website sustainability

Introduction to the Project

East Midlands Knowledge Network (EMKN) is an online resource which is currently at risk, due to the demise of regional development agencies, the imminent closure of the company upon whose server it sits and the uncertain future of the East Midlands Universities Association (EMUA), who created the resource. However the information held on within the site (technologies, business services and facilities within EMUA’s institutions is valuable.

Site statistics indicate that EMKN is well used in the region, considering the small target market (BLAs) and attracts significant interest from further afield. Feedback from users has been very favourable, and the site is valued by both member HEIs and brokers (see attached letters of support).

EMKN is therefore ‘at risk’ and the issues are these

•EMKN brings together valuable resources that will promote and assist business community interaction, in line with government policy both on HE-business engagement and on-line information provision.

•EMKN was designed to meet the specific needs of (BLAs). It needs updating to be accessible by businesses directly and possibly to be incorporated into, or linked to, businesslink.gov.uk

•emda’s innovation website has content that would be a valuable addition to EMKN, but EMUA has neither the resources nor the skills in-house to incorporate these into EMKN.

•EMKN must be moved from its private sector host server by January 2011.

•EMKN is currently maintained by EMUA staff. It should be moved to an alternative server, as EMUA is also under threat.

•If the site was upgraded, maintenance could be reduced using automatic data uploads such as RSS feeds, and the content and accessibility of the information could be improved.

Therefore this project will use the need for migration of this site as a case study on protecting a valuable resource in an economical and sustainable way. The approach will:

•use free server space on Google Sites (www.google.com/sites/overview.html)

•Skilled students will be used within the migration this has the benefit of providing valuable experience for the student involving a ‘real-world’ client.

Google Sites (www.google.com/sites/overview.html) has been selected as the alternative platform for several reasons:

• It is a freely available resource, allowing this approach to be replicated with other at risk reources.

• It allows changes for individual pages or the entire site remotely by subscription

• It supports native RSS feeds for:

o Announcements pages

o Comments

o Recent site activity

• It integrates with a number of Google-based tools (such as Analytics, Webmaster tools, YouTube, Google Docs and Picasa).

Development of the site in this way will also enable the web resource to capture and include some aspects of the East Midlands Development Agency (emda) Innovation portal, which itself will no longer exist post March 2011, due to the abolishment of RDAs. 


This project has been supported by a grant from JISC.

Before starting to migrate the site from a hosted server to a Google sites, capturing the current web contents as static HTML has some benefits:
-Even though Google sites does allow for direct importing of HTML. HTML can be added to a Google Site.
-Provides all the images in one go.

Software selected for this job is the free software WinHTTrack Website Copier (http://www.httrack.com/). It is easy to install and use.

The currently free Dropbox  provides an alternative place to store a website. But only if we talking about static content (ie. content which is not changed dynamically by PHP, etc but is basically HTML). Dropbox provides a public folder which can be view by one with the appropriate link.

First we need to copy the site, so we have local copy on our own machine. This can be done using the method as an example shown in  the earlier blog entry Caught it.

Next, we need a Dropbox account. Go to www.dropbox.com and you should see the following:

Click on the download button and follow the instructions. You will need an email address. We actually on need the Typical setting.

This will add a piece of software to machine. With a little box icon at the bottom of your screen, if we click on this we see the files and folders in the dropbox, open the public folder, now.transfer files over to public folder

Go to the dropbox website and log-in

Then do

Step 2:  Right-click[control-click for a mac] this hom,e page file, then choose Dropbox > Copy Public Link. This copies the Internet link to your file so that you can paste it somewhere else.

Example:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/25018391/index.html for the East Midlands Knowledge Network

For more details on webpage sustainability go to website sustainability.

junkbots continues

The funding may have unfortunately stopped but the activities continue. On 30th March the Junkbots activities return to Brooke Weston School.

It was never the intention that all the tasks were achieved in the time, but the student's tried out their own groups ideas with little input from the tutors.

Some very innovative results were produced.

Thank you to Mr Nigel Barratt for inviting me back and supporting the activities.

Teacher Mr Barrett said: ‘The students just got on with it and devised the models themselves. They experimented all the way through. It was three and a half lessons of having a go, coming across problems and then solving them themselves. If they got stuck we gave them a little push in the right direction. They have all learned a great deal and they were all fully engaged with the project, giving it their maximum effort.’ (Freeman, 2011)

For more details and comments made from the school follow this link.

Details can be found at the project site including some example exercises.

For further details please contact: Scott.turner@northampton.ac.uk or +44 1604 893028

Freeman C (2011) "Junkbots Project 2011" [online] URL: http://www.brookeweston.org/News/NewsItem.aspx?Id=809 accessed on: 7th April 2011.

Articulation of Agreement signed with Informatics Nepal

Taken from: http://tunis.northampton.ac.uk/pa-newsletter/ 

Articulation of Agreement signed with Informatics Nepal (Kathmandu)

The School of Science and Technology welcomed visitors from Informatics College Nepal (Kathmandu) recently, where an Articulation of Agreement was signed between the University and the College. The School of Science and Technology is working with Informatics on course and intellectual capital collaborations.

