Sheen Sharing Project Plan V1p0

1 SHEEN Sharing Project Plan Version: 1p0 Contacts: Sarah Currier: [email protected] and Cherie Woolmer: [email protected] Date: 3 April 2009

SHEEN Sharing Project Plan Authors: Sarah Currier, Project Consultant and Cherie Woolmer, Project Manager ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 1 Overview of Project........................................................................................................................................................................ 2 1. Background............................................................................................................................................................................. 2 2. Aims and Objectives............................................................................................................................................................... 2 3. Overall Approach ................................................................................................................................................................... 2 4. Project Outputs ....................................................................................................................................................................... 3 5. Project Outcomes.................................................................................................................................................................... 4 6. Stakeholder Analysis .............................................................................................................................................................. 4 7. Risk Analysis.......................................................................................................................................................................... 6 8. Technical Development.......................................................................................................................................................... 8 9. Intellectual Property Rights .................................................................................................................................................... 8 Project Resources ........................................................................................................................................................................... 9 10. Project Partners..................................................................................................................................................................... 9 11. Project Management ............................................................................................................................................................. 9 Detailed Project Planning ............................................................................................................................................................. 10 12. Workpackages .................................................................................................................................................................... 10 13. Evaluation Plan................................................................................................................................................................... 11 14. Dissemination Plan ............................................................................................................................................................. 12 15. Exit and Sustainability Plans .............................................................................................................................................. 13

2 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Appendix A. Workpackages..................................................................................................................................................... 14

Overview of Project 1. Background Members of the SHEEN Employability Co-ordinators’ Network (ECN) have highlighted that significant time is spent surveying, collating and developing examples of good practice, with a number of institutions wishing to develop institutional “tool kits” for staff and students. To avoid duplication of effort and to enhance the effectiveness of work in this area, it was decided to explore use of Web 2.0 functionality to collate resources from multiple sites (including existing repositories), and to enable different communities of users to communicate, and share, develop and disseminate materials in a collaborative way.

2. Aims and Objectives This project aims to support the ECN in utilising online tools within their community to share resources, and to discuss the use of such resources in a useful way. It will also support discovery and dissemination of relevant employability resources to stakeholders outwith the ECN, e.g. academics, staff developers, student support departments, etc. The project’s outputs and findings will benefit the wider education community, and the FE and HE funding bodies across the UK by contributing to sector knowledge and understanding of the use of current Web technologies for resource sharing and development, and community support.

3. Overall Approach This project will take an iterative, exploratory approach to: • examining how the ECN can make best use of the Web to share resources and practice amongst themselves; • developing their effectiveness as a community of practice; • making relevant resources available to other stakeholder groups, such as universities’ careers services, HEA subject centres, academics, etc.

3

The project will be managed by Cherie Woolmer, Employability Co-ordinator at Strathclyde University, with the bulk of the work carried out by the Project Consultant, Sarah Currier, and overseen by the project Development Group, composed of volunteers from the ECN, with input from relevant parties at the Higher Education Academy. For more details on the reporting structure and responsibilities of project participants, see the Project Resources section below. The early phase of the project will involve a review of relevant findings from other projects and research, and requirements gathering in small group and/or one-to-one interviews. Participants will then be supported in small trial groups to try out different Web 2.0 resource sharing and community building tools, and encouraged to use these tools to evaluate and share their experiences. As the project progresses, findings will be shared at relevant intervals with the SHEEN Steering Group and the project Development Group, through regular blog postings, and more formal reports at the Steering Group meetings. This will enable potential barriers, risks, and requirements for further resource to be highlighted in a timely fashion. A dissemination event will be held near the end of the project to share findings and resources with the SHEEN community and stakeholders. A Final Report will be presented to the SHEEN Steering Group, detailing findings and recommendations for sustainability of the project outputs and any ongoing work or resources needed. This report will be co-ordinated and synthesized by the Project Consultant, but all participants in the project will be encouraged to have direct input, again through the use of Web 2.0 technologies (e.g. blogs, wikis, comment/discussion in community group spaces).

