soon
2. Environmental Assessment
- This workpackage is now complete.
3. Technical Infrastructure
- The Kaptur Technical Manager has written a methodology for the Technical Analysis report.
- Meetings will be arranged very soon with key stakeholders at each institution.
4. Dissemination
- This has been a relatively quiet month in terms of attending events, although Robin Burgess was part of the 7th Emergy Conference and his abstract, which is about applying Emergy accountancy to arts related data, is available from SlideShare.
- The Kaptur Project Director submitted two conference abstracts.
- The Project Officers have been working collaboratively in Google Docs to write up the Environmental Assessment report; our methodology is available on SlideShare as is the final version of our questionnaire.
- The Project Manager has been working on the report and with the Project Officers and Technical Manager, also liaising with the Kaptur Steering Group in order to ensure that everything is in place for the first meeting on Monday 6th February 2012.
4. Issues/challenges
The focus this past month has been on analysing the data from the 16 interviews as well as writing the Environmental Assessment report. As part of this process the project team have been considering the research data that we ourselves have been creating. A blog post on this will be forthcoming.
The Technical Manager has begun work on the Kaptur project, and brings with him experience of managing and working on other visual arts projects. The project team have been thinking about how the work on the environmental assessment can be turned into reality with policies and technical infrastructure, as these are the next tasks to be tackled.
Kaptur – three months into the project (1/6)
Posted: January 6, 2012 Filed under: monthly reports, project posts | Tags: DCC Roadshows, environmental assessment, idcc11, JISC Incremental, jiscmrd, start-up Leave a comment »One sixth of the way through Kaptur, and this is our update for the third month:
1. Project Outputs
- consortium agreement – in process of being signed (delays due to Christmas, this is now expected before the end of January)
2. Environmental Assessment
- The 16 one-hour recorded interviews have now been transcribed. Each Project Officer has been reviewing the transcripts, marking them up and checking that they are anonymised in order to collaboratively analyse on Monday 9th and Tuesday 10th January 2012.
3. Dissemination
- Robin Burgess is working on the new EPrints institutional repository for the Glasgow School of Art (presentation to be given at JISC RTE event in February). This is very useful for Kaptur both in terms of the relationships that Robin has already been building and as it will mean that all four institutional partners will then have ‘kulturised’ EPrints repositories for research outputs. This may have an impact on decisions to be made by the Technical Manager regarding the research data management system.
- John Murtagh wrote a blog post for DCC, this is available here: An arts perspective: day two and three – the sixth DCC Roadshow on data management and also attended Drawing: Interpretation / Translation at University of the Arts London
- Tahani Nadim began work on Defiant Objects which “will produce a guide and recommendations for supporting non-standard deposits (“defiant objects”) in institutional repositories”, this is also one to watch for Kaptur as we are already looking at areas of potential overlap between ‘research data’ and ‘research objects’ in the creative arts
- Anne Spalding attended the IDCC Workshops and wrote blog posts on delivering post-graduate research data management training and data re-use (how can metadata stimulate re-use?). A meeting was held with the UCA Research Office, and the Project CAiRO training module was promoted.
- Project Manager attended the 7th International Digital Curation Conference and gave a ‘minute madness’ presentation on Kaptur, blog post available about the poster.
- The Kultivate project held its final workshop on Linked Data, which included a short presentation on Kaptur. A Storify of the event is available.
4. Issues/challenges
December is always a challenging month (due to leave and tying up loose ends) which is why we pressed ahead with the project work so quickly during October and November. During December we continued to build links with other projects, the DCC, and internationally at the IDCC conference. The biggest issue was making sure everything was in place for the data analysis to occur in early January including the transcripts and venue. We will be meeting at Goldsmiths, University of London and a blog post will follow here regarding our analysis.
