Culture and Heritage - Ayaaz Aziz - K0405205

7/31/2019 Culture and Heritage - Ayaaz Aziz - K0405205

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Culture & HeritageInformatics- CI3130

Ayaaz Aziz K0405205

[ISLAM IN THE WEST THE ESSENCE OFJAMAAH]

Abstract

The following document explored and described is a Culture and Heritage Informatics study.

The client the project has been undertaken for is Crawley Mosque which is situated in WestSussex. The project encompasses the need of a Virtual Community for the topic of Jamaah -There are several interpretations of Jamaah a unified method of providing knowledge and

faith is the literal meaning of the word however there are a number of ways to perform the act

of Jamaah through communities this forms the basis of the project.


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1 Culture and Heritage Informatics CI3130 [Ayaaz Aziz K0405205]

ContentsExecutive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 2

About the client: Crawley Mosque and Islamic Centre (Crawley, West Sussex) ............................... 2

Background ................................................................................................................................... 3

About the project .......................................................................................................................... 3

Website Address............................................................................................................................ 3

Theoretical and intellectual issues ................................................................................................. 4

Analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Theoretical and Intellectual Issues ..................................................................................................... 6

Technical walkthrough ...................................................................................................................... 8

Technologies Used ......................................................................................................................... 8

Project Platform Justification ......................................................................................................... 9

Interface Considerations ................................................................................................................ 9

Custom CSS Code ......................................................................................................................... 10

High Level Functional Requirements ............................................................................................ 11

Use Case Diagram ........................................................................................................................ 11

Sequence Diagram ....................................................................................................................... 11

Project review ................................................................................................................................. 12

Bibliography .................................................................................................................................... 13

Appendix ......................................................................................................................................... 14

Appendix 1. Personas .................................................................................................................. 15

Appendix 2. High Level Functional Requirements ......................................................................... 17

Appendix 3. Use Case Diagram..................................................................................................... 18

Appendix 4. Sequence Diagrams .................................................................................................. 19

Appendix 5. Adobe Bridge ........................................................................................................... 21

Appendix 6. Interface Screenshots ............................................................................................... 22

2. Picture Portfolio ................................................................................................................... 23

3 Video Portolio ...................................................................................................................... 24

4. Groups ................................................................................................................................. 26

5. Forums ................................................................................................................................ 27

Project Poster .................................................................................................................................. 28


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Executive Summary

About the client: Crawley Mosque and Islamic Centre (Crawley, West Sussex)

The project presented has been undertaken for Crawley Mosque and Islamic Centre. Since the

opening of the Mosque in 1997 it has been a fundamental part of the Muslim community in

Crawley and one of the largest Mosques in neighbouring areas.

Crawley Mosque Website: http://www.crawleymosque.com/#

Approximately two years ago the Mosque had an extensive renovation and more recently, this

year; the Mosque acquired the relevant rights to become an accredited Islamic Educational

institution. From September 2012 the Mosque will be taking on their first intake of students for

Islamic Studies.

The Crawley Mosque is run by a board of committee members who collectively make decisions

taking into consideration the communities feedback and welfare. They are responsible for the

collection of funds and managing the finances and decide how they are injected back into the

Mosque.

The Crawley Mosque has some fundamental activities that form its basis within the community;

the diagram below describes the main objectives:

Figure 1. Crawley Mosque main objectives
http://www.crawleymosque.com/http://www.crawleymosque.com/


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Background

Islam as a religion forms a way of life for its believers and followers, this key factor is important

in understanding the way Muslims are brought up to conduct themselves in private and in their

public surroundings. One of the fundamental pillars of Islam is to perform the act of Sunnahwhich is following the steps of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH). Prophet Mohammed (PBUH)

way of life is believed to have been the perfect life for a Muslim and therefore incorporating the

way of the Prophets is seen to bring people closer and individuals closer to Allah (God).

