Routes of Dissemination
This blog is obviously one way in which we are trying to disseminate the work of the TELSTAR project. The recent presentation at ALT-C and resulting YouTube video of the presentation were other aspects of our dissemination work. I’m now looking at what the next steps should be.
Traditionally a JISC funded project like TELSTAR might produce some printed publicity materials, present at various conferences, maybe publish an article or two, and possibly have a blog or similar channel for dissemination. Of course, this would be alongside the formal written outputs of the project.
All of these seem quite reasonable approaches to disseminating project outcomes. However, with TELSTAR I perceive some particular challenges. Firstly, the short time the project has to run means that it is difficult to find conferences that are accepting papers and happen before the end of the project. Secondly, the potential audience for TELSTAR is broad (it may not be that unusual in this), meaning it is difficult to identify channels that reach all of the possible interested parties. Earlier this year Lawrie Phipps, who is the JISC Programme Manager for the Institutional Innovation strand that TELSTAR is funded under posted some thoughts about dissemination for educational technology projects.
Some brief, but (I think) interesting statistics:
- Audience at TELSTAR ALT-C presentation: 20-30 people (that’s a guess on my part)
- Views of YouTube video (after 5 days): 301 viewings (and they weren’t all me)
- This blog (since 23/8/09): 182 unique visitors, 294 visits, 468 page views
- Discussion generated by single post to code4lib mailing list: 58 emails
So, I thought I’d ask for suggestions – please leave comments below – how should we disseminate the work of the project? What works for you? Do you have any examples of excellent dissemination of project outcomes? What would you like to know?
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