Many blog services allow comments to be made on the blog posts. This facility is normally configurable via the blog owner’s administrator’s interface. An example of the interface in the WordPress blog is shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Administrator’s Interface for Blog Comments on WordPress Blog

The Need For A Policy

A policy on dealing with comments made to blog posts is advisable in order to handle potential problems. How should you address the following concerns, for example:

• Your comments are full of spam messages.
• Abusive comments are posted.
• Comments are posted to old messages with content which is no longer relevant.
• Excessive amount of resources are need to manage blog comments.

A blog post and subsequent discussion [1] on the UK Web Focus blog identified a number of views on policies on the moderation of blog comments which are summarised in this briefing document.

Moderated or Unmoderated Blog Comments

A simple response to such concerns might be to require all comments to be approved by the blog moderator. However this policy may hinder the development of a community based around a blog by providing a bottleneck which slows down the display of comments. In a situation in which a blog post is published late on a Friday afternoon, a blog discussion which could take place over the weekend is liked to be stifled by the delayed approval of such comments.

The UK Web Focus blog allows comments to be posted without the need for approval by the blog administrator, although a name and email address do have to be provided. It should be recognised, however, that the lack of a moderation process could mean that automated spam comments are submitted to the blog, thus limiting the effectiveness of the blog and the comment facility. The UK Web Focus blog, however, is hosted on WordPress.com which provides a comment spam filtering service called Akismet. This service has proved very effective in blocking automated spam [2].

Differing Policies for Different Types of Blogs

The policy of moderation of comments to a blog is likely to be dependent on a number of factors such as: (a) the availability of automated spam filtering tools; (b) the effort need to approve comments; (c) the effort needed to remove comments which have failed to be detected by the spam filter; (d) the purpose of the blog and (e) the likelihood that inappropriate comments may be posted.

Publicising Your Policy

It would be helpful for blog owners to make their policies on content moderation clear. An example of a policy can be seen from [3]. It may be useful for your policy to allow for changes in the light of experiences. If you require moderation of comments but find that this hinders submission of comments, you may chose to remove the moderation. However if you find that an unmoderated blog attracts large amount on unwanted comments you may decide to introduce some form of comment moderation.

References

1. Moderated Comments? Closed Comments? No Thanks!, UK Web Focus blog, 15 Feb 2010,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/moderated-comments-closed-comments-no-thanks/>
2. A Quarter of a Million and Counting, UK Web Focus blog, 6 Jun 2008,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/06/08/a-quarter-of-a-million-and-counting/>
3. Blog Policies, UK Web Focus blog,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/blog-policies/>

This document is 1 of 3 which describe best practices for consuming APIs provided by others.

Be Careful In Selecting The APIs

Choose the APIs you use carefully. You can find potential APIs by signing up to RSS feeds, registering for email notifications for when new APIs are released, checking forums and searching API directories.

A decision on using an API can be made for a number of reasons (it’s the only one available, we’ve been told to use it, etc.) but developers should check the following:

• That it is the best fit for your needs. There may well be other APIs out there that are more appropriate. Good research is very important as it is more than likely that for popular APIs someone has probably done the hard work and produced a library for your language of choice. That said it is possible that you might have to compromise.
• What the API does. Spend some time finding out.
• How good the documentation is. Check that the documentation correctly matches the API being used. Request sample application code that communicates with the API. Initially commercial software vendors were reluctant to provide good well documented services often only provided simple data transaction services. Good documentation is now accepted as critical.
• That the APIs is connected to a functional description, i.e. an overall description of the function of the entire application.
• That there is a dialogue with the developers such as a forum or email list. This will help establish if there is continued support for bug fixes etc.
• That this API does not clash with each others you are using and will be able to ‘keep in step’.
• That it is a stable API. APIs that are still evolving are liable to change.
• How reliable it is? Some API providers have a better reputation than others.
• How popular it is? Popular APIs tend to have an active user community.
• If it is still managed? APIs which are not currently managed are unlikely to be supported.
• If selecting a product with APIs offered as part of the package ensure you evaluate the APIs too.
• What language has it been coded in?
• Whether a roadmap explaining likely directions of future developments is available.

Study various information sources for each potential API. These could include tutorials, online forums, mailing lists and online magazine articles offering an overview or introduction to the technology as well as the official sources of information. There are also a number of user satisfaction services available such as getsatisfaction [1] or uservoice [2]. The JDocs Web site [3] maintains a searchable collection of Java related APIs and allows use comments to be added to the documentation. You may find that others have encountered problems with a particular API.

Once you have chosen an API it may be appropriate to write a few basic test cases before you begin integration.

If you’re not paying for an API then make sure that the API is part of the provider’s core services which they use themselves. If the provider produces a custom service just for you then if they’re not being paid they have no incentive to keep that API up to date.

As one developer advised:

“When using APIs from others, do a risk assessment. Think about what you want for the future of the application (or part thereof) that will depend on the API, assess its value and the cost of losing it unexpectedly during its intended lifespan, guesstimate how likely it will be that the API will change significantly or become unavailable /useless in that time span. Think about an exit strategy. Consider intermediary libraries if they exist (e.g. for mapping) to allow a ready switch from one API”

Acknowledgements

This document is based on advice provided by UKOLN’s Good APIs project. Further information is available at <http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/good-apis-jisc/>.

References

1. Getsatisfaction, <http://getsatisfaction.com/>
2. Uservoice, <http://uservoice.com/>
3. JDocs, <http://www.jdocs.com/>

About The Best Practices For APIs Documents

The Best Practices For APIs series of briefing documents have been published for the cultural heritage sector.

The advice provided in the documents is based on resources gathered by UKOLN for the JISC-funded Good APIs project.

Further information on the Good APIs project is available from the project’s blog at <http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/good-apis-jisc/>.

Although a good API should be, by its very nature, intuitive and theoretically not need documentation it is good practice to provide clear useful documentation and examples for prospective developers. This documentation should be well written, clear and full. Inaccurate, inappropriate or documentation of your API is the easiest way to lose users.

Developers should give consideration to including most, if not all, of the following:

• Information on and links to related functions.
• Worked examples and suggestions for use. The examples should be easy to clone, from different programming languages.
• Case studies. Real world examples (e.g. PHP Java Ruby, python etc.)
• Demos – if you want to entice someone to use your API you need good examples that can be re-used quickly. Provide a ‘Getting started’ guide.
• Tutorials and walkthroughs.
• Documentation for less technical developers.
• A trouble shooting guide.
• A reference client/server system that people can code against for testing and possibly access to libraries and example code.
• Opportunities for user feedback, on both the documentation and the API itself
• Migration tips.
• A clear outline of the terms of service of the API. e.g. This is an experimental service, we may change or withdraw this at any time” or “We guarantee to keep this API running until at least January 2012″.
• Any ground rules.
• An appendix with design decisions. Knowing why an API developed the way it did can often help a new developer understand the interface more rapidly.

Good documentation is effectively a roadmap of the API that helps to orientate a new developer quickly. It will allow others to pick up and run with your API. Providing it on release of your API will result in less time spent taking support calls.

Other suggestions include using a mechanism that allows automatic extraction of the comments, such as Javadoc and providing inline documentation that produces Intellisense-type context-sensitive help.

Error Handling

Providing good error handling is essential if you want to give the developers using your API an opportunity to correct their mistake. Error messages should be clear and concise and pitched at the appropriate. Messages such as “Input has failed” are highly unhelpful and unfortunately fairly common. Avoid:

• Inconsistency (e.g. different variable order in similar methods).
• Over-general error reporting (a single exception object covering a number of very different possible errors).
• Over-complicated request payload – having to send a complex session object as part of each Web service call.

Log API traffic with as much context as possible to deal with resolution of errors. Provide permanently addressable status and changelog pages for your API; if the service or API goes down for any reason, these two pages must still be visible, preferably with why things are down.

Provide APIs In Different Languages

A simple Web API is usually REST/HTTP based, with XML delivery of a simple schema e.g. RSS. You may want to offer toolkits for different languages and support a variety of formats (e.g. SOAP, REST, JSON etc.).

Try to provide APIs in XML format then it can also be read by other devices such as kiosks and LED displays. Making returned data available in a number of format (e.g. XML, JSON, PHP encoded array) it saves developers a lot of wasted time parsing XML to make an array.

Provide sample code that uses API in different languages. Try to be general where possible so that one client could be written against multiple systems (even if full functionality is not available without specialization).

For database APIs, provide a variety of output options – different metadata formats and/or levels of detail.

