1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Planning Your Web Site Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY UK Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Contents Introduction Purpose Of Web Site Resourcing Architectures Information Management Legal Issues Some Useful Resources Questions

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 About You How many: Currently run a Web site? Are thinking about running a Web site? What does your Web site aim to do?

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Scenario Let us imagine a scenario: You work in a research group within a scientific organisation You have received funding for a new research project You wish to provide a Web site which enables you to disseminate your findings Purpose Is this a relevant scenario? Is anyone in this position? Is this a relevant scenario? Is anyone in this position?

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Purpose Of Web Site When planning a Web site it is important to think about its purpose Is it: To provide information about a project to everyone To provide information to project partners Does the Web site: Provide access to project deliverables e.g. findings, reports, etc. Provide access to information about the development of the project Is the Web site: An information resource An interactive resource Purpose

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Document Its Purpose You should ensure that you document the purpose of the Web site: All interested parties are made aware To prevent arguments in the future To identify the resource needed to develop and maintain the Web site For use in a specification document To document what the Web site will not do Purpose

7. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Resourcing Your Web Site In a proposal for research funding (in our scenario) you will document: The aims of the project and resource requirements You should do the same with your Web site: The purpose of the Web site The technical architecture to be used The information flow for the creation and maintenance of the Web site content The resources needed to do this: Staff effort  Software Hardware  Network … Resources

8. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Our Scenario For our Web site let us imagine: Purpose The Web site will be used to provide access to published papers, presentations and data for our scientific work Our target audience is fellow researchers around the world Resources We have very limited effort to develop the Web site Scenario

9. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 Architecture Areas to consider: Architecture Architectures: models for implementing systems Standards: concerned with protocols and file formats Open standards vs. Proprietary HTML / XML vs. PDF CSS / XSL vs. HTML GIF vs PNG NT / Unix File system / database application HTML tools / content management Information Flow Apache / IIS FrontPage / Dreamweaver Oracle / SQLServer ColdFusion vs ASP Development vs. Migration costs Use of in-house expertise In-house vs. out-sourced Licensed vs. open source Resources: financial and staff costs needed to implement systems Applications: software products used to implement systems

10. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Architectures Which platform should we use for the Web server: Unix Popular, especially in many scientific institutions, universities, etc. Linux is open source Windows NT Also popular May be easier to use A Microsoft option may be unpopular Other Macintosh?? Architecture

11. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 11 Dedicated Server Should we use a dedicated server for our Web site or make use of an existing one? Dedicated Server Funding may be available Have greater control Need resources to manage Existing Server May be only option if no funding is available May be managed by others May not provide options we require Architecture

12. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 12 Dedicated Domain Use of your own domain, such as : http://www.project-name.it/ rather that: http://www.university.it/depts/cs/ projects/project-name/ has advantages: Branding  Memorable Shorter URLs  … But there are disadvantages Cost of domain Loss of identification with host organisation May conflict with organisation’s policy Architecture

13. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 13 Cultivate Interactive Cultivate Interactive: An e-journal funded by the EU Hosted on a Windows NT platform in order to gain experience of this platform Has its own domain name to maximise impact Case Study http://www.cultivate-int.org/ The Web site is intended for end users, not for project partners

14. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 14 Backend Architecture You will need to think about the backend architecture for managing and accessing resources: Options Architecture HTML Files Server-side Scripting Content Management System Database

15. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 15 HTML Architecture Use of HTML files: Is simple Likely to be HTML authoring tools available Can generate HTML from office tools (e.g. MS Word) But: HTML is difficult to repurpose (it’s an output format rather than a master format) It’s difficult to manage large numbers of HTML resources using this approach It’s difficult to introduce new functionality (e.g. personalisation, enhanced user interfaces, etc.) Architecture

16. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 16 Server-Side Scripting Use of server-side scripting (such as PHP or ASP): Allows HTML fragments to be included Similar approach to writing software using subroutines Architecture header navigation footer Main body This approach also allows conditional inclusion of fragments: Time of day User agent Cookies …

17. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 17 Database Use of databases (such as MySQL, Oracle or SQL Server): Allows resources to be managed Can make use of RDBMS (relational database management system) features Database normalisation techniques can ensure that a piece of information (e.g. person’s name, address, etc.) is stored only once, which helps with maintenance Resources can be accessed using database techniques (e.g. report writer) as well as by using a Web interface Architecture

18. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 18 Content Management System Use of a Content Management System (CMS) : Provides many of the advantages of server-side scripting and databases Also can provide additional management facilities: Version control Project management Access control Publication utilities … But: Can be expensive Open source CMSs available, but may require technical expertise to use Architecture

19. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 19 Cultivate Interactive Architecture for the Cultivate Interactive e-journal uses file fragments (SSIs) which are included by a server- side script (ASP technology on a Windows NT Server) Case Study default.asp issue7 rss issue8 resources css ssi header.ssi nav-top.ssi content.ssi Request for article runs default.asp This checks the browser and pulls in an appropriate CSS file. It then pulls in the header.ssi and nav-top.ssi, then the content.ssi file, … ie-style.css ns-style.css Article content managed by editor Standard headers, etc. managed separately

20. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 20 Searching If you have a Web site with more than a few pages you should provide a search facility Possible approaches include: Running licensed search facility locally e.g. ht://Dig Running open source search facility locally e.g. a Microsoft solution Using an externally-hosted search facility e.g. Google, Freefind, etc. Architecture See < http://www.searchtools.com/ > See < http://www.searchtools.com/ >

21. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 21 Approaches To Searching Surveys of the search facilities used in UK University Web sites have been carried out since 1997 Architecture ht://Dig is the most popular – this is an open source solution Externally-hosted solutions, such as Google and Freefind are growing in popularity See < http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/ issue30/web-watch/ > See < http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/ issue30/web-watch/ >

22. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 22 Architecture Externally-Hosted Solutions Rather than install a search engine locally you can make use of an externally-hosted solution, such as Google. To do this you simply need to complete a form and then add a few lines of the HTML provided http://www.leeds.ac.uk/

23. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 23 Using Metadata Metadata may enable you to provide richer searching Architecture Find Bush Scenario – US Government Web Site Pages about George Bush and by George Bush, plus details of Bushes in White House garden Find author=Bush Pages by George Bush Note that not all search engines allow you to index metadata 

24. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 24 Cultivate Interactive In Cultivate Interactive the metadata is stored in a neutral form. The metadata is transformed into elements using a single ASP script. Architecture issue7 rss issue8 resources ssi content.ssi metadata.ssi default.asp author=“Kelly,B” title=“RSS..” metadata- transform.ssi Why This Approach? If you wish to make the metadata available in another form (e.g. XHTML) you need to change a single file Why This Approach? If you wish to make the metadata available in another form (e.g. XHTML) you need to change a single file

25. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 25 Searching in Cultivate Interactive Use of metadata is illustrated http://www.cultivate-int.org/search/

26. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 26 Information Management One we have a technical architecture for our Web site we will need to define the information management processes for creating and managing the content Things to consider: Authoring Tools Conversion Standards Use of CSS Workflow Information Management

27. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 27 Authoring Tools Many HTML authoring tools are available: FrontPage Dreamweaver HTML-Kit … Issues: Cost Training Support for standards Use with HTML fragments Information Management The importance of open standards will be discussed in the third lecture

28. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 28 Conversion In many cases you will have existing resources which are in formats other than HTML (e.g. MS Word, PDF, etc.) What can be done with such resources: Make available in proprietary format: Bur readers without the viewer can’t access the resource Convert manually (e.g. HTML Transit): This can be time-consuming Conversion may not comply with HTML standards Convert “on-the-fly” (e.g. Transit Central): This may be expensive Information Management

29. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 29 CSS Cascading Style Sheets (CSS): Separation of content from appearance cf. monolithic programming with modular programming and use of subroutines Allows appearance to be managed independently of content Allows appearance to be managed sensibly: compare one CSS file defining appearance of all files with appearance included in every file But: Many HTML authoring tools provide limited support for CSS Information Management

30. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 30 Workflow Issues You may have developed an architecture but have you identified the workflow processes: How will content for the Web site be submitted? Who will be responsible for converting files, file markup, etc.? Who will be responsible for ensuring content is accurate? Who will be responsible for ensuring that the appearance is satisfactory? Who will be providing any metadata? Who will ensure that the resources work correctly? Information Management

31. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 31 Cultivate Interactive Processes for the Cultivate Interactive e-journal Case Study EDITOR Proofread Convert (MS Word  HTML) Tidy HTML and store as fragment Create metadata Move to Web site The editor does not deal with the look- and-feel as standard CSS files and navigational features will be used Articles are normally submitted by email in MS Word format

32. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 32 Resourcing Your Web Site Don’t forget the resources you will need to develop and maintain your Web site! Resources Staffing Hardware Software Networking Technical Content Design Management Graphics Backup Desktop PCs Security Authoring Server Server tools Development tools Bandwidth ISP Cache

33. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 33 Software For Free Open Source Software A wide range of open source software is available: Free – available for no charge Open – source code available for modification Includes: Server software: Apache Authoring tools: HTML-kit Server-side scripting environments: PHP Content Management Software: Zope … Resources Note that you will need technical expertise in order to install and use open source software. Not all open source software provides value for money Note that you will need technical expertise in order to install and use open source software. Not all open source software provides value for money

34. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 34 Software For Free Externally-Hosted Services Rather than installing software locally another approach is to use remote services such as: Web statistics Online surveys Content … Resources Useful Resources Useful Resources

35. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 35 Cultivate Interactive Cultivate Interactive (and its predecessor) made use of an externally-hosted service for providing usage statistics Case Study http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/indicators/ http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/web-focus/ An Ariadne article summaries the pros and cons of this approach

36. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 36 Legal Issues Do not forget the legal implications of running Web sites: Copyright, protection of IPR, … Data Protection Libel Defamation Contractual issues Accessibility … Legal Issues You will need to think about the dangers of others suing you and the need for you to protect your own intellectual resources

37. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 37 Copyright You find a Web site that you like so you: Copy the Web site and replaces its logo with yours Copy its images and use on your Web site Copy the HTML in order to have a similar look- and-feel Copy its CSS file Copy its JavaScript Copy its words Legal Issues All of these would breach the copyright of the owner! Think about what you would think if you commissioned a design for your Web site and a competitor stole it. All of these would breach the copyright of the owner! Think about what you would think if you commissioned a design for your Web site and a competitor stole it.

38. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 38 Copyright (2) Some of the major companies will actively protect their copyright: Images of Disney cartoon characters “Harry Potter” name, images, etc. Companies such as Disney, AOL Time Warner, etc. will: Include watermarks in their images, video clips, etc. and use automated tools to find Web sites using them Use search engine tools to find Web sites using their trade marks without permission Legal Issues

39. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 39 Copyright (3) What should you do? Develop your own resources, so that you own the copyright Make use of copyright-free resources: Copyright-free clip art libraries Open source scripts … Legal Issues

40. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 40 Data Protection EU legislation is becoming increasingly strict on data protection issues: Information held about individuals must be registered under the Data Protection Act The information must only be used for the registered purpose The information must be accurate Individuals have rights to view the information held about them Legal Issues If you run a conference, you must be careful about publishing delegate information on the Web

41. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 41 Link Policies Can you add a link to a Web site without seeking permission? Legal Issues http://dontlink.com/ Some organisations do not allow links to be made unless permission has been agreed! It is currently unclear as to whether this has any legal standing Linking. You may not link to this site without prior written permission from ExxonMobil. http://www.mobil.com/privacy/

42. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 42 Link Policies (2) Can you think of any valid reasons for implementing such link policies? “Deep links” can cause loss of revenue by users missing ads on home page The tag is a kind of link – and you wouldn’t want your logo on someone else’s Web site You might not want to be linked to from a “World’s Worst Web Sites” page! Legal Issues From a scientific research point of view you should probably treat links as valid forms of citation, and not wish to place restrictions on others linking to you

43. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 43 Libel And Defamation If your Web site contains: “Dr Smith’s research findings are severely flawed. This is not surprising as the man is an idiot and should be sacked from his post” do not be surprised if Dr Smith takes you to could for defamation of character. Do not be surprised if he wins! Legal Issues

44. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 44 An Acceptable Use Policy You should develop an Acceptable Use Policy for your Web site which covers: Content of your Web site Rules for information providers … Legal Issues http://www.lboro.ac.uk/ computing/policies/ http://www.lboro.ac.uk/ computing/policies/ A Google search for “AUP” or “acceptable use policy” will provide many examples

45. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 45 Further Information The Institutional Web Management Workshop: Has been held annually since 1997 Is aimed at institutional Web managers in UK Universities Lasts for 3 days Consists of: Keynote Presentations: Case studies of best practices Workshop Sessions: Discussion groups, hands-on sessions, etc. in which participants make active contributions in areas of interest Social Events: Which help to develop a community spirit Resources

46. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 46 IWMW 2002 Let us review some of the main themes from the most recent workshop http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/ events/workshops/webmaster-2002/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/ events/workshops/webmaster-2002/ Resources

47. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 47 Resources QA For The Web Site The QA procedures for the workshop Web site are available http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/ events/workshops/webmaster-2002/qa/ http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/ events/workshops/webmaster-2002/qa/ In addition materials for a QA Workshop session are available at

48. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 48 Open Source Debate A debate on “The house believes that the future of Web in UK Higher and Further Education communities lies in the adoption of open source software” took place at the workshop http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2002/debate/

49. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 49 Further Information Some useful resources: WDVL, WebReference, Webmonkey, Web Developers Journal, Builder.com, Internet.com, Internet ProductWatch, HTML Goodies, Resources

50. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 50 Questions Any questions?