Dealing with IT

[davanstrien]

Not specific to OpenRefine but it is often difficult in certain institutions to persuade IT to install anything that isn't Microsoft. Have people had any successes with dealing with these issues?

[ostephens]

Definitely had issues, and know others have had issues, with this kind of thing.

I don't think there is an easy answer, but one thing is to make the business case - this is stuff that is going to save me (and therefor the organisation) time, and I need it to do my job effectively! Finding examples of other people using it also often useful to say 'look - it can be done' or 'look - this is industry standard'.

The other thing I've known to be successful is to ask for stuff all the time until they say 'oh well we'll just give you admin rights'. Amazing that this can work but I know cases where it has (although I imagine this course of action is not without its risks in terms of long term working relationships with IT!)

[ostephens]

In terms of OpenRefine specifically, because it installs in a slightly idiosyncratic way (basically just unzipping a folder on your disk) it can sometimes be installed without having to go through anyone - you don't usually need admin rights to install OpenRefine and you can run it from any directory that is on your local disk (unfortunately it doesn't seem to like being installed on a network drive I'm afraid).

If you absolutely can't install OpenRefine locally for whatever reason, there are some other options. RefinePro is a service that offers hosted OpenRefine - you just access it like any other web application.

If you are willing to try a more tech-heavy approach you could try having a look at http://blog.ouseful.info/2015/02/05/getting-started-with-personal-app-containers-in-the-cloud/ - although I suspect for most people this is a step too far for just getting OpenRefine working :)

[davanstrien]

Thanks for the tips. I think you are right about the business case. Often the problem seems to be that, like everyone else, IT is overworked and don't want to have to deal with things that aren't currently broken or vital for day-to-day functioning. I have had some luck in the past so fingers crossed.

I would be happy to install software on the cloud from a technical point of view but I am a bit reluctant in some ways to do that for work purposes. If they really don't want to give me access to useful (and free) software then so be it!

Thanks for the session. Was v. useful.