Oxford Talks

Note

Some small changes have been made in the latest release of the software!

Explore Oxford Talks

An introduction to Oxford Talks

View upcoming talks

The Home Page will show you all talks for the next 30 days - you can use the tabs to see tomorrow’s or next week’s talks. If you’re looking for talks in a particular time-frame, use the date filters on the filter panel to adjust this.

  1. Click the calendar icon on the Start Date or End Date filters to set the date
  2. If you want to see all the upcoming talks, use the clear button on the End Date filter
  3. Click Submit at the bottom of the filter panel
View upcoming talks

Find a seminar series

If you are interested in a particular seminar series, or meetings of a society:

  • Use the Series box in the filter panel if you know the name of the series you are interested in
  • Alternatively, browse the full list of Lecture/Seminar Series using the link from the left hand panel
Find a seminar series

See my department’s talks

To see all upcoming talks happening in your department:

  1. Start typing into the Department box on the filter panel. You don’t need to type the full name (for instance, ‘HI’ will find the Faculty of History, acronyms like ‘DPAG’ will also work)
  2. Remember to click Submit
See my department's talks

Alternatively use the Departments link on the Home Page, this will take you to a listing of the main University departments, listed by Division.

Discover talks on an interesting topic

It’s also possible to find talks on a on a particular topic - you don’t need to know the series talk belongs to or the organising department - there are two ways to do this:

Public Collections

  • Click Talk Collections in the left hand panel to see collections of talks made by other people

Topics

Talks Editors are also beginning to tag talks with a huge range of topics (based on the Library of Congress subject headings).

  • Click Topics in the left hand panel to see the topics currently in use (this page can take a little time to load)
Discover talks on an interesting topic
  • All the topics assigned to a talk or series are clickable, so you can also explore a topic further from an individual talk

Note

There have been changes to this part of Oxford Talks in the latest release (May 2016)

Collect talks you are interested in

You can log in and create personal collections of any of the talks on Oxford Talks. These collections can remain private to you or you can make them public for anyone to view and follow.

You can also decide to follow a collection of talks that another user has made public.

Login

Login
  • Click the Login link at the top right of the screen
  • You will be prompted for your Oxford Single Sign On username and password

(for more help see the Logging in and Out section of this guide)

Note

Collections used to be known as Lists, if you have been using Oxford Talks for a while, don’t worry, nothing much has changed - just the name. However, if you want to see your collected talks, use My Talks in the drop down list underneath your name.

Add talks to My Collection

  • Browse for talks from the home page or Search for talks you would like to add
  • Open the talk page.
  • Click the Add to Collection button and select My Collection
  • You will also see the Add to Collection button on Series and Department and Unit listing pages

Create a new collection

Create a new collection

You can make as many collections as you like (for example you could collect talks relevant to Women in Science, Engineering and Technology and then make this collection public if you think it would be helpful to others).

  • Click Manage Collections in the drop-down list below your name
  • Click the Add new collection button.
  1. Give your collection a Title. If you are going to make the collection publically available make sure that this title will be meaningful to others.
  2. Enter a Description
  3. Tick the box if you want to make the collection public
  4. Click Save
  • The collection has been created and is available on your Manage collections page.
  • You will also see it when you click the Add to Collection button on each talk, series and department/unit page.

See all the talks you’ve collected

You’ll find Your Talks - an aggregated listing of all the talks you have added to your own personal and public collections - by clicking on the dropdown list below your name.

See all the talks you've collected

Add someone else’s public collection to Your Talks

  • Click the Manage Collections button (available to logged in users only)
  • Alternatively choose Public Collections in the left-hand panel of the home page
  • If you are logged in, click the Subscribe button next to the list and the talks in this list will be added to Your Talks
Add someone else's public collection to Your Talks

Further Information

  • All collections have an Add to my Calendar button so that you can add them to your own calendar. See the Get an up-to-date feed in your own calendar section for details.
  • If you want to share the process of collecting talks with other people, you will need to become a Talks Editor. See the Talks Editor Guide for more information.

Copy talks to your own calendar

You can put the details of any talk into your Nexus, Google or iCloud calendar. How this works depends on the browser and calendar you are using; we’ve covered some of the standard combinations here. The following steps will work for either a single talk or a series of talks.

Note

Using this method, if the talk information changes in any way, the information in your own calendar won’t update automatically. You should always check Oxford Talks to make sure that the time or location hasn’t changed since you added the talk to your calendar.

