Future Web Trends Brian Kelly UK Web Focus UKOLN University of Bath UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries, the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union. UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based. The Web is great! Or is it? This seminar will investigate limitations of the Web and possible solutions The Web is great! Or is it? This seminar will investigate limitations of the Web and possible solutions

2 How Does The Web Work? The web is based on 3 protocols: URLs: addresses of resources HTTP: dialogue between client and server HTML: format of resources The Netsoft home page 1User clicks on link to the address (URL) netsoft.com/hello.html 2Browser converts link to HTTP command (METHOD): Connect to computer at GET /hello.html 3Remote computer sends file Welcome.. Welcome to Netsoft Welcome to Netsoft 4Local computer displays HTML file Web Browser (client) Web server

3 What's It Used For? The simplicity of the Web has resulted in little-used academic tool (50 servers in early 1994) now being widely used in a wide range of applications.

4 Web Problem Areas What difficulties have you encountered when using the Web? What other problem areas can you envisage?

5 Hands-On Exercise Now spend some time accessing Web resources. Make notes of any problem areas you come across.

6 Review What were the problems?

7 1. Searching How many hits did you get for the term Digital Library using AltaVista? How useful is this result? Was Google any better?

8 1. Searching - Comments Results AltaVista gives over 132,000 hits Which ones are important? Google gives better relevance Developments Google uses "citation analysis" Use of metadata, such as Dublin Core, will also improve things in the future

9 2. Web Technologies - Comments The Flash file format: Is proprietary Requires a Flash plugin May not be visible in old browsers Text can't be copied The W3C are developing an open format known as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) See

10 3. PDF Adobe's PDF (Page Description Format): Provides control over appearance of document Is easily created Viewers are freely available But: Proprietary Describes appearance not document structure

11 3. Comments on File Formats CSS: Cascading Style Sheets An open standard developed by W3C Separates document structure (defined in HTML/XML) from the appearance Makes maintenance of resources much easier <link rel="style" src="sty.css" Heading … <link rel="style" src="sty.css" Heading … body {background: blue;} h1: {font-family: arial} p: {font-family: times; text-align: justify} body {background: blue;} h1: {font-family: arial} p: {font-family: times; text-align: justify} Imagine 10,000 HTML files.. With 1 CSS file

12 4. E-commerce Would you buy from an e-commerce site such as Amazon? What are the implications of e- commerce?

13 4. E-commerce Comments E-commerce: Requires trust Requires security Is there a viable business model? Developments: Digital signatures Public Key Infrastructure Athens and Sparta in UK HE

14 5. The Mobile Web The mobile Web: Much hype at present Have you used it? Is it usable on such a small screen with slow network times? What about the resources need to build a WAP site and a Web site Comments: Resources need to build a WAP site and a Web site Store resources in neutral format and generate WAP and Web

15 5. The Mobile Web Comments Store resources in neutral format (XML) and generate WAP and Web XML: open storage format XSLT: Transform XML XML WML file for WAP XHTML for Web XSLT engine XSLT rules 3G promises multimedia and faster networks

16 6. Authoring Authoring Web pages: Was easy Becoming more difficult as Web becomes more complex More difficult to maintain For large Web sites there is a need for: More sophisticated tools e.g. content management systems Tailoring content for devices?

17 7. Size Issues Nos. Of Web servers in HEIs InstitutionNo. of Links Cambridge231,339 Oxford164,307 Edinburgh125,603 Imperial125,417 Leeds99,801

18 Question Time Any questions?

19 End of Presentation