Engagement and Place Awards: another win for Open Lab

The awards recognise many innovative collaborations between the University and its external partners. These bring value to the social, cultural and economic wellbeing in our city, region and across the globe.

Up in the running in the Postgraduate Student Award was Peter Glick for his PhD project, My Care Budget, a wiki co-designed with people with experience of running a care budget, in the Newcastle University Engagement and Place Awards.

And in the Professional Services category Rob Anderson for his work on Deconf (de-centralised conference), an Open Source library that builds virtual conference platforms.

For the second year in a running Open Lab has had two projects shortlisted in the Engagement and Place Awards!

Congratulations Peter!

The Postgraduate Student Award was the first category up, and as soon as they started reading out the description we knew Peter had won. We bursted with pride as he took the stage for My Care Budget.

The wiki was designed by people with lived experience of running their own Personal Health Budgets. It provides resources for anyone who employs Personal Assistants (PAs) or carers.

MyCareBudget is a wiki designed by people with lived experience of running their own Personal Health Budgets. It provides resources for anyone who employs Personal Assistants (PAs) or carers.

It has over 3,000 members and is still growing, gaining more than 200 users per month. MyCareBudget was born out of Peter Glick’s PhD research at Newcastle University. He co-designed it with a community of people who run a care budget either for themselves, their children, or a close relative.

Unfortunately Rob’s Deconf platform lost out to the Multiverse Lab, however we know it was still an amazing achievement to be nominated for the award. They explained that they had received an overwhelming response to the call for nominations.

Deconf (de-centralised conference) is an Open Source library that builds virtual conference platforms. Open Lab, the Human Computer-Interaction research group at Newcastle University, developed the library. It has run several online conferences since 2020. This includes the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Society’s (IFRC) climate:red conference, Mozilla’s Mozfest 2021 and 2022, and the IFRC’s planet:red conference.

Peter and MyCareBudget has followed the footsteps of PhD Student Arlind Reuter and Content Creator, Daniel Parry and the Later Life Audio Radio Co-operative, which won last year.

Photo credit: Simon Veit-Wilson