http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/ucisa-sdg-2007/
Web 2.0: Opportunity Or Challenge
For IT Support Staff?
Brian Kelly Acceptable Use Policy
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messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is
Email
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
permitted providing distractions to
others is minimised.
Let‟s use Gabbly pointing at www.ucisa.ac.uk for chat
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UKOLN is supported by:
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A centre of expertise in digital information management (but note caveat) www.ukoln.ac.uk
About Me
Brian Kelly:
• UK Web Focus: a Web advisory post
based at UKOLN
• Funded by JISC and MLA to advise
HE/FE and cultural heritage sectors
• Web enthusiast since Jan 1993
• Committee member of UCISA TLIG/SDG
and predecessor groups in 1980/90s
UKOLN:
• National centre of expertise in digital
information management
• Located at the University of Bath
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Contents
Introduction
Web 2.0 – An Opportunity
• Web 2.0 - what you know
• Technologies (blogs, wikis, RSS, comms)
• Culture (openness, user-focus, always beta)
Web 2.0 – A Challenge
• Institutional conservatism
• Addressing the sceptics
Deployment Strategies
• User focus; Information literacy; staff development
• Safe experimentation; risk assessment / risk
management
Where To From Here?
• Doing it Sharing experience
3
• expertise in digital information management
A centre of Avoiding risks of doing nothing www.ukoln.ac.uk
Context
Assumptions – you‟re excited & terrified:
• You‟re all familiar with Web 2.0 technologies (blogs,
wikis, RSS) & services (Flickr, YouTube, ..)
• You‟re excited by Web 2.0‟s potential
• You‟re horrified that:
• People are falling for the marketing hype
• Easy-to-use apps will marginalise you
• User-Generated Content will lead to deterioration in quality
• …
Aim of this talk:
• To explain why you should be excited
• To explore how the concerns can be addressed
• To outline how Web 2.0 can support and develop IT
Support staff
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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IT Services Today
“IT Services: Help Or Hindrance?” talk:
• At UCISA Management conference, Mar 2006
• Web 2.0 is changing things – adapt or die!
Follow-up for EMUIT, Nov 2006 (& elsewhere):
• “Web 2.0 is changing things – adapt or die!”
• We know – so tell us how to adapt!
Reflections:
• Willingness to change (at various levels)
• Conservatism (at various levels)
• Need opportunities to try Web 2.0 things
• IT Services possibly lagging behind Librarians
(and museums?!)
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Web 2.0 Web 2.0 – You’ll Know This
What Is Web 2.0?
Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather
than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology”
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
Social tagging
(folksonomies)
Web2MemeMap, Tim O‟Reilly,
• Trust and openness
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
6 2005
Using Web 2.0 Blogs (1)
http://blog.newport.ac.uk/blogs/michael/
Michael Webb‟s blog at
Newport College:
• IT Service‟s director
• College‟s Web 2.0
strategy decided after my
talk at UCISA 2006
• Lead from top
• Sustainable: ~weekly post
• Web 2.0 Strategy talk
available at IWMW 2006
Thoughts:1
• Blogging is so mainstream that
Web side (& Slideshare)
even senior managers do it • Video on Google Video
• Are smaller colleges quicker to
innovate? of expertise in digital information management
A centre www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Using Web 2.0 Blogs (2)
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/johndale/
John Dale‟s blog at
Warwick University:
• E-lab‟s head of
development
• Pioneer in providing
student blogging service
• Engages Warwick users
in discussions
• Talks about non-IT
interests
Thoughts:
• IT staff can have a personal interests and talk about them
• Yes students will swear on blogs – and the world doesn‟t fall apart
• Rapid respond to problems, rather than banning
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Using Web 2.0 Blogs (3)
http://in-cider.spaces.live.com/
In-Cider Knowledge blog:
• Mark Sammons,
Computing Officer at
Edinburgh Univ
• Posts about Firefox
administration – and
reflections on Web 2.0
stuff
• An unofficial blog
• Regular posting since
Dec 2004!
