Transcript MS PowerPoint

The JISC PoWR Project
Preserving Web 1.0 Resources
Marieke Guy, UKOLN
IWMW 2008
23rd July 2008
UKOLN is supported by:
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
The JISC-PoWR Project
• JISC Preservation of Web Resources project
• Focus on digital preservation issues of relevance to UK
HE/FE Web management community
• 5 months (May – September 2008)
• 2 partners: UKOLN and ULCC + friendly lawyer
• Aim is to raise awareness amongst the Web manager
community of the need to incorporate preservation strategy
into key stages of the web management process
• Identify, share and seek to embed best practices!
• 3 Workshops: London, Aberdeen, Manchester,
• Key resources: briefing papers, case studies and handbook
• Blog - http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Why Bother Preserving?
• Preservation challenge
• Preservation has never been easy, people tend to live in the
now
• Web resources present additional challenges
• Why bother?
– Uniqueness
– Audit
– Authenticity
– Money
– Heritage
– Embarrassment!
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
The Challenges
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Low priority
Unsure on whose responsibility it is
Complicated – Web is big, transient, dynamic
Gap of understanding between different communities
What do we preserve? Selection decisions
What makes a Web site (bits or essence)?
Technical issues and dependencies
Legal issues
Is it worth preserving anyway?
Web 2.0
www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Scenario 1: Your Home Page
• It is your institution’s anniversary…
• Would like an example of how the institution’s Web site has
developed since launch
• Currently only anecdotal evidence/tacit knowledge
– CMS brought in, search added
– Changes in navigation, branding
– Accessibility, language, content
– Interactive elements, multimedia
• Use the Internet Archive’s Way Back machine
• PicLens plugin, automated rolling display
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/2008/06/20/the-history-ofthe-university-of-bath-home-page/
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Scenario 2: Losing Content
• The funding finishes
• Project staff leave, partnership dissolves
• Hosting agency upgrades operating system, resulting in scripts
to access resources from backend database are broken
• User finds page with invitation to project launch and travels to
meeting. Event took place in 2002!
• Invoice for domain name is not paid, as administrator has left
• Web site domain taken over by porn company
• Prime Minister picks up pen containing project URL and visits
pornographic Web site
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
It Has Happened: Webtechs
• Software company which
hosted early HTML validation
service
• In 1998/99 confusion over
payment of domain name
• March 1999 company receives
many messages saying
validation service is now a
porn site
• Over 30,000 links to Web site!
• Sept 1999 porn company
agrees to sell domain name
back to Webtech
See <http://www.exploit-lib.org/issue1/webtechs/>
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Facing the Challenges
• 1) Protect Web site short to medium term
– Mothball your Web site
– Get senior management on board
• 2) Manage Web site content as part of an RM programme
– Identify your resources
– Collaborate – University of Bath RM and WS Director
– Choose the appropriate approach (or approaches)
– You may not need to keep everything
• 3) Preserve Web sites and Web resources permanently
– Something for the future
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Mothballing Your Web Site (1)
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Run a link check across the Web site.
Fix broken internal links and external links
Run HTML (and CSS) validation checks across the Web site.
Run an accessibility check across the Web site. .
You should also address technical areas:
– Remove any backend scripts which are no longer needed
(e.g. online booking forms for old events).
– Remember that scripts, etc. are liable to go wrong. Ensure
that applications are configured to break gracefully and
provide meaningful errors
See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/
documents/briefings/briefing-04/>
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Web 1.0
Mothballing Your Web Site (2)
• You should also address the content of your Web site
• Clarify the status of the Web site on the home page.
• Ensure the tense of the content reflects the position i.e. don't
say "This project will …"
• Ensure that contact details will remain valid i.e. provide
generic email addresses not an individuals
• Remember that many users will arrive deep in your Web site
(e.g. using Google).
• If necessary use CSS to flag all pages with a watermark
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Web 1.0
Mothballing Toolkit
• UKOLN developed a
QA methodology by
QA Focus work
which was funded by
JISC
• We developed a
lightweight selfassessment toolkit
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/
toolkit/mothballing-01/
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Any Questions?
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk
Breakout Session 1
Reflecting on some of the issues mentioned, in groups think
about Embedding Best Practices.
• What are the barriers to implementing a Web Resource
Preservation Strategy in your Institution?
• How can you address these barriers?
• How can you take some of the techniques mentioned and
apply them within your institution?
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www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.bath.ac.uk