Alex Ball — Activities

This page contains a record of my activities since November 2005, when I joined UKOLN. Listed below are:

For the technically minded the information below is also available in iCalendar format and as an Atom newsfeed.

Ongoing duties

In the gaps between the occasions and events listed below, I am getting on with various day-to-day duties, including the following:

So far

By default this page displays my most recent activity. You can view different date ranges using the form below.

Here's what I did between 14th October 2018 and 14th October 2024.

Date Entry
2022-08-23
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.9).
Software
2022-07-13
Attended a webinar, ‘Datasets in the Wild’, part of Jisc's Digital Research Community (DRC) Monthly Meet-Up programme, which discussed ways for institutions to track the data output of their researchers and secondary uses thereof. Speakers included Nick Sheppard, Mick Eadie, Beverley Jones, Nick Syrotiuk, Chris Gibson, Holly Ranger and Nushrat Khan.
General
2022-05-25
Attended seminar by Nahory Hernandez Mancilla and George Neville on the newly formed Neurodiversity Community at the University of Bath and how the Library can better support and understand the lived experiences of those who use its services.
Staff Development
2022-05-25
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 6.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2022-05-20
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2022-04-29
Attended webinar ‘Repositories and Beyond – The Evolving Landscape’, part of the Libraries after Lockdown: Embracing Disruption programme, which discussed the current repository and research information management landscape and direction of travel. Speakers included Leigh Stork, Tamsin Burland, Gareth Cole and William Nixon.
General
2022-04-05
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2022 International Digital Curation Conference.
General
2022-03-04
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2022-03-04
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 5.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2022-02-21
2022-02-24
As one of a team of three instructors, taught ‘Version Control with Git’ to students from Edinburgh University as part of a four-day hybrid (in-person and online) Software Carpentry workshop.
The Carpentries
2022-02-15
Gave a presentation, ‘Work, Research Data and Play: the RDM Adventure Game’ by myself, Samuel Simango and Nushrat Khan, at an online workshop on using games to support researchers. Two other serious games were presented at the event.
General
2022-01-27
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.3), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
2022-01-20
Participated in an online meeting between the Technical Advisory Board of the Research Data Alliance and Working/Interest Group Chairs.
RDA
2022-01-18
2022-01-20
As one of a team of four instructors, taught ‘Version Control with Git’ to astronomy students from Cardiff University as part of a three-day hybrid (in-person and online) Software Carpentry workshop.
The Carpentries
2021-12-14
Attended webinar, ‘Everyday Ableism: A collective approach to challenging disability discrimination’ led by Tracy Walsh (University of Hertfordshire) and Abbie Jenkinson (College of Haringey, Enfield and North East London).
Staff Development
2021-12-10
Attended seminar by Oli Schofield, Doctoral Engagement Manager, on the work of the University of Bath Doctoral College and the ways in which it engages with doctoral students.
Staff Development
2021-11-19
Attended virtual workshop looking at the implications of UKRI Open Access Policy changes for persistent identification of research outputs hosted by institutions.
General
2021-11-16
Attended seminar by Catherine Bailey, Deputy Director of Student Services, on the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the University's new and returning students following 18 months of lockdowns and interruptions to normal study at school, college and university.
Staff Development
2021-11-03
2021-11-11
Attended the Eighteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance held virtually and internationally, at which I gave a presentation on the latest release of the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
2021-11-03
Launched version 2.1 of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog. This reintroduced the authenticated write functions of the REST API, added filtering (searching) on collection endpoints, and extended the data model to include Linked Data namespaces for metadata schemes.
RDA, Web Development
2021-10-05
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2021-09-30
Attended a workshop run by Tom Mason, the University's Social Media manager, with Library Research Services on how best to engage with researchers through social media.
Staff Development
2021-09-22
2021-09-24
Attended virtually the 15th European Conference on Games Based Learning, presenting the RDM Adventure Game in the 9th International Educational Games Competition, and chairing a session on Movement and Board Games.
General
2021-09-03
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.2), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
2021-07-07
2021-07-10
Attended virtually the Open Repositories 2021 conference, picking up a lot of useful ideas and information about recent developments in the repository world.
Staff Development
2021-05-14
Attended an online training session on how to run The Carpentries sessions entirely online.
Staff Development, The Carpentries
2021-05-06