Thoughts:
• IT staff will want to do good, even if the university doesn‟t (yet) approve
• Universities may take time to catch up: Edinburgh‟s Web 2.0 action
plan published on 31 May 2007 (ahead of yours?)
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Using Web 2.0 Wikis
http://sharing-made-simple-2007-06.wetpaint.com/
Wetpaint wiki used for
several UKOLN events:
• Easy to set up & use
• Free
But it‟s externally-hosted?
• Yes
• Avoids dependencies
on busy IT staff
• Usability proven by
large nos. of users
Thoughts: • Avoids techie ideologies
• Various access levels can be granted / various alerting tools
• Easy-to-use collaboration working which minimises effort required –
surely a no-brainer? digital information management
A centre of expertise in www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Using Web 2.0 Communications - Chat
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/
workshops/archivists-2007-06/gabbly/ Gabbly:
• A chat facility for your
Web site in less than 30
seconds!
• RSS output
Much potential:
• Just-in-time comms
• Multiple discussions in
lecture theatres
• …
Thoughts:
• We could do this in our VLE; using MSN, IRC, … But:
A centre of expertise in digital usability issues, …
• Access issues; ID issues; information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Using Web 2.0 Communications - Skype
Skype:
• Easy-to-use
• Users love it
Approaches to concerns:
• Bath Univ banned on Resnet
in response to users
concerns, but removed
restriction recently
• Manchester Univ. bought
technology to provide a
quality Skype service for its
users
Uses: • Oxford Univ provided user
• Explore non-technical issues education on best practices
• Just-in-time accessibility for configuring software
• GreenA centre of expertise in digital information management
agenda (do you have one?) www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Web 2.0 Softer Aspects of Web 2.0
Web 2.0: Always beta
• Services that change & develop
• Reflects life, reflects learning
Web 2.0: Openness
• Open standards, open source, open access, open
culture
• Underpins education and research
Web 2.0: User-focussed, trust
• Users are what we‟re about
• Society expects us to deliver educated citizens,
who can exploit their learning for benefit of society
Softer aspects of Web 2.0 characterise key aspects of higher education
role of the University system
and the A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Web 2.0 and Users Web 2.0 and IT Support Staff
We have seen:
• Benefits of Web 2.0 to users
• Relationships between Web 2.0 and higher
education
We‟ll now explore how:
• Web 2.0 is changing user communities‟
views of IT
• Web 2.0 is changing nature of IT support
• Web 2.0 can enhance career development
for IT support staff
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Web 2.0 and Users Web 2.0 and Users
What if:
• Applications are easy to
develop
• Applications are easy to
deploy
Facebook seems to have
“disposable apps”
• Try it, use it, dump it,
replace it
And what if data is also
disposable:
• The use was the purpose
• I don‟t care about
preservation
• I need to forget my past
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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“Embracing Constraints”
We must ensure:
• Application work on all
browsers
• Comply with accessibility
guidelines
• Data can be imported &
exported
But Cities I‟ve Visited:
• Works well for me (places
I‟ve spoken at)
• Quick data input (AJAX)
• No data export (yet?)
• Doesn‟t work in Opera (yet?)
A centre if this in good enough for the user?
Whatof expertiseis digital information management individual www.ukoln.ac.uk
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“Technology: Stuff that
Web 2.0 and Users
Doesn’t Quite Work”
IT has always been a technology
Stuff that works:
• Radio; TV; phone; consumer goods; …
What if IT does work: good news or bad?
• Reduced need for training
• Learn from your mates
• Peer-support
• Diversity of choice for consumers, not imposition
of supported solution
Selection:
• Functionality
• Interoperability
• Colour / coolness
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Web 2.0 and IT Support Role of IT Services
Will IT Services be needed in the future?
• Yes – if we embrace the future and are seen to
enhance it
• No – if we are seen to fight it and justify
yesterday‟s norms
• Yer, but no, but yer, but – of course it‟s more
complex than that!