4. Project Outputs Project outputs will include: • Snapshot review of Web 2.0 technologies and their potential application to resource sharing and community building. • Review of research literature and previous and current outputs from similar Web 2.0 initiatives. • Report on user and other stakeholder requirements, including review of current practice and skills of ECN. • User training sessions with accompanying Web 2.0 Beginners' Manual. • Report on user trials of Web 2.0 technologies and tools. • Regular progress reports as detailed in Appendix A: Workpackages. • Dissemination event in September 2009. • Final report detailing findings, exit strategy and sustainability plan for project.

4 5. Project Outcomes Project outcomes will include: • Increased ease of sharing of resources and practice amongst the ECN, leading to more effective use of resources, better support for co-ordinators' professional development, and enhancement of their community of practice. • Support for discovery and dissemination of relevant employability resources to stakeholders outwith the ECN, e.g. academics, staff developers, student support departments, etc. • Dissemination of the project findings for the benefit of the wider education community, and the FE and HE funding bodies across the UK.

6. Stakeholder Analysis Stakeholder

Interest / stake

Importance

• Increased effectiveness of sharing of practice and resources, including influencing design and Employability Co-ordinators’ Network

• •

delivery of curriculum. Support for recommendation / quality assurance of shared resources. Development and enhancement of community of practice.

High

• Increased use of employability resources in Scottish educational settings, influencing design and delivery of curriculum. Scottish Funding Council

• Legacy of materials post-2010/2011. • Understanding of how to use current technological solutions to support communities of practice and

High

resource sharing in general.

• Access to good quality employability resources for EvidenceNet, the subject centres and other Higher Education Academy

•

services and projects. Dissemination and embedding of existing HEA resources of relevance to employability.

High

5

Scottish universities: management

• Efficient sharing, use and reuse of employability resources. • Efficiency of human resources: employability co-ordinators and other staff able to share materials

High

and practice more easily.

Scottish universities: careers services, educational development depts., staff development depts.

• Timely access to relevant, good quality employability resources. • Support for use of such resources. • Access to good practice tips, recommendations, etc., for employability resources.

High

Scottish universities: academics & academic depts.

• Timely access to relevant, good quality employability resources, with appropriate usage guidance. • Access to subject and discipline-specific resources. • Access to good practice tips, recommendations, etc., for employability resources.

High

Scottish universities: students (resource access mediated by employability coordinators, lecturers and support 1 services) .

• Timely access to relevant, good quality employability resources, with appropriate usage guidance. • Access to subject and discipline-specific resources.

Medium

• Improved employability of students and graduates. • Access to employability resources for staff training and development.

Low

Employers

2

Educational and industry stakeholders, as above, beyond Scotland.

• Access to employability resources, and findings and recommendations of the project via dissemination routes noted in Dissemination Plan,.

Low

1. Direct access to resources for students is not a priority; however, any findings relevant to this area will inform recommendations in Final Report, and may be a priority for future iterations of this work. 2. Employers may have resources to share; the project will identify and disseminate these where possible. Future iterations of this work may more closely involve employers; relevant findings in this area will inform recommendations in Final Report.

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7. Risk Analysis

Risk Category

Risk

Action to Prevent/Manage Risk

If Consultant incapacitated, Project Manager has access to a number of experts in the Web 2.0 area with consultant contacts who may be drafted in. Staffing

Sole consultant doing bulk of work. If Project Manager incapacitated, Consultant can work with the Development Group and SFC/HEA contacts.

Organisational

Participants’ institutions may not be supportive of use of some Web 2.0 tools on local networks, or for official work. Barriers may be policy-based, cultural or technical (e.g. firewalls).

Consultant will work with Development Group and ECN during requirementsgathering phase to ascertain where potential problems lie, and to find best tools in this situation; may require cultural/organisational change outwith project remit; project will report back to SFC with findings/recommendations.

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Technical

User-friendly, sustainable, robust and stable solutions may require technical development work.

Reluctant to use trialled technologies.

Project participants Reluctant or unable to put effort into sharing, tagging, reviewing resources.

Issues such as IPR, data protection, security, privacy may pose a barrier to the use of some technologies or resource sharing by some participants. Legal / Security HEA or SFC IPR policies may prove a barrier to consultant using some technologies for project communications and dissemination.

Consultant has technical skills and access to a supportive network of Web 2.0 enthusiasts; budget includes small amount to draft in extra help if needed. Project aims only to test existing technologies in the first instance; if further development resource needed, this will be reported to SFC as early in the project as possible.

