1. IWR Information Professional of the Year Resources bookmarked using the ‘ emerge-2008-04 ' tag UKOLN is supported by: What If We’re Wrong? Developing A Sustainable Approach to the Use of Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/online/emerge-2008-04/ This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat) About This Talk Many members of JISC Emerge community are active in exploiting the potential of various Web 2.0 technologies and approaches But what if the Web 2.0 sceptics are raising legitimate concerns? How should we go about developing a sustainable approach to use of Web 2.0? About This Talk Many members of JISC Emerge community are active in exploiting the potential of various Web 2.0 technologies and approaches But what if the Web 2.0 sceptics are raising legitimate concerns? How should we go about developing a sustainable approach to use of Web 2.0? Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath, Bath, UK by-nc-sa

2. 2 Contents Introduction About the speaker The need for caution Amplified Events Personal case studies Web 2.0 The network as platform Openness and trust What’s To Be Done? Reconceptualising the purposes Understanding risks and benefits Risk assessment & risk management Sharing and learning Conclusions

3. 3 About The Speaker Brian Kelly: UK Web Focus: a national Web advisory post Works at UKOLN – a national centre of expertise in digital information management, located at the University of Bath, UK Funded by JISC and MLA to support UK’s higher and further education & cultural heritage sectors Involved in the Web since January 1993 Active in promoting best practices for Web 2.0 Introduction Note not actively involved in e-learning - but there are parallels with institutional implications for personal research environments (PREs)

4. 4 The Need To Act Responsibly In an unmoderated Web 2.0 social networking environment: Need to act responsibility Be cautious Remember complexities of copyright Avoid possible legal pitfalls Libel, defamation … … Introduction

5. 5 The Need To Act Responsibly Graham Norton is gay Introduction In an unmoderated Web 2.0 social networking environment: Need to act responsibility Be cautious Remember complexities of copyright Avoid possible legal pitfalls Libel, defamation … …

6. 6 The Need To Act Responsibly In an unmoderated Web 2.0 social networking environment: Need to act responsibility Be cautious Remember complexities of copyright Avoid possible legal pitfalls  Libel, defamation … … “Graham Norton is gay” it has been alleged Introduction

7. 7 The Need To Act Responsibly In an unmoderated Web 2.0 social networking environment: Need to act responsibility Be cautious Remember complexities of copyright Avoid possible legal pitfalls  Libel, defamation … … “Graham Norton is gay” it has been alleged Warning – this joke breaks accessibility legislation Introduction

8. 8 Photography Is An Issue We’re taking photos at events & sharing them on Flickr, Facebook, …: Builds community Shared experiences Shared memories It’s fun … But what about: Data protection Privacy Embarrassment … How should we respond? http://efoundations.typepad.com/ efoundations/2007/11/jisc-cetis-conf.html Amplified Events

9. 9 Possibly A Big Issue A recent item published on BBC News Web site (17 April 2008) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7351252.stm Amplified Events

10. 10 Possibly A Big Issue A recent item published on BBC News Web site (17 April 2008) Is photography not only an issue for our sector in our context, but have legal implications? Do we need: Formal agreements Model T&Cs … Amplified Events

11. 11 What I Do My approach (note IANAL): Be open Clarify what I mean by this:  CC licence on materials (title slides, handouts, on Slideshare, …)  CC licence on talk  Permission to video / record / video  Warning that licence may be rescinded if disasters happen! Invitation to others to take a similar approach Approach described at Stargazing conf, Edinburgh Univ, Nov 2006. “Legal issues are important” said Charlotte Waelde “and Brian’s demonstrated lightweight ways of addressing such issues” Amplified Events

12. 12 When I’m An Organiser Approaches taken at recent “amplified events”: IWMW 3-day events since 2006 Exploiting Potential of Wikis and Exploiting Potential of Blogs & SNs 1-day workshops We: Published an AUP and risk assessment details Notified speakers that event would be videoed & broadcast & sought permission Provided guidelines for session chairs: informing audience of remote audience, repeating permissions from speakers … Being open about issues has proved fine (so far) Amplified Events

13. 13 When I’m In The Audience Participant at Oxford Beyond Digital Natives conf, April: Asked speaker for permission to record:  OKish, but reconfirm after talk. Subsequent request not to publish – no problem Asked fellow debates for permission – fine Student panel. No opportunity to seek prior permission so videoed 10 mins & then told them:  Students were happy  Two students were 6 th formers  Sought them (all) out & gave card and asked for agreement (they need to opt in)  Organiser & participant asked me not to publish / told me it was illegal; head’s permission needed; …  No email received, so video not published What should be done? Are there lightweight approaches? Amplified Events

14. 14 What If Things Go Wrong? Speaker doesn’t want to be recorded? Things go wrong in live presentation? Speaker changes mind afterwards? Father Jack is in the audience? Gun-toting member of audience goes beserk? Amplified Events

15. 15 What If Things Go Wrong? Speaker doesn’t want to be recorded? That’s fine (and avoid pressuring speaker) Things go wrong in live presentation? Accept it: that’s life & audience normally supportive Speaker changes mind afterwards? That’s fine – use of lightweight approaches help Father Jack is in the audience? Don’t worry, it probably won’t happen. And accept it if it does. Gun-toting member of audience goes beserk? Don’t worry, it probably won’t happen. Amplified Events

