A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk What Can Web 2.0 Offer? (to UK media librarians and the AUKML organisation) Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath UKOLN is supported by: Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using , instant messaging, Blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using , instant messaging, Blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. This work is licensed under a Attribution- NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) Resources bookmarked using ' AUKML-2006 ' tag

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 2 Contents Introduction About me and UKOLN Web 2.0 What is it?  Mashups Blogs  Wikis Social bookmarking  Comms tools Geo-based service  Microformats Deployment Strategies User focus  Org. benefits Supporting enthusiasts  Pilots Risk assessment  Training

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 3 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 enthusiasts since Jan 1993 UKOLN: National centre of expertise in digital information management Located at the University of Bath

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 4 Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly, 2005 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) Trust and openness 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) Trust and openness Web 2.0 What Is Web 2.0? Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology” Web 2.0

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 5 Blogs (1) Blogs – social phenomenon of the C21 st. Need for information professionals to: Understand Blogging & related technologies (e.g. Technorati) Understand Blogging culture & techniques Make use of Blogs to support business functions Web 2.0 Are you aware of the benefits of using Blogs rather than static HTML pages: content which can be repurposed; ability for comments; … Openness Syndication Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 6 Blogs (2) How do you keep informed of developments? Do you use a dedicated Blog reader? Are you alerted of changes to key Blogs? Do you focus on the content, and avoid the distractions of ads, etc. Web 2.0 Bloglines – a Web-based Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page. BlogBridge – a desktop Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page. Openness Syndication Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 7 Wikis Wikis – collaborative Web-based authoring tools I use Wikis for: Collaborative papers (avoiding ed MS Word file around) Web 2.0 Writely – Web-based word processor or Wiki? Does it matter, it does the job IWMW2006_Discussion_Group_Notes_for_Group_A IWMW2006_Discussion_Group_Notes_for_Group_A Note-taking at events Remember when notes were trapped in the non-interoperable world of flip charts & paper. This need no longer be the case. Social discussions at events IWMW2006_Information_About_Social_Aspects IWMW2006_Information_About_Social_Aspects Openness Syndication Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 8 Sharing - Flickr Web 2.0 includes community-building You can help support your community- building by making it easy to share photos at events such as this conference Simply suggest a tag e.g. ‘AUKML-2006’ and encourage delegates to upload their photos using this tag Web ?w=all&q=iwmw2006&m=text ?w=all&q=iwmw2006&m=text iwmw2006/interesting/?page=6 iwmw2006/interesting/?page=6 Openness Network effect Syndication Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 9 Sharing – del.icio.us Another aspect of sharing is sharing bookmarks This can be used to: Manage your bookmarks Allow others to contribute resources Allow lists of bookmarks to be repurposed (e.g. embed in Web pages) Carry out impact analysis Web 2.0 View of the RSS feeds using RSS Panel (note this is a Firefox extension and not part of del.icio.us) View of the RSS feeds using RSS Panel (note this is a Firefox extension and not part of del.icio.us) Who else has bookmarked this resources? What are their interests? (I may have similar interests) How many have bookmarked my resource? Who else has bookmarked this resources? What are their interests? (I may have similar interests) How many have bookmarked my resource? The bookmarks can be integrated into third party Web sites using a simple JavaScript code (provided by del.icio.us) Openness Network effect Syndication Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Microformats (1) Microformats: Highlight of WWW 2006 Semantic markup on the cheap – builds on existing XHTML pages No need for complex software See Using microformats: Add some simple semantics using,, etc. classes: Brian Kelly Firefox plugins, harvesters, etc can process the semantic markup e.g. add names to your Outlook contacts, events to your Google calendar, etc Bath Univ created thousands of pages with microformats using simple tweak to Perl scripts Tags Collaboration Web 2.0

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 11 Microformats (2) Pages on IWMW 2006 Web site have microformats Plugins such as Tails display contact and event details & allow them to be uploaded to Outlook, Google Calendar, etc Web workshops/webmaster-2006/sessions/kelly workshops/webmaster-2006/sessions/kelly World Cup Web site also has microformats. This avoids the cumbersome downloading dates, entering calendar, selecting import, finding file, … Tags Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 12 Web As A Platform Upcoming.org has delivered visitors to IWMW 2006 Web site They provide Event details Microformats (event, location) Web Exporting functionality Community space Other people can take my data and use it to provide my event. They also provide additional functionality for me Network Users Tags Collaboration

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 13 Creative Commons Hasn’t Upcoming infringed my copyright (even though it’s to my benefit?) Creative Commons licence assigned to publicity details Also described in microformat to allow software to find licence Web workshops/webmaster-2006/publicity/ workshops/webmaster-2006/publicity/ Openness Tags Collaboration Note that the openness is a key aspect of Web 2.0: open source; open standards and open content can all help to bring benefits through maximising usage of services

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 14 Web 2.0 Mapping Services & The Web Web 2.0 provides valuable opportunity to provide mapping & location services: Embedding Google maps on your Web sites Developing rich services using this Providing location metadata / microformats which can be processed by simple browser tools

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 15 Web 2.0 Google Maps Mashups Google Map ‘mashup’ used for IWMW 2006 event: ~ 20 lines of JavaScript. Code taken from Google Maps Web site and coordinates added workshops/webmaster-2006/maps/ More sophisticated mapping applications are being developed, such as Radius 5 at Northumbria Univ. Openness Mashup APIs