And we‟ve been through radical changes in the past:
• Demise of mainframe
• PC revolution (standalone then networked)
• Demise of Computer Board
• Distributed staff
• Web 1.0
changed HEIs; so it will change IT Services
IT has expertise in digital information management
A centre of www.ukoln.ac.uk
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IT Services Director 2.0
http://wmv.heanet.ie/heanet/
conference2005/nowlan.wmv Michael Nowlan, Director,
TCD:
“Any time I am talking
about innovative or
disruptive technologies, I
refer to your talk [at
UCISA 2006].
My mantras are now:
• Yes before No
• Allow before disallow
• Open rather than
closed
• Connect to the network
on a device-agnostic
Would an IT Director at a UK University say basis”
this?
A centre of expertise in And if so, why?
Are we behind the Irish? digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Opportunities: IT Development
Web 2.0 technologies
http://northumbria.ac.uk/browse/ are providing an
unimapper/?view=Standard opportunity to:
• Simplify &
democratise
development work
• Develop valuable
service for out
users
• Enhance status of
our institution
Why haven‟t we all got
a Google map of our
campus?
http://northumbria.ac.uk/browse/radius5/
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Opportunities: Integration
http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/planet/
There‟s a need to:
Integrate information from
disparate sources:
• Institutional blog
aggregation
• Discipline-based
aggregation
• Just-in-case harvesting
• …
Librarians are starting to
do the advocacy – but we
OSS Watch use Planet to aggregate can do the techie stuff!
feeds from related services. Bath Univ
do likewise for institutional feeds.
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Opportunities: Competitions
Funding for 2 year projects
can be dangerous (try to do
too much)
Innovation competition at
IWMW 2007:
• Encourage lightweight
development
• Could use tools such as
Yahoo Pipes, Dapper, …
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/ • Could create a mashup,
workshops/webmaster-2007/competition/
a YouTube video, …
Note UK Museums & Web conf is hosting a mashup developers day today.
and organise management
Should UCISA catch up in digital information something similar?
A centre of expertise www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Opportunities: Collaboration
http://www.facebook.com/…
Email is dying; social
networks are growing
So let‟s use SNs to support
collaborative work:
• Facebook group to explore
potential prior to IWMW
2007 event
• Note need active
participants
(Americans/Australians?)
Email is dying! See UK Web Focus blog post
Let‟s help kill it off – or engage with the technologies
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A centre of expertise in
to information
are users wantdigitaluse. management www.ukoln.ac.uk
On Facebook
Enhancing my development:
My peers have:
• Joined Library 2.0 group
• Installed Splashcast
• Sharing papers using
Scribd
• Providing access to blogs
My university‟s interests:
• 10,000+ students on Bath
network!
• Market research
• Exploiting Facebook
Is it perfect? No. Is it good enough?
Maybe. Perhaps we should be „embracing platform
constraints‟ in our workin digital information management• …
A centre of expertise www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Opportunities: UCISA
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/TLIG/
TLIG/docs/handbook/
What can UCISA groups do?
docs/docshare.htm
Document Sharing Archive:
• Creative Commons
• Metadata
• Distributed searching
• Search interfaces
• Scraping
• …
Info/Training Handbooks:
• Wiki for updates
• Syndicated content
Shouldn‟t UCISA be leading in developing • Use of del.icio.us
best practices for using WiFi at events? management
A centre of expertise in digital information www.ukoln.ac.uk
25 • …
Opportunities: Staff
Development
How do you learn how to use new
tools & how they‟re being used?
• Watch video clips on YouTube
• Download Podcasts
Note:
• US librarians seem ahead of
us
• Why doesn‟t UCISA SDG
respond!