Muslims have been known to have arrived in the UK from as early as the 1800s, where the first

mosque in Britain is known to be recorded in 1860 in Cardiff. More significantly in the 1950s to

the 1970s Britain saw a large wave of immigrants mainly from India and Pakistan in search for a

better life.

Today, in Britain, Islam is the second largest religion with a population estimated at 2.86 million

in 2010. The culture of the West has changed the way people go about their daily lives and how

they conduct their religious duties - this trend in hectic lifestyles means that fulfilling day-to-day

chores and following the path of the Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) and his teachings are

conducted differently by individuals and within respective communities.

About the project

The project itself encompasses the need for a web based collaborative platform and

management system for Crawley Mosque the direction of the project is aimed to address an

important subjectJamaahSo what is Jamaah:

The term Jama'ah became a name for the unified people themselves andal-Ijma' (consensus) is

the third pillar on which people depend for'ilm (knowledge) anddin (faith).

(Source:

http://www.allaahuakbar.net/scholars/ibn_taymiyyah/path_of_ahl_assunnah_wal_jamaah.htm.

Last accessed 4th Mar 2012.

The prototype implementation displays both Video and Image digital collections that describe

Jamaah in the Western world this provides insight into the whole essence of Jamaah and the

abstract meaning behind it. In addition to the digital collection a collaborative platform will

provide the local community and other surrounding communities a channel to shares views and

experiences ofJamaah through user generatedcontent This content can be represented

through various means such as audio, video or image. The images and videos will be tagged

using appropriate tools using Dublin Core Metadata standards.

Website Address

URL: www.islaminthewestonline.com


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Theoretical and intellectual issues

Issues surrounding legal ownership, copyright and intellectual property rights are some of the

topics to consider. The theoretical and intellectual issues will need to be considered carefully by

ensuring that any copyright laws are not violated by certifying the material obtained and gettingthe owners permission if required.

Content from the Internet

The intellectual issues of concern are regarding property rights when using images from the

internet - it is essential to read and understand the privacy policy associated with the content

before reusing. Giving the author accreditation of their work may be sufficient in some cases but

not in all cases. Failure to adhere to this can lead to copyright infringements.

User Generated Content

The video and Image content for the site collection will partly be formed through user

generated means; participants will need to read and sign a disclaimer confirming them being

recorded and their information being shared on the internet. As part of this disclaimer I will also

sign and therefore illustrating that the agreement has been understood by both parties.

Islaminthewestonline.com will display copyright and terms and conditions on the site ensuring

that the audience are aware of the copyright issues associated with any user generated content

submitted.

As the administrator of the site I will have full control to approve any content before

submission. Any doubts regarding copyrights or the use of abusive/offensive language will leadto the rejection of content being published.

Modifying content

Any modification to the content generated has to be agreed upon by the author and the curator

(myself) this agreement will form the basis of the disclaimer, the following changes to the

content can be made;

Modification to improve the quality of the content that is generated

Content property variables according to the platform specification

Distortion of user content according to user request

Any member who has been interviewed feels they do not want their image or voice to be

publically viewed then the censorship and distortion can be implemented in line with the

interviewees wishes and human rights.


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Analysis

The Western World presents challenges whereby people are constrained through their local

environment and the circumstance of their personal hectic lifestyles; thus making the act of

Jamaah difficult.

There are several interpretations ofJamaah a unified method of providing knowledge and

faith is the literal meaning of the word however there are a number of ways to perform the act

ofJamaah through communities this forms the basis of the project.

A collaborative community platform provides the local community and other surrounding

communities a channel to voice their own experiences of Jamaah through user generated

content This content will be represented through video or image media types The idea

behind this is to provide education and illustrate how Jamaah is interpreted and conducted

within communities. In a journal article titled Weaving Community Webs it describes how The

traditional mandate of the museum is to preserve, display and interpret extraordinary objects. Avirtual community is a space where people can bring in their own objects and, with these

(digital) surrogates, their own interpretations. (Susan Hazan. (2004).