Using Internet Explorer and Outlook (PC)

Using Internet Explorer and Outlook (PC)
  • Clicking the calendar icon in Internet Explorer will open a window at the bottom of your browser
  • Click Open
  • The talk details open as an Outlook calendar item
  • Click Save & Close to add the talk to your calendar

Using Safari and Calendar (Mac)

Using Safari and Calendar (Mac)
  • Clicking the calendar icon in Safari should open the Calendar app automatically
  • You will be asked where you want to save your event - this can be your main Nexus calendar if you want
  • If you choose to add the talk to your Nexus calendar, you may get this message
  • Click OK and don’t worry, this just refers to the link back to the original talk. It will be copied over to the event notes and will be clearly visible
  • Your talk(s) will be added to your chosen calendar

Using Chrome and Google Calendar

  • Clicking on the calendar icon in Chrome will download a file to your computer - you can usually see this at the bottom of your browser.
  • The filename will be a list of numbers, letters and dashes ending in ‘.ics’ e.g: 7545e0bc-b53c-4114-b3b7-fba953a08f74.ics
Using Chrome and Google Calendar
  • In Google Calendar, choose Import calendar from the options for Other calendars
  1. Browse for the file you’ve just downloaded
  2. Choose the calendar you want to import the file into
  3. Click import to add your talk(s) to your chosen calendar

Get an up-to-date feed in your own calendar

You can subscribe to a series or list of talks in your own calendar software. Subscribing means that the information is updated on a regular basis, so that you always have the latest information about the times and locations of talks.

Note

At present, it isn’t possible to get the web version of Nexus calendar to subscribe to calendar feeds.

Get the feed URL

  • Find the series you would like to subscribe to
  • Right click on the add to your calendar button to copy the feed to URL to your clipboard (the Copy Shortcut or Copy Link Address option)
Get the feed URL

Note

When you come to paste the URL it should look something like this: https://talks.ox.ac.uk/api/series/c70914d8-42c1-4ec9-a825-d7041570bdf9.ics . The alphanumeric string is the unique identifier for the series, so this bit will be unique for each feed.

Outlook

  • After copying the URL, click Open Calendar and select From Internet
Outlook
  • Paste the URL into the New Internet Calendar Subscription box
  • Click OK
  • The calendar takes the last part of the web address as its name (for example: aed697e6-1a92-473d-a686-f77487689e0b.ics)
  • To change the name click Advanced ...
  1. Type a new name for the calendar in the Folder Name box
  2. Click OK
  • Click Yes
  • The calendar will open as a new calendar in Outlook

Note

You won’t see this subscribed calendar on your web-based Nexus calendar

Calendar (Mac)

  • Copying the feed URL (see the first step in this tutorial)
  • Click File in the top menu and then click New Calendar Subscription
Calendar (Mac)
  • Paste the feed URL into the box
  • Click Subscribe

You will be asked to confirm the settings:

  1. Give the calendar a meaningful Name
  2. Choose On My Mac for the Location of the calendar
  3. Set Auto-refresh to Every day (this should be enough to ensure the information is up-to-date, but be sure to check Oxford Talks as well)
  • The feed will now appear as a new calendar in your list under Other
  • The little wireless symbol reminds you that it is a subscription to a calendar feed

Google Calendar

  • Copy the feed URL (see the first step in this tutorial)
  • Click the Other calendars drop down list
  • Select Add by URL
Google Calendar
  • Paste the feed URL into the URL box
  • Click Add Calendar
  1. You will then find an additional calendar under Other calendars - events will appear on the calendar grid with a shaded background to indicate that they come from a feed
  2. Click the calendar’s drop-down list and select Calendar settings to change the name of the calendar to something more readable

Further Information

If you are using Google Calendar, look at the Get email reminders section to see how to set these up.

Set up email reminders

Reminders and notifications by email are not yet available. Meanwhile, there are a few limited options to set up email reminders using your own calendar.

Google Calendar

You can set up a default email reminder for any calendar feed. This will apply to all the talks in the feed. (see the Get an up-to-date feed section for more information on calendar feeds)

  • Click on the drop down list next to the calendar created by the feed
  • Choose Edit notifications
Google Calendar
  • Adjust the Event notifications to notify you by Email

Calendar (Mac)

You can set up an email reminder for individual events copied into your Nexus calendar, but not for calendar feeds. (see the Copy talks section for for information about copying talks)

  • Click on the date in an event display
Calendar (Mac)
  • This will open up a panel to edit the date and other options
  • Choose Custom from the alert options list
  • Then choose Email in the pop-up box and set your email address and when you want to be reminded

Contact Us

Please send all queries to the helpdesk at:

oxtalks-contact@it.ox.ac.uk

If you are reporting a problem, then please try to include as much detail as possible in your email.

We are also happy to have feedback and requests or ideas for new features.

Logging in and out

You can log in using your Oxford SSO username and password.

Log in

Log in
  • The Login button is on the far right of the toolbar at the top of the screen
  • Click Login and you will be taken to the usual WebAuth page to sign in
  • Once you have signed in, clicking the Continue to button will take you back to Oxford Talks

Note

Just occasionally there are problems logging in with Internet Explorer. If you encounter this, close down your browser to log yourself out of everything, then open your browser again and try logging in to Oxford Talks.