16. 16 What More Can Be Done More can be done to enhance Amplified Events: Photos will be uploaded to closed area of Flickr for a week, before photos made public Learning from experiences on live chat, back channels, etc. at events Managing the physical space – noisy typists and geeks to left of lecture theatres (where power sockets are located) Understanding our own personal preferences to avoid information overload: Taking responsibilities: mastering applications; knowing how to disable sound on laptops; how to configure WiFi; … Amplified Events

17. 17 Jumping The Shark Some questions: Which Web applications are depicted? What are the implications of blue’s decline Will red be tomorrow’s winner? What should we make of purple? How should we respond to such consideration? ‘Jumping the shark’ – the moment a popular TV series is passed its peak

18. 18 Jumping The Shark? Some responses: Web server software (data from Netcraft) Have you predicted Apache’s demise? Does the future lie with Microsoft? What should we make of Google’s emergence? We need to be able to spot and prepare responses to trends. But let’s not use trends to reinforce prejudices? We need to be able to spot and prepare responses to trends. But let’s not use trends to reinforce prejudices?

19. 19 The Web 2.0 Picture Gartner hyper curve Rising expectations Trough of despair Enterprise software Large budgets … Early adopters Service plateau Chasm Failure to go beyond developers & early adopters (cf Gopher) Need for: Advocacy Listening to users Learning from experiences Addressing concerns Deployment strategies … We need to look at ways of jumping the chasm, minimising inflated expectations & avoiding despair VLE CMS PLE Web 2 Web 2.0

20. 20 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 Challenges of 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

21. 21 Sustainability Problems Web 2.0 It’s another bubble The companies aren’t sustainable Initial Response What’s the odd one out: UMIST Lotus WebCT Yahoo! Network as Platform

22. 22 Sustainability Problems Web 2.0 It’s another bubble The companies aren’t sustainable Initial Response What’s the odd one out: UMIST Lotus WebCT Yahoo! Answer: UMIST was taken over by Manchester University Lotus was taken over by IBM WebCT as taken over by Blackboard Yahoo! hasn’t been taken over (yet) Lesson: IT companies and public sector institutions may also not be sustainable. This is not a new issues Network as Platform

23. 23 Network as Platform Slideshare Example I use Slideshare to (a) maximise exposure to my ideas (b) solicit feedback (c) allow content to be easily embedded elsewhere and (d) measure impact Note evidence which shows impact of presentation. This wouldn’t have happened otherwise

24. 24 Slideshare Example (2) What happens if Slideshare goes down – and it has happened! Does this demonstrate that you can’t trust externally-hosted services?

25. 25 Slideshare Example (2) What happens if Slideshare goes down – and it has happened! Does this demonstrate that you can’t trust externally-hosted services? But local services also go down – as this example from the Open University shows

26. 26 Slideshare Example (2) What happens if Slideshare goes down – and it has happened! Does this demonstrate that you can’t trust externally-hosted services? But local services also go down – as this example from the Open University shows And note prompt response from Slideshare

27. 27 Performance Problems It’s not just Slideshare & the OU: downtime, DOS attacks, … can happen to all services We need to understand reasons why: Skype unavailable (Microsoft OS upgrades) BUCS air conditioning failure And explore ways of (a) identifying problems and (b) minimising risks Can we really think that problems will only happen ‘out there’ and that our servers will be available 24x7x365?

28. 28 Spotting Possible Problems Are there ways of spotting potentially flaky services? Netcraft server uptime statistics

29. 29 Spotting Possible Problems Are there ways of spotting potentially flaky services? Netcraft server uptime statistics whois++ service (partly available via Google – see Phil Bradley’s post) Network as Platform

30. 30 Spotting Possible Problems Are there ways of spotting potentially flaky services? Netcraft server uptime statistics whois++ service (partly available via Google – see Phil Bradley’s post) Company profiles, statistics, etc. from Techcrunch, Wikipedia, etc

31. 31 Spotting Possible Problems Are there ways of spotting potentially flaky services? Netcraft server uptime statistics whois++ service (partly available via Google – see Phil Bradley’s post) Company profiles, statistics, etc. from Techcrunch, Wikipedia, etc

32. 32 It’s The Way We Use Services What do the following have in common? PaperPDF An iPhone (partly) Facebook (partly) but not Twitter Network as Platform

33. 33 It’s The Way We Use Services What do the following have in common? PaperPDF An iPhone (partly) Facebook (partly) but not Twitter Answers They are all popular We can regard them all as destinations rather than a part of a workflow The data can: Be created there & not be usable elsewhere Be created elsewhere and views there Network as Platform

34. 34 Accessibility and Web 2.0 Common response “It’s AJAX; it’s inaccessible” But: Is this using accessibility as a way of stifling change? Is assertion backed up by evidence? Is it using WCAG 1.0 as ‘evidence’ of inaccessibility? Note: Acceptance of failures of WCAG 1.0 to response to innovation by WAI staff WGAG 2.0 and ARIA W4A 2008 paper on “One World, One Web.. But Great Diversity” Facebook as tool which users may choose (PLE) Not providing podcasts may be the inaccessible option Network as Platform

