Web Futures: Implications For Higher Education

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

Web Futures: Implications For Higher Education Brian KellyUK Web UKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

UKOLN is supported by:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/kcl-2006-01/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/kcl-2006-01/

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, Blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.Also feel free to access the presentation, follow links, etc.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, Blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.Also feel free to access the presentation, follow links, etc.This work is licensed under a Attribution-

NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 licence (but note caveat)

*

* Subject to confirmation at end of talk


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Contents

• Introduction• Background – The History of the Web • Where Are We Now?• New Developments:

W3C developments Web 2.0

• Deployment Challenges• Conclusions


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About Me

Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus – post funded by JISC and

MLA to advise UK HE / FE and cultural heritage sectors on best Web practices

• Based at UKOLN, University of Bath• Helped set up Web service in Leeds

University in Jan 1993 - first in UK(?) and in first 50 registered at CERN)

• Web evangelist from 1993 (against Gopher orthodoxy!)

• Attended several WWW conferences since first in 1994


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History Of The Web In HE

1993 – Early adopters

1994 – Web wins (Gopher starts to be phased out)

1994? – Web-support Mailbase list (David Riddle) – start of (enthusiastic) UK HE Web community

199? – University Webmasters start to be appointed.Website-info-mgt Mailbase list set up to support University Webmasters (political pawns, not cool Web developers)

199? Best practice docs published by AGOCG

1997 – First Institutional Web Management Workshop (IWMW) held at KCL (held annual ever since)


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Reflections On IWMWs

1997 KCL 2 days (lunchtime-lunchtime)1998 Newcastle 3 days (2 days content)1999 Goldsmiths "2000 Bath "2001 Belfast 3 days (2.5 days content)2002 Strathclyde "2003 Kent "2004 Birmingham 3 days (2 days content)2005 Manchester 3 days (2 days content)2006 Bath 3 days (2 days content)

JuneSept " "June " " "JulyJune

There are no easy answers We can all contribute

Finding answers from gurus and best practices Performance, authoring tools, HTML, databases CMS Web strategy Exploiting new stuff

1997

Today

Meeting people, networking, “I am not alone”


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We're Doing Well Positive aspects of the UK HE Web community:

• Willingness to share experiences (e.g. on web-support and website-info-mgt lists)

• A well-established annual event• Avoidance of the ghetto mentality: senior

managers, information professionals, designers, software developers, trainers, … meet, talk and socialise together

Challenges we face:• Open sources vs licensed software debate • Role of standards (e.g. SMIL vs Flash)• Managing with limited resources• Managing service vs supporting user needs - cf

Andrew Aird's talk in 2002 on "Pursuing A Radical Web Strategy"


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What About Web Standards?

Early Days• HTML+CSS+WAI WCAG =

(Netscape's support for CSS was a problem)

Later• XML a winner• New W3C formats (PNG, SMIL, SVG, …)• Limited take-up – and other solutions have benefits

(e.g. Flash)

More Recently• Complexity and Confusion: Semantic Web, Web

Services, deployment difficulties (e.g. XHTML 2.0), patent issues, process issues, …


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Summary – UK HE Web In 2004/5

State of play in 2004/5:• Web is mission critical• We have Web teams and resources (but

we'd like more)• We have a Web/Information Strategy• Focus tends to be on publishing• Key applications areas:

Institutional Web site Intranets VLEs Portals Digital repositories …


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Web For 2006+

Significant changes seem to be happening:• Blogs and Wikis• RSS and Podcasting• Mobile devices• Pervasive networks (WIFi, broadband at

home, 3G, …)• Integration of services ("mashups")• Microformats• Google developments• SOA• Web 2.0


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Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly, 2005

Web 2.0

What Is Web 2.0?• A marketing term, rather than a formal technical

standards ("“an attitude not a technology”)

Characteristics Of Web 2.0• Network as platform• Architecture of participation• Social networking• Social tagging• Remix and mash-ups• Blogs & Wikis• Syndication• Users• Always beta• …


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Web 2.0 Exemplars

Let's look at some examples – presented to SWLAC staffLet's look at some examples – presented to SWLAC staff


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AJAX, XML, Web Services, …

AJAX, XML, Web Services, …

Does your campus map use Google Maps, or is it trapped in a GIF file?