Log out

Log out

The Logout link is also located in the drop down list underneath your name at the top of the screen.

Note

Clicking this will only log you out of the Oxford Talks website. You will still be logged in to any other web pages you have logged in to with your Single Sign On username and password using the WebAuth page. If you really want to sign out of everything, then close down your browser.

Glossary of Terms used by Oxford Talks

Series

A Series is where a talk ‘belongs’ when you create it - for instance it may be part of a seminar series or a conference. We recommend that you only enter details about talks you organize yourself, like your Departmental Friday Seminars, or your Club meetings. You have to be a Talks Editor to be able to create a Series.

Collection (List)

A Collection comprises talks owned and organized by other people, already added to Oxford Talks, and usually belonging to a variety of different series. For example, a collection of ‘Talks about Science and Art’ could include talks from the Department of Chemistry and the Department of History.

Note that it might not always be necessary to make a manual collection - talks can be assigned to the two categories below (Organising Department and Topic) allowing us to create automatic listings. You can also add an entire series or a department to a collection, if you do this then all talks belonging to that series or department will appear in the collection automatically.

Anyone with a University Single Sign On username and password can compile a Collection.

In an earlier version of the software Collections were called Lists.

Organising Department

Many talks and series of talks are organized by a University department or unit. When a talk is added, it can be tagged with the department (or sub-unit within that department). This makes it simple to pull out all a department’s (or even a Division’s) talks.

Topic

Although talks may be organized by a single department, they are often relevant to students and researchers in other departments right across the University. Tagging by Topic means that lists of talks on various subject areas can be pulled out automatically. We have used the Library of Congress Subject Headings for our topic choices, which means that the options for potential listings by topic are quite substantial - but if none of the available topics quite fits the bill, there is always the option to create a Collection.

Talks Organiser

A Talks Organiser is the main point of contact for a talk or a series of talks. They are usually involved in setting up speakers, booking rooms and doing all the juggling involved in the day to day administration of seminars and lectures.

Talks Editor

A Talks Editor is someone who has been given the rights to add and edit talks, and series of talks in Oxford Talks. You have to apply to be a Talks Editor (a relatively simple process). A Talks Editor is sometimes the same as the Talks Organiser - but not always.

Talks Editors and Talk Organisers

Talk and Series Organisers

Organisers

  • are involved in the practical organisation of a talk or a series of talks
  • are the main point of contact for enquiries about the event.

Organisers are added to Oxford Talks in the same way as speakers and hosts. If they don’t appear in the drop down list as you type then you can use the Add Person button to add them quickly to the system.

Very often organisers will also be the people who add information about the talk to Oxford Talks - if that’s the case then they will also need to be signed up as a Talks Editor.

Talks Editors

Talks Editors

  • have the rights to edit the information in Oxford Talks
  • must have an Oxford University Single Sign On account and have applied to be a Talks Editor
  • can create new series or talks
  • can be added as an editor to other talks and series.

Once a Talks Editor has been signed up, you should be able to add them to the list of editors for a series or talk by typing their email address.

Why the two roles?

The old Oxford Talks had just one role - the List Manager was the person who added and edited lists and talks and was also the point of contact for enquiries. Anyone could add or edit talks and lists.

When we designed the new system, feedback from administrators was that they would prefer editing and adding of talks to be restricted, so we created the Talks Editor role and put in the option to specify an organiser without having to go through the process of signing them up to be an Editor as well.

Latest Changes - May 2016

We’ve just released a new version of the Oxford Talks software. Here are the main changes.

Look and Feel

We’ve tidied up the look of the site to make it easier to find out what’s coming up:

  1. The home page has been redesigned - it should be quick to find what’s going on this week and next by using the tabs across the top.
  2. You might miss the personal listing - My Talks - at the bottom of the old home page. This is now on the drop down list under your username.
  3. The talks should be easier to scan for interesting titles or speakers. Important information about the talk should be easily noticeable as well.
  4. You can now browse departments and topics.
Look and Feel

Lists

Lists have been renamed Collections as we thought that this better reflected the way they work. It is just a name change - everything works in the same way as before.

You can now add a department to a collection. Good news if you want to create a collection of all the series in your department and also talks of interest from elsewhere on Oxford Talks.

Lists

Date Picker

We’ve got a nicer date picker now for setting start and end dates. It is much easier to use.

Date Picker

Speakers and Audience

  1. Speakers should now appear in the order you’ve added them. It was going to be tricky to allow you to drag and drop speakers to get them into the right order, so if you add them in the wrong order then you’ll have to remove them and add them again.
  2. If you have too many speakers to list, we’ve allowed you to tick a box to indicate Various Speakers.
  3. There’s now a text box you can use to specify the type of audience, if public or university only are not sufficient.
Speakers and Audience

Talks in Preparation

We’ve clarified talks ‘in preparation’. Now a talk is automatically published when you create it, but you can switch it to ‘in preparation’ to let your attendees know that some details may change.

