A centre of expertise in digital information management What Can Internet Technologies Offer? Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath.

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

What Can Internet Technologies Offer?

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]://www.ukoln.ac.uk/

UKOLN is supported by:

How can Internet technologies help us to support communications with & by students?

How should IT & Library Services respond to use of Internet technologies driven by students?

How can Internet technologies help us to support communications with & by students?

How should IT & Library Services respond to use of Internet technologies driven by students?

<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/hewit-2004/>

<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/hewit-2004/>


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Contents

• About The Speaker• How Times Have Changed• Mobile Devices• Technologies:

• Instant Messaging• Integrated environments• Blogging Wikis • Mobile phones Semantic Web /

FOAF

• Strategic Challenges:• Open source Support• Preservation Deployment

• Conclusions


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About The Speaker

Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus – funded by JISC and the MLA to

support the HE/FE and museums, libraries & archives sector on Web standards & best practices

• Based at UKOLN – a national centre of expertise in digital information management

• Located at the University of Bath• Formerly worked in user support in Computing

Service departments at Universities of Loughborough (1984-90), Liverpool (1990-91) and Leeds (1991-95) and for Netskills (1995-6)


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How Times Have Changed

IT Strategy1980-1990s

IT Skills Training

Lotus / Excel

WordPerfect / Word

User Groups, Committees

Mainframe / Unix PC / Mac

Centralised / Distributed

Users

Research / Teaching

IT StrategyToday

Users

IT applicationsFree software

Home use

Hotmail accounts, MSN IDs

User Groups, Committees

Major funding decisions

Responding to autonomy

Security

Responding to Internet environment

Interoperability, standards, preservation

Open source


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Mobile Devices

What are the implications of mobile devices?

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What do these devices have in common?What do these devices have in common?Consumer devices, networks & digital memory


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New Devices

What are the implications of, say, Web / email clients on digital TV? Cost about £120 (or £65

on offer from BT Shop)

http://www.netgem.com/http://www.netgem.com/

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Scenario• Students will want to watch

digital TV (music, etc.)• This box provides a cheap

easily maintained thin client• Unlike ITVDigital no licensing

restrictions • Email/ Web use at home

reduces demand on PC clusters

• So encourage purchase!


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WiFiWiFi technologies make mobile devices even more appealing. Imagine scenario:

• WiFi access in all lecture rooms, teaching spaces, …• WiFi access in all halls of residences, flats, etc.• WiFi access in all social spaces, such as bars, fields, etc• WiFi access in town centre, pubs, Starbucks, …

and with Zeroconf you can walk into a room & it's all available

• How will this change the dynamics of teaching & learning?• How will this affect purchasing patterns?• How will this affect social activities?• How will this affect the role of IT Services?

• How will this change the dynamics of teaching & learning?• How will this affect purchasing patterns?• How will this affect social activities?• How will this affect the role of IT Services?

Thought ExperimentLet's imagine you all have networked mobile devices.

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Bathstudent.com provides: • Personalised portal• Diary & calendar• News alerts by email

& SMS• Advice• …

http://www.bathstudent.com/http://www.bathstudent.com/

Challenges:Shouldn't we be doing this? Who owns the company & data (and why do they want my personal details)? What if ownership changes? Does their advice on academic issues conflict with the University's?

Challenges:Shouldn't we be doing this? Who owns the company & data (and why do they want my personal details)? What if ownership changes? Does their advice on academic issues conflict with the University's?

We are now faced with increasing numbers of commercial providers of IT services


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Instant Messaging

Instant Messaging:• Nothing new – Unix talk anyone?• New user communities driving its use:

• Young people Overseas students

• Comments from recent UCISA poll:"IM ... is 'here to stay' – an 'unstoppable tide'. Seen as part of youth culture, along with … SMS" Liverpool JMU"Students will arrive familiar with, and expecting to .. use such tools. Email seen by younger people to be 'boring', 'full of spam', IM and SMS immediacy preferred" Bath

But:"Complaints raised regarding students hogging PCs .. Also case with email some time ago" Liverpool JMU"APIs are known and therefore targets for hackers" London Met"Some challenges in interoperability …" Bath

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IM - Tools

Popular IM tools include:• MSN Messenger• Yahoo Messenger• AOL Instant Messenger

Typically choosing a supported application involved looking at functionality, cost, support, security, ..