Does your campus map use Google Maps, or is it trapped in a GIF file?


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Google Earth tour of IWMW events

Google Earth tour of IWMW events


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Note:• Greasemonkey

environment

Note:• Greasemonkey

environment


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Note:• BBC Backstage

competition (free iPod??)

Note:• BBC Backstage

competition (free iPod??)


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Mobile Devices

Potential of mobile devices in learning, research, etc.

Lectures on iPods; student-created Podcasts; ..


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Note that Talis (UK library vendor) are publishing Blogs and Podcasts about "Library 2.0"And UKOLN/CDNTL have also been experimenting

Note that Talis (UK library vendor) are publishing Blogs and Podcasts about "Library 2.0"And UKOLN/CDNTL have also been experimenting


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Are your University Podcasts available through iTunes?Aren't you missing out on a major distribution channel? (Note Student's Union radio shows are leading the way)

Are your University Podcasts available through iTunes?Aren't you missing out on a major distribution channel? (Note Student's Union radio shows are leading the way)

http://www.everyobject.net/static.php?page=interactivehttp://www.everyobject.net/static.php?page=interactive


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UK participants include:

National Archives

Natural History Museum

Creative Commons, Science Commons, Open Access, Open Source, … are helping to drive Web 2.0.What's the UK HE's take on this?

Creative Commons, Science Commons, Open Access, Open Source, … are helping to drive Web 2.0.What's the UK HE's take on this?


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http://creativecommons.org/

See "Let's Free IT Support Materials!" (EUNIS 2005 paper) as an example of what UK HE could be doing

See "Let's Free IT Support Materials!" (EUNIS 2005 paper) as an example of what UK HE could be doing


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http://www.flickr.com/

+

“folksonomies”

Issues• "Claim your tag" (e.g. "iwmw-

2005") and convention (e.g. "kcl-publicity", "imperial-graduation-2006") for your photos, Blogs, etc.?

• NB londonterroristattack tags on 7/7

• Should you proactively make you photos, etc. available?

Issues• "Claim your tag" (e.g. "iwmw-

2005") and convention (e.g. "kcl-publicity", "imperial-graduation-2006") for your photos, Blogs, etc.?

• NB londonterroristattack tags on 7/7

• Should you proactively make you photos, etc. available?


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Semantic Web or semantic web

Semantic Web:• W3C approach to provide a Web with meaning• Hard

Lower case semantic web / microformats• Been waiting too long for the SW, let's make use

of today's technologies• Microformats – provide semantic in (X)HTML

using , <div> and <a .. rel="foo">

ExamplesDefine structured date about people, dates, etc. thus:

Brian …XSLT transformations to VCard, etcNB Tom Heath's acronym harvester

ExamplesDefine structured date about people, dates, etc. thus:

Brian …XSLT transformations to VCard, etcNB Tom Heath's acronym harvester


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Blogs (1)

Blogs• User created content (diary-style interface)• Student use:

Shared learning Social use Gaining experience …

• Research use: Dissemination

Engagement Resource discovery …

• Support use: What's On, for sale, … Email alerts Creating RSS …


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Blogs (2)

Challenges:• Can we trust our users?• Will we be sued, get embarrassed, …?• In-house or externally-hosted?• Should we do it?• Can we afford not to?

Experiences• University of Warwick Blog service - see

Podcast interview• Interests from talk at IWMW 2005

and UCISA/UKOLN event, Nov 2004


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Wikis (1)

Wikis:• Collaborative Web-based authoring

environment• Wikipedia is an example of a successful

Wiki• See QA Focus "An Introduction To Wikis"

briefing document

Issues:• Can we trust the contributors?• Wiki spam, grafitti, IPR, …?• Best practices, interoperability, …


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Wikis (2)

Discussion:• Can you afford not to contribute to

Wikipedia?• Can provide Wikis for use by small groups• Can be used for annotation• Is being increasingly used

Implementation:• Which is the best?• Wiki migration

UKOLN intends to host a Wiki (using MediaWiki) to develop community resources on CMSs, VLEs, …

UKOLN intends to host a Wiki (using MediaWiki) to develop community resources on CMSs, VLEs, …


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Instant Messaging (1)

Instant Messaging:• Trivial chat which should be banned?• Learning is a collaborative activity, so

instant messaging, chat rooms, etc. are important

Issues:• Which environment: MSN, Yahoo, Jabber,

IRC, …• ID management• Spamming, noise, etc• What’s this got to do with the Web?