A key thing to note is that in preparation talks appear in ALL listings and are clearly flagged as ‘in preparation’.

Cancelled Talks

You can now also flag a talk as cancelled.

Cancelled Talks

Developers

There are one or two extras in the API now.

  1. An important point - talks ‘in preparation’ (see above) are listed in the API output and are indicated as such with the Status field.
  2. The from and to parameters work properly and there is also a time delta option e.g. (from=today&to=plus7)
  3. As you can now add a department to a collection (see above), this should simplify requests.
  4. We’ve added hosts, timezone information and .ics links to the output.

Archiving old Talks

The old Oxford Talks system is about to be closed down. Talks entered on that system before February 2015 will be deleted.

If you would like to get a copy of your old talks:

  1. Go to http://old.talks.ox.ac.uk/index
  2. Find your list and note down its ID number
  3. Type the following into the address bar of your browser substituting your list ID number for [ID number]
http://old.talks.ox.ac.uk/show/xml/[ID number]?start_time=0

or, for a table (but not quite so much information)

http://old.talks.ox.ac.uk/show/table/[ID number]?layout=empty&start_time=0
  1. You can copy and paste the information on the resulting web page into Notepad or a similar plain text app.

Apply to be a Talks Editor

To create Talks and Series (such as Seminar Series and Conferences), you need to apply to become a Talks Editor.

All members of the University are entitled to be a Talks Editor, if you are a student, please ask a member of staff to approve your application.

There are two steps:

  1. Log in to Oxford Talks (this will create an ordinary user account for you) at http://new.talks.ox.ac.uk
  2. Send an email to oxtalks-contact@it.ox.ac.uk with the following:
  • Your Name
  • Department
  • Your Email
  • Email address of the member of staff approving your application (if you are a student)

If you are planning to share editing with other colleagues then ask them to log in and send us their details as well.

Editor Responsibilities

Please be aware that your talks will be advertised quite widely in the University.

They may, for instance, be included in weekly digests and be added to people’s calendars. For this reason, please be sure to keep your talk information up-to-date.

Accurate

Imagine how annoying it can be to cycle halfway across Oxford only to find that a talk has been rescheduled or the location has changed.

Complete

Very few people will make the effort to attend a seminar if they don’t know the title or the speaker.

  • Use the TBA option for titles and speakers so that people can ‘save the date’, but please remember to go back and change the details later.

Easy to find

Bear in mind that users of Oxford Talks may well look for talks by typing keywords or topics into the search box, or by browsing by department or topic.

  • Give your series and lists sensible titles
  • Add an abstract or short description, if you have it available
  • Assign your talks to topics - it shouldn’t take long and even a very generic term can be helpful

Create a talk

Get started by creating a new talk.

The New Talk form

The New Talk form

You can get to the New Talk form by clicking New Talk on the toolbar at the top of the screen.

Alternatively click Dashboard and then the New Talk button.

The New Talk form is quite lengthy, but the most important fields are grouped at the top:

Title

Title

Get started immediately by typing the Title.

If you don’t yet know the title you can leave the Title field blank and tick the Title TBA box.

Note

For more information on scheduling talks before you have all the information see the Editing and Publishing section of this guide.

Start and End

Start and End

Clicking anywhere in the Start field will make the calendar picker appear.

Once you have finished selecting the Start date and time, the End field will automatically be set to an hour later. You can change this by clicking in the End field.

Speakers

Speakers
  1. If you start typing a speaker’s name, you may find they are already in the system. If they aren’t then, click Create new person to reveal the form to add a new speaker.
  2. You may add as many speakers as you like.

You will find that Talk organisers and Talk hosts can be added in the same way. Scroll down to find these fields.

Note

The section Change speaker / host / organiser details explains how to edit this information.

Venue

Venue
  1. Start typing the name of a building or location and it will be automatically looked up in the University’s OxPoints system. The address and map information will be retrieved automatically and displayed with the rest of the talk information.
  2. Specific details - the room name or number, or information about how to gain entry - can be added in the box below.

If the talk doesn’t take place in the University then leave the Venue field blank and use the Venue Details box.

You will find that the Organising department can be added in a similar way. Scroll down to find that field.

Saving

Saving

When you’re ready, save the talk by clicking either:

  • Save and add another Talk to go straight to a new Add Talk form
  • Done to preview the talk you’ve just created

If you want to cancel your changes (before you save them) then just click the back button in your browser.

More Information

Now that you have run through the editing basics, look at the following sections for guidance on the other fields on the form:

  • Publicising your talk - explains how the Abstract, Topic and Organising department fields can help get your talk included in more listings
  • Formatting the abstract - provides a quick cheat sheet on how to add headings, lists and links to the Abstract field
  • Editing and publishing - gives you tips and tricks on how to schedule talks before you have all the information available
  • Sharing editing - how to assign other editors to your talk

Create a series of talks

A series of talks could be a seminar series, a conference, a workshop or a similar event.

via Add Talk

via Add Talk
  1. Click New Talk on the toolbar and start adding your talk information
  2. Tick the Series box.
  3. Click the New series button.