Also In an interview regarding Virtual Communities Isabelle Vinson editor in-chief of Museum

describes: Virtual communities are a means to overcome geographical and cultural barriers. In

a sense they are a way to reconstruct something that has collapsed in the modern world.

She goes on to say such virtual communities could play a role in safeguarding the intangible or

living cultural heritage (Joost van Kasteren, 2004).

This is very much the focus of this project whereby the culture behind Jamaah is almost lost in

the Western World. The Virtual Community approach assists preserving the methods through

collaborative communication whereby users from different geographical areas can share their

views and essentially describe what Jamaah means to them. However success is dependent on

the community whereby emotions, experiences and participation make up the privatized

memory institution; A democratic vision of memory institutions requires several elements,

including openness, pluralism, diversity and, most importantly, active and equal participation of

individuals in the production and distribution of cultural representations for future audiences.

(Guy Pessach, 2008). The use of personas and a stakeholder analysis has been created to

understand the types of participant that are likely to engage and assist in shaping their

generations social remembering. See appendix 1.

Figure 2. Collaboration Model

(Butler and Coleman, 2003)


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The community element is seen as the most powerful as described by Butler and Coleman.

The below describes the characteristics of the Community model;

Members have a common interest, affinity and goal;

Members seek to share information;

Members seek to enrich their knowledge in their area of interest;

The compendium of the both Digital Collection exhibitions and virtual community

characteristics (Forums, Groups and Blogs) with user generated content has the power of

creating effective affinity virtual communities, a derivative of memory institutions, whereby

participants share a common ground and interest. This is all made possible with the rise of Web

2.0 has brought much functionality that provide organisation through metadata tagging and

folksonomy to change the future of the web.

Finally, lets put the power of Virtual Communities into perspective AH. Rheingold, the firstexecutive of Hot wired said in 1994I'm not alone in this emotional attachment to an apparently

bloodless technological ritual. Millions of people on every continent also participate in the

computer-mediated social groups known as virtual communities, and this population is growing

fast. (H. Rheingold, 1994) this was not an understatement; virtual communities today are huge

and ever growing.

Theoretical and Intellectual Issues

Through Virtual communitys value of knowledge is a powerful commodity, especially as it isfree from the restrictions of the traditional tethering of institutions like archives, libraries and

museums. Laura Peers, lecturer and curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Universityof Oxford,explains the problem is cross-cultural. In many non-Western societies, knowledge is

transmitted/transferred either on a "need to know" basis or else only to persons who have been

educated/initiated to a point where they are able to assimilate the new bit of information.

(Peers, 2004) This can be related to the user generated content aspect for

Islaminthewestonline.com, whereby some peers may disagree with the freedom of this

information being available freely on the internet. Laura Peers goes onto say Indigenous people

are concerned to protect their intellectual and cultural property, and so are wary of sharing

information, often seeking to place conditions and restrictions on how information isdisseminated (Peers, 2004). The idea and execution of a Virtual Community privatized memory

institution is shared by Crawley Mosque visions and therefore these issues do no lie within the

client domain and the local community, however with different Islamic schools of belief there is

a risk of disagreement.

Quinn (2006) describes how John Locke an influential English Philosopher believed that

human beings generally have natural or personal rights to do as they wish in their lives. This

belief forms the basis of the Virtual platform and how user generated content created by the

author should be, if authorised, be used as a cultural preservation piece for present and future

generation, much of this is the concept behind Islam in the west and memory institutions,


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regardless of their sector. However there are theoretical issues surrounding this user generated

content.

User generated content and the dependency on hosting platforms such as YouTube is high in a

non-profit Virtual Community framework The issue faced here is that the likes of YouTube

ultimately are a profit based organisation that looks to maximize, their business plan does not

consider cultural preservation. This poses a huge risk to the future of islaminthewestonline.com

as the memory institution functions ofForward looking and Intergenerationaldescribed by (Guy

Pessach, 2008) that relate to the audience, being the future and current generations isdependent on the hosting platform copyright policies. While the current generation have the

ability to influence this risk, future generations are disadvantaged in this aspect as they have no

influence in how the cultural representations ofJamaah are preserved through the digital

media platforms.