Typically choosing a supported application involved looking at functionality, cost, support, security, ..

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IM Functionality (1)

MSN Messenger providesgroupware & IM functionality:

• Sharing desktop applications

• File transfer• Webcams• Games

Warning – this could be a virusWarning – this could be a virus

Has potential in user support & collaborative working

Has potential in user support & collaborative working

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IM Functionality (2)

Yahoo Messenger is integrated with My.Yahoo:

• Calender (which can be synced with Outlook)

• Personalised new, weather, etc.• SMS (but not in UK)

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Integrating IM

You can have IM bots ScenarioUsers with mobile devices (which may be slow)Require access to informationRather than surfing Web sites why shouldn't they simply type a simple command?This approach is used with SMS

To [email protected] address…

[email protected]@buddyspace.org


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IM Guidelines (1)

Guidelines developed for QA Focus (UKOLN/AHDS project):

• Scheduled virtual meeting with home worker and with project partner

• Formal agenda used and meeting chaired • Use of Webcam planned (nb privacy issues)• Transcript archived (confidentiality issues flagged)• IM also used for informal purposes e.g. short term

tasks such as agreeing on pub to meet in• Recognition of dangers of interruption, privacy, etc.

(similar to divulging personal phone no.)• Need for guidelines to be implemented in protocols

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<http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-12/><http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-12/>


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IM Guidelines (2)

The JISC-funded QA Focus project has developed a quality assurance framework for JISC's digital library programmes

We also have support materials such as briefing documents, example policies and procedures documents, etc.

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-56/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefings/briefing-56/

See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/>See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/>

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Security Issues

"I've asked our IT bods to open up the port, but have been met (so far) with a stony silence."

Tensions:• Users want the rich functionality• IT Services also need to address security,

privacy, support, etc. issues

IM is an example of an edge service:• Name given to P2P programs such as instant

messaging, file sharing, etc. Programs are located at the edge of the network, travelling through desktop PCs rather than a central server

• IETF working on "Open Pluggable Edge Services" standard, which will address security issues

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Interoperability

Lack of interoperability:• Mainstream IM world is currently closed• Multi-protocol clients exist (e.g. Trillian,

IM+) but don't support value-added features ( )

• XMPP - open protocol of IM• Jabber provides open source clients &

servers which support XMPP • Value-added services being developed

e.g. BuddySpace at OU (note interesting movie)

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Policy Issues

For IM:• Functionality / support aren't main issues• IM exists to facilitate communications the users'

peers

Should we:• Provide multiple clients to support users

(Liverpool approach)?• Chose client and manage the ids, so we can use

to communicate IM students?• Provide clients but support separate IM facility

(e.g. as part of portal, VLE, …)?• Wait for standards & applications to arrive which

solve the problems?

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In Summary

MSN

AOL

Yahoo

AOLMessenger

MSNMessenger

YahooMessenger

LocalVLE

VLE IM tool

Additional functionalityAdditional problems?

Remote IM databases are populated by individuals and managed remotelyFinding people, managing groups of students, etc. is difficult

Do we need a national IM databases managed by the sector (along Athens lines)?Or leave this to commercial sector?

'Athens'IM

(cf OU)

Local(Jabber)Jabber

Trillian, IM+

Potential functionality


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Integrating Environments (1)Services such as YahooGroups integrate:

• Mailing lists• IM• Voting• Calendars• …

Useful to get committee together at same time – buts ads are disliked

Useful to get committee together at same time – buts ads are disliked

Very effective way of reaching a decision – avoids long discursive discussions

Very effective way of reaching a decision – avoids long discursive discussions

Useful to view shared calendar with remote staff. Can integrate with local calendar, but not yet fully.

Useful to view shared calendar with remote staff. Can integrate with local calendar, but not yet fully.

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Integrating Environments (2)

JISCMail is extending its facilities to include a voting system and a chat room (currently being tested)

Being part of our community it doesn’t have adverts and is responsive to needs of the community

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IM can be integrated with other facilities within VLEs, portals, etc. For example:

• Univ of Delaware (looking to integrate IM as a channel in uPortal)

• VLS

Integrating Environments (3)

Preamble

Formal start, with date stamp for transcript

People arrive late & miss guidelines

Data protection, privacy, libel, …!

Preamble

Formal start, with date stamp for transcript

People arrive late & miss guidelines

Data protection, privacy, libel, …!


