Eduserv funds research into digital identity in support of online learning and research

Bath, 27th Oct 2008 – Eduserv, the not-for-profit IT services group, today announces that it has awarded grants totalling £206,595 to fund three research projects, each of which involve investigations into the use of digital identity in learning and research.

The explosion of social networking sites and growth in online identity has prompted the academic community to consider how digital identities can be utilised in learning and research environments. Having an effective online presence is becoming increasingly important for researchers and learners and the web can be exploited as a tool for research collaboration and communication.

The projects, conducted by University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, and University of Reading , will help members of the academic community understand the issues associated with digital identity and provide a standard for transferring information between social network sites.

Assisting the W3C In Opening Social Networking Data

This two-year project aims to explore the power and utility of royalty-free standards for extensible open social data. This project will help investigate and generate work proposals for opening social data at the Web's foremost standards body, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Founded by Tim Berners-Lee, widely acclaimed to be the 'inventor of the Web,' the W3C brings diverse communities together to build consensus to increase the interoperability of the Web at all levels of standardization. This in turn encourages the implementation of open social data by major open source projects and vendors.

Project lead Harry Halpin says, "The web was a world-changing success precisely because it allowed users to seamlessly browse and link hypertext documents using open standards. As today more and more of our online experience is through social networking sites, users will need open standards in order seamlessly control and share their social data between social networking sites. There are people all over the world working on this problem, and with the funding from Eduserv, the University of Edinburgh and the World Wide Web Consortium can now play a role in making open social networking a reality."

Rhizome: exploring strands of online identity in learning, teaching and research

A fourteen month project, led by Dr Steven Warburton of King’s College London. The project will use narrative inquiry and scenario mapping to explore the key technical and social elements that impact on the construction of online identities. The work will build a framework for understanding the tools, literacies, and practices needed to create and manage individuals’ digital self-representations.

This is me

An eight month project, led by Shirley Williams of the School of Systems Engineering at the University of Reading, will investigate how individuals can be made more aware of their digital identity and how such identities can be developed and enhanced. The project will produce a set of Web-based resources designed to be of use both within the University of Reading and by the wider UK HE community.

Williams says, “The idea for our 'This is Me' project came from many conversations we have held with colleagues, students and acquaintances about their digital identities. Some people are very aware of how they appear on the internet, worrying about where they appear in search engine results; while others are very lax leaving around out-of-date information and inappropriate photographs. We are grateful to the Eduserv Foundation for funding us to investigate this area and to allow us to develop exercises to help students and others understand the digital identity they have, and in turn help them to present themselves to friends, families and employers.”

Andy Powell, Head of Development at Eduserv comments, "We are very excited to be funding these projects. They will provide real help to members of the academic community in managing digital identity and assist in communicating more effectively in the online environment."

Notes to Editors

About Eduserv

Eduserv is a not-for-profit IT services group with the mission to realise the benefits of IT for learning and research. Eduserv achieves its charitable mission through the provision of sustainable IT services and funding research and development. Services include:-

• Secure access to online resources (Athens and OpenAthens)
• Licence negotiation and management – (Chest)
• Managed web hosting
• Content management (CMS) and web development

For more information about Eduserv please contact:

Andrew Tavener
Marketing Communications Manager
Tel: +44 (0)1225 474300
Email: andrew.tavener@eduserv.org.uk