Requirements-gathering stage will ascertain skill levels and requirements before presenting tools; wide range of tools and technologies on offer; project will test a range with participants; experienced consultant on hand to support participants, provide induction and Beginners’ Manual.

Reasons will be investigated as part of project trialling of tools and technologies, ameliorating factors ascertained, if not solved by end of project; recommendations will be made in Final Report to SFC. Consultant to attend Web 2.0 Legal Issues session at JISC Conference and investigate other relevant resources to become well informed early in project; consultant will work with participants to find best tools to work around legal barriers; may require cultural/organisational change outwith project remit; project will report in a timely fashion to SFC with findings / recommendations. Consultant to identify and communicate with relevant HEA/SFC staff at start of project, with support of Project Manager.

8

Sustainability of ECNcreated resources

Failure to identify or establish a secure, stable, sustainable storage point for ECN’s own resources.

Consultant tasked to report on viability of current options for long-term storage of shared resources.

8. Technical Development This project does not intend to build a tool or tools from scratch, nor to significantly develop onwards any existing tools. The intention is to investigate the use of Web tools already available in the most effective manner possible for this project’s stakeholders. If user or other stakeholder requirements emerge that can be supported by small technical effort, there is a portion of the budget set aside for this eventuality. However, such development would not be expected to take more than a few days’ development time. Any technical requirements beyond this scope will be noted as soon as they arise in Progress Reports, and/or in the Final Report as recommendations for further work.

9. Intellectual Property Rights The Project Consultant's contract with the HEA states that all materials produced by her in relation to the project are copyright to the HEA. Subsequently, she has been informed in writing that the HEA does not require copyright on the project blog. The HEA has a general policy of making all resources produced freely and openly available on the Web for educational purposes, and is working on developing a new IPR policy. Until further guidance is available on this, all publications (e.g. Word and PDF documents, PowerPoint slides) produced by the Project Consultant in relation to the project will bear an HEA Copyright statement, and, where appropriate, be made available via the Web. Other project participants will be subject to their own contractural obligations regarding IPR on work they contribute to on the project. The project blog will therefore have a Creative Commons licence applied with the statement: "All

postings on this blog are copyright to the individual posting's author, and are available for reuse under

9 the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike licence, unless the author appends a different copyright statement licence."

or

It should be noted that for some Web 2.0 technologies there are possible grey areas where common practice does not fit in well with participants’ institutional policy. For instance, if a university claims copyright on everything an employee creates in the course of their job, how does that affect the IPR on a photo someone takes at a conference being posted from their personal Flickr site to a project blog or wiki? The Project Consultant will investigate and monitor such issues and communicate frequently with the Project Manager, Development Group and Steering Group on them. Any issues arising will be noted as soon as they arise in Progress Reports, and/or in the Final Report and recommendations. It is acknowledged from the outset that some problems may require cultural or institutional change on a scale beyond the scope of this project.

Project Resources 10. Project Partners The project is funded by the SFC through their Employability Enhancement Fund, and administered and supported by the HEA. Cherie Woolmer, based at the University of Strathclyde’s Centre for Academic Practice and Learning Enhancement, is managing the project. External consultant Sarah Currier has been contracted to carry out the bulk of the work, with support from Cherie and the Project Development Group, made up of interested ECN members (from University of Dundee, University of Glasgow, University of St. Andrews, Glasgow School of Art, Edinburgh College of Art and Queen Margaret University) and HEA representatives. The ECN will be engaged throughout the project.

11. Project Management The SHEEN Steering Group represents the interests of the SFC in overseeing the project. Cherie Woolmer as Project Manager reports to the Steering Group. The Project Consultant reports to the Project Manager regarding work on the project, and has her contract administered by the HEA’s Finance Department. The Project Development Group will provide support to the project in the form of advice, testing tools, sharing resources, and championing the project within the ECN.

10

Detailed Project Planning 12. Workpackages See Appendix 1: Workpackages for full details of Workpackages.

12.1 Project Management This workpackage covers the usual Project Management activities of planning, budget management and reporting.

12.2 Web 2.0 Review In this workpackage, the Project Consultant will review current tools and their applicability to resource sharing for the ECN, including interviewing relevant experts and investigating previous project findings in this area. Specific attention will be paid to rights and other legal issues which may impact on the sustainability of this approach.

