Technical Co-Ordinator (Digital Audio Project) at The Open University
Milton Keynes, United Kingdom
- Current
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- Technical Co-Ordinator (Digital Audio Project) at The Open University
- Past
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- Freelance Disability/Accessibility ICT software Trainer at Freelance
- Technical Assistant (IT systems & multimedia) at The Open University Disabled Student Services
- Deputy IT Co-Ordinator at The Open University Business School
- Assistant Manager Alternative Formats at The Open University Disabled Student Services
- Education
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- Texthelp
- Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College
- The Open University
- Recommended
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2 people have recommended Douglas - Connections
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connections
- Industry
- Higher Education
- Websites
Douglas Blane’s Summary
Specialisms:
Certified textHELP Read & Write Gold IT trainer for the Access Centre.
Accessibility, DAISY, Project Management, Systems Analyst, Systems Workflow, Server Administration , Portal, SQL, VBScript, Web Development, Photography, PhotoShop, Viral Marketing
Douglas Blane’s Specialties:
Certified textHELP Read & Write Gold IT trainer for the Access Centre.
TUC trained Health & Safety
Douglas Blane’s Experience
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Technical Co-Ordinator (Digital Audio Project)
The Open University
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
December 2007 — Present (2 years )
Technical Co-Ordinator
Digital Audio Project
Disability Resources Team
The Open University
The Digital Audio Project is due to complete at the end of February 2010.
My main area of responsibility is research and development into Digital Assessable Information System (DAISY). This is XML, HTML, SMIL and MP3 based technology for producing Digital Talking Books (DTB) via Text To Speech (TTS) engines. The outcomes of this research and developmenmt are for application directly in DSS to improve accessibility for disabled students. Beyond this DAISY has been taken up by the wider OU community as part of LTS’s structured authoring workflow. By transforming OU XML into DAISY XML it can be passed into a DAISY engine for seamless DAISY DTB production. -
Freelance Disability/Accessibility ICT software Trainer
Freelance
(Privately Held; Information Technology and Services industry)
2008 — 2008 (less than a year)
Freelance Disability/Accessibility ICT software Trainer.
DAISY DTB software & hardware trainer
Certified Texthelp Read & Write Gold Trainer -
Technical Assistant (IT systems & multimedia)
The Open University Disabled Student Services
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Higher Education industry)
November 2005 — November 2007 (2 years 1 month)
Certified textHELP Read & Write Gold IT trainer for the Access Centre.
My main area of responsibility is research and development into Digital Assessable Information System (DAISY). This is XML, HTML, SMIL and MP3 based technology for producing Digital Talking Books (DTB) via Text To Speech (TTS) engines. The outcomes of this research and developmenmt are for application directly in DSS to improve accessibility for disabled students. Beyond this DAISY has been taken up by the wider OU community as part of LTS’s structured authoring workflow. By transforming OU XML into DAISY XML it can be passed into a DAISY engine for seamless DAISY DTB production. -
Deputy IT Co-Ordinator
The Open University Business School
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Education Management industry)
September 1998 — December 2005 (7 years 4 months)
Installing, developing and maintaining all the server side software, researching and beta testing third party plug-in software, liaising with external contractors such as Compuware, RedESoft and Semio to customise their software for our specific customer needs. After the launch of the enterprise portal my role changed to become system administrator. As well as the enterprise portal, I was responsible for the administration of all the Business School's servers including critical updates & patches, server security, maintaining daily back-ups, anti-virus protection, web site development, IIS & SQL.
I wrote and administered the Business School’s encrypted VB Script log-on scripts to ensure all staff have an automatic up-to-date connection to network printers, shared network drives, Open University web site URLs and any critical patches or software.
I Recommend Resource Scheduler by peoplecube.com:
www.peoplecube.com/downloads/cases/Open_University_Case_Study.pdf -
Assistant Manager Alternative Formats
The Open University Disabled Student Services
(Educational Institution; 1001-5000 employees; Education Management industry)
June 2005 — November 2005 (6 months)
Douglas Blane’s Education
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Texthelp
Texthelp Read & Write Gold Trainer 2008 — 2008
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Buckinghamshire Chilterns University College
Diploma Engineering 1989 — 1991
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The Open University
Additional Information
Douglas Blane’s Websites:
Douglas Blane’s Groups:
Blog: http://douglasblane.wordpress.com
OU DAP: http://www.open.ac.uk/digitalaudioproject
Twitter: http://twitter.com/DGBlane
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DAISY -
Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI) -
Ebooks, Ebook Readers, Digital Books and Digital Content Publishing -
BETT
Douglas Blane’s Honors:
Transforming XML using XSLT Style Sheets
Understanding XML
Using Project, to create projects
RNIB Training
Using Project, to manage projects
Diversity Toolkit: Business School
Upgrading Web Development Skills from ASp to MS SP.Net
Basic Administration of MS Windows 2000
Administering SQL Server 200 Database
QI-IQ Scripting Using MS Windows Management
Dreamweaver MX Advanced with .ASP
SQL Server
Compuware Optimal Flow Training
Visual Basic Scripting
Introduction to ASP.NET
Active Server Pages
Windows 2000 Server Admin
Douglas Blane’s Contact Settings
Interested In:
- reference requests
- getting back in touch