The Add a new series form will pop up. Not all information about a series can be added via the pop up form - so you may need to go to the Dashboard to add further information later.

via the Dashboard

via the Dashboard

Creating a series via the Dashboard means you can add all the information about a series in one go:

  1. Click Dashboard at the top of the screen
  2. Select Series from the filter on the left hand side
  3. The New series button should appear. Click this to get the New Series form

Title and Description

Title and Description
  • Make sure your Title is not too generic - including the short name or acronymn of your department is helpful e.g.: ‘WIMM Monday Seminars’ rather than just ‘Monday Seminars’
  • The text in the Description can be formatted - see Formatting Text for more information

Organisers and Organising Department

Organisers and Organising Department

Both the Organisers and Organising department fields work in the same way as for a talk, start typing to find the individual or unit you want.

Now, when you create talks and assign them to this series, you’ll find that they inherit the organisers and organising department.

Timing and Web Address

Timing and Web Address
  • The Timing field allows you to add a short piece of text describing times and dates. For instance you might want to indicate that your Monday Seminars occur every Monday in Full Term at 11am.
  • Use the Web address field if your series or conference has a dedicated website or page. Remember to prefix the address with ‘http://‘ or ‘https://‘.

Saving

Saving

When you’re ready, save the series by clicking either:

  • Save and add another to go straight to another New series form
  • Done to preview the series you’ve just created

If you want to cancel your changes (before you save them) then just click the back button in your browser.

Editing and Publishing

Editing

Editing
  1. Click Dashboard in the tool bar at the top of the screen to view all the talks and series you have created.
  2. The column on the left allows you to switch between talks, series and people (speakers, organisers and hosts)
  3. Filters allow you to narrow the list down further

Checking for missing information

Checking for missing information

You can schedule and publish a talk even if you don’t have all the details:

  • You must supply the Date and Time
  • Leave other fields on the form blank
  • Use the Title TBA check box to leave the Title blank

Use the Dashboard Missing Information filters to identify talks with information still to be supplied:

Here, the list of talks has been narrowed down to

  • editable by me
  • still to take place
  • without a speaker

Publishing

Talks are flagged as Published when you first create them. However, you may want to indicate that a talk’s details are incomplete. In this case you can switch the talk’s status to In Preparation.

Publishing

To change the status:

  • On the Talk Edit form scroll down to find the Status field
  • Switch the radio button to In preparation.

You can switch back to Published at any time.

What does ‘In preparation’ mean?

What does 'In preparation' mean?

A talk is flagged In preparation so that everyone is aware that the information is subject to change or incomplete.

Note

In preparation talks are:

  • Not Private - all talks can be viewed and appear in all listings
  • This is a change from the previous version of the software, where In preparation talks did not appear in search results

Formatting text

Formatting using the Textile markup language

Text in the Talk Abstract field and the Series Description field can be formatted using Textile markup.

The basics are very easy to remember:

Headings (Abstract only)

h1. Main Heading
h2. Sub heading

Paragraphs

Separate paragraphs with a blank line.

This is a new paragraph.

Bold and Italic

*This will create bold text*
_This will create italics_

Bullet Points and Numbered Lists (Abstract only)

* First Item
* Second Item
# Item One
# Item Two

Links

A web address should convert into a link automatically when you save the talk. To give the link a title rather than just show the web address:

"Oxford University":http://www.ox.ac.uk

To make an email clickable use the following:

"$":mailto:joe.blogs@ox.ac.uk

If you need more, there is a comprehensive manual on txstyle.org

Pasting from Word

You can copy and paste from Word, but you will need to format the text again.

If you have a number of abstracts and lots of formatting, then try:

  • adjusting the styles in your Word document following the guidelines below
  • saving your Word document as a plain text file
  • opening the file in a plain text editor (e.g.: Notepad) and copying from there

Headings

  • Format > Style > Modify > Numbering ...
  • Choose Numbering, click any numbering style and click the Customize ... button
  • Set the Number style to None and type ‘h1’ in the Number format box

Bullet Points

  • Format > Bullets and Numbering
  • Click the Customize ... button
  • Select an asterisk from the Bullet Character options

Numbered Lists

  • Format > Bullets and Numbering
  • Click the Customize ... button
  • Set the Number style to None and type ‘#’ in the Number format box

Other useful tools

  • Table converter - turning a CSV file (e.g.: exported from Excel) into a Textile table of information
  • Pandoc - open source software to convert to Textile from other formats

Publicising your talk

Oxford Talks will automatically compile listings of talks in subject areas and can pull together all talks belonging to a department or a division. The more information you can give about a talk, the wider it will be publicised.

