Transcript Externally Hosted Web Services: Good Idea Or Bad Idea?

Externally-Hosted
Web Services:
Good Idea Or Bad Idea?
Brian Kelly
UK Web Focus
UKOLN
University of Bath
Summary
This talk describes a
variety of externallyhosted web services
and ponders on their
applicability for UK
Email: [email protected]
URL: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ HEIs.
UKOLN is funded by Resource: The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries,
the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) of the Higher Education Funding
Councils, as well as by project funding from the JISC and the European Union.
UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.
Contents
• What Problems Do We Face?
• Externally-Hosted Web Services
• Case Studies:
• Web Statistics
• Email Lists
• Authoring Tools
• Other Examples
• Link Gateways
• User Feedback
• Third-party Content
• Notification Services
• Other End User and Authoring Tools
• Conclusions
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Ring Any Bells?
• You manage a Web service or create
departmental Web pages
• Your job was fun once, but now it's difficult to
keep on top the job
• You need extra resources, but can’t get them
• Your good Unix systems staff have left for $$$$
• There is a software solution, but it's expensive
• You tried to install the 14 day evaluation version,
but couldn't get it to work
• When you eventually got it to work, your PC
wasn't powerful enough to run it
• You can't afford an upgrade to your PC
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An Answer To The
Webmaster's Prayer?
A solution may be available:
• A solution which is free (in many cases)
• A solution which requires no software installation
• A solution which requires no investment in
hardware
• A solution which exploits the network – and keeps
UKERNA in business
The solution is deployment of externally-hosted Web
services
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What Do We Mean?
Remember HTML Validation services:
• Enter a URL into a Web
form and check it validates
• Add an image if your page
is valid HTML
• Link the page to the
validation for on-the-fly
validation - an externallyhosted web service
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Hit Counters
Another example is the hit counter:
• Link to image held
on remote server
• Image (of number)
updated every time
image retrieved
See <Yahoo > Business and
Economy > Business to
Business > Computers >
Software > Internet > World
Wide Web > Log Analysis
Tools> for lists of hit
counters
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Your View So Far
Sounds great, no software to install, available
for free. What else can be done in this way?
Sorry
indecisive.
WhatI'm
edge
of this spectrum
are you
closest to?
I can't
decide.
Question
Has anyone
made use of
externallyhosted web
services?
No way! I don't want to be reliant on anyone
else. Besides, I'll be out of a job if this idea
takes off – this is out-sourcing.
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D
Hit Counters to Web Stats
Hit counters have developed into comprehensive
Web statistical services
Model
• Link to image
held on remote
Web site
• Follow link to
remote site to
get graphical
display of hits
• Use JavaScript
to record PC
profile
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See <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue5/indicators/>
D
eGroups Mailing Lists
eGroups lets you set up
free mailing lists
eGroups provides an
email and a Web
interface
Calendars, polls and
databases are also
provided by eGroups
How does this
compare with
Listproc or
Majordomo
See also Yahoo! > Computers and Internet >
installed locally?
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Internet > Chats and Forums >
D
Using eGroups
eGroups are being used by
the organising committee
and delegates for planning
for the Institutional Web
Management workshop:
• Mailing lists
• Voting
• Database
• (Realtime chat)
See
<http://www.egroups.
com/groups/iwmw-2000/>
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The Institutional Web
Management Workshop will be
held in Bath University on 6-8 Sept
D
Content Management
Manilla is a Web-based content management tool.
You can buy the software
for $899 or use it for free at
Editthispage.com
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D
Managing Link Gateways
LinkBank.com
enables link gateways
to be managed:
• Bulk upload
• Email notification
of broken links
• Summaries of
usage
• User "sort by"
option
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Managing Link Gateways (2)
JumpList.com
provides a free link
management system
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D
User Feedback
Elements of user feedback
can be added through use of
voting systems, quizzes, etc
14
See <http://www.ariadne.
ac.uk/issue23/web-focus/>
and <http://ezpolls.
mycomputer.com/>
Forms Processing
Why bother with CGI
scripts when you can
use Web-based formsprocessing software
http://www.responders.net/
1.Make Your Website Interactive
Receive feedback from your customers. All
responses are emailed in seconds.
2. Build Your Forms Online - No HTML Needed
Design your Request Form in 2 minutes or less
with our EZ-Form Builder, without
programming.
3. Customize Your Request Form As Needed
Ask up to 10 questions of your choice, change
the title, add special instructions, and more!
4. Easy Integration Into Your Existing Site
15 Adding your form is as simple as creating a link.
Content
http://ezpolls.mycomputer.com/
Free newsfeeds, classified ads,
jokes, cartoons, quotations) can
be included on your Web site
16
http://notinmybackyard.com/
D
Notification Services
You can register a
page at Netmind.
