UK federation Service Update

Posted on Tuesday, 6 January 2009

As the number of members reaches over 600, and continues to grow each month, support for organisations remains an important element of the UK federation.

The JISC Access Management Transition Programme came to an end at the end of 2008 and there have since been new appointments within the JISC federation support team(1). Becta remains committed to supporting the roll-out of access management within the schools sector, and JANET(UK) continues to provide cross-sector support and guidance for organisations deploying Access Management within the UK federation.

‘JANET has been key in supporting the UK federation since its launch in 2006,” says Simon Cooper, UK federation Service Manager. “We have a dedicated team of experts to answer questions ranging from joining the federation to technical deployment, and a member of the team dedicated to supporting schools and FE.”

Training courses provided by JANET Training and Netskills will continue to evolve as the federation expands to meet organisational requirements; a new forum for discussion following events, is also now available, alongside training material to help organisations get to grips with access management. Institutions are also encouraged to share experiences with their peers through case studies (found on the UK federation website), mailing lists and at community events and forums.

A number of events are planned for 2009 to help organisations deploy access management. Following the success of the two regional events in Brighton and Leeds, the UK federation will be holding further events in this format; the next one is due on 11th March, at Jurys Hotel, in Bristol, with a further one likely to take place in London.

An event specifically aimed at the Further Education community is planned for 16 February 2009 to provide information and guidance specific to the needs of this sector. Towards May, a further event is planned with the aim of using case studies across all education sectors to aid deployment of access management.

To find out more information on documents, events, training and technology updates, please take a look at the relevant pages of the UK federation website.

(1) For further details on the new federation support at JISC, please see: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2009/01/accessmanagement.aspx

Edited by RachelFreeman on 16 January 2009, at 01:49 PM