Acknowledgments

This document is based on advice provided by UKOLN’s Good APIs project. Further information is available at <http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/good-apis-jisc/>.

It is advisable to follow standards where applicable. If possible it makes sense to piggy-back on to accepted Web-oriented standards and use well know standards from international authorities: IEEE, W3C, OAI or from successful, established companies. You could refer to the W3C Web Applications Working Group. Where an existing standard isn’t available or appropriate then be consistent, clear, and well-documented.

Although standards are useful and important you should be aware that some standards may be difficult to interpret or not openly available. Understanding the context within which one is operating, the contexts for which particular standards were designed and/or are applicable/appropriate and on that basis making informed decisions about the deployment of those standards.

Use Consistent Naming Structures

Use consistent, self explanatory method names and parameter structures, explicit name for functions and follow naming conventions. For example, similar methods should have arguments in the same order. Developers who fail to use naming conventions may find that their code is difficult to understand, other developers find it difficult to integrate and so go elsewhere. Naming decisions are important and there can be multilingual and cultural issues with understanding names and functionality so check your ideas with other developers.

Make The API Easier To Access

External developers are important, they can potentially add value to your service so you need to make it easy for them to do so and make sure that there is a low barrier to access. The maximum entry requirements should be a login (username and password) which then emails out a link.

If it is for a specific institution and contains what could be confidential information then it will need to contain some form of authentication that can be transmitted in the request.

If you need to use a Web API key make it straightforward to use. You should avoid the bottle neck of user authorisation, an overly complex or non-standard authentication process. One option is publish a key that anyone can use to make test API calls so that people can get started straight away. Another is to provide a copy of the service for developers to use that is separate from your production service. You could provide a developer account, developers will need to test your API so try to be amenable. If you release an open API then it needs to be open.

If possible seek to support Linked Data. Also publish resources that reflect a well-conceived domain model and use URIs that reflect the domain model.

Let Developers Know the API Exists

Making sure that potential users know about your API is vital:

• Contact your development community using email, RSS, Twitter and any other communication mechanisms you have available.
• Write about your API on developer forums. Make sure that you follow this up by having some of your developers monitoring the forum and answering questions.
• If appropriate publish API on Programmable Web.
• Blog about your API.
• Make yourself known. Twitter and chat about APIs with other developers you’ll get a name as a developer and people will be interested when you release APIs.
• Add a “developers” link in the footer of your Web site. If you have released a number of APIs then the developer section of your site a comprehensive microsite with useful documentation.
• Link to working third-party applications that use your API, or third-party libraries that access it.

Version Control

Deal with versioning from the start. Ensure that you add a version number to all releases and keep developers informed. Either commit to keeping APIs the same or embed in version numbers so that applications can continue to use earlier versions of APIs if they change. You could use SourceForge or a version repository to assist.

Acknowledgments

This document is based on advice provided by UKOLN’s Good APIs project. Further information is available at <http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/good-apis-jisc/>.

Podcasting has been described as “a method of publishing files to the internet, often allowing users to subscribe to a feed and receive new files automatically by subscription, usually at no cost.” [1].

Podcasting is a relatively new phenomena becoming popular in late 2004. Some of the early adopters regard Podcasting as a democratising technology, allowing users to easily create and publish their own radio shows which can be easily accessed within the need for a broadcasting infrastructure. From a technical perspective, Podcasting is an application of the RSS 2.0 format [2]. RSS can be used to syndicate Web content, allowing Web resources to be automatically embedded in third party Web sites or processed by dedicated RSS viewers. The same approach is used by Podcasting, allowing audio files (typically in MP3 format) to be automatically processed by third party applications – however rather than embedding the content in Web pages, the audio files are transferred to a computer hard disk or to an MP3 player – such as an iPod.

The strength of Podcasting is the ease of use it provides rather than any radical new functionality. If, for example, you subscribe to a Podcast provided by the BBC, new episodes will appear automatically on your chosen device – you will not have to go to the BBC Web site to see if new files are available and then download them.

Note that providing MP3 files to be downloaded from Web sites is sometimes described as Podcasting, but the term strictly refers to automated distribution using RSS.

What Can Podcasting Be Used For?

There are several potential applications for Podcasting in an educational context:

• Maximising the impact of talks by allowing seminars, lectures, conference presentations, etc. to be listened to by a wider audience.
• Recording of talks allowing staff to easily access staff developments sessions and meetings as a revision aid, to catch up on missed lectures, etc.
• Automated conversion of text files, email messages, RSS feeds, etc. to MP3 format, allowing the content to be accessed on mobile MP3 players.
• Maximising the impact of talks by allowing seminars, lectures, conference presentations, etc. to be listened to by a wider audience.
• Recordings of meetings to provide access for people who could not attend.
• Enhancing the accessibility of talks to people with disabilities.

Possible Problems

Although there is much interest in the potential for Podcasting, there are potential problem areas which will need to be considered:

• Recording lectures, presentations, etc. may infringe copyright or undermine the business model for the copyright owners.
• Making recordings available to a wider audience could mean that comments could be taken out of context or speakers may feel inhibited when giving presentations.
• The technical quality of recordings may not be to the standard expected.
• Although appealing to the publisher, end users may not make use of the Podcasts.

It would be advisable to seek permission before making recordings or making recordings available as Podcasts.

Podcasting Software

Listening To Podcasts

It is advisable to gain experiences of Podcasting initially as a recipient, before seeking to create Podcasts. Details of Podcasting software is given at [3] and [4]. Note that support for Podcasts in iTunes v. 5 [5] has helped enhance the popularity of Podcasts. You should note that you do not need a portable MP3 player to listen to Podcasts – however the ability to listen to Podcasts while on the move is one of its strengths.

Creating Podcasts

When creating a Podcast you first need to create your MP3 (or similar) audio file. Many recording tools are available, such as the open source Audacity software [6]. You may also wish to make use of audio editing software to edit files, include sound effects, etc.

You will then need to create the RSS file which accompanies your audio file, enabling users to subscribe to your recording and automate the download. An increasing number of Podcasting authoring tools and Web services are being developed [7] .

References

1. Podcasting, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcasting>
2. RSS 2.0, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Really_Simple_Syndication>
3. iPodder Software,
   <http://www.ipodder.org/directory/4/ipodderSoftware>
4. iTunes – Podcasting,
   <http://www.apple.com/podcasting/>
5. Podcasting Software (Clients), Podcasting News,
   <http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcast_Software.html>
6. Audacity,
   <http://audacity.sourceforge.net/>
7. Podcasting Software (Publishing), Podcasting News,
   <http://www.podcastingnews.com/topics/Podcasting_Software.html>

This document provides an introduction to microformats, with a description of what microformats are, the benefits they can provide and examples of their usage. In addition the document discusses some of the limitations of microformats and provides advice on best practices for use of microformats.

What Are Microformats?

“Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patterns (e.g. XHTML, blogging).” [1].

Microformats make use of existing HTML/XHTML markup: Typically the <span> and <div> elements and class attribute are used with agreed class name (such as vevent, dtstart and dtend to define an event and its start and end dates). Applications (including desktop applications, browser tools, harvesters, etc.) can then process this data.

Examples Of Microformats

Popular examples of microformats include:

• hCard: Markup for contact details such as name, address, email, phone no., etc. Browser tools such as Tails Export [2] allow hCard microformats in HTML pages to be added to desktop applications (e.g. MS Outlook).
• hCalendar: Markup for events such as event name, date and time, location, etc. Browser tools such as Tails Export and Google hCalendar [3] allow hCalendar microformats in HML pages to be added to desktop calendar applications (e.g. MS Outlook) and remote calendaring services such as Google Calendar.

An example which illustrates commercial takeup of the hCalendar microformat is Yahoo’s Upcoming service [4]. This service allows registered users to provide information about events. This information is stored in hCalendar format, allowing the information to be easily added to a local calendar tool.

Limitations Of Microformats

Microformats have been designed to make use of existing standards such as HTML. They have also been designed to be simple to use and exploit. However such simplicity means that microformats have limitations:

• Possible conflicts with the Semantic Web approach: The Semantic Web seeks to provide a Web of meaning based on a robust underlying architecture and standards such as RDF. Some people feel that the simplicity of microformats lacks the robustness promised by the Semantic Web.
• Governance: The definitions and ownership of microformats schemes (such as hCard and hCalendar) is governed by a small group of microformat enthusiasts.
• Early Adopters: There are not yet well-established patterns of usage, advice on best practices or advice for developers of authoring, viewing and validation tools.

