Opportunity knocks in the Middle East

It was with some reluctance that I left my post at the Museum of the History of Science, so why did I move on?

At the start of the year I was wondering where I might travel in 2012 (being credit crunched did not seem to prevent me from long distance travel in previous years :-).  Just a few weeks later, towards the end of January I received a message via LinkedIn inviting me to consider a career in Qatar.  After some discussion,  I established that this was concerning work in the I.T. department at the Qatar Museums Authority particularly in support of the KE EMu collections management software.  I then had an interview and afterwards a job offer.  It was a hard decision to make, to move away from the comforts and cultural delights of Oxford, but I felt I couldn't ignore this opportunity to explore another culture, gain experience, and potentially build up some savings. I also was reassured that I would have time to write my mother's biography.  So I accepted!

Not having worked abroad before I was unfamiliar with the steps needed to undertake the mobilisation and in this post I wish mainly to share some of what I learnt.  The main thing is to produce legalised copies of the highest level educational certificates (i.e. degree certificates) and similarly for the 'police clearance certificate'.  It took me about 2 months altogether to get these sorted, but I think this could have been reduced to about half that time.  Even then there is still for most people the need to give existing employers notice, which in my case was only 1 month.

Here is how I understand the process now I've been through it, together with a few tips in hindsight, but I make no claims about the accuracy of the information.

For certificates there are three basic steps:

Step 1: Certificates are notarised - notaries have legal powers to verify the authenticity of certificates.  In this case they confirm that a given certificate really was issued by such and such an institution.

Step 2: Legalisation.  The certificates are then sent to the Foreign and Commonwealth who confirm that a notary is duly authorised to act in that capacity.  I think in effect it means that all they are confirming is the authenticity of the notarial stamp and signature; they are not saying anything about the certificate itself!

Tip: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office issue apostilles and charge per apostille.  In correspondence with them I learnt that a single apostille can apply to a notarial note that covers multiple documents, but this is only useful if the respective embassy accepts such an arrangement.  So to save cost, it may be worth checking this with the embassy in question before contacting the notary.

Step 3: Attesting by the embassy.  Once the documents have been legalised, they then need to be checked by the embassy of the state or country where you are moving to.

Some further notes and experiences:

re: Step 1: Degree certificates need to be notarised, which notaries typically carry out by contacting the registry for the respective institutions to seek confirmation from them.  Some solicitors have notarial authority also.

Tip: If the notary carries out these requests only infrequently and you have - as I had - several different universities to consult then to minimise the expense you can do most of the donkeywork beforehand by establishing the contact details and verification process (most universities have a set procedure).  Otherwise the notary will probably charge for the time it takes them to establish this; in my case having obtained these details I could arrange a fixed fee.

The response times varied quite a bit; the University web sites sometimes give an indication of how long it takes to process requests and during exam periods it can be several weeks.  In my case kudos to the University of Glasgow, Kingston University and the University of Oxford for not charging fees and promptly giving helpful respsonses.  The other university was the only  one that charged a fee and happened to be by far the slowest to respond - it took a pincer movement from the notary and myself to eventually extract the required information!  

re: Step 2: Legalisation.  If you follow to the letter the instructions on the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Web site it's not difficult to complete the form and the response is pretty quick, but you do have to allow a few days as it can only be carried out by surface mail.  I had no problems.

re: Step 3: Embassy stamp.  I phoned up the Qatar Embassy and received a courteous and helpful response.  I was able to establish that I could send the documents in the post and didn't have to appear in person.  So I used Royal Mail Special Delivery both ways (return was prepaid - it requires, though, that embassy arranges for it to be handed over to Post Office staff).  The Qatar Embassy processed this very swiftly too.

What took me longer than expected was the 'police clearance certificate' (i.e. the criminal records check).  Being in Oxford I followed some instructions on the the Thames Valley Police Web site and sent off a completed form.  I received a prompt reply saying that the site was out of date and that I should go to another site.  In the meantime, the QMA directed me to Disclosures Scotland, which must have received a contract for handling such requests for the UK generally.  It's another form to fill in, which can be submitted online, together with supporting evidence of your address and identity.  However, curiously there didn't seem to be a way of submitting supporting evidence with the form - that had to be sent in a separate email, which seemed disjointed.

They say about 2 weeks should be allowed and that was about how long it took for me.

Tip: Give multiple instructions about having an authorised stamp and signature on the certificate so as to present for legalisation by the F&CO (and be prepared to phone to confirm that they will stamp and sign).

It may seem quite a lot of hassle (I had 'flu whilst filling in one form so I sent that one off more in hope than assurance!)  The QMA staff were very helpful and supportive; they didn't pressurise me, so it was fine just to proceed step by step.  By May I had submitted the required documents, handed in my notice, and was well into preparations for the move.  

Final tip: When making preparations to move to somewhere unusual or exotic, be ready for an increased social life (friends and relatives may naturally want to know more as well as say "Cheerio!")...!

