Thinking Big

I don't know how big this thing can go but Leverhulme are offering £250,000 for a symposium to take place in 2007. Deadline is September 2nd. Maybe it's worth a punt simply to get some feedback?
http://www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/#symposium_2007

Notes from Meeting at Reading University 27th July

Thoughts since the last meeting centred around the idea of how we could use a public design organisation in the project (Janet suggested The Highgate Society as a possibility, Peter said he'd heard Milton Keynes council were keen to work with the OU). Rachael, more experienced in these matters commented that there were alot of project around under the 'New Deal' banner (urban regeneration), and that public design meetings often had complicated politics.

Timetable
The date for the conference is more or less agreed for late summer 2007 (early September is looking good). The current timetable needs to be squeezed slightly We need to publicise our conference so that other organisers are aware of when we are holding it. ICED will take place in 2007, as will an international DRS conference.

September 2007 also ties in with the UK RAE (census date is end October, with final publication date end December). Various possibilities were discussed to meet the deadline. The journal special issues could be planned up front. The conference proceedings will also be published. It was thought that a book of sufficient quality would not be realisable before the end of 2007. One final point was how important the UK RAE would be given the international make-up of participants. There was a feeling that the type of people that will be invited to participate won't be dependent on the symposium for their RAE.

Publication Strategy
In the light of this a publication strategy is needed, outlining who, how, when, and where, the content of the symposium will be published. A good job for Nigel (we all agreed). In particular the content of the book was felt to be important. The possibility of adding the DVD of data was discussed, and also having the book themed (methods, disciplines, etc.) making it significantly different from the conference proceedings.

Budget
The current budget for the project is around 50K but needs working out accurately. A number of activities can be considered as funding in kind from respective institutions (location costs at Greenwhich, video set up and recording costs at OU, and transcription costs at Plymouth) and that would strengthen a bid to funding council.

Proposal for Funding
Peter provided an outline proposal with an eye on the AHRCs network scheme, where a maximum of £30,000 (full economic costs) can be applied for. Other funding councils were also discussed, particularly as any employment costs will not be provided by the AHRC scheme. An EPSRC or ESRC Case award for a co-ordinator/phd student is a possibility here.

Conference Organisation
Peter suggested it might be an idea to hold a pre-screening afternoon before the conference proper to allow people attending the conference without having been involved in the analysis to get up to speed with the set-up. The pre-screening could end in a welcome party for all delegates.

Blogg, Net Conferencing, Wikis
Everybody seems to be keeping up to date with the Blogg, but Fraser and Rachael (and Nigel) do not yet have editing rights. Peter also suggested the Flash meeting pages provided by the OU for remote conferencing, all that is required is a webcam and a browser. (see http://cnm.open.ac.uk/projects/flashmeeting/ ).

The idea of using an editable website (Wiki) for a website supporting the DVD data was discussed. This would allow researchers involved to develop definitions, ask questions about the data, and add pages in an organic way. See Wikipedia for a definition of Wikis (and an example of what Wiki's can become).
There are vatious Wiki hosting services. Basic services are available free, further features (password security, data back-up and protection) are charged in a monthly fee. Seedwiki is an example of a wiki hosting service.

Date of Next Meeting
Was agreed for 10:00 on Thursday September 22nd at Reading University.

Actions Arising
Peter:
Contact Milton Keynes council
Contact AHRC for clarification
Circulate AHRC Research programme description pdfs
Contact OU press
Circulate Gero conference description
Experiment with Flash Meeting (Peter and Janet)
Resend Blogg invite to Fraser, Rachael, and Nigel (Peter or Janet)
Contact Mangold re: possible group discounts for Interact software

Janet:
Contact publishers re: proceedings
Find out the cost of holding the conference
Experiment with Flash Meeting (Peter and Janet)
Resend Blogg invite to Fraser, Rachael, and Nigel (Peter or Janet)

Fraser:
Find out about ESRC studentships/awards

Rachael:
Contact DRS and Bob Young

Nigel:
Formulate publication strategy