Best Practices for Using Microformats

Despite their limitations microformats can provide benefits to the user community. However in order to maximise the benefits and minimise the risks associated with using microformats it is advisable to make use of appropriate best practices. These include:

• Getting it right from the start: Seek to ensure that microformats are used correctly. Ensure appropriate advice and training is available and that testing is carried out using a range of tools. Discuss the strengths and weaknesses of microformats with your peers.
• Having a deployment strategy: Target use of microformats in appropriate areas. For example, simple scripts could allow microformats to be widely deployed, yet easily managed if the syntax changes.
• Risk management: Have a risk assessment and management plan which identifies possible limitations of microformats and plans in case changes are needed [5].

References

1. About Microformats, Microformats.org,
   <http://microformats.org/about/>
2. Tails Export: Overview, Firefox Addons,
   <https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2240/>
3. Google hCalendar,
   <http://greasemonkey.makedatamakesense.com/google_hcalendar/>
4. Upcoming, Yahoo!,
   <http://upcoming.yahoo.com/>
5. Risk Assessment For The IWMW 2006 Web Site, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/risk-assessment/#microformats>

In today’s environment of rapid technological innovation and changing user expectations coupled with financial pressures it is no longer possible for cultural heritage organisations to develop networked services without being prepared to take some risks [1]. The challenge is how to assess such risks prior to making policy decision as to whether the organisation is willing to take such risks.

This briefing document described a framework which aims to support the decision-making process in the content of possible use of the Social Web.

Assessing Risks

Risks should be assessed within the context of use. This context will include the intended purpose of the service, the benefits which the new service are perceived to bring to the various stakeholders and the costs and other resource implications of the deployment and use of the service.

Assessing Missed Opportunities

In addition to assessing the risks of use of a new service there is also a need to assess the risk of not using the new service – the missed opportunity costs. Failing to exploit a Social Web service could result in a loss of a user community or a failure to engage with new potential users. It may be the risks of failing to innovate could be greater than the risks of doing nothing.

Risk Management and Minimisation

It is important to acknowledge that there may be risks associated with the deployment of new services and to understand what those risks might be. As well as assessing the likelihood of the risks occurring and the significance of such risks there will be a need to identify ways in which such risks can be managed and minimised.

It should b noted that risk management approaches might include education, training and staff development as well technical development. It should also be recognised that if may be felt that risks are sometimes worth taking.

The Risks and Opportunities Framework

The Risks and Opportunities Framework was first described in a paper on “Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services” presented at the Museums and the Web 2009 conference [2] and further described at [3].

This framework aims to facilitate discussions and decision-making when use of Social Web service is being considered.

The components of the framework are:

Intended use

Rather than talking about services in an abstract context (“shall we have a Facebook page“) specific details of the intended use should be provided.

Perceived benefits

A summary of the perceived benefits which use of the Social Web service are expected to provide should be documented.

Perceived risks

The perceived risks which use of the Social Web service may entail should be documented.

Missed opportunities

A summary of the missed opportunities and benefits which a failure to make use of the Social Web service should be documented.

Costs

A summary of the costs and other resource implications of use of the service should be documented.

Risk minimisation

Once the risks have been identified and discussed approaches to risk minimisation should be documented.

Evidence base

Evidence which back up assertions made in use of the framework.

References

1. Risk Management InfoKit, JISC infoNET,
   <http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/InfoKits/risk-management>
2. Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services, Kelly, B., Museums and the Web 2009: Proceedings,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/mw-2009/>
3. Further Developments of a Risks and Opportunities Framework, Kelly, B., UK Web Focus blog, 16 April 2009,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2009/04/16/further-developments-of-a-risks-and-opportunities-framework/>

The document An Introduction to the Mobile Web [1] explains how increasing use of mobile devices offers institutions and organisations many opportunities for allowing their resources to be used in exciting new ways. This innovation relates in part to the nature of mobile devices (their portability, location awareness and abundance) but also to the speed and ease with which new applications can be created for them. Some of the current complimentary technologies are described below.

QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) codes are two-dimensional barcodes (matrix codes) that allow their contents to be decoded at high speed. They were created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994 and have been primarily used for tracking purposes but have only recently filtered into mainstream use with the creations of applications that allow them to be read by mobile phone cameras. For further information see An Introduction to QR Codes [2].

Location Based Services (GPS)

More mobile phones are now being sold equipped with global Positioning System (GPS) chips. GPS, which uses a global navigation satellite system developed in the US, allows the device to provide pinpoint data about location.

Mobile GPS still has a way to go to become fully accurate when pinpointing locations but the potential of this is clear. GPS enabled devices serve as a very effective navigational aid and maps may eventually become obsolete. Use of GPS offers many opportunities for organisations to market their location effectively.

SMS Short Codes

Instant is already used by consumers in a multitude of ways, for example to vote, enter a competition or answer a quiz. In the future organisations could set up SMS short codes allowing their users to:

• Express an interest in a product or service or request a brochure
• Request a priority call back
• Receive picture, music, or video content
• Receive search results
• Receive a promotional voucher
• Pay for goods or services
• Engage in learning activities

Bluetooth and Bluecasting

Bluetooth is an open wireless protocol for exchanging data over short distances from fixed and mobile devices. Bluecasting is the provision of any media for Bluetooth use. Organisations could offer content to users who opt-in by making their mobile phones discoverable.

Cashless Financial Transactions

Using Paypal it is now possible to send money to anyone with and email address or mobile phone number. Paying using SMS is becoming more common, for example to pay for car parking. In the future people will be able to use the chip in their phone to make contactless payments at the point of sale by waving it across a reader.

The Future

The next ‘big thing’ for mobile devices could be speech recognition. The voice-enabled Web will have significant implications for authentication and ease of use. Future phones are likely to work in a more multi-sensory way and use smell, light and heat more. They may also begin to use artificial intelligence and augmented reality.

References

1. An Introduction to the Mobile Web, Cultural Heritage briefing paper no. 62, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-62/>
2. An Introduction to QR Codes, Cultural Heritage briefing paper no. 61, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-61/>

Although from the theoretical viewpoint there are no ‘wrong’ tags, in practice care needs to be taken when creating tags. So here are a few tips.

Tags are Single Words

Each tag takes the form of a single word. This is fine if the idea you want to convey is easily defined as a single word or doesn’t have multiple meanings. If this is not the case, tags can be extended by using a hyphen to link words together and still be treated by software and applications as a single word.

Singular or Plural

There are no rules so you choose whether to use the singular or plural form of a word. However, the choice of ‘museum’ instead of ‘museums’ or ‘library’ instead of ‘libraries’ by either the person tagging or searching will affect the results of the search. Library catalogue subject headings always use the plural form.

Words with Multiple Meanings

Some words can have multiple meanings, which could be confusing. When using the tag ‘violet’ do you mean a flower or a colour or a woman? You might need to extend the tag to make the distinction clear:

violet-flower
violet-colour
violet-UML-editor      (a piece of software)
violet-cool-gifts      (an Internet shopping site)
violet-hill-song      (a song and not a geographical feature)
violet-carson      (tv series actress)
violet-posy-blog

Tags for Events and Awards

Web sites that use tags often display the tags visually as a tag cloud. These usually take the form of an alphabetical list of tags and use font size and/or colour to identify the most frequently used tags. This enables viewers to either pick from the alphabetical list or to easily spot the most popular tags.

Tag Cloud Types

If you want to create tags for a series of events or an award, it is advisable to think ahead and devise a consistent set of tags. Start with the name of the event (which might be a well-known acronym) and then extend it using location and/or date.

IFLA-2009	nobel-prize-biology-2000
IFLA-2010	nobel-prize-peace-1999

Note, though, that there are also advantages in having short tags, so sometimes a tag for an event such as IFLA09 may be preferred.

‘Meaningless’ Tags

Within social networking services, people new to tagging often create tags from a very personal viewpoint. These are often effective within a specific context, but of limited use to someone else searching for information.

An advanced Search on Flickr using the tag ‘my-party’ turned up 399 hits. And while extending the tag might be expected to reduce the number of photos found, using ‘ann-party’ actually found 630 hits. Nobody seemed to have extended ‘ann-party’ with a date, but a search on the tag ‘party-2008′ found 901 items.

Even for a personal set of photos, using the tag ‘party’ may well not be enough, if you are a regular party giver or attender. You might need to tag some as ’18th-party’, ‘eurovision-party-2008′, ‘graduation-party’, ‘millennium-party’ or ‘engagement-party’.