12.3 Requirements Gathering In this workpackage, the Project Consultant will work directly with the Project Development Group and ECN on determining their requirements for resource sharing and community building, including requirements for disseminating resources more widely to other stakeholder groups. Some attention will be paid to ascertaining the ECN’s current experience and skill levels with various Web 2.0 tools. A separate work item will cover investigating possible requirements for stable long-term storage of ECN-created resources, with potential solutions noted as recommendations in the Final Report.

12.4 Trials of Web 2.0 Tools

11

This workpackage consists of two phases: an initial trial phase with an interim report to the SHEEN SG in June, followed by a final trial period leading up to the end of the project. In the initial phase, ECN participants will be grouped into geographical sub-groups. Each group will trial a different set of tools to collate, share and recommend resources, providing in the process the beginnings of a resource bank. Participants will report on their experiences and findings using either via the project blog, their own blog, or other agreed methods. The findings of this phase will be consolidated and agreed with participants via a Webconference, and reported on in the Interim Report. At the Webconference, participants will agree collectively on a toolset to trial to the end of the project, based on their experiences so far. Again, they will report on these findings as they go, with this feedback integrated into the Final Report.

12.5 Dissemination A project Web presence will be established early on via a shared project blog, and augmented throughout the project lifetime by all participants. The final dissemination event will be a high-profile push for the project findings, amplified using Web 2.0 methods to reach as many people as possible. It will also provide a final forum for ideas and decision-making about how to move this work forward in a sustainable way for the ECN. In addition, the project will look into other potential dissemination routes, particularly in the wider learning technologies domain.

12.6 Evaluation The project team will co-operate fully with the external Programme Evaluation, and will internally evaluate the project’s progress at each reporting point.

12.7 Final Report & Exit Strategy A Final Report on the findings and recommendations for future work will be compiled from collaborative input from the Development Group, by the Project Consultant.

13. Evaluation Plan The Project Manager, Consultant and Development Group will co-operate with requirements of the programme-wide evaluation to be carried out by the SFC as far as practically possible within the project budget, including providing copies of relevant reports and findings.

12

In addition, the project will report at regular intervals as detailed in Appendix A: Workpackages to the SHEEN Steering Group and SFC, with updates and review of project progress and findings. Factors to evaluate include: • whether the project is keeping to schedule and budget according to the project plan, and if not, whether further support or changes are needed; • level of co-operation and participation in project activities by Development Group and wider ECN; • whether any factors that need to be addressed are holding up the requirements gathering, tools trials or reporting schedule (e.g. issues with storage of ECN materials, IPR or local firewall issues at universities, etc.); • whether anything is emerging that requires further funding during or after the project timescale.

14. Dissemination Plan The intention of this project is to "practice what it preaches" with dissemination. From the start Web 2.0 social, collaborative resource development and resource sharing tools will be utilised. Timing

Feb 2009 onwards

Dissemination Activity

Shared Project Blog

Audience

Development Group, ECN, SFC, wider stakeholders.

Purpose An openly available web space for dissemination and discussion of project intentions, plans, activities, and outputs. Will also provide an initial Web 2.0-type space for the ECN to start experimenting with using blog community features such as shared posting, commenting / discussion, newsfeeds and use of blog widgets for posting material, e.g. pictures via Flickr, etc.

Key Message

Project intentions, activities and findings, presented in a dynamic, interactive, readable, informal style, with links to more formal project documents.

13

Apr 2009-Sep 2009

Apr 2009 onwards

Sep 2009

Announcements, postings, discussion points on blogs, Twitter, newsletters (including SHEEN Employability newsletter), and other discussion and dissemination venues.

Wider employability, academic and educational technology communities.

Generate some buzz around the project, get other Web 2.0 developers, users, initiatives informed and possibly involved with suggestions, links, etc.

Updates on project progress, announcements re achievements, requests for input, feedback and information.

Project Web page on SHEEN website.

ECN, wider SHEEN community, those seeking employability resources.

Formal first port of call for basic project info.

Short blurb about project, any event dates, formal project documents etc., with links to Project Bog and other activities.

Project Dissemination Event

SHEEN community, HEA subject centres with an interest in employability, wider HE community with interest in employability.

