This
is my personal page at Oxford University.
I have been at the University of Oxford since 1995. I am currently the Head of the Infrastructure Systems and Services Group (ISSG) within Oxford University Computing Services.
The ISSG comprises:
- The Systems Development and Support Team
- The Hierarchical File Server (HFS) Team
- The OUCS Data Centre and Operations Team
- The University Groupware Project
Other activities in which I am currently playing a leading role include:
- Director of the e-Infrastructure Use Cases and Service Usage Models (eIUS) Project;
- Co-Director of the Scoping Digital Repository Services for Research Data Management project;
- Co-investigator for the VRE for the Study of Documents and Manuscripts Project.
Until August 2007 I was the Head of the Research Technologies Service at OUCS and Director of Intute Arts and Humanities, a service of Intute, the national resource discovery service. Until August 2008 I was also Director of OSS Watch, the JISC-funded open source software advisory service. For a short period of time I was Associate Director of the Oxford e-Research Centre (OeRC).
From Sept 2005-March 2007 I contributed to Oxford University's ICT Strategy Programme as Technical Secretary and a leader of the work task charged with developing scenarios sketching out the near-future benefits of ICT for day to day working in the University.
I have a BA (Hons) and PhD in theology from the University of Durham and I am a member of the Faculty of Theology in Oxford.
My current interests include: institutional ICT structures for supporting research, including the development of virtual research environments and institutional repositories; full economic costing of ICT services and ensuring sustainable ICT infrastructure within institutions; institutional support for Open Source Software in the UK. I still maintain a passing interest in humanities computing.
Recent publications include:
- "Towards a Research Repository for Oxford University". Produced for the Digital Archiving Group, Oxford University (Jan 2006).
- "Virtual Research Environments: Overview and Activity". Ariadne 44 (July 2005), http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue44/fraser/
- Review of Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing by Andrew M. St. Laurent. Ariadne 42 (Jan 2005). http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/fraser-rvw/
- [With J. Anderson and A. Dunning] (eds). Selected Papers from Digital Resources for the Humanities 2001-2002 (London:OHC, 2003).
- [With F. Pinto] "Access Management, the Key to a Portal: the experience of the Subject Portals Project". Ariadne 35 (2003), http://www.ariadne.ac.uk /issue35/SPP/intro.html.
- [With N. Williamson and M. Deegan] (eds). Digital Evidence: Selected Proceedings from Digital Resources for the Humanities 2000. (London: OHC, September 2001).
- [With F. Condron and S. Sutherland] CTI Textual Studies Guide to Digital Resources for the Humanities (Oxford: HCU, 2000 & West Virginia University Press, 2001). The essay entitled, "Religion and Theology" is available online.
- "From concordances to subject portals: supporting the text-centred humanities community". Computers and the Humanities 34 (Aug 2000): 265-78.
- [Editor] Computers & Texts. Oxford: CTI Textual Studies, 1995-2000.
- "Visit to the William T. Young Library, University of Kentucky". London: MALIBU, 1999.
- [With S. Porter] "Text, Performance, Film: putting on the digital show?" Literary and Linguistic Computing 12:4 (1997). Introductory essay to special section also edited by Fraser & Porter.
- "Constantine and the Encaenia" in Studia Patristica 39. Ed. Elizabeth A. Livingstone. Leuven: Peeters, 1997: 25-28.
Some recent presentations include:
- "The Place of the Digital Library within Virtual Research Environments". Digital Libraries à la Carte. International Ticer School (Tilburg), 24 August 2006. [PDF version]
- "Sustaining Virtual Research Environments (VRE) : Some Strategic Considerations". JISC VRE Programme meeting, Oxford, 17 Jan 2006.
- [with J. Wilson] "Humbul Humanities Hub". University College London. P008: Digital Resources in the Humanities, 21 October 2005.
- "Not Robots but Humans: Stories from the Humbul Humanities Hub". Colloque du centre «Cultures Anglophones et Technologies de l’Information» (CATI) Université Paris-Sorbonne, 12 March 2005.
- "Supporting Virtual Research Environments : how can we help?". Oxford University Computing Services Open Day, 22 April 2004.
- [with S. Holdom] "The development of online resource discovery services for the humanities". The Future of the Humanities, St Hugh's College, Oxford, 19-20 March 2004.
- "Open source software for teaching and learning". Open Source Software for Learning, Teaching, Assessment and Administration, ALT Workshop, Oxford Brookes University, 13 Nov 2003.
- "Learning about Institutional Portals: the OUCS Pilot Portal Project". Digital Projects in Oxford seminar series, 12 Nov 2003.
- "Portal-to-portal: joining up content to decrease the time spent clicking as distinguished from the time spent working". EINIRAS Conference, London, September 2003. [Powerpoint]
- (With F. Pinto) "Humbul Humanities Portal: Managing Access and Integration". Digital Resources in the Humanities 2003, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham, September 2003. [Powerpoint]
- "Building bridges and intercept points: putting national and institutional portals in touch with one another". UCISA-JISC Portals Forum, June 2003.
