Tuesday, June 29, 2010

delicious

The WRN team now have a delicious site available at http://delicious.com/welshrepositorynetwork

Delicious is a social bookmarking service that allows users to tag, save, manage and share web pages centrally. For more information about social bookmarking a useful explanation is available on Wikipedia.

Here in the WRN offices we started to use delicious to gather together sites of potential interest to us internally as a project team, but we've quickly come to realise that having access to these links would also be of use to the wider repository community within Wales.

screen shot of delicious site

There are various ways of exploring content on delicious, I find one of the most useful is to use the tags list from the right hand menu to look at sites gathered together under various themes. This will quickly take you out and beyond the sites we've gathered at WRN into the wider collection of URLs from the whole site.

As with many other Web 2.0 tools making them useful and developing a useful community actually takes a lot of effort - and to be honest our work on populating the site with links to date has been sporadic. It is another of those changes to the way we work and think that doesn't yet happen automatically. However, with time we hope to improve this situation and keep adding useful sites as we come across them.

If you know of any sites that would be useful to add to our page, or if you would like to become an active contributor to our site, then please just drop us a line via the usual email wrnstaff@aber.ac.uk.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Thousand words...! Architecture and Gardens


Architecture and Bentley Continental GT...


Taken from our base camp...!


Church!

Architecture continued on Facebook...

Thousand words...!


The food....!


The famous Swiss Alpes...!


Beer and more beer...!


Argentina vs Greece and the Sun is still shining...!


Frankfurt air port we waited for 7 Hours. This was the most tiring part of the journey...!More pics coming on FB!

Friday, June 18, 2010

trans-automa-sytosis- MADNESS


blogging has been keeping me sane...so blogging i shall do!

two weeks of madness and this is -3 days to deadline!
i remember back in NYC I used to be able to stay up all night for as many nights as necessary to finish projects and then have enough energy to go to work, intern and then out and socialize.

i'm failing to understand why, since i've been here in milan, the all nighters are just almost impossible- i ONLY STUDY here and yet- all i do is go from school to home, and from home to school. no exploring, no adventures- all the fun is in cooking and drinking wine!!!

anyhow...
i'm struggling because its been about 4 months of development for this project and i really want the PRINTED/ BOOK result to be as good as what i have in my head
=
LOTS OF HARD WORK+ MANY PRINT TESTS
- i printed 11 pages today, + 3 that i printed last week- that makes 14 and the book is growing
nonetheless i still have 2 more groups of 5 --> individual sketch to layout
+ 3 keyword pages
+ synthesis
+ titles
+swatch pages
+ be able to finish my OTHER CLASSE'S PROJECTS...


wish me luck and send me lots of energy please!!!

here are some layout previews( although when printed the effect is totally different)
and i'm off!

huugs1








Wednesday, June 16, 2010

term garment updates

this is week before finals- we are working hard, the stress in on, and i am a bit behind my schedule...
i spent all day yesterday at lab- putting tubulars on "armholes" of my term garment... here are some pics!

enjoy--- i gotta go back to making FLATS!!!




we have to put every single loop into the "needle" and when you are finishing something with a tubular... its 3 times... i used a white cotton tubular to match my crochet straps


the green stuff is the separation yarn, it hold your knit and helps you put it in the machine... the it gets removed!

...g




back, see the armholes. they are stiffer!
and a racerback

... huugsitos!

Friday, June 11, 2010

knitting term garment.... water bubbles!


term garment time....
i'm trying to document the process of construction of my term garment... my 1st knitted garment. Fabric was slow to make- sorry i didn't take any pictures of that- but here are some images of lab-work... cutting/assembling!

i'm having fun... knitwear is definitely another story... and i like that

i'm, going to upload a sketch soon!


enjoy

laying out pattern- to cut!

fabric... with bubbles... like lake, its dropped needles and racking, then some "columns" to resemble some of hunderwasser's buildings/drawings which have been my inspiration for this "trans-automa-sytosis" project...
THANKS ANAMARIA!!!!(my knitting teacher, she is amazing)

after "sewing" test on mannequin to see fit.... it got transformed- it was supposed t be a tighter "top part"- but we have to let the "fabric"guide us---- so i'm listening and changing it to a more loose/robe-y dress...

"racerback" back
"halter-y" front... with crochet straps
side.... with needles missing in action for detail... i want the armhole part to drape more... but... i'll work it out once i put the tubular finishings!

flat-tening my life away!












Advocacy discussion: barriers and solutions

As part of the Repository Stream at the Gregynog Colloquium we held a discussion session on the hurdles faced by Repository Administrators when trying to encourage academic buy-in to their systems. These have been listed below and grouped into topics.

As part of the discussions we also suggested solutions for each of the obstacles. These appear after each problem raised in a different colour. The solutions are by no means exhaustive and there are some gaps.

Please add comments and suggestions to the list below, and suggest advocacy ideas that have worked for you. It is hoped this exchange of ideas will aid both our WRN community and the repository community as a whole.


Perception of time and effort required

No time
Demonstrate ease of deposit. Video materials to demo deposit using academic champions. Practice reduces time. Look into automatic completion APIs for repository.
Extra admin work
Mandate. Suggest using admin staff or PhD students to help- good practice for new researchers.
Backlog of research will take too much time to enter
Offer self-deposit to relieve backlog then encourage self-deposit. Suggest using admin staff or PhD students to help.


