Transcript Let`s Do It Now: Mainstream Uses Of Collaborative Technologies

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/edinburgh-2006-11/
Let’s Do It Now: Mainstream Uses
Of Collaborative Technologies
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
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ed-itfutures-2006 tag used in del.icio.us
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(but note caveat) www.ukoln.ac.uk
Contents
Web 2.0 – A Recap
Web 2.0 – Let’s Use It
• Blogs
• Wikis
• Communications
• Culture of openness
• Always beta
Addressing Organisational barriers
• Understanding our culture
• Risk assessment and risk management
• Deployment strategies
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Web 2.0
Web 2.0
What Is Web 2.0?
Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather
than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology”
Characteristics Of Web 2.0
• Network as platform
• Remix and mash-ups
 Syndication (RSS)
• Architecture of participation
 Blogs & Wikis
 Social networking
 Social tagging
(folksonomies)
• Trust and openness
• Always beta
Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly,
• Clean URIs www.ukoln.ac.uk
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2005
Web 2.0
Takeup Of New Technologies
The Gartner curve
Rising expectations
CMS
VLE
…
Service plateau
Web 2.0
PLE
…
Enterprise
software
Large
budgets
…
Chasm
Failure to go beyond developers
& early adopters (cf Gopher)
Trough
Need for:
of despair
• Advocacy
• Listening to users
Developers
• Addressing concerns
• Risk management
This talks looks at approaches
Early
• Deployment strategies for avoiding thewww.ukoln.ac.uk
chasm
adopters
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• …
Web 2.0
Blogs – A Steer From Management
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/...
http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/
Warwick’s Blog service
illustrates how an institutional
Blog can provide a thriving
community (and isn’t this a key
part of the university
experience?)
John Dale’s Blog shows how:
• IT Service staff can engage
with their users
• A more egalitarian approach
- the IT Manager know
something about IT, but
users may know more! (this
reflects current learning
Michael Webb, Newport is an
expertise in digital
exampleA centre
of a ofBlogging
IT information
Directormanagementorthodoxies) www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Blogs – Grassroots Approach
http://bathsciencenews.blogspot.com/
Science librarian at University of
Bath has set up a Blog on Blogger
Users love it – “Why isn’t there a
Blog for the rest of the library”
Q: Should I be doing this?
A: No – make a recommendation
to your manager; write a
proposal; if accepted then WG
set up; it reports back and
recommendations probably
deferred!
This is a good example of Web 2.0 philosophies of “user-focus”,
“always beta” and “trust”: trust your professionals do be innovative
A centre of
expertise
in digital
management
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in supporting
their
users
& information
to be flexible
& learn from experiences
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Wikis – Grassroots Approach
http://bathlibpod.wetpaint.com/
Same librarian used a Wiki for a
group planning production of a
Podcast guide to the Library:
• User engagement in process
• Users (including students)
make use of emerging
technologies (Wiki, Podcasts)
Advantages:
• No waiting for IT Services
evaluation of Wiki software
• Can feed experiences back to
IT Services
• Can address non-IT issues
Grass roots experiences can feed into process for an institutional
solution,A centre
including
technical;
training
& strategy issues www.ukoln.ac.uk
of expertise
in digital information
management
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Wikis – Institutional Approach
http://wiki-workshop-2006-11.wetpaint.com/
There’s an awareness of a need for
institutional Wiki strategies.
Addressed at UKOLN’s “Exploiting The
Potential Of Wikis” workshop, Nov 2006
Need for Wikis seems to be agreed.
Challenges:
Wiki strategy options:
• Centralised Wiki provision (and the
best is …)
• De-centralised Wiki provision (horses
for courses)
• Bundled Wiki provision (it comes with
the VLE)
• Out-sourced Wiki provision
(Thatcherite or Web 2.0 network as
an application provider)
Confluence and MediaWiki
seemed preferred options at
workshop.
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Communications – Skype
Skype:
• Evil bandwidth-stealing proprietary
software – use SIP software
• Innovative, easy-to-use, immensely
popular software – and all my friends
& colleagues use it
Case studies:
• Ban
• Buy network shaper box to “remove
illegal P2P traffic in order to provide
quality Skype service to users”
Just-in-time accessibility:
• Respond to user concerns in halls by
participants missed train, but used
banning, but allow managed use on
Skype (and Gabbly) to take part in
campus, until better solution available
Accessibility Summit.