Multiple Tags

An advantage of tagging is that any number of tags can be assigned to a resource. Assigning multiple tags to resources may take more time but it does get round some of the problems with tagging. So, if a word could be singular or plural, you could use both terms. Similarly, you could use both formal (or specialist) and informal terms as in ‘oncology’ and ‘cancer’. Multiple tagging also helps when the tagged resource might be searched for via several routes. An image of a dress in a costume collection could be tagged not only with its designer’s name, the year, decade or century it was created, its colour, fabric, length and style features (e.g. sleeveless) but also the occasions when it has been worn and by whom.

A Final Tip

It is worth spending some time considering the above points before deciding on your tags. So think carefully before you tag.

Wikipedia defines a tag as “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file)” [1]. Tags, which are a form of metadata, allow resources to be more easier found.

Background

In the pre-Internet era, library catalogues used keywords to help users find titles on specific topics. Later, publishers of early Web sites started to use keywords to help people to find content. Then around 2003, tagging was developed by the social bookmarking site Delicious, and subsequently used by other social software services such as Flickr, YouTube and Technorati.

Tag Features

A list of typical characteristics of tags is given below:

• Tags are chosen by the creator and/or by the viewer of the tagged item.
• Tags are not part of a formal subject indexing term set.
• Tags are informal and personal.
• An item may have multiple tags assigned to it.
• There is no ‘wrong’ tag.

Tag Clouds

Web sites that use tags often display the tags visually as a tag cloud. These usually take the form of an alphabetical list of tags and use font size and/or colour to identify the most frequently used tags. This enables viewers to either pick from the alphabetical list or to easily spot the most popular tags.

Tag Cloud Types

A number of different types of tag clouds may be found. For example:

• The size represents the number of times that tag has been applied to a single item.
• The size represents the number of items to which a specific tag has been applied.
• The size represents the number of items in a content category.

Folksonomies

In situations where many users add tags to lots of items, a collection of tags is built up over time. Such a collection tags may be referred to as a folksonomy. A more formal definition of folksonomy is a set of keywords that is built up collaboratively without a pre-determined hierarchical structure.

Users of tagging systems can see the tags already applied by other people and will often, therefore, choose to use existing tags. However, they will create new tags if no existing tag is suitable or if the existing ones are not specific enough.

Hash Tags (# Tags)

Hash tags (also written as ‘hashtags’) are used in messages using services such as Twitter. The hash symbol (#) is placed before the word to be treated as a tag, as in the example below.

#goji berries are the new #superfood

This enables tweets on a specific topic to be found by searching on the hash tag.

Adding Tags

Systems vary in how you enter tags. When a single text box is provided and you want to enter more than one tag, you will need to use a separator between the tags. The most popular separator is the space character but some systems use other separators; e.g. quotation marks. Other systems only allow one tag to be entered at a time; in these cases you will have to repeat the process to add further tags.

‘Official’ Tags

Events and conferences increasingly are creating ‘official’ tags. These tags can then be used by participants for blog posts, photos of the event, presentation slides and other supporting materials and resources. This use of a consistent tag maximises the effectiveness of searching for resources relating to specific events.

References

1. Tag (metadata), Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(metadata)>

Quick Response (QR) codes are two-dimensional barcodes (matrix codes) that allow their contents to be decoded at high speed. They were created by Japanese corporation Denso-Wave in 1994 and have been primarily used for tracking purposes but have only recently filtered into mainstream use with the creations of applications that allow them to be read by mobile phone cameras.

How Can You Read Them?

Users can scan in codes (maybe in a magazine or on a poster) using a mobile phone with a camera or QR reader and QR Code reader software. The decoding software then interprets the code. QR software can be downloaded from the Web: a list of applications suitable for a variety of handsets is available from Tigtags [1]. Users are then provided with a relevant URL, chunk of text, transferred to a phone number or sent an SMS. This act of linking from physical world objects is known as a hardlink or physical world hyperlinks.

Figure 1: QR Code for the UKOLN Cultural Heritage Web site

Creating QR Codes

To create a QR Code you will need to access a QR Code generator then enter the required information. The output is an image file which you can save to your computer. There are a number of freely available QR code generators including Kaywa [2] and i-nigma [3]. An effective QR code should generally be a maximum of 40 – 80 characters (more characters cause the image to degrade), black and white and a minimum of 2cm wide.

Challenges

Currently not all mobile devices have the capacity to include a QR code reader and there are also issues regarding cost and speed of access to networks. QR codes have a limited number of characters and use is currently limited to one action per code.

Potential of QR Codes

QR Codes have great potential within learning and teaching, for example by linking to online resources and allowing user interaction. They are also a great tool for linking information to locations and objects, for example in museums or through the creation of treasure trails. The QR Codes at Bath blog [4] offers many ideas for uses. They can also be used in conjunction with other services (such as a library catalogue) or as a marketing aid by putting onto posters, t-shirts etc. They are very cheap to produce. In December 2008 Pepsi became the first high-profile consumer brand to use QR codes.

QR Codes in the Museum

A blog post on the PowerHouse Museum blog [5] identified a number of opportunities and possible problems in making use of QR code with extended object. The blog post suggested that QR codes are probably best seen just as mobile-readable URLs. However initial experiments with QR codes identified a number of difficulties including not all QR codes are not the same; inconsistent size of QR codes and making the mobile site.

References

1. TigTags,
   <http://www.tigtags.com/getqr>
2. Kayway,
   <http://qrcode.kaywa.com/>
3. i-nigma,
   <http://www.i-nigma.com/i-nigmahp.html>
4. QR codes at Bath,
   <http://blogs.bath.ac.uk/qrcode/>
5. QR codes in the museum – problems and opportunities with extended object, PowerHouse Musuem blog, 5 March 2009,
   <http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog/index.php/2009/03/05/qr-codes-in-the-museum-problems-and-opportunities-with-extended-object-labels/>

A wide range of standards are available which seek to ensure that networked services are platform and application-independent, accessibility, interoperable and are suitable for re-purposing.

But how does one go about selecting appropriate open standards, especially, as described below, some open standards may fail to reach maturity? This briefing document describes an approach which can support the selection process.

Challenges

Although use of recommended standards and best practices is encouraged, there may be occasions when this is not possible:

Building on existing systems: Projects may be based on development of existing systems, which do not use appropriate standards.

Standards immature: Some standards may be new, and there is a lack of experience in their use. Although some organisations may relish the opportunity to be early adopters of new standards, others may prefer to wait until the benefits of the new standards have been established and many teething problems resolved.

Functionality of the standard: Does the new standard provide functionality which is required for the service to be provided?

Limited support for standards: There may be limited support for the new standards. For example, there may be a limited range of tools for creating resources based on the new standards or for viewing the resources.

Limited expertise: There may be limited expertise for developing services based on new standards or there may be limited assistance to call on in case of problems.

Limited timescales: There may be insufficient time to gain an understanding of new standards and gain experience in use of tools.

In many cases standards will be mature and expertise readily available. The selection of the standards to be deployed can be easily made. What should be done when this isn’t the case?

A Matrix Approach

In light of the challenges which may be faced when wishing to make use of recommended standards and best practices it is suggested that organisations use a matrix approach to resolving these issues.

Organisations will need to formulate their own matrix which covers issues relevant to their particular project, funding, organisation, etc.

Implementation

This matrix approach is not intended to provide a definitive solution to the selection of standards. Rather it is intended as a tool which can assist organisations when they go through the process of choosing the standards they intend to use. It is envisaged that development work will document their comments on issues such as those listed above. These comments should inform a discussion within the development team, and possibly with the project’s advisory or steering group. Once a decision has been made the rationale for the decision should be documented. This will help to ensure that the reasonings are still available if members of the development team leave.

For examples of how projects have addressed the selection of standards can see:

• ESDS Web Standards Policy case study
  <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-16/>
• Standards for e-learning: The e-MapScholar Experience case study
  <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-05/>

Use of video is one of a number of techniques that might be used to amplify an event. The term amplified conference describes a conference or similar event in which the talks and discussions at the conference are ‘amplified’ through use of networked technologies in order to extend the reach of the conference deliberations [01]. In the past video technologies have been available to support events but have normally been expensive to use. Recently the availability of lightweight tools (including mobile devices) have made it much easier to deploy such technologies.

Video Streaming

Filming speakers at an event makes it possible for a speaker to be heard by an audience which isn’t physically present at the conference. Live video streaming has become easier to do and most venues will have some tools in place to allow people off-site to watch events as they happen. This means that remote participants can engage in activity as it takes through the use of other tools such as Twitter [02]. Paying for a dedicated company to stream an event may be one option but there are also cheaper approaches.