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 16 Web 2.0 Location Metadata (1) Embedded location metadata can now by exploited by various 3 rd party tools How? Install Greasemap script & add: meetings/edinburgh / meetings/edinburgh / Openness Mashup Open source APIs

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 17 Web 2.0 Location Metadata (2) Same location metadata can be used by other applications web-focus/events/meetings/edinburgh / web-focus/events/meetings/edinburgh / Note also Geo microformats – embed location inline in HTML text, which can be exploited by various tools Openness Sharing Open source APIs

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 18 Location Metadata (3) Add two lines of location metadata to RSS feed and it can be used by mapping services: Acme.com (illustrated) Exploreourpla.net (aggregation) Yian.CC (location plus photos) Web 2.0 Openness Mashup Always beta You add following to RSS file: The data is key – the application is 'always beta'! Is this correct? Is it detailed enough. How do I get the data? There are still issues of quality of content!

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 19 Communications Realtime discussion is a key part of the Web 2.0 and the.net generation (IM, SMS messaging, …) How much effort does it take to provide an instant messaging service for your organisation? Try Gabbly.com Note: Most effective with ‘clean URIs’ Data an be exported using RSS User support? What user support? Web 2.0 Communications Clean URIs

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 20 Pulling It Together How do we pull together the information held by a range of disparate services (Flickr, del.icio.us, etc)? RSS provides a solution: Suprglu: RSS aggregator Netvibes: personalised RSS aggregator Both, of course, provide RSS themselves Web RSS Syndication

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 21 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 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 anything else. Any usage will arrive at a follow-up term. 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 anything else. Any usage will arrive at a follow-up term.

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 22 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! Risk management strategy … Deployment Strategies

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 23 Deployment Strategies Technorati Business case: you want Web site to be found (you may have a Search Engine Optimisation strategy) Are you in Technorati? Are you pro-active (or do others talk about you)? Only 3 hits for ‘AUKML’. So if you have an AUKML Blog or RSS feeds the information will be easily found (especially new information). Compare with Google results – 11,000+ hits, many of them old.

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 24 Use Browser Tools (1) Make use of various browser tools: Search engines Google Blog search RSS tools … All free Firefox extensions which can make you a more effective researcher Deployment Strategies

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 25 Use Browser Tools (2) Make use of various browser tools: … Del.icio.us tool Microformat tools Geo tools etc. All free Firefox extensions which can help you make use of information more effectively Deployment Strategies

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 26 IWMW 2006 & Risk Management IWMW 2006 has taken a risk management approach to its evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies: Agreements: e.g. in the case of the Chatbot. Use of well-established services: Google & del.icio.us are well-established and have financial security. Notification: warnings that services could be lost. Engagement: with the user community: users actively engage in the evaluation of the services. Provision of alternative services: multiple OMPL tools. Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings! Long term experiences of services: usage stats Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g. standard Web server log files. Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc. Deployment Strategy

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 27 Opportunities For AUKML Web 2.0 services can be particularly valuable for professional bodies such as AUKML: Limited resources Limited technical expertise Not committed to large-scale CMS Willingness of members to provide support Few name clashes with ‘AUKML’ Opportunities For AUKML

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 28 Wikipedia A Wikipedia entry for AUKML: Easy to create Provides high- profile information (Google-friendly) Allows your community to enhance & develop content Opportunities For AUKML SCONUL (UK HE Library organisation) created their Wikipedia entry a few days after my talk at UCISA conference. Note, though, initial version was flagged as ‘marketing’.

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 29 Opportunities For AUKML Using Wikis Why not use a Wiki for the planning for AUKML 2007?  Can avoid repetition you find in  Can be restricted to organising committee members  Will provide opportunity to gain experiences  Wiki can then be opened up to delegates workshops/webmaster-2005/wiki-test/ workshops/webmaster-2005/wiki-test/

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 30 Opportunities For AUKML Podcasts Podcasts of AUKML Conf. talks: Install Audacity (open source) & Podcasting tool Record talk Upload to server You’ve created a Podcast And maybe create Podcasts about forthcoming conference to attract potential delegates workshops/webmaster-2005/podcasts/podcast.xml workshops/webmaster-2005/podcasts/podcast.xml

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 31 User Focus Why should you be doing this? For Your Users: Making your users aware of emerging new stuff Demonstrating how they can be used Describing possible problems and solutions To provide richer services Engaging With Users Get your users involved in using the applications, listening to their feedback Risk If We Don’t There is a need to be aware of the risks of not doing this  Costs and limitations of conventional server- based CMS solutions  Competition from others Deployment Strategy

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 32 Final Reflections The Future Blogs, Wikis, YouTube, Skype, … Do you things these popular services will disappear? (2 out of 3 online users visited social networking site in June 2006 ) If not you should be gaining experiences n them now The Network Effect (Metcalfe’s ‘Law’) Networked services (e.g. phones) grow exponentially with no. of users Therefore del.icio.us, Flickr, etc. will get even better as more users join So join in with successful services and make them even better Conclusions

A centre of expertise in digital information managementwww.ukoln.ac.uk 33 Conclusions To conclude: Web 2.0 is here and ready for use It can provide valuable user services It’s particularly appropriate for use by media librarians (with your interests in media, communities, etc.) There will be poor applications, mistakes, etc. Planning, flexibility & sharing can help Conclusions