A presentation to the 2017 Computing Services Conference (UCCSC) at UCSD on August 9, 2017. I propose the importance for technologists in higher education to be in the important discussions of academic innovation in teaching and research BEFORE decisions are made, to ensure that the innovation is better. I provide two examples of ways to create communities where technologists and academics work as partners on innovation and gradually change the culture of innovation to be more inclusive of IT sooner in the discussion.

1. At the Center of
Academic Innovation:
Two Examples from UCLA
9 August 2017• UCCSC 2017 @ UCSD

2. Better results with greater diversity in
the innovation discussion
• 2012 Presidential election. Obama re-
elected in part thanks to social media-
based engagement strategies. IT at the
table!
• Research shows that military strategies
are improved when women are at the
table.
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3. Some context
• What is the Center for Digital Humanities
(CDH)?
• Who is Annelie?
• Academic innovation: What is CDH’s role?
• Why am I talking about this topic?
• So what?
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4. What is this really about?
• Changing the culture around who should be
involved in academic innovations, and when.
• Driving awareness of the value of tech expertise
in designing and shaping, not just executing and
deploying.
• Bringing tech expertise sooner into academic
innovation processes– before decisions are
made!
• Doing academic innovation better.
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5. Challenges: What stops IT from being at
the center of academic innovation?
• Perception of IT as not “academic”
• Perception of IT as not understanding academia
• Perception of IT as responsive (= reactive)
• Perception of IT as tool or “utility”
• Perception that IT doesn’t/can’t “speak
academic”
• IT is not at the table where academic ideas are
shaped and decisions are being made!
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6. Opportunities: It’s time for IT to inform/shape
academic innovation
• UC IT leadership recognizes this is needed
– UC IT Leadership Academy: be in the conversation!
• IT is everyday in most academic lives: visibility,
usefulness à acceptance, familiarity
• Academic job market includes ’alt-ac’ job seekers with
academic + tech creds
– ‘Bilingual’ IT staff who speak academic and tech
• Pace of tech change requires thinking ahead, not
designing for the now.
• Decisions are better with diverse inputs – tech needs to
be one of those perspectives!
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7. How to be invited to the academic
innovation conversation?
• Strategy: Become indispensable to decision-making
– Be excellent; “Pockets of Excellence”
– Bring a perspective that is valued
• Let them know the value IT brings and has brought
• Let them know what you see in the future that should inform today’s and
future decisions
• Tactics: Mix it up with academics
– Be present in academic discussions and communities:
faculty/Chairs/dean’s meetings, academic issues forums
(research, funding, pedagogy, enrollment), even lectures!
– If you’re not invited, create communities for academic
discussion and invite the academics!
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8. Two examples from UCLA
1. Digital Humanities Infrastructure
Symposium (DHIS).
http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/symposium/
2. Scholarly Innovation Lab (SIL).
http://www.cdh.ucla.edu/research/scholarl
y-innovation-lab/
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9. DH Infrastructure Symposium (DHIS)
• A gathering of anyone involved in DH to share
how DH is done, focusing on the human and
technical “infrastructure” that makes DH
possible.
• In 2016: a one-day series of presentations and
demos.
• In 2017: a second half-day set of workshops
added to the initial day of presentations.
• In 2018: switching workshops to precede the
presentations.
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10. DH Infrastructure Symposium (DHIS)
• Why? Fills an unmet need for both techs
and academics to understand how DH
research and teaching “gets done”.
• What? 1+ days. Presentations, demos by
techs, academics, techs+academics.
• Who? Anyone who “does DH” and wants
to do it better. Techs, librarians, data
experts, faculty and grads.
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11. DH Infrastructure Symposium (DHIS) =
Info-sharing around innovation
• Community:discovery, knowledge, networking
• Shared value
• Shared authority
• Techs and academics are talking, understanding
one another!
• Not an academic conference. Not an IT
conference. It’s about doing the work!
• DH is inherently collaborative, with mutual
dependency of techs and academics
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12. Scholarly Innovation Lab (SIL)
• A dedicated collaboration space for anyone
doing or interested in doing digital research.
• A resident technologist works in the space and
ensures that others can work there.
– Note: Tech expertise, NOT tech support
• It’s no one’s space; it’s everyone’s space!
• Discovery and collaboration happen as an
organic result of being together in the space.
– Some planned, much unplanned
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13. Scholarly Innovation Lab (SIL)
• Why? Fills an unmet need for techs and
academics. “Neutral” territory in the Library.
Shared purpose is digital research.
• What? Three connected spaces for
presentation, project teamwork, individual and
small-group work. Variety of furniture, tech-
ready, screen sharing, no permanent desks.
• Who? Technologists, librarians, faculty, grads,
undergrads = The entire university cosmos!
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14. Scholarly Innovation Lab (SIL) = Home base
• Community: visible, open, welcoming.
• Shared value
• Shared authority
• Techs and academics are talking, understanding
one another!
• Not an academic space. Not an IT space. It’s
about doing the work (or learning how to do it)!
• Digital research is inherently collaborative, with
mutual dependency of techs and academics
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15. So what?
• What difference has this made? Are we in
the right conversations at the right time?
• Is it worth the extra effort?
• Lessons learned:
– What we will continue
– What we might change
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16. What difference has this made?
• Community
• Shared value
• Techs and academics are talking, understanding one
another!
• Connections: Practitioners are finding the expertise
they need more quickly
• Results: The teaching, research and technical
projects are better.
– Example: “Paris: Past & Present” (Prof. Meredith Cohen)
• Culture change: Academics are seeing the value of
tech expertise in shaping academic innovation
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17. Are we (IT) in the academic
conversations, at the right time?
YES! In conversations about…
• Digital projects: Faculty, grads are consulting
with tech staff as they propose new projects.
• Library strategic planning: Technologists are
involved in work groups and the planning
process.
• UCLA campus-wide planning for research
needs: Academic leaders are consulting IT.
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18. Is it worth the effort?
YES!
• Investments: Courage, initiative, time, space,
time, a little furniture and tech, time.
• Returns:
– Academic participants: Familiarity/comfort,
acceptance, respect, awareness, recognition.
– Technologists: In the mix, peer relationships,
demonstrated value.
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19. Lessons learned: What we will continue
• Hosting spaces and events that meet mutual
needs
• Focus on community: sharing time, space and
information around academic pursuits
• Focus on diversity of expertise, ‘the mix’
• Minimal administration
• Zero organizational boundaries
• Growing just enough: to meet extant need and
ability to sustain
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20. Lessons learned: What we might change
1. Documenting the successes
1. Project stories
2. Data showing change: who, how many are
participating
2. Informing academic leadership of the
successes
3. Next: Figuring out how we translate our value
beyond tech-hosted communities back into
academic-hosted communities?
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21. From this morning’s keynote
Climate Accelerators: An Approach to Changing Enterprise Culture, Wendy Campana (UCSD)
• Elements of Leadership Team Building:
– Develop trust
– Mutual respect
– Listen to each other
– Meet face-to-face
– …
Maybe what we are talking about is a better
(more inclusive) kind of teambuilding for
innovation!
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22. Thoughts?
Annelie Rugg, Humanities CIO
UCLA Center for Digital Humanities
annelie@humnet.ucla.edu
Twitter: @annelierugg
LinkedIn: annelierugg
310-903-7691
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