Public dissemination of outputs and ongoing activities related to project; push to keep project momentum going; support for wider stakeholder groups understanding of how they can tap into project resources and tools.

What project has achieved; what it has discovered about the best way to share and disseminate employability resources and practice via Web 2.0.

15. Exit and Sustainability Plans This project is highly exploratory and developmental in nature, so it is difficult to know exactly what will need to be taken forward in the formal sense of exit and sustainability. Most of the concrete project outputs listed above in section 4 will be primarily for informing the project participants. However, the Project Manager and Consultant will investigate and report on possible provision of a stable, secure home for such outputs, e.g. in a formal repository, such as Jorum. Access to such documents will also, where appropriate, be made available via whatever dissemination tools are trialled in the project, such as a project blog, wiki, and/or shared community networking site.

14

The two major outputs, the Dissemination Event (or rather, any documentation, podcasts, workshop outputs etc. from the event) and the Final Report, will be widely disseminated using the usual formal and informal channels, as well as stored in the same stable home as the outputs mentioned above. In terms of ensuring the sustainability of the community of practice, its resource sharing practices, and its linkages with wider stakeholder groups and services: this is a key area for investigation for the project. Findings and recommendations in support of this goal will be recorded at each reporting interval noted in Appendix A: Workpackages. Clearly, it is to be hoped that the project will result in a vibrant, active community of practice using Web 2.0 technologies to widely share and disseminate appropriate resources to the right places and people at the right time. However, there may also be significant and useful findings whereby some tools trialled do not work for this group, or significant barriers are identified. If such an eventuality occurs, then the appropriate exit and sustainability plan will be to move forward building on lessons learned, as recommended in the Final Report.

Appendices Appendix A. Workpackages SHEEN Sharing Project Plan Appendix A: Workpackages WORKPACKAGES

Month:

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

Responsibility

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

1: Project Management

CW, SC

2: Web 2.0 Review

SC

3: Requirements Gathering

SC, DevGrp

15

4: Trials of Web 2.0 Tools

SC, DevGrp

5. Dissemination

SC, DevGrp

6: Evaluation

SC, CW

7: Final Report & Exit Strategy

SC, CW

Project start date: 01-01-2009 Project completion date: 30-09-2009 Duration: 9 months

Start date

Completion date

1 Jan 09

30 Sep 09

1 Jan 09

30 Sep 09

1. Project plan

26 Jan 09

6 Feb 09

Project plan & workpackages

2. Agree contacts to interview

26 Jan 09

13 Feb 09

Contact list

Workpackage and activity

YEAR 1

Outputs (Deliverables & reports in bold)

Milestone

Responsibility

WORKPACKAGE 1: Project Management Objective: Project planning & management

Plan

SC, CW SC, CW

16

3. Manage budget

1 Jan 09

30 Sep 09

Project delivered within budget

CW

4. Progress report1

19 Feb 09

19 Feb 09

Verbal presentation

CW

5. Progress report2

27 Mar 09

27 Mar 09

Progress report to SHEEN Steering Group

CW, SC

6. Interim report

23 Jun 09

30 Jun 09

Interim report to SHEEN Steering Group

7. Progress report4

14 Sep 09

18 Sep 09

Progress report to SHEEN Steering Group

8. Final report

30 Sep 09

30 Sep 09

Final report to SHEEN Steering Group

Final Report

CW, SC

1 Jan 09

31 Mar 09

1 Jan 09

29 Jan 09

Web 2.0 overview for project participants

Web2 Overview

SC

2 Feb 09

31 Mar 09

Report on Web 2.0 and resource sharing experiences & research to date

Web2 Review

SC

2 Feb 09

31 Mar 09

Report to CW and SHEEN SG as appropriate.

Interim Report

CW, SC CW, SC

WORKPACKAGE 2: Web 2.0 Review Objective: Review of Web 2.0 tools and experiences relevant to project

9. Produce a beginner’s overview of Web 2.0 tools and their applicability to resource sharing

10. Review of literature, project reports, online sources (e.g. blog postings, discussions etc.)

11. Investigate IPR and other issues around use of Web 2.0 (including attending JISC Conference session)

SC

17

WORKPACKAGE 3: Requirements Gathering Objective: Understand experience, skills and requirements of user community

12. Review background to project 13. Review possible requirements for stable long-term storage of ECN-created resources.

14. Plan and host Development Group Requirements Workshop1

15. Web survey of ECN current skills/experience with Web 2.0

16. Individual and small-group interviews with Employability Co-ordinators

17. Requirements Report

1 Jan 09

30 Apr 09

26 Jan 09

28 Jan 09

Review of project preparatory materials to date.

