Well with the receipt of the feedback from JISC about their decline of our funding bid, SM@LL offically comes to an end. In their words the key flaw in our bid was:
However, there was concern that the proposal was not specific enough about what it would actually be developing
On the other hand they did have some kind words for us:
Attendees thought that the proposal provided a good multidisciplinary balance in terms of learning, library and research staff.
Overall it was thought that although the bid focused on an interesting mix of people it was not a good fit to the Call.
This is not the end, I’d hasten to add, but only an end. Behind the scenes the team are still talking about other things we could try, other funding revenue streams we could explore or other people we could collaborate on. We’ll also continue to work on exploring and exploiting Web 2.0 (and 3.0) opportunities personally.
As this blog was set up specifically for the purposes of documenting this project, it’s life is at an end. Rather than delete it, we’re going to leave it here for now. In part so that others may stumble across it and learn from our experiences. But with the hope that when (and I’d say it was a question of when not if) we start up a new SM@LL type project, that this will be the natural home for the blog discussions as we develop it.
In the meanwhile we will continue to discuss social networking and web 2.0, along with other library and information areas of interest over on the award nominated UoL Library Blog. Come join us over there and help us celebrate our successes, rather than dwell upon our…less successful endeavours.
It’s hard to know what to say publicly when you’re turned down for funding. Any criticisms of the process or decision feels like sour grapes. The one thing I do feel comfortable saying is that JISC has got a heck of a long way to go in the transparency stakes.
Comment by AJ Cann — July 1, 2009 @ 8:31 am
Amen to that.
Comment by gazjjohnson — July 1, 2009 @ 8:31 am
What did JISC fund in the end, I would be interested to see who was successful and find out what they are doing? Will be keeping an eye out for when the mothballs are done away with as what you were hoping to do remains of interest to me and disappointed you didn’t get funded this time round.
Comment by Natalie — July 1, 2009 @ 10:56 am