Last Day at the Museum of the History of Science

Today was officially my last day as Web Officer at the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, which has the distinction of being housed in the world’s oldest surviving purpose-built museum building, the Old Ashmolean, an early impression of which is as right.

I had the pleasure of working there since October 2009 with a close-knit group of dedicated, friendly and enthusiastic staff with a wide range of interesting backgrounds. So I was sad to leave and surprised how difficult it was to hand in my keys and especially the University card - I felt quite bereft as though I had lost part of my identity.

I found the Web Officer role similar in many ways to a previous one where I was responsible for anything Web-related; it requires some flexibility as the duties are varied, ranging from system administration (at the command line) and documentation through to some elements of graphic design, particularly image composition. In summary I would characterise much of the effort as consolidation - in terms of the Linux-based hosting provision, and the use of WordPress as the gateway to the entire online presence.

WordPress gets used mainly for blogging, albeit with resources built around it, but at MHS it is used as a content management system. Perhaps the most significant development was the integration of the KE EMu collections management system, for which I prepared the following slide for the 2011 KE EMu User group meeting, held at the Natural History Museum.

KE User Group 2011 showcase: WordPress integration

View more PowerPoint from Paul Trafford

A lot of the work was behind the scenes. A particular challenge was search engine optimisation (SEO); it took me a long time to realize that a WP upgrade had inserted canonical URLs into the header, leading to just a handful of collections pages being indexed. Once I had removed that and made the page titles more distinct the index grew and more visitors came.

Just occasionally I could do something a little different. For instance, when faced with slightly blurred image, I suddenly realized an opportunity to create an inverted reflection in time for the somewhat wacky and hugely successful Steampunk exhibition:


(I manually traced the figure; some regions have little contrast so I suspect an automated tool would probably struggle)

The old uniform is brought into the present, whilst the photographers (who strive to capture the present moment) recede into the background, into the past, by being faded to grey.

Now too my fleeting role as Web Officer will start to become a faded memory. However, I'm not leaving the museums world, as soon I shall start another role, supporting not one but many museums ...

A New Chapter

I'm going to be a full time student again!

In October I shall start a Master of Studies (M.St.) in the Study of Religions at Oxford University. If you take a look at the few paragraphs describing the course (or the Course Regulations pamphlet) you will see that it's very broad in its scope, treating the subject from many different subject disciplines. I intend over the coming months to use this space to blog ideas, thoughts, impressions, experiences, etc. In fact it's going to be a good opportunity to see if I can investigate further various queries I had in one of my first official blog postings in which I was wondering how IT could support the processes of going from a simple idea to formal publication - such as a book (or see archived copy).

It's a significant change for me. As I type I am still working full time in the Learning Technologies Group at the University Computing Services. I've been there a little over 8 years developing and supporting e-learning systems. So why the change?

There are several reasons that together have convinced me that it's a natural choice and the right one:

• First, I enjoy research and although I have tried very hard to sustain an element of this in my present job (most notably in the RAMBLE project and various thoughts on the Educause blog), in practice my day-to-day responsibilities have not allowed me much scope for this.
• I have long had a keen interest in spirituality and religion, having been brought up in two traditions (Buddhist and Christian).
• By working at the University for a long time and running a central system, I have come to support large numbers of academic staff and students, yet I never felt fully part of the 'collegiate University' because I never had a College association.
• Furthermore, since leaving school I've had a lingering yearning to study at Oxbridge, feeling there was a bit missing (in the Sixth Form I applied instead to 'red brick' universities for my undergraduates studies and subsequently undertook research at non-Oxbridge institutions).
• The M.St. course is particularly interesting to me because of its emphasis on world religions, especially on those from the East. It also has an interdisciplinary feel, which suits me.
• I know one or two academics involved on the teaching side and students who have taken the course. Hearing about the course from them confirms my positive impressions.
• I should be able to acquire new knowledge and skills that will enable me to help religious communities.
• Most of my work at OUCS has concerned VLEs ever since my job interview! However, my enthusiasm has gradually dwindled and I felt it was time to move on. I have tried pursuing other avenues, most notably in mobile computing, but it's not been/developed enough to persuade me to stay put, though I shall still be retaining an interest in m-learning as a student. :-)

I shall be based at St. Cross college, which I chose largely because of the reasons on their Web site - I like the fact that it is friendly (which certainly seems to be the case from my dealings with some members during my time at OUCS :-), graduate-only, international in composition and interdisciplinary in nature, plus the fact that it is located quite centrally.

I don't know how it will go and where it will lead (though I have a few ideas), but as it is just a one year course, I probably have the option to return to the kind of work I've been doing. For those contemplating a similar transition, I should say that it's not something that has come about instantly, but rather it has been a gradual process. I've been particularly glad that colleagues have been supportive on hearing about my plans - whilst still hoping that I can keep in touch in case of the occasional technical VLE query, mobile consultancy etc!

I have a lot of reading and writing ahead...