Videoing of Talks

If talks cannot be streamed it may still be possible to record them and publish after the event. The availability of conference footage can potentially provide a valuable historical record. The video may also be viewed in significant numbers over time.

Video can also be used in innovative ways such as interviews with participants; promotional clips advertising the event and video clips shown during breaks.

Challenges

When considering use of video at events you will need to address a number of issues:

Consent

It is imperative that event organisers seek permission from speakers for the streaming or videoing of their talks. Clarity of intentions will allow resources to be used more effectively after an event possibly, for example through use of a Creative Commons licence [03]. There may be reasons why permission is not granted by some speakers, for example if a speaker wants to speak freely.

Intrusiveness

At events where presentations are videoed it may not be just the speaker who is filmed. Delegates may wish to participate in the Q&A session, whether these parts of a presentation are captured or not may require discussion.

Technologies

Suitable video equipment may not always be available for use. There may be issues with room layout that prevent you from videoing (such as a lack of power sockets or issues with the line of vision). Occasionally video footage may be created in a difficult to use format.

Addressing the Challenges

Ways of addressing the challenges can include:

• Have a pool of equipment that can be borrowed. Some gadgets such as Flip cameras are cheap and easy to use. Many mobile phones will allow creation of short videos, users will need to bear in mind memory and battery requirements.
• Make sure that those involved in the creation of video are clear on their responsibilities. Discuss matters such as hosting, format and cost in advance.
• Indicate on booking forms what the procedure will be and describe privacy issues in the Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). Some events may require delegates to agree to being photographed (through use of tick boxes on booking forms) whilst others may prefer top inform delegates this may happen.
• Provide a quiet zone in the lecture theatre for participants who wish to avoid being photographed or videoed.
• Have a Creative Commons notice on the lectern so that a rights statement will be embedded in video footage.
• Publicise well. Inform people before an event if you are going to stream it, inform people after an event if you have screen casts/video footage available. Ensure people are aware of tags and the location of resources.
• Take feedback on board. Ask your attendees what they think of use of video at your event and take criticism on board.

References

1. Amplified Conference, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amplified_conference>
2. Using Twitter at Events, Cultural heritage briefing page no. 56, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-56/>
3. An Introduction to Creative Commons, Cultural heritage briefing page no. 34, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-34/>

Copyright is legal device that gives the owner the right to control how a creative work is used. Until several years ago the contents of a database could not be legally protected. Producers of databases that contained factual data could not claim copyright protection which made it impossible for them to prevent others from copying content. On 11 March 1996 the Council of the European Union adopted Directive 96/9/EG giving specific and separate legal rights (and limitations) to databases: database rights.

What is a Database?

A database is defined in the directive as “a collection of independent works, data or other materials which are arranged in a systematic or methodical way and are individually accessible by electronic or other means.” This broad definition could cover anything from mailing lists, repositories, directories and catalogues to telephone directories and encyclopaedias.

A database will be protected by database rights but its individual components (which may be factual data) may not.

What are Database Rights?

There may have been considerable effort in the creation of a database. This effort is known in intellectual property law as the “sweat of the brow (named after the idiom sweat of one’s brow). Database rights specifically protect this effort and investment. Investment includes “any investment, whether of financial, human or technical resources” and substantial means “substantial in terms of quantity or quality or a combination of both”. Metadata will be included in this investment. Infringement of a database right happens if a person extracts or re-utilises all or a substantial part of the contents of a protected database without the consent of the owner. Fair use and use for academic purposes apply to public databases.

Database rights last for fifteen years from the end of the year that the database was made available to the public, or from the end of the year of completion for private databases. Any substantial changes will lead to a new term of database rights.

The biggest database rights case to date was over William Hill Bookmaker’s reuse of the British Horseracing Board’s online database. In 2004 the European Court of Justice ruled that database rights were not infringed.

Other Protection

Databases are treated as a class of literary works and may also be given copyright protection for the selection and/or arrangement of the contents under the terms of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. For this to happen the selection and/or arrangement of the contents of the database must be original and require the intellectual creativity of the author. Arrangement of a list of names in alphabetical order would not meet this standard.

If a database, table or compilation does attract copyright protection, this lasts for a period of 70 years from the end of the calendar year in which the author dies. Databases not in the public domain may also be protected under the law of confidence. The Data Protection Act 1998 will also apply to databases containing personal data.

Creating Databases

Those involved in the creation of databases should give consideration to:

• Whether a database qualifies for copyright/database right protection?
• Who is the owner of the database is (i.e. the institution or other)?
• What contracts apply to the creation of the database.
• Offering text/licences that specify how the data may be used.
• Keeping a record of the investment in a database.

Creators should also update databases regularly to ensure that the 15 year protection period recommences.

Further Information

Briefing documents on Introduction To Intellectual Property and Copyright [1] and An Introduction To Creative Commons [2] are also available.

References

1. Introduction To Intellectual Property and Copyright, Cultural Heritage briefing document no. 38, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-38/>
2. An Introduction to Creative Commons, Cultural Heritage briefing document no. 34, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-34/>

Increasingly WiFi networks are available in lecture theatres [1]. With greater ownership of laptops, PDAs, etc. we can expect conference delegates to make use of the networks. There is a danger that this could lead to possible misuse (e.g. accessing inappropriate resources; reading email instead of listening; etc.) This document describes ways in which a proactive approach can be taken in order to exploit enhance learning at events. The information in this document can also be applied to lectures aimed at students.

Design Of PowerPoint Slides

A simple technique when PowerPoint slides are used is to make the slides available on the Web and embed hypertext links in the slides (as illustrated). This allows delegates to follow links which may be of interest.

Providing access to PowerPoint slides can also enhance the accessibility of the slides (e.g. visually impaired delegates can zoom in on areas of interest).

Making slides available on Slideshare can also help to maximise access to the slides by allowing the slides to be embedded in Web pages, blogs, etc.

Using Bookmarking Tools

Social bookmarking tools such as del.icio.us can be used to record details of resources mentioned. An illustration of this is shown in the above image in which the ili2006 tag is used to bookmark the resources described in the presentation.

Realtime Discussion Facilities

Providing discussion facilities such as Twitter can enable groups in the lecture theatre to discuss topics of interest [2].

Support For Remote Users

VoIP (Voice over IP) software (such as Skype) and related audio and video-conferencing tools can be used to allow remote speakers to participate in a conference [3] and also to allow delegates to listen to talks without being physically present.

Using Blogs And Wikis

Delegates can make use of blogs to take notes: This is being increasingly used at conferences, especially those with a technical focus, such as IWMW 2006 [4]. Note that blogs are normally used by individuals. In order to allow several blogs related to the same event to be brought together it is advisable to make use of an agreed tag.

Unlike blogs, wikis are normally used in a collaborative way. They may be suitable for use by small groups at a conference (e.g. for not-taking in breakout sessions).

Challenges

Although WiFi networks can provide benefits there are several challenges to be addressed in order to ensure that the technologies do not act as a barrier to learning.

User Needs

Although successful at technology-focussed events, the benefits may not apply more widely. There is a need to be appreciative of the event environment and culture. There may also be a need to provide training in use of the technologies.

AUP

Consider whether an Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) should be provided.

Performance Issues, Security, etc.

There is a need to estimate the bandwidth requirements, etc. in order to ensure that the technical infrastructure can support the demands of the event. There will also be a need to address security issues (e.g. use of firewalls; physical security of laptops, etc.).

Equal Opportunities

If not all delegates will possess a networked device, care should be taken to ensure that delegates without such access are not disenfranchised.

References

1. Using Networked Technologies To Support Conferences, B. Kelly et al, EUNIS 2005, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/eunis-2005/paper-1/>
2. Using Twitter at Events, Cultural heritage briefing page no. 56, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-56/>
3. Interacting With Users, Remote In Time And Space, L. Phipps, SOLSTICE 2006, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/solstice-2006/>
4. Workshop Blogs, IWMW 2006, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/blogs/>

An organisation’s home page provides the doorway to its Web site. How it changes over time reflects both how an organisation has changed and how the Web has changed. Keeping a record of both the visual and structural changes of the home page could be very important in the future.

Scenario

Suppose your organisation is about to commemorate an important anniversary (10 years, 50 years or 250 years since it was founded). Your director wants to highlight the fact that the organisations is actively engaging with new technologies and would like to provide an example of how the organisation’s Web site has developed since it was launched. The challenge:

How has your organisational home page changed over time? Have you kept records of the changes and the decisions which were made? If the above scenario took place in your organisations, do you feel you would be able to deliver a solution?