Images

With the use of images from the Internet there are some issues surrounding the integrity and

authentication as described by Ross (2002) thatIf the authenticity and integrity of a digital

object cannot be established questions arise as to its genuineness and utility. This factor can

have adverse effects on the Virtual Community model, if the community has doubt on the

authentication then this could affect the 4 conditions of a Wise Crowd described by (Surowiecki,

2007) as being - Diversity of Opinion, Impendence, Decentralisation, Aggregation these are

what affinity communities are built around - We know that the community element is

illustrated as the strongest model for Virtual Communities (Butler and Coleman 2003) This

highlights the importance of integrity of content for Islaminthewestonline.com.

To ensure this issue would not surface the majority of the images were taken by myself and

tagged using Dublin Core standards on the Adobe Bridge platform. As the curator of the images

the responsibility of integrity of the images was taken on by me and relevant forms for

permissions had been signed before images had been taken.

Copyright Law and Cultural Preservation

Currently there is no exemption for digital archiving under section 108 of the Copyright act for

memory based institutions be it de-privatized, Privatized or individual-based institutions

Proposals have been created to allow reproduction of copyrighted materials for cultural

preservation through a compulsory licensing scheme by Zimmerman (2007) and Menell (2007).

To ensure that no copyright law is infringed through digital artefact extra precautionary

measures were taken to ensure that any material taken from the internet has no Copyright and

can be reproduced; all image material taken from the internet has been referenced giving the

author credit.


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Technical walkthrough

Technologies Used

The table below illustrates the technologies used to create the working prototype. The list of

technologies used are in-definitive as development continues on the prototype.

Table 1. Technologies Used

1 Name: BuddyPress (WordPress Plug-in)Type: Virtual Community

Platform

Context of use:

The basis of the project is set-up up on WordPress - Wordpress is a software script that

can be downloaded and installed onto your site via the web host provider - BuddyPress

was used to provide the Virtual Community functionality required for the project

BuddyPress is an integrated social network solution built on WordPress functionality.

2 Name: CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) Type: Style Sheet Language

Context of use:

The use of CSS was applied to format some elements of the HTML presentation of the

interface. The use of custom CSS code allowed the alignment of comment boxes ensuring

the usability and aesthetic properties were conformed to. The custom.css and style.css

styles sheets built into the BuddyPress contain all the CSS for customisation and

troubleshooting purposes.

3 Name: Adobe Bridge Type: Digital Asset Management Software

Context of use:Adobe Bridge provided the functionality to tag digital images taken using the metadata

functionality. It allows selection of the fields you want to use to tag the image and thus

allowing to conform to Dublin Core Metadata elements.

4 Name: Adobe Photoshop Type: Graphics Editing

Context of use:

Provided the platform to edit image graphical properties. This was used to enhance the

appearance of images taken for digital collection purposes.

5 Name: MySQL Type: Database

Context of use:

The creation of a database for Islaminthewestonline.com BuddyPress content was

required through the Local host control panel (CPanel) tool.

6 Name: CyberLink PowerDirector Type: Editing Software

Context of use:

Used to edit and compile the recorded interviews into a format whereby it can be hosted

online.


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Project Platform Justification

There are a number of Virtual Community networks that provide content management

propriety characteristics. The requirements of having a platform whereby users can

collaborative in a social network style manner but in a more affinity based community

environment was important thus BuddyPress formed the choice as the platform for Crawley

Mosque.

BuddyPress is a plug-in built on WordPress The WordPress platform is one the most widely

used content management systems on the web today a statistic describes how In every 100

new websites started 22 run WordPress illustrating how resilient the platform is. Another

statistic describes WordPress has over 15,000 plugins available online (Mullenweg, 2011) this

illustrates the scale of the WordPress platform.