SC

2 Feb 09

31 Aug 09

Review of long-term storage requirements and possible solutions; feed into Final Report

SC

19 Jan 09

28 Jan 09

Development Group Requirements Workshop & Report

9 Feb 09

31 Mar 09

Survey report

SC

2 Feb 09

30 Apr 09

Interviews & Report

SC

30 Apr 09

30 Apr 09

Requirements Report

1 Apr 09

31 Aug 09

1 Apr 09

30 Apr 09

Work-shop1

Report

CW, SC

SC

WORKPACKAGE 4: Trials of Web 2.0 Tools Objective: Participants trial real sharing on a range of tools and report on their experiences

18. Plan trials amongst small groups of participants

Plan and set up trials

SC

18

19. Initial trials take place

1 May 09

19 Jun 09

Monitored trials take place

SC, DevGrp

1 May 09

12 Jun 09

Formative evaluation of trials

SC

15 Jun 09

19 Jun 09

Workshop for evaluating trials

Work-shop

SC, CW, DevGrp

22. Interim tools evaluation report

23 Jun 09

30 Jun 09

Interim report on tools trials (in Interim Report to SHEEN SG)

InterimTools Report

SC, DevGrp

23. Final trials phase, with feedback

1 Jul 09

31 Aug 09

Final trials

20. Support, monitoring and formative evaluation during trials

21. Evaluation workshop with trials participants (poss webconference, Flashmeeting?; participants decide how to move forward in final phase)

Final report on tools trials (in Final Report to SHEEN SG)

24. Final tools evaluation report

SC, DevGrp Final Tools Report

SC, DevGrp

WORKPACKAGE 5: Dissemination Objective: Dissemination including final launch event

25. Web presence (web page/wiki, blog, other Web 2.0 stuff)

26. Publicity (announcements, via Web 2.0 channels, other opportunities as arise)

9 Feb 09

31 Aug 09

9 Feb 09

31 Jul 09

Web presence for project

SC, CW, DevGrp

30 Sep 09

Tweets, blog entries, discussion points, presentations and discussion points where opportunities arise.

SC, CW, DevGrp

2 Feb 09

19

27. Investigating possible Web 2.0 event/article for

1 Aug 09

30 Sep 09

Learning technology domain dissemination

1 Aug 09

30 Sep 09

Final Dissemination Event

2 Feb 09

30 Sep 09

1 Sep 09?

30 Sep 09

TBC

CW

30. Formative evaluation phase 1

2 Feb 09

19 Feb 09

Include evaluation in verbal report to SHEEN Meeting

CW, SC

31. Formative evaluation phase 2

20 Feb 09

27 Mar 09

Include evaluation in report to SHEEN Meeting

CW, SC

32. Formative evaluation phase 3

30 Mar 09

23 Jun 09

Include evaluation in Interim Report

CW, SC

33. Formative evaluation phase 4

24 Jun 09

14 Sep 09

Include evaluation in Final Report

CW, SC

1 Jul 09

30 Sep 09

learning technology community

28. Planning & hosting final dissemination event

SC, CW

Event

SC, CW, DevGrp

WORKPACKAGE 6: Evaluation Objective: Project evaluation

29. Co-operate with requirements of SFC Programme Evaluation.

WORKPACKAGE 7: Final Report & Exit Strategy

20

Objective: Final report detailing findings of project, recommended plans for exit strategy and sustainability of approach

34. Collaborative development of Final Report using Web 2.0 technologies

Members of Project Team: CW = Cherie Woolmer, Project Manager SC = Sarah Currier, Project Consultant DevGrp = SHEEN Sharing Project Development Group

Page 1 of 15 Document title: SHEEN Sharing Project Plan v1p0 Last updated: 22 May 2009

1 Jul 09

30 Sep 09

Final Report

Final Report

SC, CW, DevGrp