Spoke to the committee responsible for the Norwegian recommendations on licensing and reuse of research data on consequences of recommendations for licensing data.
General
2021-04-20
2021-04-23
Attended the Seventeenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, based in Edinburgh but held virtually, at which I gave a presentation on registering metadata converters in the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
2021-04-14
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.8).
Software
2021-04-08
Attended training session on how to run online workshops using the Juno Live platform.
Staff Development
2021-03-08
Released the Research Data Management Adventure (at Stellenbosch) for use as a training tool for postgraduate and early career researchers.
Software
2021-02-26
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2021-02-25
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 4.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2021-02-01
Launched a reimplementation of the University of Bath Archives' Cabinet of Curiosities website, now with an administrative backend.
Software
2021-01-28
Attended virtually a meeting of the Data Accessibility Initiative team to review feedback on the University's draft policy.
General
2021-01-25
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.1), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
2021-01-19
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.2).
Software
2020-12-18
Attended online workshop on using games to support researchers. Around ten serious games were showcased; there were also talks on transferable skills in regular games, and whether and how serious games intended to be run in person can be run online.
General
2020-12-03
Attended meeting with colleagues about support the Library offers to EndNote and LaTeX users, my interest being in the LaTeX support aspect. As a result of this meeting, a new LaTeX support mailing list was set up.
General
2020-12-03
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting summarising the year's developments in quiz form.
Staff Development
2020-12-01
Released the Research Data Management Adventure (at Bath) for use as a training tool for postgraduate and early career researchers.
Software
2020-11-09
2020-11-12
Attended the Sixteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, based in Costa Rica but held virtually, at which I gave updates on progress with the Metadata Standards Catalog and Recommended Metadata Element Set.
Metadata, RDA
2020-10-19
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.1).
Software
2020-10-15
Attended the Researchfish Interoperability Workshop, discussing whether and how to run another pilot bulk upload of dataset information into ResearchFish, and what other interoperability targets to address.
General
2020-10-09
Gave a presentation, ‘Towards a metadata Rosetta Stone: The RDA MIG Metadata Element Set’, at an online seminar organised by the Research Data Alliance RDM in Engineering Interest Group.
Metadata, RDA
2020-09-17
Attended webinar in support of the RDA Virtual Plenary based in Costa Rica.
RDA
2020-09-09
Launched version 2.0 of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog. This was a complete rewrite of the underlying code and data model, replacing hard-coded and pattern-matched authority terms with configurable folksonomies, and including a more standardised read-only REST API and comprehensive unit testing.
RDA, Web Development
2020-07-08
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the Registered Service Provider Programme.
Staff Development
2020-06-06
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.7).
Software
2020-05-15
Participated in ad-hoc workshop on tools to support creating and preserving stand-off annotations of research data files.
Metadata, RDA
2020-04-23
Attended the Researchfish Virtual Data Sharing Workshop, discussing plans to allow and control how data is shared by researchers and funders.
General
2020-04-01
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about implementing the new consortia membership model and details of the upcoming member meeting.
Staff Development
2020-04-01
Attended the Research Metadata Schemas Working Group meeting as part of the virtual RDA Fifteenth Plenary.
Metadata, RDA
2020-03-26
Attended joint session of the Research Data Management in Engineering Interest Group and the Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems’ Data Interest Group as part of the virtual RDA Fifteenth Plenary.
Metadata, RDA
2020-03-23
My article, ‘Metadata for Better Data’, was published in Catalogue and Index, the journal of the CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group.
Metadata
2020-03-23
Received notification that my 24×7 talk proposal, ‘Hold that thought: DOIs and Early Access to Datasets’, had been accepted for the Open Repositories 2020 Conference, though the conference itself was postponed to 2021.
General
2020-03-02
Submitted article, ‘Metadata for Better Data’, to the journal Catalogue and Index, published by the CILIP Metadata and Discovery Group.
Metadata
2020-02-17
2020-02-19
Presented a lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, at the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20). This talk was a runner-up for the best lightning talk prize.
Staff Development
2020-02-05
Attended virtually a DataCite Member Meeting discussing proposed changes to the membership model.
Staff Development
2020-02-04
Adapted script that performs specific data quality checks on records selected for consideration in the REF 2021 return, so that it also flags up when changes have been made subsequent to the last manual review of the record.
