How can tech help us navigate the new normal? Networkshop48 goes ahead as an online event.

This year’s Networkshop will now run as an online event, in light of recent lockdown measures. Jisc has reconfigured the event to make sure delegates still have access to insight from leading technology experts about innovative ways to tackle digital solutions in education, but from the comfort of their homes.

Jisc is keen for all members to be able to take part in this collaborative event, and it is now also completely free to attend – anyone interested simply needs to register.

Bringing together some of the UK’s leading voices in educational technology, Networkshop48 offers the opportunity to share ideas with peers and hear how innovations in tech can help make education better for all. The event will run Wednesday to Friday, 22-24 April 2020.

Here are some of the ways to get the most out of this year’s event.

Get involved in the debate

Alongside the keynote speeches and lightning talks, there will be various opportunities to get involved in Q&As with speakers, while a chat function will allow attendees to communicate with each other.

There will be discussions including, ‘How has working from home changed traffic on the Janet Network?’ and ‘How have organisations risen to the challenge of continuing learning through lockdown?’.

Lightning talk followed by Q&A: How has working from home changed traffic on the Janet Network? 11:00:12:00, Wednesday 22 April 2020.

Find out what practical tools are available

During this unprecedented time, many organisations are keen to uncover practical, actionable tools that are available to help them navigate their new normal. In the lightning session on trust and identity, hear about how Jisc can help with authentication and authorisation through a range of trust and identity services, which play a key role in enabling on- and off-campus access to both internal and external resources.

Lightning talk and Q&A: 13:00-13.45, Wednesday, 22 April 2020.

Hear from leading sector voices

• Dr Beth Singler is a junior research fellow in artificial intelligence at Homerton College, University of Cambridge. Her work includes research exploring the social, ethical, philosophical and religious implications of advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. Hear Beth in conversation with Jisc’s Janet chief technology officer, Jeremy Sharp, in Wednesday’s keynote speech. 

Keynote talk and Q&A: Are we ready for AI? 10:00-10:45, Wednesday 22 April 2020.

• Anna Wilson is a technical architect at Ireland’s national research and education network (NREN) HEAnet. She will speak with Jisc’s chief network architect, Rob Evans, about how NRENs were affected by the attacks on 11 September, 2001, and how they responded. 

Keynote talk and Q&A: Real life crisis – network outage during 9/11. 10:00-10:45, Thursday 23 April 2020.

• Friday’s keynote sees Dr James Hetherington FBCS, e-infrastructure director at UKRI, discuss some of the challenges for the software, skills, data services, clouds and supercomputers which underpin computational science and digital scholarship in the UK.

Keynote talk and Q&A: Data, code, computers and people – towards an integrated UK digital research infrastructure. 10:00-10:45, Friday 24 April 2020.

Tap into advice from the commercial sector

As well as hearing from peers and Jisc experts, the event will facilitate a series of sessions providing advice and guidance from the commercial sector. Hear from ALE on using cloud solutions to support continuing activity, and cyber security updates from Infoblox. In addition, there are lightning talks from Fortinet, Mimecast, and more.

Lightning talks:

• GBICS, connectivity strand, 14:30-14:45, Wednesday 22 April 2020
• Fortinet, cyber strand, 14:00-14:15, Thursday 23 April 2020
• Mimecast, cyber strand, 14:15-14:30, Thursday 23 April 2020

Catch up with what’s new in networking, cyber security and cloud

Other sessions include: how to make the most of cloud technology during the pandemic, from Tony Wildish, cloud informatics application architect at the European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), and Jamie Lee, head of infrastructure services at Goldsmiths; working from home and the opportunities, successes and challenges of the last few weeks from Simone Barberesi, director of IT services at Bangor university; and awareness and training tactics for building phishing defences, from Jisc information security officer, Jon Hunt.

All sessions will also be recorded.

For access to these talks, register for Networkshop48 for free.