On October 22nd, individuals from ten different campus organizations and UC partners convened at the Berkeley Institute for Data Science for a planning meeting that laid the groundwork for a second Consulting Summit, currently scheduled for April 2016. Organizations represented at the event included the Bancroft Library, Berkeley Institute for Data Science (BIDS), California Digital Library (CDL), Digital Humanities at Berkeley, D-Lab, Educational Technology Services (ETS), the Library, the School of Social Welfare, as well as the host organization, Research IT. Quinn Dombrowski of Research IT facilitated the meeting.
David Greenbaum, Director of Research IT and Jenn Stringer, Associate CIO for Academic Engagement and Director of Educational Technology Services, contextualized the ongoing work of the consulting summit as it relates to the Faculty Engagement and Consulting Project, a campus-level initiative for improving consulting support for instructors and researchers led by Educational Technology Services, the Library, the Center for Teaching and Learning, and Research IT. A series of presentations highlighted the current work of this initiative, including a meta-analysis of studies on faculty engagement, an assessment of the scope and nature of the data collected by organizations as part of consulting engagements, and a look at the community-building activities around consulting.
Attendees were invited to provide feedback on a draft charter for consulting summits, as well as contribute to a lightweight, Google Docs-based directory of programs that offer consulting, to facilitate making referrals across organizations. Other consultants who were unable to attend the planning meeting will be invited to provide input into these documents over the next few months.
Participants formed four working groups:
- support for digital projects, led by Mary Elings from the Bancroft Library
- information-sharing and identifying trends, led by Cody Hennesy from the Library
- cross-training, workflows and referrals, led by Aaron Culich and Rick Jaffe from Research IT
- a “consulting co-op” to provide a framework for individuals to receive and and use “credit” for providing consultation, led by Kevin Koy from BIDS
These working groups will meet periodically over the next six months to prepare deliverables identified at the October 22nd consulting planning meeting. These deliverables will be presented at the April 2016 Consulting Summit. If you are interested in joining a working group, please contact the group’s leader or email research-it@berkeley.edu. Further information about the April 2016 Consulting Summit will be available closer to the event.