Note: Use Google Video for videos longer than 10 mins. And why aren‟t you
A videoing talks at UCISA conferences?
recording /centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Deployment Challenges Web 2.0 Backlash
When significant new things appear:
• Enthusiasts / early adopters predict a
transformation of society
• Sceptics outline the limitations & deficiencies
There‟s a need to:
• Promote the benefits to the wider community
(esp. those willing to try if convinced of benefits)
• Be realistic and recognise limitations
• Address inappropriate criticisms
Web 2.0: It’s a silly name. It’s just a marketing term. There are lots of poor
Web 2.0 services. There wasn’t a Web 1.0. What follows it?
It does have a marketing aspect – and that‟s OK. It isn‟t formally defined – it
describes a pattern of related usage. There will be poor (and good) Web 2.0 services
– just like A centre of expertise in digital information management
anything else. Any usage will arrive at a follow-up term. www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Takeup Of New Technologies
The Gartner curve
Rising expectations
Service plateau
Enterprise
Chasm software
Failure to go beyond developers Large
& early adopters (cf Gopher) budgets
Need for: Trough …
• Advocacy of despair
• Listening to users
Developers • Addressing concerns
Early • Deployment strategies
adopters • …
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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IT Services Barrier Beware The 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 use next version of
our enterprise system (and you must fit in with this)
• Accessibility Fundamentalist: we must do WAI
WCAG
• User Fundamentalist: 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
• Web 2.0: It‟s new; its cool!
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Library Barrier The Librarian Fundamentalists
Librarians:
• Think they know better than the user e.g. they don't like
people using Google Scholar; they should use Web of
Knowledge (who cares that users find it easier to use
Google Scholar & finds references they need that way?)
• Think that users should be forced to learn Boolean
searching & other formal search techniques because this
is good for them (despite Sheffield's study).
• 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 release them
to users. They are uneasy with the concept of 'forever
beta' (they don't believe that users have the ability to
figure things out themselves and work around the bugs).
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Deployment Challenges Deployment Strategies
Interested in using Web 2.0 in your organisation?
Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc?
There‟s a need for a deployment strategy:
• Addressing business needs
• Low-hanging fruits
• Encouraging the enthusiasts
• Gain experience of the browser tools – and see
what you‟re missing!
• Staff training & development
• Address areas you feel comfortable with
• Risk management strategies
• “Embracing constraints”
• Avoiding missed opportunity costs
• …
But what digital information management
A centre of expertise in if you ignore all of this? www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Memo From Next Year (1)
From: VC, University of Poppleton
Topic: IT Conservatism
Date: 21 June 2008
The University SMT has been alerted that some depts.
Are still using the so-called Web 1.0 / classic Web.
Although devolved decision-making allows depts to do
this, the University requires annual IT strategy returns to
address the following risks this entails:
Dangers to student recruitment: as current students
inform 6th formers using Facebook of our views
Revolting students: The University wishes to avoid
the mistakes made at other Universities in which
Facebook has been banned, leading to a severe
backlash (at a time when we are seeking to incrase
student fees)
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Memo From Next Year (2)
Additional concerns:
Failure to maximise impact of university work: as
research & teaching outputs fail to be visible to Web
2.0
Staff retention: As IT staff move elsewhere to
further their careers
Risks of going-it-alone: Following TCD‟s
successful move to Google‟s email service, we are in
isolated position in using our in-house solution
Costs: The costs in in-house development when
free services are available have been criticised by
Gordon Brown‟s government
The head of IT Services will be expected to justify such
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
33 decisions
Conclusions Conclusions
To conclude:
• Web 2.0 can provide real benefits for our users –
and for IT staff!
• However organisations tend to be conservative, so
we therefore need:
Advocacy
To listen to users' concerns
To address users' concerns e.g. risk management
• We can all benefit by adopting Web 2.0 principles
of openness and sharing. So let us:
Share our advocacy resources, risk management
techniques, etc.
Develop your own social networks based on openness,
trust, collaboration, ..
Read my UKWebFocus.wordpress.com blog
Web 2.0: opportunity or challenge – a great
opportunity!
A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk
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