The social network element of BuddyPress allows for Virtual Communities to form through its

platform functionality To provide a snapshot of the effectiveness of BuddyPress the following

illustration describes the platform community states:

Figure 3.

Source: http://buddypress.org/about/story/. Last accessed 04th Feb 2012.

BuddyPress functionality allows users to sign-up and share their opinions and views through

Groups and Forums. Users can build Friends connections and update their profiles with their

own Avatars to give personal identity. These characteristics as described in the Analysis assist

in forming Virtual Communities and form the justification for the use of BuddyPress in the

context of Crawley Mosques visionary requirements.

Interface Considerations

When addressing the interface design for the Islaminthewestonline.com the main focus was the

usability aspect for the user. A number of theories and principles in relation to the layout and

aesthetics have been taken into considerations;

The focus of the site is the Virtual Community elements BuddyPress custom themes are

extensively available - however additional customisation and careful consideration was


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required as the usability aspect of the site bares significant value to ensure users can navigate

and use the platform effectively;

The symmetric design of the theme interface provides aesthetic perception to the object. The

design can be closely related to the original laws of Gestalt regarding pattern perception where

symmetric objects and smooth continuous lines are more readily perceived than rapidlychanging contours (Gestalt, 1912). Appendix 6.

The grouping of the top level menu relates to Palmers theory of a common region where

enclosed objects within a region of space are grouped (Palmers, 1992), Other design aspects can

be related to the Connectedness theory described by Palmers and Rock (1994) where

continuous contours are perceived as related. The Members and Whats New section of the

home page illustrates this and is a feature throughout the theme pages. Appendix 6.

Colours can vary in the context of different cultures and the design decision for the theme

colour was based on the following study by Marcus (1992):

Figure 4. Graphic design for interfaces colour perceptions.

Red Danger, Hot, FireYellow Caution, slow, test

Green Go, Okay, clear, vegetation, safety

Blue Cold, water, calm, skyWarm colours Action response required, proximity

Greys, white and blue Neutrality Marcus A. (1992() Graphic design for

user interfaces, p.84

The neutral colour of Grey and White were chosen to be the main colours of the theme toillustrate a neutral and welcoming approach for islaminthwestonline.com. This can be seen

throughout in Appendix 6.

Adobe Bridge - Metadata

As described in the Technologies Used table the use of Adobe Bridge was used to tag images

the standalone software allows embedding of metadata to images This was used for images

taken by myself as the curator and tagged before uploaded to islaminthewestonline.com.

Through this method of tagging the information on embedded in the properties of the file will

have the attributes assigned even once submitted. Please see appendix 5.

Custom CSS Code

Figure 5. CSS code to align text box


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Figure 6. Text box

Illustrating the issue the above CSS addresses it addresses the text box alignment issues

related to how it is displayed on the interface when visiting the website.

High Level Functional Requirements

The high level functional requirements for the project can be seen in appendix 2.

Use Case Diagram

The Use Case diagram in Appendix 3 describes the high level functional requirements and the

sub-process requirements of the system.

Sequence Diagram

The use of sequence diagrams describes the interactions between actors and system processes

Appendix 4 figure 1 illustrates the sequence diagram describing the process of logging in to the

website and Participating in Forum.

Figure 2 describes the process of the administrator in creating a new discussion group on the

platform.


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Project review

The working prototype creating for Crawley Mosque forms the basis of a project that has the

characteristics to become a community platform for not just people in the local area of Crawley,

but country wide The idea of Jamaah as described has multiple interpretations and thus

having a vision for this to be country and one day intercontinental platform where-by people

from all over the West can contribute and share knowledge would be the ultimate vision.

A number of future developments for the project are to be made depending on the direction the

client requirements the most significant developments for the near future is ensure that the

Mosque is fully aware of the intellectual and property rights of any content shared on the

platform. This area for any cultural preservation platform bares significant value. Spam is

another aspect that should be monitored, a number of Spam accounts were created on the

website -by enforcing methods of user sign up authentication such as Recaptcha could address

this issue.

