UKOLN is supported by: Moving From Personal to Organisational Use of the Social Web Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, UK This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial- ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Tag for del.icio.us ‘ online10 ' Twitter: Blog: Track 2 Tuesday 30/11/10

Social Networks Focus on individual, not the institution 2

Ouseful.info blog by Tony Hirst Relaunched in July 2008 Original blog launched in March

4 Martin Weller’s Ed Techie Blog. Launched in May 2006

5 Steve Wheeler’s Learning with ‘E’s blog Launched in December 2006

6 eFoundations blog, provided by Andy Powell & Pete Johnson Launched in Sept 2006

7 Marieke Guy’s Ramblings of a Remote Worker blog. Launched in Sept 2008

My ‘Must Read’ Blogs Characteristics of my ‘must-read’ blogs: Ouseful.info: hosted at ouseful.wordpress.com Ed Techie: hosted at nogoodreasons.typepad.com eFoundations: hosted at efoundation.typepad.com Learning with ‘e’s: hosted at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com Ramblings of a Remote Worker: hosted at remoteworker.wordpress.com 8 Early Adopters

Characteristics of established & successful early adopters: Willing to take risks Passionate about communicating Identified ways of balancing personal approaches & institutional concerns Have developed established communities Want to continue to do a good job 9 Early Adopters

Acceptance by Organisations Increasingly the institutional perspective is: We must use blogs We need a Twitter account … Situation today: Social Web widely accepted Evidence of ROI, value, etc. still needed But: Where does early adopter work fit in? Should existing approaches be continued? 10 Early Adopters

Institutional Concerns Concerns regarding use of Social Web being: On-message: having an authoritative, consistent & authentic voice Appropriate: relevant to organisation’s mission Legal: not being sued, …! Present: not disappearing over holidays or when author leaves Persistent: Content and service is sustainable Consistent: Content, user interface, … 11 Concerns

Changes to Terms & Conditions Ning changed their terms and conditions in 2010, removing the free service 12 Concerns

Blog Dies Blogs which are abandoned 13 Risks that abandoned blogs attract comment spam

14 Blogs can also disappear

Inappropriate Content 15 Story Council blocks Twitter due to “A squirrel could run rings around journalist” tweet (meant to be private message)

Addressing the Concerns Institutional Appropriation of Professional Uses Close down blogs, Twitter accounts, … Requirement to use institutionally approved accounts Professional Responses to Institutional Concerns What goes here? Leave Well Alone Accept the risks Avoid confrontation 16 Addressing Concerns

Inappropriate Content 17 Story Council blocks Twitter due to “A squirrel could run rings around journalist” tweet (meant to be private message) Parallel message sent to list rather than individual. service suspended How To Respond Training & advice for when mistakes are made (e.g. apologise)

Blog Dies Abandoned blogs may be hosted in the institution Miles Metcalfe is now based in Shanghai – and has no access to institutional account (though he would be able to update blog hosted in Cloud). 18

19 In-house blogs can disappear – and reappear due to value placed on them by their owner

20 The revived Auricle blog, which the author cared about. Now at

Experience at Croydon Council illustrates the need for lightweight and flexible policies 21 Lightweight Policies Mosman Council provides an example of a lightweight policy for Twitter Policies

Managed Closure 22 There’s a need to manage the closure of Social Web services (in-house or external) What we did for IWMW 2009 and 2010 blogs

23 iPres 2010 paper on “Approaches to archiving professional blogs hosted in the cloud” gives advice on best practices for closing blogs

24 The 1 – 9 – 90 Challenge Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action. Jakob Neilson, Oct 2006 Implication: to maximise impact, go where the audiences are

25 Benefits of putting resources on a popular service rather than a richly functional service or an in-house service Note ability to pay for ad-free service

Popularity of iTunes for OU “The Open University (OU) today reached a milestone as the first university to hit 20 million downloaded tracks on iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store ( With an average of over a quarter of a million downloads per week*, the OU’s popularity has soared since content was first made available on iTunes U in June 2008.” 26 Institutions are using Social Web services, but what about individuals?

A University Perspective 27 Article on academics’ personal home pages published in THE

Personal Web Sites (1) 28 Professor David Gauntlett’s Web site

Personal Web Sites (2) 29 Professor Robert West’s Web site

Personal Web Sites (3) 30 Dr Jim Wilde’s Web site

Exemplar 31 Jo-Anne Alcock’s blog as an exemplar, launched in June 2007 Jo-Anne Alcock’s blog continues in her new role at BCU

JISC Use of Social Media 32 Increasing about of usage of Social Web services by JISC

Moving From Personal to Organisational Use What moves: The data and the service? The contacts, the comments, the social graph? The expertise, the approaches, …? The organisation moves: To make greater use of Cloud Services To accept importance of the conversation To accept that staff may leave the organisation & take (copies of) their content To appreciate and value staff commitment 33

Individual Responsibilities Context: Many information professionals use the Social Web to fulfil business objectives The ownership of the underlying technologies is no longer as important Implications: Need to adopt (and be seen to adopt) approaches which address concerns of organisations and others 34

Social Web Audit Memo From: PVC (Sustainability) To: HoDs As agreed at Senate all departments must provide an audit of use of Social Web services used for departmental/institutional purposes. In the audit you must provide: Details of third party services used A risk assessment Strategies for addressing risks 35

Social Web Audit Departmental blogs (UKOLN): UK Web Focus & Remote Worker blogs have policy on ownership and migration Data migration has been tested Content hosted on stable service with local implementation available SUETr, IWMW 2009 and JISC PoWR blogs have been officially frozen with announcement provided 36

Blog Example Aline Hayes, Assistant Director of SLS/ Director of Information & Systems Technology at Sheffield Hallam University 37

Blog Policy (2) Policies For This Blog This blog is hosted by Sheffield Hallam University, therefore the content of this blog belongs to them and remains theirs in the event that I either cease to contribute to this blog, or leave the University. Policies for the use of & inclusion of Twitter Feeds The content of any Twitter feed relates to a mix of work and personal matters. … Staff who choose to follow me on Twitter are assumed to be happy that I may follow them in return … I reserve the right to treat the Twitter id Aline_Hayes as mine & not the property of SHU 38

Blog Policies Blog policy for UK Web Focus blog 39

A Scientist’s Approach 40 Full disclosure page on Cameron Neylon’s blog covers: Ownership Responsibilities Finances Copyright …

Professionalisation 41 Guidelines for JISCinvolve blogs covers in-house blogs. Guidelines on writing is applicable generally. Supporting organisation’s goals Personal responsibilities Personal style Legal issues Blogs are about links

Cloud Services As Saviour Risks of: Reduction in funding across public sector organisations Loss of staff, technical expertise and in- house services Therefore need for: Scenario planning Contingency plans for outsourcing to Cloud services Education and trust in staff offset loss of in-house solutions 42

A Code of Conduct? 43 Is there a need for a professional code of conduct for librarian bloggers?

Conclusions The Social Web is here and to stay Organisations are now recognising that early adopters were right In-house services are being implemented – but may not always be appropriate There is a need for a mixed environment The trust placed in librarians provides sector with opportunity to demonstrate responsible approaches for working in this environment 44

45 Questions Questions are welcome Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK Web site: Blog: Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed) Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK Web site: Blog: Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed)