FOTE 2009

We are excited to have lined-up an interesting selection of speakers for this year’s conference. Here is a first selection and we will add more details over the next coming weeks.

Dr. Paul Miller – The Cloud of Data

Paul offers analysis and consultancy at the interface between the enterprise and the web.

Paul’s insights in this fast-moving market ensure that clients have access to the intelligence and analysis they need in order to adapt to new opportunities in a timely and cost-effective fashion.

Most recently, Paul was Technology Evangelist at UK technology company, Talis. Prior to joining Talis in 2005 he held the post of Director at the Common Information Environment, a consortium of UK public sector organisations including the BBC, the British Library, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and the National Health Service (NHS).

Paul has served in a variety of advisory and monitoring capacities, including the Executive Committees of the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) and Consortium for the Computer Interchange of Museum Information (CIMI). Paul sits on Programme Committees for major industry events, and is a member of the Conference Board for the 2009 Semantic Technology Conference.

Paul writes a blog for ZDNet on the Semantic Web, records regular podcasts with thought leaders in the Semantic Web market, convenes the monthly Semantic Web Gang round-table podcast, and routinely presents and chairs panels at industry events.

Paul holds a Doctorate in Archaeology from the University of York.

Follow Paul on Twitter: @paulmiller

Simone Brunozzi – Amazon

Amazon Web Services Evangelist for Europe

Simone Brunozzi is a technology enthusiast, involved in IT and computing since an early age.

He joined Amazon.com in march 2008 in the role of Web Services Evangelist, traveling across Europe and vicinity to showcase the innovative new solutions by Amazon Web Services and help developers build businesses and applications. He is following the “Cloud Computing” paradigm shift since 2006, and believes that it is going to replace the traditional computing model in a few years.

Of Italian origins, Simone loves travelling, meeting people and connecting with them. He is a Linux and Ubuntu passionate, loves blogging on www.brunozzi.com, and has interests in the environment, clean energies, and technology in general.

Prior to joining Amazon, Simone had his own business focusing on web applications. He also served as a professor of Programming Languages and Compilers at Perugia University and worked as a network and system administrator at the University for Foreigners in Perugia. Simone has a Computer Science degree and spent six months at UC Irvine, California, where he studied the American approach to business and science. He gained early programming experience at the Ministry of Aerial Defense in Rome, Italy.

Follow Simone on Twitter: @simon

Ray Fleming – Microsoft

Ray Fleming is the Education Marketing Manager for Microsoft UK, and has spent 25 years working within the education ICT industry. In that time he has worked for some of the main organisations in education ICT  – RM, Capita, and now Microsoft – in a variety of roles.

“In my current role I create a bridge between the education institutions and their suppliers of ICT, and am often involved in conferences and meetings where the purpose is to discuss the impact of ICT upon education, and the potential for transformation. Often, with commercial companies, the goal is to draw them closer to the educational world, and to help them to see the needs that universities, colleges and schools have. Similarly, with education organisations, I am often asked to tell the story of how technology is changing, and what the impact may be on education – both within and outside of the institution.”

Follow Ray on Twitter: @RayFleming

Pauline Yau – Huddle.net

Pauline has specialised in the area of technology and education for the last 8 years having been responsible for the UK education sector at Macromedia, Adobe and now Huddle.  Pauline is passionate about engaging students through the use of technology in their learning activities.  At Huddle, Pauline works with education institutions globally to enable online collaboration for both staff and students.

When the buzz of managing the education sector for one of the world’s top 50 start-ups according to Business Week gets too much, Pauline spends time at home in Surrey with her two-year old daughter and ponders what’s more stressful; dealing with a toddler who believes they can do everything by themselves or the pressure of sales targets.

Follow Pauline on Twitter: @pollyy

Bill Ashraf – University of Sussex

Bill Ashraf is Director of Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Sussex.  He is currently heading up the strategy at Sussex for e-learning, student facing educational support technology and is the “owner” of the VLE.

Whilst lecturing at the University of Bradford he has pioneered the use of podcasting as a distance-learning tool and  created a 24/7 learning environment Apple’s using iTunes. He has ‘Apple distinguished educator’ status and was a finalist for The Times Higher 2006 awards for the ‘most imaginative use of technology in distance learning’. In 2006 he obtained his MBA from the University of Bradford School.