Although most Web managers will be aware of the most significant changes (such as a CMS brought in, search added, changes in navigation, branding, accessibility, language, content, interactive elements and multimedia) currently there is likely to only be anecdotal evidence and tacit knowledge.

Internet Archive

One option may be to use the Internet Archive (IA) [1] to view the recorded occurrences of the organisation’s home page. The IA is a non-profit organisation founded to build an Internet library, with the purpose of offering access to historical collections that exist in digital format. There are a number of issues to consider when using the IA e.g. it lacks explicit preservation principles and may not have a sustainable business model and so its use cannot guarantee the preservation of your resources.

Example: As part of the JISC PoWR project an interactive display was created of the University of Bath’s home page using IA screenshots [2]. In addition to this display a brief video with accompanying commentary was also created, which discusses some of the changes to the home page over the 11 years.

Compiled History

Building a compiled history is another approach. A 14 year’s history of the University of Virginia’s Web site from 1994-2008 [3] is available from their site. They provide details of the Web usage statistics in the early years, with screen images shown of major changes to the home page from 1997. There is also a time line and access to archived sites from 1996 onwards.

Preserving for the Future

The best way that you can ensure that your organisation’s home page is preserved is ensuring that it gets documented in a preservation policy or as part of a retention schedule. Once this has been agreed there are a number of available options.

Domain harvesting of the site:

Your home page could be captured as part of a harvesting programme. Your organisation could conduct its own domain harvest, sweeping the entire domain (or domains) using appropriate Web-crawling tools or work in partnership with an external agency to do domain harvesting on its behalf.

UKWAC:

The UK Web-Archiving Consortium (UKWAC) [4] has been gathering and curating Web sites since 2004. To date, UKWAC’s approach has been selective: although you can now nominate Web sites for capture with UKWAC.

Adobe Capture:

There is a built-in part of Adobe Acrobat which allows Web sites to be captured to a PDF file.

Exploration of your Content Management System options:

There may be some scope for preservation using your CMS.

Conclusions

Responsibility for the preservation of your organisation’s Web site may fall in many places but will ultimately require shared ownership. Although there may be ways to easily access snap shots of your home page, if you would like long-term access you will need to embark upon some sort of preservation strategy.

References

1. Internet Archive, <http://www.archive.org/>
2. Visualisation of University of Bath Home page changes, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/experiments/experiment-20080612/>
3. History of UVA on the Web, <http://www.virginia.edu/virginia/archive/>
4. UWAC, <http://www.webarchive.org.uk/>

We have become increasingly familiar with the term Web 2.0, referring in a very general way to the recent explosion of highly interactive and personalised Web services and applications. Collaboration and social networking are a key feature, for example through contributing comments or sharing write access and collaborating. Many of these applications have now crossed the threshold between private, personal use and applications used at work.

Web 2.0 Applications

In a briefing paper for JISC, Mark van Harmelen defined seven types of Web 2.0 applications [1]: blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, media sharing services, social networking systems, collaborative editing tools and syndication and notification technologies.

Some of these applications and services listed above are still at an ‘experimental’ stage and (at time of writing) being used in organisations primarily by early adopters of new technologies. But it is possible to discern the same underlying issues with all these applications, regardless of the software or its outputs.

Web 2.0 Issues

Preservation of Web 2.0 resources presents a number of different challenges to preservation of standard Web resources. These include:

• Use of third party services: data may be held on a provider’s server.
• More complex ownership, IPR and authentication issues.
• Data held may be personal and difficult to extract.
• Emphasis on collaboration and communication rather than access to resources.
• Richer diversity of services.
• Is the data worth preserving at all?

Ownership and Responsibility

Quite often these applications rely on the individual to create and manage their own resources. A likely scenario is that the user creates and manages his or her own external accounts in Flickr, Slideshare or WordPress.com; but they are not organisational accounts. By contrast, one would expect blogs and wikis hosted by the organisation to offer more commitment to maintenance, in line with existing policies on rights, retention and reuse, as expressed in IT and information policy, conditions of employment, etc.

Third-party sites such as Slideshare or YouTube are excellent for dissemination, but they cannot be relied on to preserve your materials permanently. If you have created a resource – slideshow, moving image, audio, whatever it be – that requires retention or preservation, then someone needs to make arrangements for the ‘master copy’. Ideally, you want to bring these arrangements in line with the larger Web archiving programme. However, if there is a need for short-term action, and the amount of resources involved are (though important) relatively small, then remedial action for master copies may be appropriate. Some possible remedial actions are:

• Store it in the Electronic Document Records Management System
• Store it on the Institution Web site
• Store it in the Institutional Repository
• Store it on a local networked drive

In the case of blogs, wikis and collaborative tools, content is created directly in them, and access is normally dependent on the availability of the host and the continued functioning of the software. Users of such tools should be encouraged and assisted to ensure significant outputs of online collaborative work are exported and managed locally.

Conclusion

It is unclear at this stage if Web 2.0 offers a new set of challenges or an enhancement of existing ones. The really challenging problems are organisational e.g. how can an organisation identify “its content” on something like Slideshare? Who ultimately “owns” content? How (and should) things be “unpublished”? A number of case studies of preservation of Web 2.0 resources are available from the JISC PoWR Web site [2].

References

1. An Introduction to Web 2.0, Cultural Heritage briefing paper no. 1, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-1/>
2. JISC PoWR Web 2.0, JISC PoWR Blog, <http://jiscpowr.jiscinvolve.org/category/Web-20/>

A wiki is a Web site that uses wiki software, allowing the easy creation and editing of any number of interlinked Web pages, using a simplified markup language or a WYSIWYG text editor, within the browser [1].

The key characteristics of typical wikis are:

• The ability to create and edit content within a Web environment without the need to download any special software.
• Use of a simple markup language which is designed to simplify the process of creating and editing documents.
• The ability to easily create and edit content, often without need for special privileges.

Wikipedia – The Best Known Wiki

Wikipedia is probably the largest and best-known example of a wiki – see <http://www.wikipedia.org/>.

Wikipedia is a good example of a wiki in which content is provided by contributors around the world.

Wikipedia appears to have succeeded in providing an environment and culture which has minimised the dangers of misuse. Details of the approaches taken on Wikipedia are given on the Wikimedia Web site [2].

What Can Wikis Be Used For?

Wikis can be used for a number of purposes:

• On public Web sites to enable end users to easily contribute information, such as the Science Museums Object Wiki [3].
• Wikis can support communities of practice. For example see the Museums Wiki site [4], the Blogging Libraries Wiki [5] and the AHA’s Archives Wiki [6].
• Wikis can be used to allow local residents to contribute to an official archive [7].

Wikis – The Pros And Cons

As described in [8] advantages of wikis may include (a) there is no need to install HTML authoring tools; (b) minimal training may be needed; (c) it can help develop a culture of sharing and working together (cf. open source); (d) it can be useful for joint working when there are agreed shared goals.

However, as described in [9] take-up of wikis in the public sector has been low in the public sector for various reasons: (a) the success of the Wikipedia may not necessarily be replicated elsewhere; (b) concerns that inappropriate content made be added to a wiki; (c) a collaborative wiki may suffer from a lack of a strong vision or leadership; (d) it can be ineffective when there is a lack of consensus; (e) it may be difficult for wikis to gain momentum; (f) there may be copyright and other legal issues regarding collaborative content and (g) there is not a standard wiki markup language. More recently Looseley and Roberto [10] have suggested ways of overcoming such barriers.

References

1. Wiki, Wikipedia, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki>
2. Wikimedia principles, Wikimedia, <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_principles>
3. Museums wiki, Wikia, <http://museums.wikia.com/>
4. Science Museum Object Wiki, Science Museum, <http://objectwiki.sciencemuseum.org.uk/>
5. Blogging Libraries Wiki, <http://www.blogwithoutalibrary.net/links/>
6. AHA’s Archives Wiki, <http://archiveswiki.historians.org/>
7. War Memorial Wiki, London Borough of Lewisham, <http://lewishamwarmemorials.wikidot.com/>
8. Making the Case for a Wiki, E. Tonkin, Ariadne 42, Jan. 2005, <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/>
9. Wiki or Won’t He? A Tale of Public Sector Wikis, M. Guy, Ariadne 49, Oct. 2006, <http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue49/guy/>
10. Museums & Wikis: Two Case Studies, R. Looseley and F. Roberto, MW 2009, <http://www.archimuse.com/mw2009/abstracts/prg_335001924.html>

OPML is defined in Wikipedia as “an XML format for outlines” [1]. OPML stands for Outline Processor Markup Language. It was originally developed as an outlining application by Radio Userland. However it has been adopted for a range of other applications, in particular providing an exchange format for RSS.