- "Delivering national portal services for the humanities". Gateways to Research and Lifelong Learning: Portals in Perspective. University of London Library, 25 April 2003.
- (With F. Pinto) "Authenticating remote users to remote resources: the experience of the Subject Portals Project". Internet Librarian International, Birmingham, March 2003 [Powerpoint].
- (with F. Boyle) "Oxford's institutional repository: what eprints can do for you". Digital Projects in Oxford seminar series, 19 Feb 2003.
- "Simple access to archival descriptions using the Open Archives Initiative Protocol". DRH2002, University of Edinburgh, September 2002.
- "Humbul Humanities Hub". Dibner Institute, MIT, March 2002.
- "User views of the Humbul Humanities Hub". DRH2001, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, July 2001.
- "Web resources for teaching". School of Humanities, University of Nottingham, March 2001.
- "Greek text on the Web: finding, using, delivering." Oxford ICT in Classics Conference, July 1999.
- "Selecting Resources for a Subject Gateway: Who Decides?". ACH-ALLC International Humanities Computing Conference, University of Virginia, 9-13 June 1999.
- "Online desktop commentary: the case of the Starr Report." Text and Commentary in the Electronic Age, Oxford, October 1998.
- "CTI Textual Studies 1984-1999: What Have We Learnt?" Digital Resources for the Humanities, Glasgow, Sept 1998.
- "I was wandering in cyberspace for 40 hours and 40 minutes, when lightning struck": The Problems of Finding Religion in Cyberspace Paper presented to the British Middle Eastern Studies Conference, Birmingham, 7 July 1998.
- "The history of the electronic text". Part of a history of the book seminar session on the electronic text and the future of the codex, Oxford, 1998.
- "Teaching the Humanities with Digital Resources." Paper Delivered at the Digital Resources for the Humanities Conference, Somerville College, Oxford, July 1-3 1996.
- "Tools and Techniques for Computer-Assisted Biblical Studies." New Testament Graduate Research Seminar, Oxford, June 1996.
Professional service
I was external examiner for the MA/Diploma/Certificate in Electronic Communication and Publishing, University College London, 2003-2006. From 2002-2004 I was also external examiner for the Certificate in Humanities Computing for Languages, University of Cambridge.
I am, or was, a member of the following local/national/international committees:
- 2008, University Groupware Project Shortlisting and Procurement panels (OUCS Sponsor)
- 2008- , Resolve Project Board
- 2007- , Core User Directory Project Working Party (Chair)
- 2007- , Oxford Digital Repositories Steering Group (Technical Secretary)
- 2007- , Steering Group for the Oxford University Research Archive (ORA)
- 2006, OST e-Infrastructure Virtual Research Communities Working Group
- 2005-2007, Oxford University ICT Strategy Steering Group (Technical Secretary)
- 2005-2006, Research Portals in Arts and Humanities Project Group
- 2003-2005, Resource Discovery Network Management Board (elected representative)
- 2003- , TAPoR: Text-Analysis POrtal for Research External Board
- 2003-2007, OSS Watch Advisory Committee
- 2003-2006, AHDS Literature, Languages and Linguistics Advisory Committee
- 2003-2005, HEA Philosophical and Religious Studies Subject Centre Steering Group
- 2001-2005 , AHDS History Advisory Committee
- 2003-2006, Association for Computers and the Humanities Executive Council (elected)
- 2003-2005, Accessing our archival and manuscript heritage Steering Group
- 1999-2005, Digital Resources for the Humanities Standing Committee (Chair, 2001-2004)
- 2002-2003, MedHist [History of Medicine Gateway] Advisory Group
- 2000-2004, Resource Guide for the Arts and Humanities Advisory Group
Past Activities
- Durham: My PhD thesis was entitled, "The Feast of the Encaenia in the Fourth Century and in the Early Liturgical Sources of Jerusalem" (1995). I was one of the first theologians to make use of the Web and of course my first web documents were a (draft) abstract and material relating to my thesis. The full text of my thesis is now available online. During my time in Durham I ensured that Durham was amongst the first to have a web site for its Department of Theology and I also created a guide to internet resources for theology (not working since the migration of Humbul to Intute). I also made available online a section of the wandering pilgrim Egeria's journal dealing with the Jerusalem liturgy together with a translation.
- Oxford: From 1995-1999 I was Research Officer, Manager, and finally Deputy Director of the CTI Centre for Textual Studies. During this time I edited, and contributed to, numerous issues of Computers & Texts, maintained most of the Web site, travelled the UK and beyond organising presentations and workshops, and undertook various other online/offline activities for the Computers in Teaching Initiative. I was also Oxford site manager for the ASTER Project (Assisting Small-group Teaching with Electronic Resources).
