Here am I sitting in a tin can

Another Service Strategy Board yesterday. More project progress to discuss, a couple of successful project closures, but no new projects to agree. There's a couple of joint ones we are heavily involved in which re just about to start. One between ourselves and Corporate Affairs to redesign the University website, and one with Planning and Governance Services to look at coding structures in our systems.  Some other developments we discussed included where we're going on MOOCs and the provision of creative media production facilities for staff. Unified comms, including integration with Google is going to be piloted, and we've got an interesting pilot going in the Information Commons with Ideascale, ideas and innovation management software. Looks like its going well, with lots of ideas and suggestions coming in. News from all of our projects is here - as I write this it's not been updated with the latest news as the meeting was only yesterday, but it will be very soon, and we update it every month.

Other things in the last couple of days that have kept me busy include a meeting between UEB and all Heads of Departments where we had a very interesting roundtable discussion about our curricula and things which are in addition to the core subjects - interdisciplinary studies, enterprise, student activities, civic engagement.

Those of you who've followed me for a while will know how excited I am by space, and on clear dark nights I often go outside to watch the ISS pass over.  Over the past few weeks I've been captivated following the commander of expedition 35, Commander Chris Hadfield on Twitter. He's been in space for 146 days, and has done more to involve people and educate them about space and the science that goes on in the ISS than any other astronaut. His photos are amazing, as are his vodcasts (one of my favourites was how you throw up in space), and the news coverage about his cover of Bowie's Space Oddity must mean that you've all seen it. Well, he and his fellow astronauts returned safely to earth today in a Russian Soyuz rocket, and Twitter won't quite be the same again!