Bill has been invited to speak on e-learning, podcasting and Web 2.0, from a practitioners perspective, in university education at numerous national and international conferences.

Follow Bill on Twitter: @billash01

Robert Moores – Leeds Metropolitan University

Robert is responsible for around 75 staff covering Systems Development, Audio Visual Services & Video Production, IT Service Desk, Procurement.

He has had a varied career encompassing stints as a COBOL programmer, property developer, salesperson and company Director. He’s been involved in several successful business startups ranging from IT training to the wholesale distribution of sunglasses!

In 2008 he was employed as an independent project manager at Leeds Met to lead the implementation of Google Apps and subsequently joined the University in March 2009.

Richard Davis & James Ballard – ULCC

Richard works in ULCC’s Digital Archives Department, where his responsibilities include managing and developing ULCC’s e-Repositories service, and related projects. He also worked as project manager, researcher or developer on several web-based preservation and archives projects, including the National Digital Archive of Datasets (NDAD), Significant Properties of E-learning Objects (SPeLOs), Social Networking Extensions for Eprints (SNEEP),  JISC-PoWR (Preservation of Web Resources), CLASM (Copyright Licensing Application using SWORD for Moodle) and ArchivePress (an open-source blog archiving application). I have also contributed to other repository-related activities, such as SHERPA-LEAP, EMBRACE and the MERLIN text-mining project (with UCL). He edits the excellent DA departmental blog, and constantly encourages colleagues to contribute, and explore the many possibilities of Web 2.0, Social Networking, and The Cloud!

Follow Richard on Twitter: @onothimagen

James formerly worked with Barking college as a learning technologist, before joining ULCC in June 2007.

His expertise lies in working with the latest learning technologies, predominantly as a Moodle user for the past 5 years. He has established himself as a leading practitioner regarding practice and potential of personalised learning environments.  He frequently consults with colleagues nationwide and has been involved in the DfES ICT Test Bed Project and a range of JISC and BECTA funded projects. He has produced research papers and reports assessing the impact of ICT in the classroom and is currently leading on the development of a framework for personalised learning tools.

Will McInnes – NixonMcInnes

Will McInnes is the Managing Director of NixonMcInnes, the UK’s largest specialist social media agency, based in the thriving digital community in Brighton.

A marketer by training, Will and his team are helping brands like BMW, Channel 4, Oxfam and Co-operative Financial Services break new ground in how they use digital media to engage with the people that matter: customers, staff, investors and the rest of the world.

Will is evangelical about all things social media, but more importantly he is an inspiring translator.

He monitors the geeky early adopter activity online and translates the concepts for marketers desperate to know how to apply these new online techniques.

A believer in the wisdom of crowds he engages with his audience drawing on their experience, questions and ideas. A natural entertainer and passionate speaker, his talks and training sessions demand your full attention and can even be enjoyable!

At speaking events Will has cajoled and motivated delegates from: The BBC, Lloyds TSB, Fat Face, Zurich Financial, O2, BMW and Vodafone.

NixonMcInnes do work on-line that makes a difference off-line. Specifically, their mission is to create authentic, powerful, and long lasting unions between people and brands.
NixonMcInnes do this through digital media today. They call this social media goodness.
Current clients include Channel 4, T-Mobile, CISCO, Oxfam, Co-op Financial Services, BMW and Mercedes.

Check out his social media agency, NixonMcInnes’ website.

Follow NixonMcInnes on Twitter – @nixonmcinnes

James Clay – Gloucestershire College

James Clay is and has been passionate about the use of learning technologies to enhance and enrich the learning experience since 1991. He has used, developed, managed and inspired others in a range of technologies, from DTP, CD-ROM, mobile devices, the internet, the VLE, the MLE, mobile learning through to Web 2.0.

James Clay has been ILT & Learning Resources Manager at Gloucestershire College since November 2006. He is responsible for the VLE, the use of learning technologies, e-learning, mobile learning, the libraries, digital and online resources and the strategic direction of the college in relation to the use of learning technologies.