It must be stressed that the concept formed the main focus of the project the Virtual

community/memory institution platforms are extremely interesting and have extensive

background in understanding the platform and comprehensively putting the idea and concept

into perspective the project has allowed me to gain this knowledge and has allowed me to

implement this knowledge and understanding into a working prototype the design was never

the core focus although there is no doubt that the design is aesthetically pleasing and easy to use

this could be something that could be considered for future development.

The implementation of a successful influential Virtual Community is not an easy task yes, on a

local scale it is, but that undermines the power of a community platform this is something that

needs to be considered actively the diversity of the user contributions will make Islam in the

West successful. Means of advertising through social networks such as Twitter, Blogger and

Facebook also referred to the Social Trinity can provide the necessary exposure to start off

the journey of creating effective Communities.

Externally there are some issues surrounding the sustainability of networked memories

institutions which can have related effects on Islaminthewestonline.com in the long run. These

are surrounding the content sharing sites like YouTube the use of content sharing websites is

a pillar for Virtual communities and user generated content an article dated 2007 suggests

that YouTube intends to impose on the use of copyrighted materials within user-generated

uploaded content (MSNBC, 2007) With more and more copyright laws being imposes the future

of social-cultural remembering communities cannot be predicted.

However these issues aside the power of Virtual Communities is extraordinary providing that

the right types of participants are active on the platform and the correct understanding of the

concept has been related to the cultural project - these two elements are key for growth and

community success.


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Bibliography

BBC. (2009). History of Islam in the UK. Available:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/uk_1.shtml. Last accessed 25th Mar2012.

BuddPress.org. (Unknown).About BuddyPress. Available: http://buddypress.org/about/story/.Last accessed 04th Feb 2012

Guy Pessach. (2008). Memory Institutions and what they Stand For. [NETWORKED] MEMORY

INSTITUTIONS: SOCIAL REMEMBERING, PRIVATIZATION AND ITS DISCONTENTS. 2 (1), 112-115.

Gladwell, Malcolm (2001) The Tipping Point - How Little Things can Make a Big Difference

(ISBN: 978-031634662)

Joost van Kasteren. (2004). A renaissance in cultural diversity: A Unesco vision for virtual

communities. Virtual Communities and Collaboration in the Heritage Sector, 5 (5), 24.

Marcus, Aaron (1992). Graphic Design for Electronic Documents and User Interfaces, Addison-

Wesley, Reading MA, 1992, ISBN: 0-201-54364-8

Matt Mullenweg. (2011). WordPress Statistics. Available: http://wpstatistics.com/. Last accessed

06 Feb 2012.

Michael B Tott. (2008). Applying DCMI Elements to Digital Images and Text in the ArchimedesPalimpsest Program. Proc. Intl Conf. on Dublin Core and Metadata Application. 1 (1), 163-168.

Safko & Brake (2009). The Social Media Bible. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. 47.

Quinn, M.J. (2006) ETHICS for the Information Age: Second Edition. Oregon State

University:Addison- Wesley.

Roberta R. Kwall, Contract Options for Individual Artists: Library Reproduction Rights for

Preservation and Replacement in the Digital Era: An Author's Perspective on 108, 29 C OLUM.

J.L. & ARTS 343, 351-55 (2006).

Seamus Ross. (2002). Integrity and Authenticity of Digital objects. Digicult. 1 (1), 7.

Surowiecki, James (2007) The Wisdom of Crowds Why the Many Are Smarter than the Few(ISBN: 978-0385503860)

Susan Hazan. (2004). Weaving Community Webs. Virtual Communities and Collaboration in the

Heritage Sector. 5 (5),8.

Unknown. (Unknown). HE PATH OF AHL AS-SUNNAH WAL-JAMA'AH AND BROTHERHOOD

AMONG MUSLIMS. Available:http://www.allaahuakbar.net/scholars/ibn_taymiyyah/path_of_ahl_assunnah_wal_jamaah.htm.

