Jim Nottingham: August 2015

I decided while on leave to try to make a greater effort on a digital presence to this end I’ve set myself the target of one blog a month, its an artifact of sorts I suppose. I will try to write in distinct categories because that’s just the way I seem to like to work…

Work

August is always an important time in Higher Education and at UAL it’s no different. We’ve had a large number of projects to progress during the ‘quite period’. I think we’ve done well this August with some significant progress in all three key areas of the current IT services at UAL these are

1. Technical Infrastructure.

2. Service Support.

3. Major UAL wide Programs and Projects.

I’m particularly pleased with the work done to get a Mobile App up and ready for the incoming students in September, this has been a good example of both internal and external partnerships working together to produce a new service that will have a direct impact on students. I’m also really pleased with the major upgrade of the Wi-Fi provision with hundreds of new access points being added and all new UAL Wi-Fi services which will allow us to monitor the Wi-Fi Network more efficiently and in turn be able to offer a much improved service. The major programs and projects have also seen some significant progress throughout August, which has been welcomed by our constituency, especially the work to get MS365 rolled out to all staff and incoming students.

Throughout August I’ve also been thinking allot about how we integrate the current IT silos across the University without damaging the services offered to students and staff but also bring forwards efficiencies in what I call joinedupness. This will be my biggest challenge of the next academic year and I’m sure it won’t be without a certain amount of difficulty.

I’ve also been spending time working on aspects of the forthcoming Digital Strategy, mostly focusing on ‘being digital’ although I feel as CIO that I need to be involved in how UAL approaches ‘teaching digital’. I have also been working on the next of a agreed series of papers for consideration by the Executive Board, the next paper which is due in late September will focus on a name change, service support change and IT Silo’s.

In early August I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Campus Technology 2015 conference in Boston. I had wanted to go to this event for a few years. It was very good and I enjoyed the CIO track and the well-organized tours and presentations. I still wasn’t sure that the debate around what constitutes the changing role of the CIO had moved on and some of my challenges to the group in regard to the digital didn’t seem to be a topic of much interest, which surprised me. Gartner’s piece on ‘taming the digital dragon’ is something I would recommend reading.

Home

I think for the first time in years we managed to co-ordinate our summer leave arrangements and at the start of August we had the news that a promotion to Senior Lectureship had been awarded so a good start to the holiday but a reflection on how hard it had been to get to that point. Academia is a tough place at the moment and for a fairly low salary the majority of academics do care greatly about their students and have to also contribute to an often-difficult research agenda.

Following on from Boston we travelled down to Providence where I had the opportunity to meet with colleagues from the Rhode Island School of Design and we had time to take in Providence, do some genealogical research and we also enjoyed the ‘fire & Ice’ event.

From Providence we drove down to Narragansett, which is a small coastal town on the Atlantic coast. It had a really good Town Beach, the sea was great & I enjoyed a good long swim in deep water. We stayed at a BnB called the Tower House which was lovely, we enjoyed meeting other guests and the great breakfast accompanied by humming birds outside the window.

From Narragansett we drove up to the lakes area of New Hampshire, our destination being the Inn on the Lake at Lake Winnisquam, again some lovely hosts and the location was literally walk out of the front door cross a small road and you were at the lake. We enjoyed swimming, kayaking and just relaxing. We drove up to the beginnings of the White Mountains and then on to Portland Maine.

Portland is a really interesting city, I really enjoyed the atmosphere lots of small shops and restaurants serving innovative and unusual food. While further family research was being undertaken I took the local ferry to one of the islands, which was not what I expected at all, more like a short version of the Isle of Wright ferry but $10 return. I also got to have a look around the Maine School of Art & Design, which was small but clearly had a big impact on the downtown area of Portland.

We returned to the UK with I think a renewed view of the US and I really enjoyed seeing the Northern States, very different to the New South, it was something to think about in a few years time.

When I got back to the UK I had been keeping in touch with work (I never disconnect entirely) and was back at work for a very busy week in mid-August, and then back on holiday again for two weeks.

I usually swim in the open air, unheated Lido at Brockwell Park from early April until it gets too cold, but this year I was interested in a call from a group new to me called Nowca who had set up swimming in the Royal Victoria Docks. I had already swum these docks as part of the Great London Swim, so I went along.

It was great fun and certainly not as boring as swimming lengths. I’ve taken to usually swimming the 1500m & 750m circuit. It’s a slightly unnerving experience since the water is deep, sort of ‘briny’ tasting, and when an airplane takes off from London City they pass directly overhead and very low which is also takes a little getting used too. I really like the experience of being quite alone but 'safe' in a somewhat alien environment. I’ve been swimming at the docks usually twice a week and hope to continue as long as possible into the autumn.

We also managed to visit some of the local museums and made it to the Horniman Museum and the Dulwich Picture Gallery where we took in the very good Ravilous Exhibition

Not much time spent in the studio over the last month but on all the travels we went to various and sundry museums and art galleries including; the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Rhode Island School of Design Art Museum & Portland Museum of Art to name but a few. I’ve recently spent some time in the studio just accessing the work of the last year and thinking about next steps. I've also a fairly large group of OUP plates that need printing, conserving and returning to OUP.

We also spent a couple of days in North Norfolk visiting my mother and eldest brother we had a great time and enjoyed the company.