Why The Interest?

Grouping Feeds

As an example of the user benefits which OPML can provide let us look at the various RSS feeds which are available on the BBC Web site. These include RSS feeds for:

• News items
• Sports
• TV programmes
• Regional items
• Podcasts
• …

In each of these areas there might be multiple additional feeds. For example the Sports feed could provide general news covering all sports, with additional categories for individual sports. Then might then be news feeds for individuals sports teams.

OPML provides a mechanism for grouping related RSS feeds, allowing them to be processed collectively rather than individually. This can be particularly useful if you wish to subscribe to a group of feeds. An example of how the BBC make use of OPML files for their podcasts can be seen at [2].

Export and Import of Feeds

OPML can also be used if you wish to migrate your feeds from one RSS reader/aggregator to another.

Examples

User Interface to Resources

Use of the Grazr widget on the UKOLN Cultural Heritage Web site [3] is illustrated.

In this example RSS feeds have been created for all the briefing documents, new briefing documents and other lists of resources. These RSS feeds are described in an OPML file. The Grazr widget then allows these files to be navigated and once a suitable resource has been found it can be opened in the Web browser window.

Netvibes and Google Reader

As illustrated, RSS readers such as Reedreader allow RSS files to be imported and exported as OPML files.

This can be useful if you wish to migrate large numbers of RSS feeds from one RSS reader to another.

This may also be useful if you wish to share your list of RSS feeds with other users.

An example of a similar interface in the Google Reader is also illustrated.

The ability to easily migrate data between applications not only provides greater flexibility for the user, it also minimises risks of data being trapped into a particular application.

References

1. OPML, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OPML>
2. OPML feed of podcasts, BBC,
   <http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/2008/04/opml_feed_of_podcasts.shtml>
3. RSS Feeds, Cultural Heritage, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/rss/>

RSS is defined in Wikipedia as “a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works – such as blog entries, news headlines, audio and video – in a standardized format” [1]. RSS and the related Atom standard can be used to provide alerts and syndication of content. These lightweight standards play an important role in a Web 2.0 environment in allowing content to be easily reused.

How RSS and Atom Are Being Used

News feeds are an example of automated syndication. News feed technologies allow information to be automatically provided and updated on Web sites, emailed to users, etc. As the name implies news feeds are normally used to provide news; however the technology can be used to syndicate a wide range of information.

Examples of use of RSS on organisational Web sites include:

• The Forestry Commission Scotland which provides RSS feeds for news and information on trail conditions [2]
• The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret which provides RSS feeds for information on news, events, grants received and development plans [3]
• The Kids and Reading service which provides RSS feeds on latest articles and news [4]

RSS and Atom are widely used by popular Web 2.0 services, allowing the content provided by the services to be viewed without the user having to visit the service. Examples include:

• Amazon which provides RSS feeds on the availability of new products [5]
• Flickr which provides a variety of customisable RSS feeds [6]
• YouTube which provides a variety of RSS feeds about various categorised groups of videos[7]
• The BBC which provides a large numbers of RSS feeds covering the range of its services [8]

RSS Feeds Readers

As described in [9] there are a large number of RSS reader / RSS aggregation tools available. Examples of different types of RSS readers are summarised below.

• Google Reader: Google Reader [10] is an example of a popular Web-based RSS reader.
• Newsgator and NetNewsWire: Netnewswire [11] is an RSS client for the iPhone/iPod Touch mobile devices which is integrated with the Newsgator Web-based RSS client.
• Netvibes and PageFlakes: Netvibes [12] and PageFlakes [13] are Web-based RSS readers which provide a more graphical style of interface than Google Reader.
• Feedreader Feedreader [14] is an RSS reader for the desktop.
• Outlook 2007 Email Client The Microsoft Outlook 2007 email client [15] includes an RSS reader. This will enable you to read RSS feeds in a similar fashion to reading email.

References

1. RSS, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS>
2. Forestry Commission Scotland,
   <http://www.7stanes.gov.uk/forestry/INFD-6ZGJZM>
3. The Old Operating Theatre and Herb Garret,
   <http://www.thegarret.org.uk/rssfeed.htm>
4. Kids and Reading Service,
   <http://www.kidsandreading.co.uk/>
5. Product RSS Feeds, Amazon,
   <http://www.amazon.com/Product-RSS-Feeds/b?node=390052011>
6. Flickr Services, Flickr,
   <http://www.flickr.com/services/feeds/>
7. About RSS, YouTube,
   <http://www.youtube.com/rssls>
8. News Feeds From The BBC, BBC,
   <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3223484.stm>
9. Aggregator, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aggregator>
10. Google Reader, Google,
    <http://www.google.com/reader/view/>
11. Online News Reader, Newsgator,
    <http://www.newsgator.com/individuals/>
12. Netvibes,
    <http://www.netvibes.com/>
13. Pageflakes,
    <http://www.pageflakes.com/>
14. Feedreader,
    <http://www.feedreader.com/features.php>
15. Get Your RSS Feeds For Outlook, Microsoft,
    <http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/help/HA102148541033.aspx>

The digital world is one of continual change and rapid development of technology. Web sites change content, are radically restructured or disappear. Software is released in new versions, which may not be (fully) compatible with resources created using the earlier versions. Recording media for digital resources also deteriorates, often with data loss. Some resources are designed for use with specific hardware – which may breakdown, perhaps irretrievably, and/or go out of production.

This combination of factors means that you need to consider the preservation aspects of these resources at the earliest possible moment – ideally before they are created.

Before You Create a Policy

Before creating your policy on digital preservation you should first address the following issues:

Listing of resources

All types of digital resources that you either currently or plan to create, own or subscribe to should be documented.

Identification

Document the risks for each type of resource – e.g. Web site changes, software version changes, media degradation, hardware failure and replacement unavailability.

Implications

Consider the implications for your service in the worst case scenario. Are the resources intended to be ephemeral or permanent?

Assessment

Assess the value of groups of resources and the impact on your service if these no longer exist or are inaccessible.

Solutions

For each case, identify what the options are, how much they will cost and what they will require in terms of staff time and skills.

Decide

Decide on the strategies which are most appropriate for each type of resource.

Preservation Strategies

An appropriate strategy will depend on the resource and the type of failure. Strategies include:

Refresh

Transfer data between two types of the same storage medium e.g. creating a new preservation CD from the previous one.

Migrate

Transfer data from one format (operating system, programming language) to another format so the resource remains functional and accessible e.g. conversion from Microsoft Word to PDF or OpenDocument.

Replicate

Create one or more duplicates as insurance against loss or damage to one or more of the copies e.g. back-up copies on CD for resources available from Web site.

Emulate

Replicate the functionality of an obsolete application, operating system or hardware platform e.g. emulating WordPerfect 1.0 on a Macintosh system.

Your Preservation Policy

Having done the preparatory work, you are now in the position to be able to make decisions on your preservation policy, based on your particular combination of digital resources, funding, and technical platform and skills. Having made the decisions, record them and make sure all appropriate staff have access to the information.

The key characteristics of a preservation policy are:

Clarity

Different digital resources will require different preservation strategies. Deal with each type separately within the policy.

Risks

Each digital resource type is listed with its attendant risk.

Solution

The solution currently to be applied in the context of a specific (set of) resource(s).

Revision

As circumstances change, the preservation policy will need to change too, so build in a regular review.

Acknowledgements

This document was based on materials produced by the JISC-funded PoWR (Preservation of Web Resources) project which was provided by UKOLN and ULCC (University of London Computer Centre).

Digital media is well placed to be reused, and to be available for different applications e.g. as a source of images for marketing, a picture library resource or for an online collections database. There are several aspects to this:

• The formats of documents or data files, by following established standards, remain discoverable and usable
• The media that they reside on is stored safely, is reliable, is refreshed and is backed up securely.
• Systems are designed to remain available, affordable and are supported.
• Web sites are maintained and supported.

Strategies

The following strategies can be used in the preservation of digital assets:

Refreshing:

Media may need to be refreshed in line with its recommended life. A checking system may be put in place to identify problems.

Migration:

Data may need conversion of data into a more accessible format. This has the potential for the loss of data.

