Institutional Web Management Workshop 2008:
Innovation Competition


IWMW 2008 Innovation Competition

The IWMW 2008 event built on the success of the IWMW 2007 Innovation Competition in which we invited participants to submit lightweight examples of innovative uses of Web technologies. We were very impressed with the quality of the submissions and the wide range of approaches which were taken.

This year we again invited submissions. And in order to encourage examples of lightweight development rather than submission of existing items of work we encouraged submissions which were either developed specifically for the IWMW 2008 event or provided examples of innovation which go beyond a single institution.

Submissions

Details of the submissions and prize-winners are now available.

Details of the Competition

Three main areas for the innovation competition are given below.

1. Using Open Data From The Sponsoring Institutions

We are pleased to announce that the Universities of Aberdeen and Bath and Edge Hill University are sponsoring this year's Innovation Competition.

In addition to providing prizes to the winners of the competition the sponsoring institutions are also making parts of their Web sites and Web site APIs available for use in the competition.

A brief summary of the data which is being made available is given below. This may be updated as more data is made available.

University of Aberdeen

The University of Aberdeen are providing access to the following resources for the IWMW 2008 innovation competition:

In addition to these University services there are also a number of interface to the museum service:

Any queries on this information should be sent to Mike McConnell (m.mcconnell@abdn.ac.uk).

 

University of Bath

University of Bath has carried out some work to make the University's search results available in a variety of formats. A form is available on the Web site which demonstrates the formats which are available.

The University has provided a list of the places where data is being made available that could be reused or re-purposed by others. In most of the services RSS or Atom is provided as a minimum:

Some examples of microformats that can be found around the University of Bath Web site:

The University of Bath Web team hope that the Web development community will find interesting ways of using this data.

Further information is available on the University of Bath Web Services blog.

Any queries on this information should be sent to Alison Wildish (a.wildish@bath.ac.uk).

Edge Hill University

Some examples of services and feeds which may be suitable for use by others include:

Further information is available on the Edge Hill University Web Services blog.

Any queries on this information should be sent to Michael Nolan (michael.nolan@edgehill.ac.uk).

2. Using IWMW Data

Various examples of structured data related to the forthcoming and previous IWMW events are available. This includes RSS news feeds together with use of RSS to syndicate details of previous events and the sessions, speakers and workshop facilitators - in a number of cases, geo-location information is also provided.

3. Other Examples

Other examples of submissions to the innovation competition may include, but are not limited to:

Any queries on this information should be sent to Brian Kelly (B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk).

Submissions

We welcome submissions to the competition which demonstrate examples of innovations based on the data available on these Web sites - although, as last year, we also welcome other examples of innovation. However please note that the competition aims to encourage light-weight examples, and so developments which are part of mainstream institutional Web site activities will not be eligible.

It should also be noted that when using data and APIs from the three sponsors care should be taken to avoid performance problems and, of course, illegal activities are not allowed. The sponsors may request that services are removed if they are likely to cause problems for the institution.

If you have any questions or would like to clarify use of data or APIs we suggest that you make contact with the institution before starting on your development work. Any ideas you may have will be kept confidential until after the event.

Also note that although submissions from IWMW 2008 attendees are particularly welcomed we also intend to provide a prize to submissions from people who could not attend the event.

The criteria for the judging will be based on (a) potential user benefits; (b) lightweight development and (c) the 'buzz' factor.

The following submissions have been received.

Submission Template

When submitting your competition entry could you include the following information:

Name and Affiliation
Your contacts details.
Title
The title of your innovation.
User Benefits
The benefits to users i.e. what users will gain from using this innovation.
Ease
How the innovation was created and the ease of creating it.
Coolness!
What makes this innovation cooler than the rest!
Background to the Work
Describe why the submission was developed.
Openness
State your position regarding the openness of your submisssion.
Acceptability Criteria
Preferences are given to submissions which were (a) developed just for the competition or (b) developed to support a wider community than just the host institution. Describe how your submission satisfies this criteria, or, if it doesn't, explain why you feel it should be considered (it it particularly note-worthy, funny, ...)?
Additional Notes
Feel free to provide any additional notes.
Demonstration
If possible provide a link to the submission.

For further information contact b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk. Entries should be submitted to the same address.

Note that user-focussed entries will be particularly welcomed. Feel free to submit humorous and entertaining examples.

Any questions you have regarding resources please contact b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk.

RSS Feed

An RSS feed of the submissions to the Innovation Competition is available.