The UKeiG xWiki is about to close

The UKeiG xWiki at http://ukeig.xwiki.com/ will be closed down on Monday 28th July. The UKeiG xWiki was always an experiment and we chose xWiki because of the software's flexibility, power and sophistication. It was an interesting experiment and in the initial stages highlighted the importance of controlling access rights at all levels! We succeeded in blocking spam on the main pages but have still not mastered the art of stopping spammers clogging up the user profiles pages :-(

UKeiG is now researching options for a Content Management System for its main web site and our 'spec' includes wiki and blog capability. Our main blog will remain for the time being at http://www.ukeig.org.uk/blog/ and powered by Blogger, and our Wordpress Web 2.0 blog will stay at http://ukeig.wordpress.com/. If you want to download copies of the wiki pages now is the time to do it. We do, though, have a local backup of the content so let Karen Blakeman (karen.blakeman@rba.co.uk) know if you desperately need access to anything.

Have you experienced "data lock-in"?

Posted on behalf of Martin de Saulles:

Have you experienced data lock-in issues with any Web services?

I am currently writing an article on the issues of data lock-in with Web services such as blogs, wikis, social networking, content management and collaborative tools. I am interested in conducting some short interviews (you can choose to remain anonymous) with anyone who has experienced issues (either at a personal or work level or both) with getting their data out of such services for either transferring to a different service, for back-up purposes or because you wanted to close your account with the service down.

The interview would only be a few questions and could be done by email or telephone - whatever suits you.

Thanks in advance.

Martin De Saulles
Senior Lecturer
University of Brighton, UK
mrd@brighton.ac.uk

RSS, Blogs and Wikis - additional date and venue

The workshop on RSS, Blogs and Wikis being run on 27th April, 10th May and 17th May are now fully booked but the event is being re-run in Newcastle on Wednesday, 11th July 2007. Details and a booking form can be found on the UKeiG web site, or contact Christine Baker for further details on Tel & Fax: +44 (0)1969 625751, email: cabaker@ukeig.org.uk