Leeds Metropolitan University: Two Substantial Initiatives

No rest for the wicked so they say. One hour after I had shambled back from Sierra Leone I had to dash off to Leeds for a meeting at Leeds Metropolitan University. While I grumbled about it at the time, I am very glad that I made the effort because what I was shown was impressive. The former Friends' Meeting House at Woodhouse Lane has been transformed into The Institute for Enterprise which will be made available to the general public as well as to staff and students of the University.

The Institute has all sorts of magnificent facilities:
  • a meeting space in the vestibule
  • conventional class and seminar rooms
  • a soundproof room for confidential discussion
  • a cafe at the entrance.

Every room and space has internet access and a screen for presentations.

The reason for the invitation was that the University had offered to host the April Leeds Inventors' Club meeting at the Institute. We had a really entertaining talk by Tony Bryant, the University's Professor of Informatics, entitled "Mothers and Others on Invention". Tony has offered to make his presentation available on the internet and I really look forward to that. Afterwards, we had a tour of the building by the Institute's head, Linda Broughton, where we were shown the facilities and the services that will be available to us.

One of the topics in Tony's talk was the Student Wiki which is open to subscription by anyone with .ac.uk email address. This is another interesting Leeds Metropolitan initiative and we learned a great deal more about it at the Bmedi@ awayday to Round Foundry yesterday. So far it is in its infancy with 125 articles but the staff-student team behind it seem very keen.

Incidentally, I learned that "wiki" means "quick" in Hawaiian and "wiki, wiki" means "very quick." I wonder whether there is a word for "wiki, wiki" or even "wiki" in Krio.

PS We now have an IP wiki of our own. Visit http://innovation.wikispot.org/ and let us know what you think (11 Dec 2007).

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