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Let's Kill E-Mail!

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?

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

used in the JISC IE• View on Web or using

dedicated RSS viewer

Shouldn't RSS viewers be standard on desktops?Shouldn't we be creating RSS feed for news alerts?

Shouldn't RSS viewers be standard on desktops?Shouldn't we be creating RSS feed for news alerts?


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Blogging (1)

Blogging: cult fashion or significant developing in publishing / communications?

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Student's learning diary. Created by student and hosted on remote Blogger Web site. No longer maintained?

Student's learning diary. Created by student and hosted on remote Blogger Web site. No longer maintained?

A more sustainable approach is likely when used as part of a course. This example also provides shared experiences

A more sustainable approach is likely when used as part of a course. This example also provides shared experiences


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Blogging (2)

But:• I want new information

to be pushed to me• I want to create

information using tools other than a Web browser

• I prefer an email interface (fewer images, …)

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Wikis

Wiki:An open shared space for collaborative editing

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Wikipedia – a example of shared encyclopaedia.Yes, trust is an issue!

Wikipedia – a example of shared encyclopaedia.Yes, trust is an issue!

QUB provide an environment for IT & Society students to collectively edit Web pages.

QUB provide an environment for IT & Society students to collectively edit Web pages.


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The Potential For SMSSMS:

• Over 100 million SMS txts sent over New Year 2004 – why don't we send exam results, library alerts, …?

• A small number of institutions are using SMS :"SHU used SMS during clearing - potential students texted in UCAS code of course of interest. The system sent back text saying whether places were still available - alleviating pressure on our call centre.""I believe Edinburgh student union uses SMS for their elections.""I believe there are plans afoot in our university at a high level to develop a method of 'bulk sending' SMS messages out to students."Birkbeck are "hoping to pilot an SMS alert system soon for one of our Schools that they can use (via a simple Web interface) to send lecture cancellation messages etc to their students"

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From SMS 3GWAP:

• Failed to take off, but some experimentation talking place

3G:• The SMS or the WAP of the

future?• Will developments be driven by:

• Research interests – e.g. <http://www.m-learning.org/>

• Consumers?

• Will the killer app be:• Publishing information?• Communications?• Something else: competition for

WiFi competition e.g. Google for the pub quiz

• Nothing

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FOAF

FOAF (Friends-of-a-Friend):• A Semantic Web application (SW – creation of a

distributed global database without central control)• Allows structured information about people to be

brought together • Great potential for building online communities• Featured in Guardian Online column – 19 Feb

2004• Paper at IADIS Web Based Communities 2004 on

"Using FOAF To Support Community-Building" by Kelly & Dodds

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FOAF Example (1)

FOAF Explorer - <http://xml.mfd-consult.dk/foaf/explorer/>

A view of my FOAF file, showing links to my friends

Further information in my FOAF file

Leigh's FOAF file, showing his additional information

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FOAF Example (2)

FOAFNaut - <http://www.foafnaut.org/>

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Creating FOAF

Several types of FOAF authoring tools are available:• Do it by hand• Web-based tools• Dedicated tools• Using a Wiki

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Authoring tools and viewers available – it's time to experiment!

Authoring tools and viewers available – it's time to experiment!


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Creating Online CommunitiesStudents (and staff) want to be part of communities - as shown by success of FriendsReunited and (since Jan 2004) Orkut

But online communities come and go and the data needs to be re-entered, relationships re-established, …

The Tribe.net online community has stated that it will support FOAF, which could provide a solution to such concerns.FOAF has recently started to gain some momentum, as indicated by the Guardian Online feature.

These Social Networks can provide:• Mailing lists• Instant messaging• Links to partners & potential partners

These Social Networks can provide:• Mailing lists• Instant messaging• Links to partners & potential partners


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Strategic Challenges

Challenges we face:• AUPs• Open Source vs Commercial Solutions • Departmental & Individual Autonomy• Interoperability, Preservation, etc.• People Issues• Privacy, Data Protection, … • Sustainable Communities• How we go about deploying such facilities• …

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Note: ran out of time for this section at UCISA Management Conference

Note: ran out of time for this section at UCISA Management Conference


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Open Source Software

Many Web/Internet -based tools described (Wikis, Blogs, Jabber, …):