Adding your talk to topic listings

Adding your talk to topic listings

We use Topics to group talks into subject areas. Assigning one or more topics to your talk will mean that it will have a better chance of being discovered and readvertised by specialist communities.

Go to the Topics field on the Add talk form. Start typing and you will be offered options from the Library of Congress Subject Headings. Once you’ve found and selected a topic it will be highlighted in blue. To remove it, just click on the ‘X’.

Please start with broader topics first e.g.: ‘Neuroscience’ or ‘Ancient History’, and then add narrower topics in the specialist area of the talk e.g.: ‘Molecular Neurobiology’ or ‘Naval Warfare’.

There are some further hints in the Identifying suitable topics section of this guide

Viewing topic listings

To see a listing of talks for a specific topic, type the topic name into the site search box and then use the Topic filters on the left hand side of the results page. Alternatively, click on the topic name when viewing a talk.

The talks site will create a listing for any topic if you provide the FAST Topic URI e.g.:

https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/topics/id/?uri=http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1120819

You can search for the FAST Topic URI here:

https://talks.ox.ac.uk/topics/search?q=sleep

look for a phrase like this in the results:

"uri":"http://id.worldcat.org/fast/1120819"

Adding your talk to department listings

Adding your talk to department listings

We use the University’s complete list of units, buildings and locations, Oxpoints, to specify the department or unit a talk belongs to.

Start typing the name in the Organising department field in either the Series or the Talk editing form.

Once you’ve assigned a department or unit to a Series it will be automatically assigned to any Talks you then add to the Series.

If you choose a sub-department or unit, then the talk will also appear in the parent department and division listings.

Adding an abstract

Keywords in the talk abstract will be used for searching, so please add the abstract if you have it.

Public Collections

Note

There have been changes to this part of Oxford Talks in the latest release (May 2016)

As well as topic and department listings, there may be some more ad hoc listings you would like your talk to be included in. You can set up a Public Collection to collect together talks relevant to a particular theme, enterprise or project within the University - Athena Swan is a good example.

Last minute changes

You may want to draw attention to last minute changes to your talk - a change of venue or a cancellation

Special message field

Special message field

The Special message field is intended just for this purpose. Messages here will appear prominently in the talk display.

Cancellations

Rather than delete a cancelled talk, you have the option to change the Status to Cancelled. The talk will appear in listings with the Cancelled status flagged in red.

Cancellations

Sharing editing

You can share the editing of a series or an individual talk or a collection with another Talks Editor

Series of Talks

Series of Talks

Type in the email address of another Talks Editor in the Other Editors field. You will need to know the full address as this field doesn’t autocomplete, however once you’ve finished typing the address will then appear in a drop-down list for you to choose.

You may add as many editors as you like. The Edit button for the Series will then appear in the other editors’ Dashboards

Note

The address will only pop-up in the Talks Editor has already been signed up to Oxford Talks. If their email doesn’t appear, make sure they have been signed up. For more information see Apply to be a Talks Editor.

Individual Talks

If you share editing of a Series with a Talks Editor, then they will have the rights to edit all the Talks in that series too.

You can adjust this in the Other Editors field of the individual talk.

Collections

Once you have signed an editor up to your collection they will see it on their Manage Collections page and will find the collection available in the dropdown box on each talk, series and department or unit page.

Collections

Change speaker / host / organiser details

Speaker, host and organiser details can be changed using the Person edit form

Be careful!

Warning

Any Talks Editor can change the details of any person appearing in Oxford Talks as a speaker, host or organiser. When you edit their name or affiliation, the changes will trickle down to every talk this person has been assigned to - including past talks. If someone has moved department or been promoted, it is perfectly OK to create a new person entry for them in their new role.

Find the person

Find the person
  1. Click Dashboard on the toolbar at the top of the screen
  2. Select the People filter
  3. Although you can go straight to the Person Edit form from here by clicking the Edit button, it is a good idea to click on the name of the person first and review what talks they appear in.

Check details

Check details

Click through to review details of their talks. Any changes you make to their entry will be reflected in all these talks.

Person Edit form

Person Edit form
  • In addition to Name and Affiliation, you can add a Web address - this is a good way to provide more details about a speaker
  • To cancel your changes before saving, use the back button on your browser

Deleting

If you need to delete a person, please contact the Oxford Talks Administration.

Identifying suitable topics

The topics to assign to a talk or a series are drawn from the Library of Congress Subject Headings. This is a huge database and it is sometimes hard to find the right keywords. Here are some tips, if you are not sure what topics to use, or, if you can’t find the appropriate topic for your subject.

Ask a Librarian for advice

Your subject librarian should have a good idea of the appropriate LC Subject Headings for your particular subject area.

Check the Libraries Catalogue for ideas

  • Search SOLO for a key publication or author.
  • Select a publication record.
  • Choose More bibliographic information from the Links box on the right.
  • LC Subject Headings are provided under Subject - Lib.Cong.
Check the Libraries Catalogue for ideas

Note

Often the subject headings provided by the library catalogue are ‘complex subjects’. These might show up when you start typing into the Topic field on the Add Talk form, but if they don’t, you should be able to enter two separate topics e.g.: ‘Democracy’ and then ‘Case Studies’

Use assignFAST for suggestions

This is a useful tool when you need to distinguish between homonyms, or just can’t find the right subject heading

  • Go to the assignFAST website
  • Start typing and recommendations should appear
  • Select and option and it will appear in the box ready to copy
  • Copy and paste it into the Topic field in the Add Talk form and it should pop up ready to select
Use assignFAST for suggestions

Limitations

Unfortunately, at the moment, Oxford Talks doesn’t present us with all available Subject Headings - only those of ‘Topic’ / ‘Topical’ type.

  1. You can limit the assignFAST results to show just ‘Topical’ Subject Headings
  2. or take a note of the Type in the results provided
Limitations

Web Managers and Integrators

An example widget to get you started with embedding talks in your own webpages can be found here:

https://github.com/ox-it/talks.ox-js-widget

The widget uses JavaScript to write a table, list or calendar view of selected talks to an HTML page. You can specify the criteria to select the talks you want.

Developer Documentation

Summary

Response

All responses conform to the HAL specification.

Formats

JSON, XML

The API is able to return either XML or JSON, depending on the ‘Accept’ header in the request. By default a web browser will specify XML in the request. Note curl doesn’t specify any preference, so the API will respond with json.

To ensure you get xml back, add an Accept header to your request:

curl https://new.talks.ox.ac.uk/api/series/041a5cc6-d65a-4dec-967d-3adc5162cea3 -H "Accept: application/xml"
Fields

Most fields should be self-explanatory but special note should be taken of date and time fields.

start : date / time string (ISO8601)
  • Start date and time for the talk in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
  • Example: 2016-04-08T10:00:00Z
  • The Z time zone designator indicates UTC and the time should be converted to the local time zone of the talk before displaying
  • At present the location of all talks is assumed to be the UK and the local time zone is therefore GMT/BST
end : date / time string (ISO8601)
  • End date and time for the talk in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
  • Example: 2016-04-08T11:00:00Z
  • The Z time zone designator indicates UTC and the time should be converted to the local time zone of the talk before displaying
  • At present the location of all talks is assumed to be the UK and the local time zone is therefore GMT/BST
formatted_date : string ('d M yyyy mm:ss')
  • Start date and time for the talk formatted for display
  • Example: 8 April 2016, 11:00
  • The time has been converted to the local time zone (GMT/BST)
formatted_time : string ('mm:ss')
  • Start time for the talk formatted for display
  • Example: 11:00
  • The time has been converted to the local time zone (GMT/BST)

For a more detailed example of the API in use, see the JavaScript widget documentation.

Retrieve Talk via ID

Endpoint to retrieve information about talks

All the responses conform to the HAL specification.

GET /talks/(string: id)

Retrieve talk by unique slug identifier

Example request:

GET /api/talks/fa67d13a-f17d-471d-b8cc-33b3d7759956
Host: talks.ox.ac.uk
Accept: application/json

Example response:

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "/api/talks/fa67d13a-f17d-471d-b8cc-33b3d7759956"
        },
        "talks_page": {
            "href": "/talks/id/fa67d13a-f17d-471d-b8cc-33b3d7759956/"
        }

    },
    "title": "What can babies with Down syndrome possibly tell us about Alzheimer's dementia in adults?",
    "start": "2015-01-29T18:00:00Z",
    "end": "2015-01-29T19:00:00Z",
    "formatted_date": "29 January 2015, 18:00",
    "formatted_time": "18:00",
    "description": "It may seem paradoxical to focus on babies ...",
    "_embedded":
    {
        "speakers": [ ],
        "venue": {
            "_links": {
                "self": {
                    "href": "//api.m.ox.ac.uk/places/oxpoints:50009121"
                }
            },
            "name": "Mary Gray Allen Building",
            "map_link": "//maps.ox.ac.uk/#/places/oxpoints:50009121"

        },
        "organising_department": null,
        "topics": [
            {
                "uri": "http://id.worldcat.org/fast/806532",
                "label": "Alzheimer's disease"
            }, {
                "uri": "http://id.worldcat.org/fast/890050",
                "label": "Dementia"
            }
        ]
    }
}
Parameters:
  • id (string) – The unique slug identifier for the talk
Status Codes:

Retrieve Series via ID

Endpoint to retrieve information about all talks in a series

All the responses conform to the HAL specification.