Women in Computing: Mentoring

The six-month-long pilot project is being run at the University of Northampton. This a collaboration between Rashmi Dravid (School of Science and Technology) and Catherine Klimes (Head of Careers and Employability) sees female students undertaking Computing degrees at The University of Northampton being mentored by professional women already working in the sector. They will be taking part in seminars, conferences and workshops as part of the project, supported by some of the leading organisations in the computing sector and independent IT consultants

The project also aims to motivate, inspire and mentor younger girls by the university students  supporting career days and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) based events at the University and secondary schools

CEISE2011 paper: junkbots

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

Junkbots

Scott Turner

School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton,

Northampton, NN2 6JD

                                  

Abstract: The School of Science and Technology at the University of Northampton have been working with local schools to create robots made from junk and also to use robots programmed by the students to perform simple rubbish clearing exercises. This is an initiative by the University to introduce environmental sustainability, engineering and computing to students in schools. This paper focuses on the programming part of the project, providing reflections on the activities.


Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

CEISE2011 paper: Discussion and Practice of Graduation Design Guidance for Software Engineering

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

Discussion and Practice of Graduation Design Guidance for Software Engineering

Yin Chen School of Software, Harbin Institute of Technology, China

Abstract

Graduation design is one important step for undergraduate education, but the result s of it in some colleges and universities are not well. In this paper, the problem of graduation design is analyzed, and the method of graduation design guidance is discussed. The method is used to practice and gets good results.

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

CEISE2011 paper: The Exploration and Practice of University-Enterprise Collaboration in Industrial Practice - A Factual Instance of the Excellent Engineer Plan

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

The Exploration and Practice of University-Enterprise Collaboration in Industrial Practice - A Factual Instance of the Excellent Engineer Plan

Peijun MA    Shu LIU    Jingchun XU    Xiaofei XU

{ma, sliu, xujingchun, xiaofei}@hit.edu.cn

School of Software, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin,  China

Abstract

National Pilot School of Software (NPSS) at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) has started to explore the way to effectively collaborate with software enterprises in industry practice since 2002. Over nine years of practice, School has developed a set of its own comprehensive university-enterprise collaboration system which includes preparation activities before industrial internship, process monitoring procedures during industrial practice, and some effective events like Industrial Cooperation Summit, Entrepreneur Forum, and Young Alumni Forum etc. NPSS at HIT has extended the collaboration to higher level with enterprise customized MSE program. NPSS at HIT has built a healthy university-enterprise collaboration eco-environment which became a factual instance in industrial practice for universities, and also an answer for the Excellent Engineer Plan of State Ministry of Education in China.

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

CEISE2011 paper: Software Industry and Talents Cultivation in China

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

Software Industry and Talents Cultivation in China

Chen Dongming, Zhu Zhiliang

Software College of Northeastern University, China

Abstract

As the backbone and representative of the present high-tech industry, the information industry serves as the strategic pillar industry of China in this century. By analyzing the present state, characteristics, and development routes of China's software industry, this study will find out the problem and then provide solutions to China’s IT industry, especially the software industry. Education and training for software talents cultivation will also be talked about here.

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

CEISE2011 paper: DEEPENING TEACHING AND LEARNING REFORM AND CONSTRUCTING AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF TOPCARES-CDIO TALENT NURTURING

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

DEEPENING TEACHING AND LEARNING REFORM AND CONSTRUCTING AN INTEGRATED MODEL OF TOPCARES-CDIO TALENT NURTURING 

Wen Tao¹, Wang Weikun²

1 Dalian Neusoft Institute of Information, Dalian, China

2 School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dalian University of Technology, China

ABSTRACT

At present, there are many problems and difficulties in information technology (IT) talent nurturing. The application-oriented IT talent with strong theoretical knowledge and practice ability as well as professional ability and all-round development are urgently needed. Based on Conceive-Design-Implement-Operate (CDIO) approach, Dalian Neusoft Institute of Information (NII) constructs TOPCARES-CDIO index system to help students acquire eight kinds of skills. Enhancing students’ professional ability and all-round development through academic majors as basic units of education, NII has deeply developed application-oriented integrated talent nurturing and comprehensively explored and practiced TOPCARES-CDIO talent nurturing model.

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf

CEISE2011 paper: The Exploration and Practice on the Cultivation of Software Talents

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

Liyong Ren^[1], Qin Zhiguang², Zhou Shijie³

 (University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, 610054, China)

Abstract: The competition of software industry primarily lies in software talents. Targeting at the importance of software talents cultivation currently, this paper proposes some new strategies and measures, such as enhancing external cooperation, emphasizing cultivation quality, carrying out international communications, and organizing innovation activities.

---

1 Dr, Associate Professor, School of Software, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

2 Dr, Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

3 Dr, Associate Professor, School of Computer Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf


 

CEISIE2011 paper: CMMI in Chinese Small and Medium Enterprises: Implementation and Experience

An abstract from the 7th China – Europe International Symposium on Software Industry Orientated Education to be held 23-24th May 2011 at School of Science and Technology, University of Northampton, UK. For more details can be found at this link.

WANG Zhen-yu, XIA Fei-yang

 School of Software Engineering, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, China

Abstract

CMMI is the key for reducing delivery time, improving quality and increasing productivity of application development. It’s also an essential pass for a software company to get recognition of the market in the modern time. CMMI model properly used is applicable to not only big enterprises but also small and medium enterprises (SMEs).This paper presents how to implement CMMI based on SMEs’ situations and characteristics, and with a case of information exchange platform in meteorology, analyses development processes in detail at a small software company in China. Finally some practical experiences are presented, which offer several lessons about how SMEs can more successfully manage software process improvement.

Proceedings can be found at: http://www.web-sustainablity.net/conference/GreenConferenceBook.pdf