Academic Organisations around the world

Below you will find some useful academic user groups and organisations from around the world. If you know of any others that should be added to this list please email Peter Atkins.

OrganisationURLCountryAbout
AICCUwww.aiccu.eduUSAThis group is the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities. It’s a group made up of about 80 private non-profits, about 1/4 million student FTE. For MicroFocus, the AICCU forms partnerships with software vendors so that we get discounting based on the overall FTE, so that say a college with only 1000 student FTE can license software as if it’s in the top discount tier. Two fantastic examples are our MS and Adobe licensing agreements, which save the smaller colleges a lot of money vs licensing based on their smaller FTE.
AICQwww.aicq.infoCanada – QuébecAssociation des informaticiens des collèges du Québec – Quebec’s College IT Heads Association. Close to 60 member institutions. In Québec, colleges “sit” between high school and university and offer 2 year programs leading to university and 3 year technical programs.
ASAUDITwww.asaudit.ac.zaSouth AfricaAssociation of South African University Directors of Information Technology
ACOnetwww.aco.netAustriaAustrian Academic Computer Network
CLACwww.liberalarts.orgUSAThe Consortium of Liberal Arts Colleges is a resource, a sounding board and a place to develop or share ideas. Above all, CLAC is a community. We serve members in a number of different ways: Knowledge Sharing, Professional Growth & Staff Exchange, Events, Advocacy.
EDUCAUSEwww.educause.eduGlobalEDUCAUSE is a higher education technology association and the largest community of IT leaders and professionals committed to advancing higher education. EDUCAUSE supports those who lead, manage, deploy, and use information technology helping them to anticipate and adapt to change, and advancing strategic IT decision making at every level within higher education.
Eduroamwww.eduroam.orgGlobalInternational educational roaming wifi network, it could be your only ssid
FETCwww.fetc.orgGlobalThe Future of Education Technology Conference has gathered the most dynamic and creative education professionals from around the world for an intensive, highly collaborative exploration of new technologies, best practices and pressing issues. Its impact has been felt by thousands of districts, schools, educators — and ultimately students.
Fosdemfosdem.orgGlobalFree event for software developers to meet in Brussels University every year
GÉANTwww.geant.orgEuropeNetwork things, like the TNC Technical Networking Conference
Githubgithub.comGlobalThe best place to find and put free open source software
HEWITwww.hewit.ac.ukWalesAnnual Conference held at Gregynog in mid-Wales, UK
Idaho Education Technology Association (IETA)www.idahotechtalk.orgUSA – IdahoThis is a state-wide organization that has been growing in size and scope for the past 18 or so years. This organization is non-profit and is staffed entirely by volunteers. IETA connects people to others who share similar issues and successes as well as lobbies the State Lawmakers to improve recognition and funding for technology. The annual three day conference is expected to bring approximately 1,000 attendees together in February, 2017. The Conference and Organization is dedicated to Education Technology and how that looks and works in the K-12 academic community for the State of Idaho, USA.
Incommonwww.incommon.orgUSAEduroam, federation, certificates, IAM etc
Internet2www.internet2.eduUSANetworks, HPC, community events, Infosec, they run Incommon
ITMELitmel.wordpress.com/membership/AustraliaIT Managers in Education. Mainly Queensland IT Managers.
JISC/Janetwww.jisc.ac.ukUKUK edu: security; WAN; cloud; VC; VOIP; federation; legal; list server; library; etc
LAN-ITwww.lanit-hrz.deGermanyLandesarbeitskreis Niedersachen für Informationstechnik/Hochschulrechenzentren Lower Saxony regional research group for information technology / university computer centers. LAN-IT has working groups: Software licenses (national licenses, framework contracts), Data networks (network competences0, Nds Storage Cloud and Nds Backup Cloud, Identity Management, Training of IT specialists
MHECwww.mhec.orgUSACooperative buying arrangements for EDU in Midwest USA and some other regional areas
Moodle User Associationmoodleassociation.orgPerth, AustraliaThere are various membership levels. MUA holds a Town Hall meetings once a month and has it set into two time zones.
NEAwww.nea.orgUSAThe National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA’s 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.
Northwest Academic Computing Consortiumnwacc.orgUnited StatesAcademic Consortium and user group
Rands Leadership Slackrandsinrepose.com/archives/state-of-rands-leadership-slack/Global, but mostly USAThis is a Slack community focused on leadership but we have a Higher Ed room in there where we talk about many things.
STEM to STEAM Initiativestemtosteam.orgUSASciences and the Arts coming together for a 21st Century Education
SURFwww.surf.nlNetherlands, BelgiumCollaborative organisation for ICT in Dutch education and research.
Terenawww.terena.orgEuropeThe TERENA website is no longer actively maintained, apart from a few specific areas. TERENA joined forces with DANTE in 2014 to become the organisation known as GÉANT.
The Learning Counselthelearningcounsel.comUSAFocus on helping schools that are transitioning to digital learning
UCISAwww.ucisa.ac.ukUKHigher Education Group with an annual conference
UK Federationwww.ukfederation.org.ukUKWorlds largest federation for education and research.
Windows in Higher Educationwww.windows-hied.orgUSAThis organization was built from the ground up by university technologists to foster collaboration between Windows admins in Higher Ed. It started as an email listserv and added a regular (annual or bi-annual) conference featuring campus admins and Microsoft staff.
ZKIwww.zki.deGermanyThe Association “Zentren für Kommunikationsforschung in Forschung und Lehre” (ZKI e. V.), Centers for Communication Research in Research and Teaching” (ZKI eV) is the association of IT service centers of universities and research institutions in the Federal Republic of Germany, with about 200 members. The ZKI was founded in 1993 with the objectives of sharing the experience between the infrastructure facilities across other sectors, politics and the public. At the moment there are the following working groups: Education of staff, Campus Management, E-Learning, IT strategy and organization, Multimedia and graphics, network services, Service management and security, Software licenses, Supercomputing, directory services, Web, Central systems
DFNwww.dfn.deGermanyScience itself organized the German National Research and Education Network, DFN, the communications network for Science and research in Germany. It connects universities and research institutions with one another and has become an integral part of  the European and worldwide community of research and education networks.In addition, through several high-performance peering points, DFN is connected with the common Internet.DFN offers its users a multitude of customized applications for communication. It is constantly being enhanced by new and innovative applications which are developed and tested in projects and piloting ventures.DFN provides further training to its users conducting conferences and workshops. Moreover, there are contacts in various competence centres available to provide advice and support with important questions concerning the use of the services.The association to promote a German education and research network, DFN-Verein, organizes DFN and guarantees its further development and use. DFN-Verein is an acknowledged non-profit association.