Conclusion: have Skype ID just-in- • Educate user: don’t use over WiFi; …
(AUP at UKOLN Wiki workshop)
case (and
as carbon-quota
plan)!
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information management
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Web 2.0 Barriers
The Barriers
There are barriers to the deployment of Web 2.0:
• It's scary: I've just mastered Dreamweaver; we've just spend
a lot of money on a CMS; …
• It's immature: I've heard it all before (XML, Semantic Web,
…) . This is just new hype
• There are legal risks: Copyright infringement; data
protection; protection of minors; …
• Infringement of guidelines: Web 2.0 infringes our AUP;
accessibility legislation; e-Gov legislation; ..
• Institutional inertia: We'd like to do it but we have large
existing systems; reluctant colleagues; …
• Culture: We’ve always first evaluated & then mastered the
software; how can we support multiple Web 2.0 service? And
it needs to be open source so we can tweak it
How do we go about addressing these barriers?
what ifmanagement
the concerns are legitimate!)
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centre ofshould
expertise inwe
digital–information
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Addressing The Barriers
It breaks accessibility guidelines; open standards; AUPs;
etc.
• There is a need to ensure existing guidelines &
interpretations in these areas are flexible enough to
take into account technological developments,
emerging usage patterns, etc
• See UKOLN’s holistic approach to Web accessibility
and contextual approach to standards
• Need for an Acceptable Use Policy Process (AUPP)
to ensure that AUPs aren’t used as a control
mechanisms but as a means of maximising benefits
of services for IT users & providers
Note that HE is good at critiquing orthodox thinking &
developing
models,
A
centre of expertisericher
in digital information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
11
IT Services Barrier
12
Nobody Likes Us - The Users' View
IT Services – prvoding the answers or blocking the users?
• Don't understand learning and teaching and think that
students only ever use the Web for messing around.
• Have no interest in what the users actually want and
generally prefer to give the users what they themselves
think they want. (I've seen senior IS staff dismiss the
data gathered in formal user requirements gathering
exercises because it doesn't fit their own viewpoint.)
• Tend to work in silos (example: student information
systems team which won't talk to the VLE team), and will
do anything to avoid working with others outside of their
own silo. They have no concept of team working across
services or with academic staff.
• Consultation usually consists of them telling you
what they are going to do. If you tell them what you
want they don't listen!
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information
management
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Do these
comments
ring
any bells?
If not, how can you
be sure?
IT Services Barrier
Beware The IT Fundamentalists
We need to avoid simplistic solutions to the complexities:
• Open Standards Fundamentalist: we just need XML
• Open Source Fundamentalist: we just need Linux
• Vendor Fundamentalist: we must need next version of
our enterprise system (and you must fit in with this)
• Accessibility Fundamentalist: must do WAI WCAG
• User Fundamentalist: we must do whatever users
want
• Legal Fundamentalist: it breaches copyright, …
• Ownership Fundamentalist: must own everything
• Perfectionist: It doesn't do everything, so we'll do
nothing
• Simplistic Developer: I've developed a perfect solution
– I don't care if it doesn't run in the real world
• Web 2.0 Fundamentalist: Must use latest cool stuff
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Library Barrier
The Librarian Fundamentalists
Librarians:
• Think they know better than the user e.g. they don't like
people using Google Scholar; they should use Web of
Knowledge (who cares that users find it easier to use
Google Scholar & finds references they need that way?)
• Think that users should be forced to learn Boolean
searching & other formal search techniques because this
is good for them (despite Sheffield's study).
• Don't want the users to search for themselves (cf
folksonomies) because they won't get it right.
• They still want to classify the entire Web - despite the
fact that users don't use their lists of Web links.
• Want services to be perfect before they release them
to users. They are uneasy with the concept of 'forever
beta' (they don't believe that users have the ability to
figure things out themselves and work around the bugs).
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Cultural Change
Addressing the Barriers
How do we address such barriers:
• A change in culture
• Being more open (surely what HE & public
sector is about?)
• Revisiting AUPs
• Developing more sophisticated models for
standards, accessibility, open sources, …
• Developing key principles
• Ongoing debate and discussion
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Culture Change
Need To Change Catch Phrases
Computer Says No!