You will receive a
message when the
page is updated.
17
The Netmind service is
used at Exploit Interactive
to provide notification of a
new issue.
Server Down - Notification
Recently the
Exploit Interactive
Web server
crashed after a
virus checker
caused memory
leaks.
Internetseer's
free Website
monitoring
service is now
used to check the
site hourly.
Up to 230 URLs
can be checked
18for free.
http://www.internetseer.com
Submit-it Services
Rather than manually
submitting key resources to
many search engines you
can:
• Purchase and install
an application locally
• Subscribe to a Webbased service
• Use a free Webbased service
Exploit Interactive has used
ScrubTheWeb – reviewed in
issue 6
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http://www.submitit.com/
http://www.scrubtheweb.com/
Search Engines
If you are one of the 50 HEIs
without a search facility on your
Web site, why not let a thirdparty index your Web site?
All you need is a few lines of
HTML
Nene College and St. Mary's
College use FreeFind and Derby
University uses AltaVista
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Graphics Services
Web services for:
http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/webfx/
• Image manipulation
• File format
conversion
are available
TIFF -> PDF
http://DocMorph1.nlm.nih.gov/docmorph/ (free)
http://www.fastio.com/tiff2pdf.html (licensed)
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Calendars
Why bother with Outlook when
you can get calendar facilities
for free?
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Issues
Many externally-hosted web services are available
But:
• What about the dependencies of the network(s)?
• What about the reliance of the third-party? Will
the company stay in business?
• If the service is funded by advertising revenue,
with use contravene the JANET AUP?
• Will large-scale use of such services generate
large network bills?
• Is my data secure and private?
• Is my data reusable and available in an open
format?
• Is is sensible for a mission-critical service?
Remember the WebTechs incident?
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RDN Include
The Resource Discovery Network Centre (RDNC)
coordinates the work of RDN hubs, such as SOSIG,
EEVL, BIOME, etc.
Institutions may be reluctant to link to hubs as they
want users to stay on the
University Web site.
The RDNC is
developing the RDN-I
(Include) service to
give the appearance
that the hub is located
within the institution.
The RDN will be providing
an externally-hosted service
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The DNER
The DNER:
• JISC-funded initiative managed by Lorcan Dempsey
• Distributed National Electronic Resource
• Seamless access from institutions to national
resources (MIMAS, BIDS, EDINA, etc)
• Based on intelligent server software (broker) and
support for standards (XML, Dublin Core, Z39.50,
etc.)
• An example of Business-to-Business application
JISC's vision for the DNER has many
similarities to the externally-hosted Web
services we have seen, but based on open
standards.
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What About The Users?
"I use the external services because the University
doesn't allow me access to install on the server and
because it doesn't make any appropriate tools
available."
Tom Wilson, Department of Information Studies,
University of Sheffield
"Our search facility is currently hosted by atomz.com ,
some calendering by Yahoo!, so I'm increasingly drawn
to externally hosted solutions... more time to catch up
on other, more pressing work, until they all stop
working."
Ian Usher, Webmonger, Department of Geography, UCL
See <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue23/
web-focus/> for full quotes
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HotMail
One UK University:
• 60% of new undergrads in 1999 arrive with
HotMail account
• They use HotMail in preference to the
University account
• Should they support it?
• Can they afford not to?
• What will happen when students arrive with
their own Web-based calendaring facilities?
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ASP
Application Service Providers (ASP):
• Commercial sector already moving in this direction
• Sun promote access to StarOffice across network in
preference to MS Office on local PC
• See <http://uk.dir.yahoo.com/
Business_and_Economy/Business_to_
Business/Communications_and_Networking
/Internet_and_World_Wide_Web/
Application_Service_Providers__ASPs_/>
Are Athens and Mailbase early
examples of ASPs?
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Conclusions
Externally hosted web services:
• Are available in many different areas
• Arguments against their use (reliability, privacy,
performance) should diminish as they mature
• Your user community will use them (are using
them) in any case
• Of particular interest to the FE community?
• Will we see a move towards use of Application
Service Providers (ASPs)?
• Time to grasp the nettle?
Have your views changed?
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Resources
Various directories of externally-hosted
services are available:
<http://toolsforthe.net/>
<http://homepagetools.com/>
<http://www.mycomputer.com/>
<http://link.freesitestuff.com/?scottp>
<http://www.freecenter.com/>
<http://www.newbreedsoftware.com/web/>
<http://www.egroups.com/group/free4lib>
<http://www.intranets.com/>
Acknowledgments to Peter Scott <scottp@moondog.
usask.ca> for his contributions.
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