• Are available as open source software (OSS)• Act as demonstrators of emerging new open

standards

Options for an institutional OSS strategy:• Replace MS Office products by Open Office• Deploy new services using open source

applications

Note the JISC-funded OSS Watch service can provide advice on OSS strategies. See <http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/>

Note the JISC-funded OSS Watch service can provide advice on OSS strategies. See <http://www.oss-watch.ac.uk/>

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Interoperability & Sustainability

Current position:• Lots of interesting application areas and

application software

In the future:• Software products will fade away, be taken over, ..• There will be a need to integrate areas (VLEs,

with IM with Blogging) to provide seamless interface

• There will be a need for data to migrate• There will be a need for data to be preserved

(records of dialogue, group memory, FoI, …)

The use of open standards will be important.The use of open standards will be important.

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Deployment

How should we go about deploying more open and innovative collaborative systems?

• "Eat your own dogfood" – use the tools to discuss the tools

• IM tools were used to discuss issues with staff evaluating IM at Edinburgh

• Small scale experiments• Address local & regional

issues• Sharing experiences• Learn from the users –

and your children!

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Experiment!

"IM, WiFi, Blogs. Wikis, …These are the future. We need to experiment - let's try them at UCISA 2005"

Brian Kelly, UCISAS 2004 19 March 2004

Colston Research Symposium:• Annual event supported and sponsored by the

University of Bristol & Colston Research Society• Hosted by ILRT, Graduate School of Education and

the Computer Science, University of Bristol on 22-23 March 2004

• Included real-time IM commentaries, Blog reports, … • See <http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/conferences/colston2004/

electronicparticipation/>


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Realtime IM-ingPaul Shabajee gave a talk about use of IRC and Blogs

Paul Shabajee gave a talk about use of IRC and Blogs

There was a realtime display of the IRC dialogue alongside the PowerPoint slides

http://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/conferences/colston2004/programmehttp://www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/conferences/colston2004/programme


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Colston Conference Blog

Blogs were used to report on all of the talks.Blogs were used to report on all of the talks.

http://blog.ilrt.org/colston/http://blog.ilrt.org/colston/


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Wikis For Shared NotekeepingThe free, externally hosted Seedwiki (and Swiki) Wikis used to support workshop in Trieste

They were used to note students areas of interests (Notepad normally used)

This approach allowed students to contribute

http://www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?doc=ictp-2004&wikiid=4970


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What If Things Go Wrong?Things do go wrong! So plan accordingly!

Two Wikis had been setup. One became unavailable during workshop, so used other

One student overwrote Wiki content – so used version option to retrieve previous version

It all goes wrong? Tell students they are taking part in an experiment – they might find this exciting!


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Non-Technical Issues• Sustainability of online communities (IADIS WBC 2004 paper

on "Building Online Communities - The Barriers And The Bruises")

• Support Issues: Technical support: "How do I …?", "Why can't I …?" Support in use of the technologies (is this our job?)

• Policy Issues: We should support students in their social & networking

activities in cyberspace as well as in real life We don't patrol student bedrooms so let's not patrol the

PC in their bedroom IT facilities and networks are for teaching / research.

We'll ban other use, especially if security's an issueSuch policy decisions may be influenced by bigger HE funding issues

Such policy decisions may be influenced by bigger HE funding issues

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Where Does This Leave Us?

Can we afford not to have:• An Institutional Wiki

A managed, easy-to-use collaborative workspace• An Institutional Blog

A managing and interoperable diary and annotation environment

• Institutional IM FacilitiesSupported IM software and managed directory facilities

Before the environments, we should have a policy in these areas. The policy could, for example, leave provision of such services to the market place.

Before the environments, we should have a policy in these areas. The policy could, for example, leave provision of such services to the market place.


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Conclusions

Internet and Web collaborative technologies:• Provide a range of interesting new application

areas of use in a teaching context• Students will increasingly be familiar with such

technologies and expect to continue to use them• Many technologies are free/open source and will

be deployed by individuals / in departments • Issues of ongoing, security, interoperability, etc.

will need to be addressed by IT Services• Issues of sustainable communities, guidelines,

etc. also need addressing – but by whom?• Many challenges – but also great potential


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Questions

Any questions?

A centre of expertise in digital information management What Can Internet Technologies Offer? Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath.

Documents

digital information

national centre of expertise

mobile devices technologies

wifi wifi technologies

town centre

networks digital memory

challenges scenario

digital tv music