Last accessed 4th Mar 2012.

YouTube Unveils Anti-Piracy Protection, MSNBC, Oct. 16, 2007,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21319251.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21319251http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21319251


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Appendix


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Appendix 1. Personas

Table 1. Persona characteristics for participants of Islaminthewestonline.com

Islaminthewestonline.com Persona Table

Persona Demographic and

characteristicInformation

Key Tasks Key Needs

Persona 1 Saira Majid

25 year old female.

Single

Employed.

Reads prayeroccasionally

Has small amount ofknowledge in Islam

but will participate

BrowseDigital

collection

Participate inconversation

when she has

the time andhas subject

knowledge

A navigate platformto view digital

artefacts.

Persona 2 Dawood Malik

25 year old male

Married

Full engaged inIslamic studies andperforms the act of

Jaamah regularly

Very knowledgeablein Islam

Browsedigital

collection

Shareexperiences

ofJamaah

Shareknowledgeand to others

A platform tobrowse digital

collection

A platform to shareinformation about

experiences of

Jamaah

Be part of an onlinecommunity where

Forums and Groups

allow participation

Persona 3 Omar Khan

19 year old male

Unemployed

Looking to learnabout Islam brought

up in a

predominantlyWestern community

Browsedigital

collection

Gain/seekknowledgethrough

information

Conversewith other

peers

A platform tobrowse digital

collection

Be part of anintegrated onlinecommunity to

discuss, share and

gain information.


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The personas above have three varied characteristics relating to the Types of Participants

Gladwell (2001) and the Safko and Brakes Social Media Lifecycle model (Safko & Brake, 2009) -

When associating the types of participants to these personas we can map them to the external

stakeholder analysis which provides greater insight how much influence each kind of

participant has on the Virtual Community;

Table 2.

Persona Gladwells Types of

Participant

Safko & Brakes Social

Media Lifecycle

High

Influence

Low

Influence

Persona 1 NA Novices X

Persona 2 Mavens Leaders X

Persona 3 Connector Novices/Insiders X

Novices have little insight and provide small amounts of contribution as can be relatedto the characteristics of Persona 1.

Mavens and Leader share similar characteristics whereby a strong interest is shared

with the subject area and high level of participation and social connection is likely to be

seen from this type of user this can be related to Persona 2.

Connectors and Insiders Have the interest in the subject area and are looking to

contribute to a high level however may not have the right knowledge and thus in the

case of this project may not be able to shape up social memory for contribution and

preservation for present and future generations. This can be related to Persona 3.

For the purpose of the Stakeholder Analysis the Safko and Brakes model of the Social Media

Lifecycle (Safko & Brake, 2009)will be used to illustrate the levels of influence these type of

users potentially have on islaminthewestonline.com:

Figure 1.

We can see from the stakeholder analysis the level of interest and the influence each type of

participant has in the community model.


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Appendix 2. High Level Functional Requirements

Figure 1. High level functional requirements table

Primary Actor User Goals Requirements Description

Front End Buddy

Press GUI

1. Display user Interface

1.1. Display navigation links

1.2. Display images in collection

1.3. Display Video in collection

1.4. Provide access to authorised users

Related to the front

end interface

displayed to the

audience.

Administrator/Curator

2. Manage forum/group requests2.1. Create, Modify, Delete digital

collections

2.2. Create, Modify, Delete Site Users

2.3. Create, Modify, Delete Site Pages

2.4. Monitor posts on forums/groups

2.5. Organise posts using folksonomy

2.6. Add Tags (Dublin Core Metadata)

2.7. Modify CSS code for customisation

2.8. Modify general site settings

2.9. Activate/Deactivate plug-ins

Related to theadministrative tasks

that allow monitoring,

uploading and

customising content.

