3. Communication and Dissemination Plan

3.1 Introduction *

3.2 Aims of the Communication Framework *

3.3 Pelican’s information and communication infrastructure *

3.4 Communication with interested parties in the Pelican project *

3.5 Key Dissemination Events *

The Pelican project aims to address issues relating to the digitisation of academic resources at both, strategic and practical management level. Although Pelican has a relationship with HERON, its remit is to work on behalf of all stakeholders. The practical experience and pricing mechanism to emerge from the project work will be of relevance to an array of stakeholders within the UK HE/FE community and beyond. The project aims to develop an economic model, which may be of value across different sectors and find an application internationally. Pelicans work will be in a variety of areas including:

• investment in the advance of tools and methodologies for the development of a pricing mechanism, which allows the distribution of academic resources in digitised form
• provision of a communication network, which can be used by all stakeholders to inform themselves and exchange ideas regarding the distribution of academic resources in digitised form
• clarification of existing HEI institutional policy on apportionment of costs (library, academic department and student contribution)
• provision of a scoping study, outlining areas for further investigation.

The Pelican project will work through various carefully focused groups in its research teams and the Advisory Board, using formal and informal mechanisms, to fulfill these aims. Clear channels of communication between the project partners themselves as well as with the wider community will play a crucial role in the success of the project.

The internal communication infrastructure must include provision of convenient and appropriate mechanisms for facilitating the free flow of information (strategy, administration and practice) across the two project sites as appropriate to the development of an extensively distributed but coherently managed single project. Externally, the project team must act as the facilitator to provide a basis for the information exchange between all stakeholders contributing to the success of Pelican.

With this broad objective in mind, the Pelican communication framework will work towards the implementation of the following goals. It will:

• clearly outline an infrastructure for effective internal project communication at all levels;
• identify the needs of all stakeholders and assess for each, what information they require from Pelican to facilitate their maximum interaction with the project and consider what input they are likely to provide to project activities;
• identify and assess pricing mechanisms that operate elsewhere, especially within the European Union, and evaluate an application of operating models to the UK market;
• systematically establish stable channels of communication with each stakeholder involved in the project, using these to disseminate information and solicit input;
• produce a range of appropriate electronic and printed informational and instructional materials, which can be widely distributed among the HE/FE community;
• develop mechanism for the effective dissemination of this kind of material through a formal dissemination strategy;
• provide a forum (electronically or in person) for dialogue between Pelican and its stakeholders.

The Pelican project will establish an infrastructure for internal and external communication by building a framework, which provides the foundation for dialogue and interaction between all stakeholders involved. In addition, it will develop effective mechanisms for disseminating material. It will use a number of communication channels for this task.

Internal lists: An electronic mailing list has been established for the Pelican project, which aims to provide a mechanism for internal project communications. Currently this includes members of the project team at the Loughborough and Stirling site, and members of the Advisory Board.

External lists: As a diverse range of stakeholders show an interest in the Pelican project and it may be difficult to reach all interested parties without using several existing lists to communicate to the wider HE/FE community. Although there may be advantages to establishing a new overarching list, Pelican will aim to use existing mailing lists for its external communications.

There will be two working groups, one based in Loughborough and one in Stirling. These internal working groups can be used to manage project work and provide an effective mechanism for formative project evaluation. The work of these groups will focus on specific practical issues regarding the development of a pricing mechanism. The working groups will meet face-to-face or by videoconferencing once a month. In addition, e-mail and telephone communication will be largely used.

In addition to its use of electronic mailing lists, Pelican is currently designing its own website for the dissemination of project information. Pelican’s webpages are hosted at the Department of Information Science, Loughborough University. The pages will include:

• information about Pelican and its activities including background information, working papers, conference presentations, and staff contact details
• progress reports as part of the working papers
• frequent news and updates to keep all stakeholders and other interested parties of the HE/FE community informed

For internal communication, the website may also be used by Pelican as the principal means of distributing administrative, policy, and procedural documents for use by members of Pelican and the Advisory Board. Where necessary for the use of the working groups or Advisory Board, documents and sets of data may be provided on password protected pages only.

The conference will take place towards the end of the project. Its objective is to raise awareness about Pelican’s results and discuss areas of interest with the stakeholders. The Pelican project team will organise the event and pay careful attention that all stakeholders take the opportunity to present their views on suitable pricing mechanism for the distribution of digistised material in the HE/FE community. In that, the conference will act as a forum for more public discussion of research, development, and other strategic issues of interest to Pelican and the wider community.

Pelican will identify those stakeholders that have a crucial interest in its activities and for each party, the project will:

• assess its communication needs (contributions and uses) of the Pelican project;
• identify the information and materials/resources necessary to maximise its use of and/or contribution of Pelican's activities;
• evaluate how and which of Pelican’s activities may be most appropriately contributing towards other objectives of stakeholders’ activities.

Pelican has identified the following parties as interested stakeholders in the project:

1. Information professionals in HEI/FEIs
2. University financial managers and decision makers
3. Publishers
4. Authors
5. Representatives of the student body (e.g. NUS) and students
6. Suppliers of scholarly digital information
7. National and international information services
8. Funding and other agencies which invest in the creation of scholarly digital resources and/or relevant research and development initiatives
9. Associations representing any of the stakeholders listed above
10. JISC, JISC committees, and PA

Key dissemination events for the Pelican project include:

• regular articles in relevant journals and newsletters;
• a distributed website, which provides access to all project information and materials (to be maintained by the project team in Loughborough);
• interim reports to be discussed at all three Advisory Board meetings;
• publication of conference proceedings by the end of the project.

As the research project is exploratory in nature, its success will ultimately depend on the communication infrastructure, which allows for open discussions with all stakeholders involved in the project. The dissemination of information on the Pelican project is a key part of this communication framework, which will allow measuring the success of Pelican on these grounds.

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