A centre of expertise in digital information management UKOLN is supported by: Web Implications for IT Services Marieke Guy Interoperability Focus

A centre of expertise in digital information management About Me Work for UKOLN, National centre of expertise in digital information management Located at the University of Bath Funded by JISC and MLA to advise UK HE and FE communities and the cultural heritage sector Areas of work include: UK Web Focus, Ariadne, support for digital repositories, Grand Challenge project I work on the Interoperability Focus team, previous roles include…. Following in the footsteps of Brian the guru Kelly

A centre of expertise in digital information management About this Session Start with an introductory talk that uses Web 2.0 technologies and attitude: –PowerPoint slides contain links to relevant resources, CC licence for slides –Resources bookmarked on del.icio.us (with tag ucisa-tlig-2006 ) –Always beta – not everything will necessarily work, but that's not the end of the world Followed by a chance to discuss the challenges and implications Finally a quick talk to sum up, conclude and take things forward

A centre of expertise in digital information management Contents –Introduction –Where Are We Now? –Web 2.0: Web 2.0 technologies Web 2.0 culture –Deployment Challenges –Conclusions

A centre of expertise in digital information management Where Are We Now? Web now established as a communications medium Many positive aspects of the UK Institutional Web and IT community: –Willingness to share experiences –Many annual events –Communication - people talk & socialise Challenges we face: –Managing with limited resources –Managing service vs supporting user needs –Expectations of users –Role(s) of our Web services –Exploitation of new technologies

A centre of expertise in digital information management So What is Web 2.0? Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather than technical standards - an attitude not a technology – now patented Characteristics Of Web 2.0 –Network as platform, always beta –Clean URIs –Remix and mash-ups –Syndication (RSS) –Architecture of participation –Blogs & Wikis –Social networking and social tagging (folksonomies) –Trust and openness

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web2MemeMap, Tim OReilly, 2005

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web 2.0 Exemplars Let's look at some examples

A centre of expertise in digital information management Blogs Weblog is a web-based publication made up of periodic articles, like an online diary Ideal for use in HE (MySpace, Bebo, LiveJournal) –by students: sharing learning; reflections on learning; developing writing & social skills –by researchers: sharing knowledge and ideas; maximising impact… Use Technorati to search new postings in Blogs (139 posts hits for UCISA on 6/06/2006) Talis (UK library vendor), CETIS are publishing Blogs Want to engage with your users? Why not set up an IT Services Blog? Issues with censorship etc.

A centre of expertise in digital information management Keep informed of e-learning developments from Scott Wilson's (CETIS) Blog. Note use of an RSS reader (reuse of chunks) High profile e-learning Blog from Bath Univ. Note reference to Podcast – another very relevant technology

A centre of expertise in digital information management Wikis Wikis provide collaborative, easy-to-use Web-based authoring. Again ideal for students, researchers and support staff for collaborative work allowing focus on content, not on authoring tools Some issues for Web/marketing people –Should you be proactive in ensuring content is accurate? –Should you seek to lead in order to define structure? –Same old censorship issues What about for systems documentation, note-taking, student group working, research work

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web 2.0

A centre of expertise in digital information management Podcasts University of Michigan School of Dentistry provide students with access to education- related content virtually anywhere Are your University Podcasts available through iTunes?Aren't you missing out on a major distribution channel? (Student radio) iPod/MP3 portable ownership at around 12% in 2005, heavilyskewed to age group

A centre of expertise in digital information management

A centre of expertise in digital information management Instant Messaging (IM) IM – popular, widely used, with benefits for collaboration, but banned in some places Meebo: –Web-based IM client –An AJAX application Issues: –How do you ban it? –Interoperability –Doesn't it break WAI guidelines? Web 2.0

A centre of expertise in digital information management Folksonomies Keywords, tags, metadata Created by groups/communities who are the resource users Feedback loop is key Used for bookmarking, Images, video and sound, other areas (events, goals, colours etc.) Many flaws in the approach (ambiguity, searching etc.) Many potential benefits (cheap and extendable, added value metadata etc.) Implications include shift in metadata creation, trigger for communication, snap shot of current world, spam Library use, IT services use – shared resources

A centre of expertise in digital information management

A centre of expertise in digital information management Mash Ups Mashup – merging information from multiple sources (cf music mashups) Web services releasing APIs – Google Maps, (Is your campus map rescalable without loss of resolution?), Google Earth, Can you merge data from 3 rd party sources with your maps Examples include google maps and BBC traffic data, crime information hurricane Katrina information See for more examples

A centre of expertise in digital information management Feeds has its role but: –Why send messages which time-out when many users will read them too late? –Why not use delivery channels which are spam-free and are more suited to receiving information (as opposed to discussions)? –Why not allow users to select their preferred channels? Feeds allow syndication of content – use RSS 2.0 or Atom Great for education – an attenuation device See RSS briefing paper

A centre of expertise in digital information management Feeds Allows you to mix, organise, rate and annotate resources Perfect for news, many other uses too – courses, social activities Use a dedicated RSS viewer - Opera or Pluck plugin Maybe RSS viewers should be standard on desktops? Can also be used for people (FOAF) and events (iCalendar)

A centre of expertise in digital information management Personalised Web Environment Netvibes is an example of a personalised Web environment – just add your favourite RSS feeds Can be: –Conventional news feeds –RSS from (e.g GMail) –Dynamic RSS from searches Also have a look at Suprglu Note that Netvibes has an AJAX interface, so that the windows can be dragged around browser area, closed, etc.