GET /series/(string: id)

Retrieve series by unique slug identifier, including all talks

Example request:

GET /api/series/d95be2ef-10bb-43d3-a46c-99dccf7151a0
Host: talks.ox.ac.uk
Accept: application/json

Example response

{
    "_links": {
        "self": {
            "href": "/api/series/d95be2ef-10bb-43d3-a46c-99dccf7151a0"
        },
        "talks_page": {
            "href": "/talks/series/id/d95be2ef-10bb-43d3-a46c-99dccf7151a0"
        }
    },
    "title": "ChemBio Hub Events",
    "description": "",
    "occurence": "",
    "_embedded": {
        "talks": [{
            "_links": {
                "self": {
                    "href": "/api/talks/88ba512b-8ac1-4191-a86e-340f8f3fed1d"
                },
                "talks_page": {
                    "href": "/talks/id/88ba512b-8ac1-4191-a86e-340f8f3fed1d/"
                }
            },
            "title_display": "Current expertise and future directions in drug discovery: an Oxford-Industry conversation",
            "slug": "88ba512b-8ac1-4191-a86e-340f8f3fed1d",
            "start": "2015-07-31T09:00:00Z",
            "end": "2015-07-31T19:00:00Z",
            "formatted_date": "31 July 2015, 9:00",
            "formatted_time": "09:00",
            "description": "This event showcases top chemical biology research from labs at Oxford. ...",
            "location_details": "",
            "location_summary": null,
            "series": {
                "slug": "d95be2ef-10bb-43d3-a46c-99dccf7151a0",
                "title": "ChemBio Hub Events"
            },
            "_embedded": {
                "speakers": [],
                "venue": null,
                "organising_department": {
                    "address": "off South Parks Road OX1 3QU",
                    "_links": {
                        "self": {
                            "href": "//api.m.ox.ac.uk/places/oxpoints:23232534"
                        }
                    },
                    "name": "Department of Biochemistry",
                    "map_link": "//maps.ox.ac.uk/#/places/oxpoints:23232534"
                },
                "topics": []
            },
            "organiser_email": ""
        }]
    }
}

The response can be either in XML or JSON dependent on the ‘accept’ header in the request.

Status Codes:

Parameters Reference

id : series slug as string
  • Format f8ecded3-d2af-4585-bd3b-5cd7440795b9
from : date string (‘yyyy-mm-dd’), optional
  • Start date for the list of talks.
  • Format as yyyy-mm-dd
to : date string (‘yyyy-mm-dd’), optional
  • End date for the list of talks.
  • Format yyyy-mm-dd
  • Or use plus[n] for the next [n] days (e.g.: plus7)
  • Note that the issue with the end time (assumed to be 00:00 not 23:59) has now been resolved

Retrieve Collection via ID

Endpoint to retrieve information about all talks collected together in a Public Collection

All the responses conform to the HAL specification.

GET /collections/id/(string: id)

Retrieve collection by unique slug identifier, including all talks

Example request:

GET api/collections/id/f6e6d9e6-d166-47d9-a894-35bc2f4a4580
Host: talks.ox.ac.uk
Accept: application/json

Example response

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: application/json

{
    "_embedded": {
        "talks": [
            {
                "_links": {
                    "self": {
                        "href": "/api/talks/52360e07-9b8b-477d-8bc7-8a25995e5ef8"
                    },
                    "talks_page": {
                        "href": "/talks/id/52360e07-9b8b-477d-8bc7-8a25995e5ef8/"
                    }
                },
                "description": "",
                "end": "2015-10-06T10:45:00Z",
                "formatted_date": "6 October 2015, 11:00",
                "formatted_time": "11:00",
                "location_details": "Seminar room",
                "location_summary": "Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM), Seminar room, Headington OX3 9DS",
                "organiser_email": "liz.rose@imm.ox.ac.uk",
                "series": {
                    "slug": "f204e37e-640e-4e1a-a3ef-dfb48c45630a",
                    "title": "WIMM Occasional Seminars"
                },
                "slug": "52360e07-9b8b-477d-8bc7-8a25995e5ef8",
                "start": "2015-10-06T10:00:00Z",
                "title_display": "Ameliorating \u03b2-thalassaemia by manipulating expression of the \u03b1-globin gene"
            }
        ]
    },
    "_links": {
        "talks_page": {
            "href": "/user/lists/id/f6e6d9e6-d166-47d9-a894-35bc2f4a4580/"
        }
    },
    "description": "Talks about Athena Swan",
    "title": "Athena Swan Talks"
}

The response can be either in XML or JSON dependent on the ‘accept’ header in the request.

Status Codes:

Parameters Reference

id : collection slug as string
  • Format f8ecded3-d2af-4585-bd3b-5cd7440795b9
from : date string (‘yyyy-mm-dd’), optional
  • Start date for the list of talks.
  • Format as yyyy-mm-dd
to : date string (‘yyyy-mm-dd’), optional
  • End date for the list of talks.
  • Format yyyy-mm-dd
  • Or use plus[n] for the next [n] days (e.g.: plus7)
  • Note that the issue with the end time (assumed to be 00:00 not 23:59) has now been resolved