35. 35 Avoiding Walled Gardens The dichotomy: Don’t use Facebook, it’s a walled-garden Don’t use Slideshare, you might lose your data Do use Facebook and Slideshare, it’s where the users are & they seem to like it A resolution: Have master copy in managed and reusable environment Use remote service as an interface (possibly part of a user’s PLE or PRE) Provide user education Network as Platform

36. 36 Network as Platform Slideshare Example I use Slideshare to (a) maximise exposure to my ideas (b) solicit feedback (c) allow content to be easily embedded elsewhere and (d) measure impact Note: Slides can be downloaded URI for master provided on slide & in the metadata Accessibility benefits Note: Slides can be downloaded URI for master provided on slide & in the metadata Accessibility benefits

37. 37 Inappropriate User Content Potential problems: Spam: comment spam, link spam, twitter follower spam, tag spam, … Flame wars Illegal comments Rude words Uploading of pornography, etc Openness and Trust Spam Akismet has protected your site from 195,127 spam comments. My blog: initially lots of spam comment - but most stopped by Akismet spam filter. And now only handful posted overnight

38. 38 Uploading Dodgy Content Twitterers noticed: Porn videos posted to Educause blog on Sun 20 April  Deleted a few hours later Thoughts: Would email be allowed if released today? (most email is spam). Need for rapid response to problems Openness and Trust http://connect.educause.edu/blog/

39. 39 Information Overload What if we’re too open, sharing everything? What if we’re too trusting, thinking every tweet is valuable? Need for: Better understanding of role of tools, managing them, etc. Confidence to ‘throw things away’ Surely this is nothing new? Openness and Trust

40. 40 The Fundamental Question Big question for future isn’t whether we provide blogs, wikis, etc but how they are provided. Do we: 1.Build alternatives to Slideshare, YouTube, etc, in-house. We can be more responsive, we care about our users and we’re more reliable! 2.Just use the remote services – they’re better, more functional; and Web 2.0 sceptics are typically just looking after their own jobs! What do you think? Which view are you more closely aligned with? Network as Platform

41. 41 A Blended Approach We need: Both approaches Information literacy (new media literacy, transliteracy) Clearer understanding of our purposes Sharing of experiences – successes & failures Risk assessment and risk management strategies Application of risk approaches to in-house services … Network as Platform

42. 42 Embracing 3 rd Party Services What will happen when student leave (as they do)? Casey Leaver has documented experiences in migrating her blog from Warwick: The blog has been delete Not all data could be migrated (pictures & comments are also lost) Thoughts: institutional blogs aimed at staff; support provided for students using 3 rd party blogs

43. 43 The Challenges Areas of concern: Institutional inertia, vested interests, power struggles, …  Applicable for any significant change Sustainability, reliability, interoperability  The technical challenges Privacy, copyright, …  The ethical challenges Finding time, finding resources, expertise, …  The deployment challenges See “Web 2.0: Addressing the Barriers to Implementation in a Library Context” for example of barriers in a Library context Deployment Challenges

44. 44 Addressing The Concerns Some approaches to addressing these concerns: Risk assessment Data migration Being user-focussed Institutional transformation Working collaboratively Guidelines for use of social networking services (e.g. Facebook) Deployment Challenges

45. 45 Risk Assessment (1) See “Risk Assessment For Use Of Third Party Web 2.0 Services” QA Focus briefing document RiskAssessmentManagement Loss of service (e.g. company bankrupt, closed down,...) Implications of sudden or gradual loss of service Use for non-critical services; have alternatives available... Data lossLikelihood of data loss. lack of export capabilities Non-critical use; testing of export,.... Performance problems or unreliable service Automated monitoring… Lack of interoperability User education

46. 46 Risk Assessment (2)

47. 47 University of Oxford

48. 48 Risks Revisited Are these risks scary? Remember to include: Risks of doing nothing Risks associated with using existing services Case Study Open Source Software can also fail to be sustainable. The ROADS software was developed in UK to support academic subject gateways – but is now no longer supported. Case Study Open Source Software can also fail to be sustainable. The ROADS software was developed in UK to support academic subject gateways – but is now no longer supported.

49. 49 Risk Assessment Risk assessment summaries provided for events which embed 3 rd party services Audit kept of incidents (1 to date)

50. 50 Data Migration When useful information is stored on a 3 rd party wiki the data is copied to a managed environment

51. 51 Personal Audit Personal audit: There’s a need for responsible Web 2.0 enthusiasts to carry out their own risk audit Departmental audit: There’s a need for own risk audits for services used by others (cf. my events) Institutional audit: Should institutions (& funders) require self- assessment audits to protect their investment? Deployment Challenges

52. 52 Conclusions To conclude: E-Learning 2.0 and Web 2.0 are here and won’t go away Institutions need to engage with Web 2.0 There are many issues which need to be addressed Solutions are available Probably the most important is collaborative working with one’s peers