Time to ditch this catch phrase
Wikis? IT Services says no
Folksonomies? Library says no
Skype? UKERNA says no
Yer, but, no, but, yer
Time to embrace the
ambiguities acknowledged
in Vicky Pollard dialectic
philosophy
Yer, like Wikis are well cool,
but, OK so I copied my homework,
I always
copy my
homework
Abut,
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in digital information
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X
Images from
BBC
Web site
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Cultural Change
Implement An Open Approach
Implementing an open approach should not be difficult:
• We have tradition of sharing & using OSS
• The HE sector is now more open to discussing open
access issues (e-prints, financial issues, …)
• Creative Commons (CC) provides a legal framework
What can we do:
• Make support services resources available with CC
licence: see paper on "Let's Free IT Support Materials!"
• Exploit UKOLN's QA Focus briefing documents:
100+ documents available with CC licence
• …
Using other's resources and service may be unpopular
(job security, ideology, …). For example, should IT
services
hostin email,
… when
this can be outsourced?
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Revisiting AUPs
Acceptable Use Policies (AUP)
Is Skype Permitted over JANET?
"The Computing Service is frequently asked for a ruling on
whether Skype may legitimately be used ... the Computing
Service considers that use of Skype contravenes the
JANET Acceptable Use Policy, although UKERNA does not
concur with this view." (now toned down)
Missing The Point?
There may be (religious) debates over the interpretation of
UKERNA's words. But
• Did the policy come from God? Is it infallible?
• Why do we hide behind AUPs?
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Proposal: An AUP is meant to work on behalf of an organisation,
helping to ensure the effective use of IT by its users.
An AUP should not be used as a control mechanism to prevent
A centre of
digitalfrown
information
management
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usage which
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staff inmay
upon.
Cultural Change

The Need For An AUPP
AUPs:
• Shouldn't be cast in stone: technologies change;
usage changes; culture changes (e.g. AUPs
banning social use; email; Web; messaging; …)
• Therefore need for mechanisms for changing
AUPs and engagement with users
Proposal:
• We need an Acceptable Use Policy Process
(AUPP)
• We need mechanisms to ensure users can input
into the discussion process
• We need more flexibility in our AUPs (e.g. to
reflect blended learning, pervasiveness of IT; …)
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Cultural Change
Avoid Perfection!
http://www.thesun.co.uk/
portal/site/mysun/
In higher education we like to
investigate limitations of systems
(it’s our job). But:
• Need to separate such
research from deployment of
good enough services
• Need to be more user-centred
– if users can do it (at home;
in Starbucks; from their
memory stick) why can’t IT
Services provide similar
services (students pay
enough!)
An always beta approach: the
software and its use may not be
perfect, but that’s not a barrier to
If the Sun can provide Blogs, it’s very
deployment
strange ifAHE
can’t!
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Taking Risks
Risk Management
IWMW 2006 has taken a risk management approach to
its evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies:
• Agreements: e.g. in the case of the Chatbot.
• Use of well-established services: Google &
del.icio.us are well-established & financially stable.
• Notification: warnings that services could be lost.
• Engagement: with the user community: users actively
engage in the evaluation of the services.
• Provision of alternative services: multiple OMPL tools.
• Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings!
• Long term experiences of services: usage stats
• Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g.
standard Web server log files.
• Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated
in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc.
Note that you also take risks in not providing a service!
Will
your
users
go elsewhere?
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Piloting Web 2.0
Safe Experimentation
How can we gain experiences of Web 2.0:
• Safe environment
• Which minimise risks
• Which allow learning
Possibilities:
• Encourage enthusiasts
• Using technologies at events such as this!
• Supporting the services which your users use (e.g.
Google!)
• Using services which require minimal effort
• Working with your peers elsewhere
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Conclusions
Conclusions
To conclude:
• Web 2.0 can provide real benefits for our users
• However organisations tend to be conservative
• We therefore need:
 Advocacy
 To listen to users' concerns
 To address users' concerns e.g. through a risk
management approach
• We can all benefit by adopting Web 2.0 principles
of openness and sharing. So let us:
 Share our advocacy resources, risk management
techniques, etc.
 Have a social network with peers based on openness,
trust, collaboration, ..
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