1. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk An Approach To Standards: A Presentation For CIE Partners Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk UKOLN is supported by: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/meetings/cie-2005-08/ About This Talk This talk describes: The difficulties in using open standards The layered approach developed for JISC The applicability of this approach for the CIE About This Talk This talk describes: The difficulties in using open standards The layered approach developed for JISC The applicability of this approach for the CIE

2. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Background JISC development work: Traditionally based on use of open standards to: Support interoperability Maximise accessibility Avoid vendor lock-in Provide architectural integrity Help ensure long-term preservation History: eLib Standards document (v1 – 1996, v2 – 1998) DNER Standards document (2001) which influenced: NOF-digi Technical Standards.. Background

3. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 Lessons Learnt Experiences of the QA Focus (and NOF-digi Technical Advisory Service) revealed problems: Lack of knowledge of standards Immaturity of standards Failure for standards to take off Difficulties when building on existing work Uncertainty of what to do if standards not implemented correctly Lack of resources Lack of understanding (why, how, best practices, …) … Background

4. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Need For Flexibility A need for flexibility (lessons from OSI networking): Is Web (for example) is becoming over-complex? Lighter-weight alternatives being developed Responses from the commercial world Background Compliance Issues What does must mean?.. must comply with HTML standards  What if I don't? What if nobody does?.. must clear rights on digitised resources.. must provide properly audited accounts There's a need to clarify meaning of must and for an understandable & reasonable compliance regime

5. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 The Context There will be a context to use of standards: The intended use:  Mainstream  Innovative / research  Key middleware component  Small-scale deliverable Available Funding & Resources:  Significant funding & training to make use of important new standards  Minimal funding - current skills should be used Organisational culture:  HE vs FE  National museum vs small, volunteer organisation Cross-organisational cultural issues:  Multimedia (BBC)  E-learning (BECTa/JISC) … Contextual Approach

6. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Layered Approach to Standards xxx OSS Policies (Catalogue?)

7. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Scope Of The Standards Work What should the scope of Standards Catalogue be: CIE development programmes All work … Content areas will include: Web  File formats Metadata  Resource discovery E-learning  Addressing Alerting  Authentication E-Research  … What else? Contextual Approach

8. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Implementation How might this approach be used in practice? Programme XX Call / Contract Committees Advisers Programme Team Proposals must comply with XYZ standard Proposals should seek to comply with XYZ Proposals should describe approach to XYZ Projects audited to ensure compliance with … Projects should develop self-assessment procedures and submit findings to JISC Projects should submit proposed approach for approval/information Development Programme JISC Manager Report Contract Report must be in MS Word / … and use JISC template … JISC Manager JISC Service Contract Service must … Services must self-assess … and highlight significant deviations from …

9. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 Collating The Content We are using a Wiki to collect information about the standards: Being used by a small groups of trusted individuals Avoids bottleneck for uploading and maintaining content Note: the Wiki is used for creation & maintenance of the data and is not intended as the final repository At this stage, a simple template will be used. This can be enhanced in future iterations.

10. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Scope / Differences Scope of the standards catalogue Initially technical standards which support interoperability across CIE partners (i.e. not in- house Schemas) Initially avoid best practices and guidelines in use of standards? Handling Differences Template provides mechanism for flagging subjective comments (e.g. maturity of standards) Work does not aim at reconciling differences Do we flag conflicts with the catalogue: "There are conflicts over Foo vs Bar"; "JISC say 'Foo' but BECTa say "Bar"?; … Do we park the conflicts for others to resolve (and this exercise helps identify the areas)? Contextual Approach

11. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 11 End Of Part 1 Any questions?

12. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk Part 2: Deployment And Support Infrastructure

13. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 13 Publishing The Content The Standards Catalogue: Needs to be available as a document which can be easily read Data should be reusable and interoperable:  JISC Framework environment  For CIE  … Plans: Version 1 available as document Data ported to CETIS's Framework software We are currently talking to CETIS about this Is it possible? What are the resources implications? … Contextual Approach

14. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 14 Building On The Work The JISC work can form the basis of similar work for the CIE (Common Information Environment): Working with MLA, BBC, BECTA, … Pooling existing resources Identifying areas of agreement and diversity Note that the CIE work will not aim to reconcile differences, but to identify those areas Standards For The CIE

15. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 15 Standards Catalogue Process There's a need for developing and enhancing the standards catalogue in order to: Update with new standards Learn from feedback and experiences Review Policies Context Compliance Support Infrastructure QA Framework User Experiences Funder's Experiences Standards … Framework The Standards Catalogue can be integrated with the JISC's 'Framework' Standards For The CIE

16. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 16 Access Issues A single central repository or a distributed approach? Standards For The CIE Catalogue Context

17. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 17 Context Policies Compliance Software Context Policies Compliance Accessibility The Bigger Picture The vision is for: Modularity in approaches to standards, accessibility, software, digitisation,.. Context Policies Compliance Standards Evaluation Feedback Enhance Use Feedback mechanisms to help refine model and advice Support infrastructure for funders, projects & 3rd parties on model and best practices through sharing via briefing documents, case studies, events, maximising benefits through Creative Commons licences Projects3 rd Parties DocsEvents Best practices CC licences Funders Processes To On By Support

18. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 18 Lessons About Support Lessons from JISC/NOF-digi programmes: Importance of being able to repurpose support resources Need to avoid embedding generic advice with programme-specific details IPR issues for support materials Context Advice Support Standards For The CIE

19. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 19 Support Infrastructure Need for a support infrastructure which covers: Advice to Funders: Putting together Calls, Evaluation Criteria, Contracts, etc Advice to Projects: Why the standards are needed; Pros and cons of deployment strategies; Ways of ensuring standards are being implemented correctly We'll build on UKOLN/AHDS QA Focus work: 80+ briefing documents and 30+ case studies published Licensed under Creative Commons Can CIE partners contribute to this? Will sharing technical support materials be less contentious than cultural heritage resources? Can CIE partners contribute to this? Will sharing technical support materials be less contentious than cultural heritage resources? Standards For The CIE

20. A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 20 Conclusions To conclude: Approach to developing standards catalogue based on QA Focus's experiences and JISC- commissioned review Acknowledges importance of context Allows for hard-line implementation (which is needed in some areas) Can be developed within a CIE context Need to consider wider support infrastructure This will be an ongoing process