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Community Engagement Manager(Fixed term - 2 years)

The opportunity:To be successful in this role, you’ll need:• Enough technical nous to be comfortable working with geeks; you’ll need to

be able to recognise the value in technical developments and communicate this to a broader audience

• To demonstrate a solid understanding of the fundamentals of open data; some experience/presence in the open data scene/community would be preferable

• At least one year’s experience managing the social media presence of an organisation or project

• Demonstrably superb written and oral communication skills• The ability to define success metrics for projects and assemble evidence to

demonstrate their impact• Experience of creating and delivering on community engagement strategies• A bachelors degree (or higher), though the discipline is less important than

the skills and qualities you bring• Great communication skills, able to listen as well as you can speak and write• Ability to work with a broad range of professionals: research, technical,

communications/PR, events• Ability to create and maintain impact among a broad audience, through

online and offline meansThe challenge:This isn’t a normal job; we’re not just asking you to email a CV. We want you to demonstrate your ability to understand, reach and engage an audience. So, by 12 noon on Monday 19 August please use whatever (legal) means you have at your disposal to reach our Head of Research, Tom Heath, and convince him that your CV is worth reading. The more creative your approach, and the more it demonstrates your passion for the transformative power of open data, the greater your chances of getting to interview.

An open application for a post working for an organisation committed to openness?

Why not!

Open DataWhat is “Open Data”?“the idea that certain data should be freely available to everyone to use and republish as they wish, without restrictions from copyright, patents or other mechanisms of control”

See Wikipedia

Why The Interest?Open data may bring benefits:• Verifiable of findings by peer

review.• “the coolest thing to do with your

data will be thought of by someone else.”

• Open government data can support transparency and democratic control; participation; self-empowerment and help improve efficiency and effectiveness of government services; support innovation and demonstrate impact.

The Flip SideOpen data should not be regarded as a panacea: • There may be a lack of

interest in your open data.• Organisations may be

concerned that their data is of poor quality or may be used against them.

• Those with vested interests in, say, licensing closed data may stifle growth of open data.

What’s Needed?For open data to be useful it needs to be usable:• Licensed to permit reuse.• Adequately described, so the data makes sense out-of-context.• Available of tools to support data management, discovery and use and

expertise to use the tools.

Supporting Web ManagersAbout the IMW EventThe annual IWMW event was launched in 1997. It provides an opportunity for university Web managers to update their skills and learn about new Web developments.

A Culture of OpennessThe IWMW event has encouraged open approaches. This has included:• Open availability of speakers slides.• Live streaming of plenary talks.• Availability of data about the events in

open reusable formats (illustrated).• ‘Event amplification’ since 2006.

Talks on Data and Openness2013:

“Open Education: The Business & Policy Case for OER”, Cable Green, Creative Commons“Mozilla, Open Badges and a Learning Standard for Web Literacy”, Doug Belshaw, Mozilla Foundation

2012:“Data and the Web Manager”, Kevin Ashley, DCC“Open Data Development in the City of Edinburgh Council”, Sally Kerr, Edinburgh City Council“Data Visualisation: A Taster”, Tony Hirst, OU and Martin Hawksey, CETIS“Key Information Data Sets”, Andrew Oakley, HESA

In addition to these talks, workshops sessions on “Analytics - What is Changing and Why Does it Matter?”; “Open Up: Open Data in the Public Sector”; “Save Money and Make Things Better with Linked Open Data” and “Big and Small Web Data” explored issues about data and openness in more depth.

Data about speakers and their talks for all IWMW events is available as RSS data. As shown a map of the location of speakers’ host institutions can be viewed.

Pro-Active Approach To Advocacy and Sharing

During 16 years at UKOLN Brian Kelly has given over 400 talks through the UK and Europe, as well as in North America, Australia and Asia.Brian has provided open access to his slides, through use of Creative Commons licences as well as use of services such as Slideshare which permit reuse, downloading, modifications and embedding.

Case Study: Using Social Media to Raise the Visibility of a Research Paper

Background• Paper on “A Challenge to Web Accessibility

Metrics and Guidelines: Putting People and Processes First” accepted by the W4A 2012 conference.

• Four co-authors agree to be pro-active in maximising vies of the paper: it has valuable ideas which they want practitioners to implement and peers to discuss and cite.

Approaches• Two resources were promoted:

the paper and the slides.• Nos. of views were recorded

during week of conference: 1,391 views of slides; 3 and 311 views of other slides with conference tag!

• Paper was author’s third most downloaded paper in 2012

• Paper has been cited by researchers in Catalonia.

Sharing ExperiencesExperiences shared in talk on “Using Social Media to Enhance Your Research Activities” given at Social Research conference.

Topsy was used to observe discussions & monitor effectiveness of use of social media.

Research ProfileBrian Kelly’s research profile: Over 60 papers published in

peer-reviewed journals and conferences or invited papers at international conferences.

56 co-authors. H-index of 13 according to

Google Scholar Citations. Papers available from multiple

source including university repository, ResearchGate and Academia.edu.

The papers have covered topics including web accessibility, web preservation, web standards and the social web.A word cloud based on the content of the papers is shown below.

Well-ConnectedBrian Kelly is well-connected on the social web. He has: Over 3,700 followers on Twitter and over 1,200 connections on

LinkedIn. A Klout score of 57.

Although social media metrics can be ‘gamed’ and do not give an indication of the value of the services used, these values indicate long-standing involvement with social media services.

The mosaic shown above was created using Frintr. It uses Twitter avatars from Brian’s Twitter network.

Two depictions of Brian’s Twitter network are shown.

The Twitter network map shown to the left was created by Tony Hirst. Followers in particular communities are highlighted.

Feedback from LinkedIn

LinkedIn Testimonials“Brian has been extremely successful in his role as a national advocate for useful trends in presenting information via the web.“ Chris Rusbridge“Brian is a remarkable individual. He combines detailed knowledge of the technologies used in higher and further education with enthusiasm, but tempers this with a real understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of that technology, and where it is best applied or not applied.” Charles Oppenheim

Linkedin EndorsementsYou may be sceptical of LinkedIn endorsements. But the aggregation provides an indication of skills and expertise as perceived by over 1,200 of my LinkedIn network.

Well-established Open PracticesAs illustrated in the timeline Brian has been pro-active on his involve with open practices for some time. This work includes:• Papers including “Let’s Free IT Support Materials” (EUNIS 2006);

“Openness in Higher Education: Open Source; Open Standards; Open Access” (ELPub 2007); “What Does Openness Mean To The Museum Community?” (MW 2008) and “What Next For Libraries?” (SRA 2013).

• Making project outputs, blog posts and other resources available with Creative Commons licences.

• Organising events and publishing posts on openness.

ConclusionsCriteria for the post:Technical nous: Happy to use a wide range of online tools & services.Understand open data: Have written about and used open licences & published open data.Social media management: Several years experience in use of social media.Written and oral skills: Prolific speaker & author of articles, blog posts, papers, etc.Define and use metrics: Have used social media metrics & understand their limitations.Community engagement strategies: Introduced ‘event amplification’ at IWMW events.Communication skills: Experienced speaker and also participant at many events.Working with a range of professionals: As an author & event organiser have worked with a broad range of professionals across higher education & cultural heritage sectors.Create and maintain impact: Aware of the importance of ‘impact’ in the public sector and seek to enhance impact in my professional activities.