User 3. Sign up to Islaminthewestonline.com

3.1. Request access to restricted groups

3.2. Receive friend requests

3.3. Browse image collections

3.4. Browse Video collections

3.5. Add comments to posts

3.6. Contribute to forums

3.7. Contribute to groups

3.8. Search Items3.9. Add personal information to profile

Related to the users of

the site and their

requirements these

requirements will

allow the users to

browse and

participate on the

collaborative

platform.


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Appendix 3. Use Case Diagram

Figure 1. Overview of system Use Case Diagram


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Appendix 4. Sequence Diagrams

Figure 1. Participating in Forum


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Figure 2. Administrator Create new Group


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Appendix 5. Adobe Bridge

Figure 1. Adobe Bridge

Annotated Notes

1. Illustrates theelements of Dublin

core metadata usedfor tagging using

Adobe Bridge.

2. The properties of theimage once the

tagging was complete.As can be seen the

information used to

tag the image has beenincorporated within

the properties of the

image.

1

2


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Appendix 6. Interface Screenshots

1. Navigation Links

Figure 1. Home Page navigation links

The following screenshot of the home page illustrates the Logo and top level menu links that

provide the navigability of the whole site:

Annotated Notes

1. Allows navigation back to home page from any page within the platform. 2. Illustrates the menu of the website with all the navigation links displayed.3. This is the logo of the website a minimalistic design approach was taken for the design

this design of the logo is not final depending on the client future requirements and

could be changed.

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2. Picture Portfolio

Figure 2. Picture Portfolio

This part of the site is where the Image collection is stored. The Collection has been set up on astatic Page so that no comments or editing is permissible and therefore illustrating the image

collection as an exhibition for Jamaah in its different forms:

Annotated Notes

1. Illustrates the picturesdisplayed in the

collection.

2. The images have beenreferenced here with

Dublin core metadata

elements. This is in

addition to the AdobeBridge tagging already

performed.

3. This is how the imageappears once theimage has been

clicked by the user.

The use of FancyBoxPlus plug-in provides

this overlay design.

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3 Video Portfolio

Figure 3. Video Portfolio

This part of the site is where the Video collection is stored. The Collection has also been set upon a static Page so that no comments or editing is permissible and therefore illustrating the

Video collection as an exhibition for Jamaah Three questions are asked here

What is Jamaah?

What are the activities of Jamaah? Why would you recommend Jamaah?

The questions were asked to a number of people these videos were then edited and compiled

using CyberLink PowerDirector. The videos were then converted into MPEG4 format and hosted

on the YouTube platform. This was subsequently embedded into Video Portfolio page of the

website:

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Annotated Notes

1.

Illustrates how the Videos are displayed in the collection.2. The images have been referenced here with Dublin core metadata elements.3. This is how the image appears once the image has been clicked by the user. The use of

FancyBox Plus plug-in provides this overlay design

4. Dublin Core Meta Data elements are used in the description of the YouTube video under

Islaminthewest1 YouTube channel account.

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4. Groups

Figure 4. Groups

This part of the website illustrates a collaborative aspect of the platform whereby users can Joinand communicate through the Groups Here groups can be created that are either Private or

Public giving privacy choice:

Annotated Notes

1. Search functionalitywhich is readily

configured to search

Groups.2. Illustrating the

number of Active

Groups.

3. Group details and theprivacy of the groupscan be viewed here.

4. Once a Group has beenselected this screenappears and here you

can see whats new in

the Group and any

recent additions ofmembers.

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5. Forums

Figure 5. Forums

This part of the website illustrates another collaborative aspect of the platform wherebyregistered members can communicate through the Forums:

Annotated Notes

1. Illustrating the number of Active Topics of discussion withinthe forum.

2. Search functionality which is readily configured to searchForums part of the site.

3. Illustrating the topics that are active also showing the threadtitle where the Thread has been posted in and other relevant

elements.

4. Illustrates the number of replies received to the topic.5. Some sort functions are available here if this is required by the

user.

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Project Poster

Figure 1. Project Poster.