Edugeek: Difference between revisions
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==Operation== |
==Operation== |
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The website currently has |
The website currently has 3 Administrators and 16 Moderators<ref name="EduGeek Admins & Moderators">[http://www.edugeek.net/showgroups.php EduGeek Admins & Moderators]</ref>, who volunteer personal time to contribute to the community. To help financially, the site has many sponsors such as [[Smoothwall]] and [[Promethean Ltd|Promethean]]<ref name="EduGeek Admins & Moderators"/>. The site also uses advertisements provided by [[AdSense]] to generate income. |
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==Controversy== |
==Controversy== |
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Revision as of 23:25, 7 May 2011
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| Founded | 2005 |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | , |
| Founder(s) | Chris Byers |
| Key people | Chris Byers Shaun Garriock |
| Employees | 2 |
| URL | edugeek.net |
EduGeek.net is a British based online peer support community and information portal for IT professionals predominantly working in the field of education, operating primarily as an internet forum. Founded by Chris Byers and Ric Charlton in 2005[1], the site now has 2 full time paid employees the founder, Chris Byers & the webmaster Shaun Garriock. As of June 2010 the sites member base exceeds 31,000 users.[1]
History
Edugeek was founded in 2005 by Chris Byers[1], an IT Systems manager for Lancashire schools in the United Kingdom, who has since become employed with the site full-time. During research, he found there was no other website or community that specifically targeted IT professionals that worked in Education. The website initially used Dragonfly CMS, although this was found to be too restrictive and the site has since moved onto vBulletin. Today, the EduGeek community boasts a member base in excess of 31,000.
In July 2008, the site was put offline due to a hardware issue at their hosting provider, Fasthosts. This downtime lasted several days and lead to angry members emailing the company en-masse to express their displeasure. [2]
In April 2010, the NAHT released a report looking at the spending behaviours of schools and the way suppliers were taking advantage of them. This report was in part based on posts at Edugeek, where some members had provided detailed accounts of how their schools had been ripped off by some suppliers.[3]
Following the announcement by the UK Government that it was to close Becta, members of Edugeek worked to ensure that the expertise and knowledge available from Becta didn't disappear, transferring it to various new homes on the internet.[4]
Edugeek has been a regular feature at the BETT show, manning the technical support help point for visitors, staffed by volunteers from its membership.[5][6][7]
Operation
The website currently has 3 Administrators and 16 Moderators[8], who volunteer personal time to contribute to the community. To help financially, the site has many sponsors such as Smoothwall and Promethean[8]. The site also uses advertisements provided by AdSense to generate income.
Controversy
In 2007, Sophos threatened Edugeek with legal action due to the posts of one of its members. Shortly after, Sophos apologised for their actions, blaming it on a staffmember convincing their legal team to send the threats, rather than a senior management decision. [9]
References
- ^ a b c EduGeek arrives in USA for ISTE 2010
- ^ Fasthosts brings down Edugeek - and leaves it there
- ^ Schools being treated like 'an open chequebook', says NAHT
- ^ A SHORT-SIGHTED APPROACH? - 14 OCT 2010
- ^ Don't miss out - Freebies at Bett 2010
- ^ Registration now open for BETT 2011
- ^ Q&A
- ^ a b EduGeek Admins & Moderators
- ^ Sophos apologises for going legal on school techies