DevCSI

Aug 26, 2009 by Julian Cheal

Welcome to the DevCSI project blog!

DevCSI is a JISC-funded project which will build on the work of last year’s CRIG and dev8D projects and events to establish a recognisable sector-wide community of developers. We believe that developers have much to offer Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), and we aim to raise their profile. We will showcase the best work of developers in UK HEIs, and demonstrate to the sector the development capability which it already has embedded in its institutions. And we hope to demonstrate how, acting collaboratively, developers in HEIs can contribute significantly to innovation at a sector-wide level. It is anticipated that the project will run for two years.

The project will be primarily concerned with delivering a series of events, falling into several categories:

face-to-face networking, development and learning opportunities for developers. The Developer Happiness Days event is a significant example of this category and will be run again in the Spring of 2010
training opportunities (both technical and non-technical) for developers
smaller, more ‘agile’ events in the nature of barcamps, sponsored and supported by this project but largely organised by the community
technical prototyping events, aimed at addressing pressing technical issues identified by the JISC and the community
show-case/demonstration events, where technical innovation can be presented to non-developer ‘audiences’

In addition to its focus on events to engage and support developers, the project will examine how a community of developers in UK Higher Education might be supported, and how in turn it might contribute, as a community, to technical innovation in the sector.

DevCSI will be officially launched on 3/9/2009 at the Rapid Innovation in Development programme event where developers from the recently JISC-funded ‘Rapid Innovation’ projects will given an opportunity for training and networking.

A schedule of further events is being drafted and will be published here soon.