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Instant Messaging (2)

Meebo:• A Web-based

IM client• An AJAX

application

Issues:• How do you

ban it?• Interoperability

http://www.meebo.com/http://www.meebo.com/


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GMail

Who needs a University email account when you can get 1 Gb from a GMail account (with AJAX interface) ?

My Plans• Get GMail ID• Use it as secondary

source for mailing lists• Don't divulge ID (no

spam)• Wait and see what

extras Google provide (RSS feed would be nice – now available)

• Gain feel for privacy issues

My Plans• Get GMail ID• Use it as secondary

source for mailing lists• Don't divulge ID (no

spam)• Wait and see what

extras Google provide (RSS feed would be nice – now available)

• Gain feel for privacy issues


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Skype / VoIP

VoIP is coming, so now’s the time to gain experiences. What are the implications of ‘free’ always-on telephony. You could all be broadcasting this talk now!

VoIP is coming, so now’s the time to gain experiences. What are the implications of ‘free’ always-on telephony. You could all be broadcasting this talk now!

VoIP: future of telephony

Popular applications such as Skype:

• Integrated voice, IM, Web, (and now video)

• Can be high quality • Free (or cheap to

landlines & mobiles)• Conference calls• …


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RSS

E-mail has its role but:• Why send messages which time-out when many users will

read them too late?• Why not use delivery channels which are spam-free?• Why not use delivery channels which are more suited to

receiving information (as opposed to discussions)?• Why not allow users to select their preferred channels?

RSS:• Syndication of content• A light-weight standard

used in the JISC IE• View on Web, using one of

many dedicated RSS viewers, Opera or Pluck IE plugin

Shouldn't RSS viewers be standard on desktops?Shouldn't we be creating RSS feed for news alerts – and not just adding to email overload?

Shouldn't RSS viewers be standard on desktops?Shouldn't we be creating RSS feed for news alerts – and not just adding to email overload?

Google for "rss is opt-in authenticated email"

See RSS briefing paper

See RSS briefing paper


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Deployment Challenges

Such questions:

• How do we go about deploying Web 2.0?

• More importantly, should we (isn't it just hype?)

Challenges:

• The Web policy is owned by the marketing people; they see the Web as a publishing vehicle not as a communications tool

• We can't use Creative Commons, open access, etc.

• We shouldn't make use of commercial services

• These services are:

• Technically / philosophically flawed

• Don't reflect our views on open source / standards

• Breaking out of our existing culture, software, …


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Answers

What are the answers to these questions?

How do we face the challenge of 'disruptive technologies'?

Is this a real issue – don't we simply absorb such technologies through evolution?

Answers to questions will be sought at the UKOLN/UCISA/CETIS workshop on "Initiatives & Innovation: Managing Disruptive Technologies" at University of Warwick, 24 Feb 2006. <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/kcl-2006-01/>

Answers to questions will be sought at the UKOLN/UCISA/CETIS workshop on "Initiatives & Innovation: Managing Disruptive Technologies" at University of Warwick, 24 Feb 2006. <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars/kcl-2006-01/>

Or submit a proposal for a talk or workshop at the 10th Institutional Web Management Workshop at University of Bath, 14-16 June 2006. (Call for papers currently open) <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/>

Or submit a proposal for a talk or workshop at the 10th Institutional Web Management Workshop at University of Bath, 14-16 June 2006. (Call for papers currently open) <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/>


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Some Answers For Free Thoughts about deployment strategies:

• The need to be an adaptable/agile audience (cf. the Monarchy and the London Whale / Di's funeral)

• It's not new – cf eLib Hybrid Libraries, the RDN's Behind the Headlines as 'mashups'

• Benefits of modular approaches to reflect the diversity of the HE environment (cf E-Frameworks and SOA approach to development)

• If you don't: Your rivals will Your departments will use the stuff anyway Who needs central services when we can get better

services for free from Google, Yahoo, … !


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Discussion

Questions, comments, etc. welcome

Documents

Web Futures: Implications For Higher Education