Tom Roper's Weblog

Sandown

The Saturday before Cheltenham
Sandown 210 Wogan
320 Ursis
355 Saratogate

A week of unemployment

It seems a little self-regarding, even by the egotistical standards of the blog, to write about this, but this was my first week of unemployment since 1991. Then I had a computer, an Apple Mac Classic, now I have an IMac. Then I signed on at the Tottenham Job Centre, in Scotland Green, one of the candidates in popular mythology for the title of "worst street in North London". Now I go to Newhaven...plus ça change.
I had an interview on Wednesday, and await the outcome; I was offered an interview for another job but then they had to change the date, and have not yet given me another .

Leaving BSMS

I have now left BSMS and am unemployed, I hope not for very long.
I shan't say much here about leaving the best job I ever had; I tried, not very coherently, to express what I felt about it at a leaving party on Friday.
There are some photographs, mostly taken by Martin Hayden, at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tomroper/tags/tomsleavingparty/

Potential employers, please note I've revised my cv.

Controlling what people say

An e-mail landed in my inbox from a conference organiser. They want me to part with £350 to attend a one-day conference on blogging and social media.

"Effective communication is a challenge for everybody in today’s organisations and social media [sic] is all about communication.  Knowing what’s being said about your organisation both internally and externally is critical and must be understood and controlled," they say. 

Must it? I can see that one would want to understand it, but, why try to control it? Even if it were desirable, is it even possible?

Interesting as some of the programme sounds, I don't think I can find £350 for a one-day conference from my Jobseeker's Allowance.

Open and Shut?

I have just found, via a posting on [email protected], an excellent piece by Richard Poyner on the history of institutional repositories on his blog Open and Shut.

HSLG Open Access 2: Niamh Brennan, Trinity College

Niamh Brennan of Trinity College Dublin gave a wide-ranging and rich presentation This is the trouble with this conference blogging lark, when you come across such  presentation it's very difficult to render it faithfully. I am aware that my notes become more and more incoherent as they go on. Nevertheless I record them as I have them.