Software
2020-01-27
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.0.1).
Software
2020-01-20
Submitted a 24×7 talk proposal, ‘Hold that thought: DOIs and Early Access to Datasets’, to the Open Repositories 2020 Conference.
General
2020-01-20
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.6.1).
Software
2020-01-16
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 3.2) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2020-01-15
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about data metrics badges, the DataCite Member Survey 2019, and proposed changes to the membership model.
Staff Development
2020-01-15
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 2.0), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
2020-01-08
Trialled staff development session on using R (part 2), given by Nushrat Khan.
Staff Development
2019-12-18
Trialled staff development session on using R (part 1), given by Nushrat Khan.
Staff Development
2019-11-19
Attended session on the principles of inclusive design, given by assistive technologists Tim Winship and Luiza Bell.
Staff Development
2019-11-06
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about account structure changes in Fabrica, and Scholix links.
Staff Development
2019-10-28
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2020 iConference.
General
2019-10-02
Received notification that my lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, was accepted for the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20).
General
2019-10-01
Submitted a report on the Research Support Games Day workshop to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
Staff Development
2019-09-26
Wrote script to perform specific data quality checks on records selected for consideration in the REF 2021 return.
Software
2019-09-20
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 2.0).
Software
2019-09-13
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2019-09-11
Attended the Research Support Games Day organised by Glasgow Caledonian University. I experienced sessions on using Python (or Xerte) for RDM games, ‘The Publishing Trap’ by UK Copyright Literacy, and ‘LEGO: Metadata for Reproducibility’ devised by the University of Glasgow.
Staff Development
2019-09-03
Attended a visit organised by the University Staff Development Group to the SS Great Britain Library, Bristol.
Staff Development
2019-09-02
Updated and expanded script to diagnose issues with the display of thesis records in the University's Research Portal.
Software
2019-09-02
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.2).
Software
2019-08-29
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the biblatex-bath package (version 3.1), for use with biblatex to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2019-08-28
Received confirmation and certification that I had qualified as a Carpentries Instructor.
Staff Development
2019-08-22
Gave an online teaching demonstration as part of the Instructor Training checkout process for The Carpentries.
Staff Development
2019-07-17
Gave a presentation, ‘A Generalist Perspective on Data Citation’, as part of a panel, ‘Data Citations: What Makes a Good Citation?’, at the Earth Science Information Partners (ESIP) Summer Meeting. I attended remotely.
General
2019-07-10
Submitted update to the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository.
Software
2019-07-10
Updated bath-bst and biblatex-bath packages (version 3.0) and uploaded them to CTAN. These packages are intended for use with BibTeX and biblatex respectively, to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2019-07-09
Participated in a Carpentries Community Discussion as part of the Instructor Training checkout process for The Carpentries.
Staff Development
2019-06-28
Submitted a lightning talk, ‘The Tombstone Protocol: An Undertaking for Unfortunate Events’, to the 15th International Digital Curation Conference (IDCC20).
General
2019-06-27
Attended demonstration of the Jisc Open Research Hub by Tamsin Burland.
Software
2019-06-24
2019-06-25
Attended Instructor Training for Librarians, organised by University College Dublin in conjunction with the co-located LIBER Conference, with a view to becoming a certified Instructor for Library Carpentry, Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry.
Staff Development, The Carpentries
2019-06-19
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting which included talks on PID OPIDoR and EzDOIMenu, which can perform mass minting/updating operations, and how the USGS uses DOIs to support impact assessment.
Staff Development
2019-06-10
2019-06-13
Presented paper, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, at the Open Repositories 2019 conference.
General
2019-06-06
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.6).
Software
2019-05-28
Gave webinar on licensing research data to students on the PGcert in Biocuration course run by the European Bioinformatics Institute.
General
2019-05-22
Reconfigured server to restore the original ‘flattened’ versions of the UKOLN website to the Web, instead of relying on redirects to Web archives.
Web Development
2019-05-21
Attended and took the minutes of a workshop with representatives from the research data teams at Bristol, Cardiff and Exeter reviewing progress against the 2014 Green Paper (which explored the potential of the group), working on ongoing group projects, and discussing ways of supporting the broader Open Research agenda.
General
2019-05-14