A centre of expertise in digital information management Mobile Devices Potential of mobile devices in learning, research, etc. GPS combined with web services for weather, traffic ETC. mobile-based

A centre of expertise in digital information management Web 2.0 Skype / VoIP VoIP is coming, so nows the time to gain experiences. What are the implications of free always-on telephony (i.e. it's not just about software) - you could be broadcasting this talk now! Skype is a good example of Internet telephony: Integrated voice, IM, Web (and now video) Can be high quality Free / cheap calls Conference calls Accessibility benefits Proprietary Network issues

A centre of expertise in digital information management Open Culture Culture of openness, trust, beta and open source Creative commons licences for work EUNIS 2005 paper on "Let's Free IT Support Materials!" as an example of what UK HE could be doing

A centre of expertise in digital information management Break Out Session How can IT services deploy Web 2.0? More importantly, should we (isn't it just hype?) What are the technical and cultural barriers to implementing Web 2.0?

A centre of expertise in digital information management Technical & Cultural Barriers Technical Barriers: –Will it work? Is it interoperable? –Is it secure? Is performance acceptable? –Do we have the expertise, resources, … –… Cultural and Organisational Barriers: What/who? – Some stereotypes! –IT Services!!! Librarians –Academics Senior management –Users …

A centre of expertise in digital information management IT Fundamentalists We need to avoid simplistic solutions to the complexities: Open Standards Fundamentalist: we just need XML Open Source Fundamentalist: we just need Linux Vendor Fundamentalist: we must need next version of our enterprise system (and you must fit in with this) Accessibility Fundamentalist: we must do WAI WCAG User Fundamentalist: we must do whatever users want Legal Fundamentalist: it breaches copyright, … Ownership Fundamentalist: must own everything we use Perfectionist: It doesn't do everything, so we'll do nothing Simplistic Developer: I've developed a perfect solution – I don't care if it doesn't run in the real world

A centre of expertise in digital information management IT Services Don't understand learning and teaching and think that students only ever use the Web for messing around Have no interest in what the users actually want and generally prefer to give the users what they themselves think they want. Tend to work in silos (example: student information systems team which won't talk to the VLE team). They have no concept of team working across services or with academic staff. Consultation usually consists of them telling you what they are going to do. If you tell them what you want they don't listen! Computer says no! image

A centre of expertise in digital information management The Librarian Fundamentalists Think they know better than the user e.g. they don't like people using Google Scholar; they should use Web of Knowledge Think that users should be forced to learn Boolean searching & other formal search techniques because this is good for them Don't want the users to search for themselves (cf folksonomies) because they won't get it right They still want to classify the entire Web - despite the fact that users don't use their lists of Web links. Want services to be perfect before they will release them to their users. They are very uncomfortable with the concept of 'forever beta'

A centre of expertise in digital information management Academics Many academic are conservative and won't care Many will feel threatened Many won't like WiFi in lecture theatres, students chatting on IRC, Googling answers, … Many will soon ask for WiFi to be removed, blocked from lecture theatres (including areas where it's not yet available!)

A centre of expertise in digital information management Senior Managers & Users Senior management: –Don't understand technologies –Can be conservative –More comfortable with conventional business relations with vendors –May be over-cautious about being sued Users: –Can be conservative and many don't understand technologies –Those that do may use the technologies in dangerous ways –Others may have high expectations (computer games

A centre of expertise in digital information management Principles IT Services should consider: –User Focus –Avoiding Dogma –Responsive to Change –Good Communications Developers should consider: –Scalability –Sustainability –Reliability –Integration –Consistency Draft principles available

A centre of expertise in digital information management Conclusions We need a change in culture To be more open (surely what HE is about?) Revisiting AUPs – should not be a control mechanism Developing more sophisticated models for standards, accessibility, open source, … Integrating IT Policies With Institutional Policies Ongoing debate and discussion Holistic or blended approach - flexibility in implementation Exploit UKOLN's QA Focus briefing documents: 90+ documents available with CC licence Contribute to UKOLN's Wiki on Best Practices for CMSs

A centre of expertise in digital information management Questions? Acknowledgements: Thanks to Brian Kelly and IWMW2006 for slides, inspiration and insight /futures/