James has extensive experience of mobile learning and has a vision that goes beyond mobile technologies and focuses on the mobility of the learner, blurring the demarcation between formal and informal learning. His current vision for tertiary education encompasses the use of Web 2.0 technologies embedded into an institutional VLE which can be accessed through mobile technologies. Allowing learners a focal point for their studying, whilst allowing the depth and breadth of Web 2.0 to bring a personalised learning experience to students at a time and space to suit them. For the future, James hopes that institutions and others will allow for a flexible, personalised, accessible learning experience for all.

James Clay previously was Director of the Western Colleges Consortium from 2001 to 2006. As Director he is responsible for the management, strategic direction and development of e-learning using a shared MLE across the four partner FE Colleges of the WCC.

Before the WCC he worked for at-Bristol, a Millennium project within the Harbourside of central Bristol – a job which involved delivering hands-on science education and designing educational websites on subjects as diverse as handheld learning experiences, via Antiguan racer snakes, through space science to the mummification process of ancient Egyptians.

Prior to the above, James spent ten years in Further Education as a lecturer in Business & Economics, employing learning technologies. His resources and websites were used extensively by students and were praised by verifiers and inspectors.

Follow James on Twitter – @jamesclay

Nick Skelton – University of Bristol

Nick is responsible for ‘anytime, anywhere’ IT at the University of Bristol.

Nick studied Chemistry at Bristol and found that you graduate but never leave. He has since spent 10 years managing various IT services for students and staff. His areas of interest include mobility, cloud computing and the consumerisation of IT. He is a firm believer that people are more important that technology, and that IT services succeed or fail due to social effects.

His interests include mountain biking and performing improv comedy. He shares his thoughts on people & technology at ideasandohdears.blogspot.com

Follow Nick on Twitter: @nick_skelton

Peter Robinson – Oxford University

Peter works as manager of the Oxford on iTunes U project and
supervises a team of learning technologists at Oxford University’s
central Computing Services. He is an experienced multimedia developer and has 14 years experience working on a variety of ICT projects with academics at the University. He is co-author of the 2004 JISC CLIC scoping study “Community Image Collections” and has been a member of various JISC projects including RAMBLE (integrating mobile Blogs with the VLE).

He is currently managing OpenSpires, a pilot project
releasing Oxford teaching as open content and the JISC STEEPLE
project, a collaboration between The Open University, Oxford and
Cambridge on institutional podcasting. He regularly trains staff on
audio and video creation and teaches on the Masters degree in
e-learning. Peter has recently had the pleasure of listening to many,
many hours of Oxford audio lectures in podcast format as he cycles to
work.

Dougald Hine – School of Everything

Dougald Hine is co-founder of School of Everything , a website which helps people organise
face-to-face learning outside of institutions.  Described as an “eBay for learning”, the site launched in September 2008 and has received investment from Channel 4 and the Young Foundation. It was a winner in
the New Statesman New Media Awards and the Prime Minister’s UK Catalyst Awards 2008, and an honouree in the education category of the Webby Awards 2009.

Outside of School of Everything, Dougald is involved in a wide range of projects looking at the future of technology and society. He writes the blog ‘Changing the World (and other excuses for not getting a
proper job)’ and in July 2009 was named in the Hospital Club 100 list of “the most influential creative and media people” in the UK.

Follow Dougald on Twitter: @dougald

Prof. Shirley Williams – University of Reading

Shirley Williams is Professor of Learning Technologies at the University of Reading and she was recently awarded a National Teaching Fellowship by the Higher Education Academy.

She leads a group of researchers called OdinLab with interests in: digital identity, communities, ontologies, distributed systems, information and knowledge, intelligence, social networks, new and emerging technologies, particularly related to eLearning, competencies and virtual worlds. She maintains a blog and tweets, so have a look.

Follow Shirley on Twitter: @shirleyearley

Lindsay Jordan – University of Bath

Lindsay has worked for the University of Bath since 2005, where she has been leading the transformation of distance learning MSc programmes in the Faculty of Engineering & Design from traditional paper-based courses into interactive, collaborative learning experiences. She works with full-time programme staff, part-time external tutors and students to make optimal use of available technologies with a view to improving the learning and teaching experience and supporting the development of effective learning communities.

Lindsay is completing an MA in Education and her part-time studies have fuelled a particular interest in personal learning environments and the role of social media in bridging informal and formal learning.

From October 2009, Lindsay will be taking up a new role as Educational Developer with the University of the Arts in London.

Follow Lindsay on Twitter: @lindsayjordan