Migrated the live instance of the Research Data Archive over to (a) a new server, (b) a different Linux-based operating system, (c) a new version of Perl, and (d) a new version of EPrints.
Software, Web Development
2019-05-06
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about usage statistics in DataCite Search, the statistics portal, and metadata provenance.
Staff Development
2019-05-01
Attended session run by Caroline Dangerfield (Head of International Relations) on the University of Bath’s Internationalisation Strategy.
Staff Development
2019-04-17
Contributed a post entitled ‘The Joint Meeting Of The Metadata Groups At The 13th RDA Plenary’ to the Research Data Alliance blog, in my capacity as an Expert grant holder.
Metadata, RDA
2019-04-02
2019-04-04
Attended the Thirteenth Plenary meeting of the Research Data Alliance, at which I gave a live demonstration of the Metadata Standards Catalog.
Metadata, RDA
2019-03-29
Set up new server at Bath to host a new instance of the RDA Metadata Standards Catalog, since the previous version (hosted elsewhere) proved too unstable and hard to administer.
RDA, Web Development
2019-03-26
Submitted a report on the March 2019 EPrints UK User Group meeting to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
Software
2019-03-14
Attended the EPrints UK User Group, where we discussed adaptations of EPrints to capture esteem, the new flavours of EPrints 3.4, capturing metrics, and future community development projects.
Software
2019-03-08
Katherine McNeill and Erin Wise from Harvard Business School interviewed me about how we keep track of datasets in the Research Data Archive and our institutional Current Research Information System (CRIS).
General
2019-03-08
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the dccpaper bundle (version 1.8), containing LaTeX classes for typesetting papers for the IJDC and IDCC.
DCC, Software
2019-03-07
The paper proposal I submitted to the Open Repositories 2019 conference, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, was accepted.
General
2019-02-19
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.1).
Software
2019-02-15
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the Oxref Biblatex styles (version 1.0).
Software
2019-02-06
Submitted new version of the harvard-university-of-bath CSL style to the official CSL repository, thereby taking over responsibility for maintaining it.
Software
2019-01-31
Gave a repeat of the presentation, ‘Serious Gaming: Creating a Research Data Management Adventure’, by myself and Samuel Simango, at the Library Staff Seminar ‘Have you got 20 minutes?’.
Software, Staff Development
2019-01-28
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the beamerswitch class (version 1.5).
Software
2019-01-17
Set up a new server to serve up redirects to prevent links to the UKOLN website breaking entirely.
Web Development
2019-01-16
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the link-checker service, JSON support, search improvements and various fixes.
Staff Development
2019-01-11
Submitted proposal for paper, ‘Scratching that itch: Process improvement and problem solving in the University of Bath Research Data Archive’, to the Open Repositories 2019 conference.
General
2019-01-10
Wrote script to diagnose issues with the display of thesis records in the University's Research Portal.
Software
2018-12-11
Submitted a report on the 15th Stellenbosch University Library Symposium to Piglet, the library staff newsletter.
RDA
2018-12-05
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about the past, present and future of the Fabrica and API interfaces.
Staff Development
2018-12-05
Attended virtually a meeting of the UKRI Interoperability Working Group, specifically to hear feedback from the trial upload of research data information to ResearchFish and learn the next steps for this initiative.
General
2018-11-28
Attended virtually a webinar by Natasha Noy (Google) about the ideas behind Dataset Search, the open ecosystem for describing and citing datasets that they hope to encourage, and the technical details on how they went about building Dataset Search.
Staff Development
2018-11-19
With colleagues, met James Young from Arkivum regarding their new fully cloud-based version 5 offering.
General
2018-11-14
2018-11-16
Gave presentation, ‘Serious Gaming: Creating a Research Data Management Adventure’, by myself and Samuel Simango, at the 15th Stellenbosch University Library Symposium.
Software
2018-11-12
2018-11-14
Visited Stellenbosch University Library on exchange, along with University Librarian Kate Robinson. As part of this, gave presentation, ‘Supporting research data management at the University of Bath’ to Stellenbosch University Library staff.
Staff Development
2018-11-07
Attended virtually a DataCite Open Hours meeting about schema.org metadata and how it is used by Google Dataset Search.
Staff Development
2018-10-26
Submitted reviews of papers submitted to the 2019 iConference.
General
2018-10-23
Met with colleague Lawrence Lockton, and Adam Rehin, Karmele Hernaiz and Steve Byford from Jisc, to discuss the Jisc Publications Router and our experiences of using the Bulk Import mechanism for uploading items into Pure.
Metadata
2018-10-17
Uploaded to CTAN an update to the biblatex-bath package (version 2.0.1), for use with biblatex to format bibliographies in the Harvard style recommended by the University of Bath Library.
Software
2018-10-15
Provided presentation, ‘RDA Metadata’, for the GO FAIR/RDA Metadata for Machines workshop, but this was in the event presented by Peter Wittenburg as I was ill and had lost my voice.
Metadata, RDA