Benefit of repository interaction

What’s in it for me?- Apathetic to the process
Education- more widespread audience; greater recognition; higher/ faster/ sustained citation rates. Demonstration of RAE impact. Use of peers as champions. Video materials?
The paper is already published- anyone who wants to read it already has
More widespread audience- publically funded research available to whole of the public beyond subscription barriers.
Takes time to see benefit
Difference between print and electronic world?


Perception of repository importance

Lack of integration with other Uni systems and processes
Top-level buy-in to push for integration/ Mandates
Repository is an archival end point
Education on benefits- use as Management Information tool
Perceived value of system through lack of dedicated staff time
Top-level buy-in to fund positions to administer repository. Use further staff network- subject liaison; research administrators- to spread load and form experts for each school/ collection.


Copyright and IPR issues

Unsure of copyright status in papers
Use of SHERPA RoMEO/ include API on repository front page
Unsure of what was signed away with publishing license
Education. Feedback from academics to publishers. UKCoRR MoU
No longer have copies of different versions
Education
Worries about plagiarism and IPR protection
No real difference between print and online world. Getting the paper out on the web and recognised as author’s work should counteract plagiarism risk. Benefits associated with citation rates and recognition should outweigh IPR risks.


Conflicts with traditional publishing

Publishing within a prestigious journal the priority
Use of OA funds to encourage OA publishing
Older research is no longer felt relevant
Evidence of older PhD work being requested for digitisation as now informs modern research.


Other issues

Collection policy confusion- what can be accepted
Have clear collection policy stated within repository site FAQ
Can the repository take different file types?
Have clear collection policy stated within repository site FAQ- the repository can store diff file types but can end users access them easily?/ Preservation.
Don’t want to make draft version publically available

Gregynog Repository Stream

The presentations delivered during the Repository Strand at this week's Gregynog Colloquium are now available online on our project website or follow the relevant links below.

The Power of the Mandate Sue Hodges, University of Salford.
Research Publishing at Swansea University Alex Roberts, Swansea University.
Research management system at the University of Glamorgan Leanne Beevers and Neil Williams, University of Glamorgan.
Developing a repository: caring, sharing and living the dream Misha Jepson, Glyndŵr University.
Encouraging author self- deposit at Cardiff University Tracey Andrews and Scott Hill, Cardiff University.
Using statistics as an advocacy tool Nicky Cashman, Aberystwyth University.
Advocacy: the theory Jackie Knowles, WRN.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

New IR Cross Search Service launched in Ireland

RIAN is a newly launched cross-search service for content held within 7 HEI IR's in Ireland- DCU, NUIG, NUIM, TCD, UCC, UCD, UL. An outcome of a Strategic Innovations Fund project, it was sponsored by the Irish Universities Association (IUA) and funded by the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA).

The aim of the service is 'to harvest to one portal the contents of the Institutional Repositories of the seven university libraries, in order to make Irish research material more freely accessible, and to increase the research profiles of individual researchers and their institutions.'

Saturday, June 5, 2010

JABULANI



Ever since the first, official, FIFA World Cup soccer ball in 1970. There’s nothing like ours; Jabulani. Meaning “let us be happy”; made in the spirit of Ubuntu. He a stud in a beshu on an Armani suit & and laced in imbatata. I love it, apparently its a “ Grip n’ Groove, exceptionally great in flight & perfect for all weather conditions. It’s got 8, new thermally, bonded 3D panels. Moulded for the sphere, perfectly round & more accurate than ever. What can we say; these are the peps of being the latest in the market.

It comes after a generation of champions. You got to have balls man!!! First of these bally stalwarts is the Buckminster, apparently the black& white, 32 panelled descendent was only visible on black & white TV. That was the Mexican World Cup in 1970.

Chile Durlast the prince who was not meant to be a king was introduced in 1974. Tango Durlast was placed in the centre field in Argentina in 1978, as candidate design for more of its kind to come.

Tango Durlast set a pattern trend for next ball; the Tango Espana in the 1982 Spanish World Cup. The first edition of water resistant ball with a rubber inlaid over the seams. The rubber unfortunately had a disadvantage. It started to wear off after a short time of kicking & it had to be always replaced during the match. Last of its kind.
In 1986 in Mexican World Cup rolled out the first polyurethane coat, Azteca. Its the synthetic ball, which was good on wet & hard places. Rain resistance was the number one priority for Adidas.

The polyurethane continued its technological journey in the balls. In 1990; in the Italian World Cup; black polyurethane foam in layered ball; Etrvsco; was introduced.

Adidas felt at home with polyurethane. In 1994 in the USA World Cup; Questra; with an enveloped layer of polystyrene foam; was kicked to the next level. Let alone being more waterproof, but this made the have more acceleration, it had softer touch to it, control & higher velocity during gaming.

Followed after 4 years was there Tricolore in the hands of a captain in the France World Cup; in 1998. It had the French red, white & blue tri- colour. It deviated from the traditional black & white patterns. Using under glass print technology; the first colored official World Cup ball had a thin layer of syntactic foam. It inspired the next era of balls.

The era evolved in its own right; by coming up with the Fevernorva in the Korea Japan 2002. Adidas pulled it off again presenting a thicker layered for more accuracy in the flight of the new ball. The patterns resembled a blade; to cut through the air. It was a real pretty boy...

After the pretty boy, there was the handsome German; the Teamgeist. It was unveiled at the 2006 German World Cup. It was all new, made for the 21st century footballers. Complete with gold & silver patterns.

Football is such a great sport, we love it in South Africa. Unlike the way football is played in Europe: here in South Africa posses prowes, flair, trickery & top class players. We feeling it! What about you?