Emulation:

Where an emulator mimics the original software environment to allow data to be read.

Standards and File Formats

Using standard formats for data files (whether text, images, audio and video) will not prevent them being superseded but can help in maximising the opportunity for reuse.

Systems

There can be a breakdown of continuity in both hardware and software even if open standards are used. Systems that conform to standards (e.g. Spectrum for a collections management system) may ensure easier migration to a new system.

Media

In the life of the PC there have been rapid changes in removable data, from the original 5.25″ ‘floppy’ disk found in the earliest PCs, to the 3.5″ disk, CD, DVD and USB memory stick. Fixed or ‘hard’ disks have grown in size from being measured in megabytes to reaching terabytes.

Issues to consider regarding digital media include:

Capacity:

The increasing size of data files has put pressure on backups. Simple local backups may be made using multiple CDs or DVDs but such media is not likely to be reliable in the longer term.

Reliability:

Reputable brands of media should be chosen to maximise reliability. Different brands may be selected for different sets to protect from faulty batches. Media should be kept in a stable environment, away from dust and dirt and magnetic interference.

Identification:

Safe labelling is important to identify the purpose of the backups and the relationship to any digitisation programmes. This should take into account use beyond the immediate life of the project and the original personnel involved.

Archive Copies:

Should be handled as little as possible. Working copies should be used for regular access, such as for copying and publication.

Remote Backups:

To ensure safe-keeping, a remote backup outside of the building and immediate area is necessary. This may provide an opportunity to store the media in a specialist, supervised store.

Web Sites

Consideration needs to be taken of preservation and sustainability issues concerning Web sites. The design of the Web site should take into account how digital content may be used in other applications, rather than being focussed solely on one output.

There is a clear advantage in storing and managing digital assets within a collections management system which has the capability of exporting to the Web as data might be more easily migrated to another system.

Acknowledgements

This document has been produced from information contained within the Renaissance East Midlands Simple Guide to Digitisation that was researched and written by Julian Tomlin and is available from http://www.renaissanceeastmidlands.org.uk/. We are grateful for permission to republish this document under a Creative Commons licence. Anyone wishing to republish this document should include acknowledgements to Renaissance East Midlands and Julian Tomlin.

Twitter has been described as a micro-blogging application which allows users to publish short (<140 characters) snippets of text [1]. Video micro-blogging is similar but allows users to publish short (often less than 5 minute) video clips.

What Is Seesmic?

Seesmic [2] is an example of a video micro-blogging service. Users can record video clips directly from the Seesmic Web site (no additional software needs to be installed). Alternatively video clips can be uploaded or retrieved from sites such as YouTube.

The video clips can be viewed directly on the Seesmic Web site (as shown below and available at <http://seesmic.tv/videos/9E6jdYm8kF> or embedded in other Web pages.

The screen shot shown above is of a video clip lasting 1 minute 27 seconds asking whether blogging can be rewarding. It should be noted that seven video responses to this post have been received.

Uses Of Seesmic

Sceptics argue that, unlike micro-blogging applications such as Twitter, video micro-blogging ser vices such as Seesmic are difficult to process quickly, as it is not possible to quickly digest the content or skim through video content.

Seesmic fans argue that use of video can provide a richer form of engagement with the publisher of the post. A blog post on the UK Web Focus blog describes the potential for use of Seesmic as a mechanism for creating content for use in presentations, for reviewing such content and for encouraging others to provide feedback which can be used in presentations [3].

Viewing Seesmic Posts Using Twhirl

Seesmic video posts can be viewed using a Web browser, either by visiting the Seesmic Web site or by viewing a Seesmic video post which has been embedded in a Web page.

In addition a dedicated Seesmic client, such as Twhirl [4], can be used to view the video clips.

Twhirl was developed as a client for reading Twitter micro-blog posts. However it can also be used to view micro-blog posts from other services and video blog posts from Seesmic, as illustrated. An advantage with this approach is that new video posts from Seesmic users you are following will automatically be displayed in the Twhirl interface.

What Can Video Microblogging Services Offer?

It is too early to say whether video microblogging services such as Seesmic will have a significant impact. However as there is low cost to using Seesmic and it can allow users to gain experience in creating videos it may be a useful service for evaluating.

References

1. An Introduction to Twitter, UKOLN Cultural Heritage Briefing Document No. 36,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-36/>
2. Seesmic,
   <http://www.seesmic.com/>
3. Experiments With Video Blogging To Support Presentations, UK Web Focus blog, 10 Oct 2008,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2008/10/10/experiments-with-video-blogging/>
4. Twhirl,
   <http://www.twhirl.org/>

This briefing document provides an introduction to digital preservation.

What Is Digital Preservation?

Digital preservation is the management of digital information over time. It takes the form of processes and activities that ensure continued access to information and all kinds of records, both scientific and cultural heritage, that exists in digital form.

The aim of digital preservation is long-term, error-free storage of digital information, with the means of retrieval and interpretation, for the period of time that information is required.

Why Do We Need Digital Preservation?

The digital world is a place of rapid technological and organisational changes, which impacts on the continuing use of digital resources. In contrast to our physical written heritage, still readable today, digital information created only a few years ago is in danger of being lost.

Which Materials Need Preservation?

All types of digital resources need preservation including:

Digitally Reformatted

Digitised versions or surrogates of physical items.

Born Digital

Digital resources that have no analogue counterpart.

Individual resources

Texts, still and moving images, sound recordings, etc.

Collective resources

Web sites, e-journals, wikis, catalogues, etc.

Data Sets

Scientific and cultural data comprising multiple individual pieces of data.

Communication record

For example, email, instant messages, etc.

Preservation Metadata

The long-term storage of digital information is assisted by the inclusion of preservation metadata which records various features of the resource. For example:

Format

MS Word or Notepad? MS Word 2 or MS Word 6? JPEG or GIF?

Version

Pre-print, published.

Playback

Equipment or emulation device required.

Issues

Digital preservation encompasses a range of strategies, processes and activities, with a variety of associated issues to be considered. Examples are:

Long-term

May extend indefinitely and depends on the need for continuing access to a resource in one or more specific formats. The lifetime of a specific resource is determined by the degradation and/or format accessibility of that resource.

Retrieval

Obtaining digital files from storage without corrupting the stored files.

Interpretation

The digital files must be decoded and transformed into usable representations, for machine processing and/or human access.

Rendering

Making a digital file available for a human to access.

Re-digitising

Some early digitised resources are in formats that are, or are rapidly becoming, obsolete. Since it can be the case that poor results are obtained by migrating from the obsolete format to a newer format, it may sometimes be better to re-digitise from the original.

Emulation

Where specific playback equipment is no longer available, emulation software may need to be written in order to access the informational content using a different device.

Degradation

The process by which parts of a resource are lost over time. This may occur as a characteristic of a format (it becomes a less accurate representation over time) or a consequence of copying from another file or migrating from one format to another.

Effort

It appears that digital preservation requires more frequent and ongoing action than other types of media. The consequent requirement in terms of effort, time and money is a major stumbling block for preserving digital information.

About This Document

This briefing document provides an introduction to digital preservation.

What Is Digital Preservation?

Digital preservation is the management of digital information over time. It takes the form of processes and activities that ensure continued access to information and all kinds of records, both scientific and cultural heritage, that exists in digital form.

The aim of digital preservation is long-term, error-free storage of digital information, with the means of retrieval and interpretation, for the period of time that information is required.

Why Do We Need Digital Preservation?

The digital world is a place of rapid technological and organisational changes, which impacts on the continuing use of digital resources. In contrast to our physical written heritage, still readable today, digital information created only a few years ago is in danger of being lost.

Which Materials Need Preservation?

All types of digital resources need preservation including:

Digitally Reformatted

Digitised versions or surrogates of physical items.

Born Digital

Digital resources that have no analogue counterpart.

Individual resources

Texts, still and moving images, sound recordings, etc.

Collective resources

Web sites, e-journals, wikis, catalogues, etc.

Data Sets

Scientific and cultural data comprising multiple individual pieces of data.

Communication record

For example, email, instant messages, etc.

Preservation Metadata

The long-term storage of digital information is assisted by the inclusion of preservation metadata which records various features of the resource. For example:

Format

MS Word or Notepad? MS Word 2 or MS Word 6? JPEG or GIF?

Version

Pre-print, published.

Playback

Equipment or emulation device required.

Issues

Digital preservation encompasses a range of strategies, processes and activities, with a variety of associated issues to be considered. Examples are:

Long-term

May extend indefinitely and depends on the need for continuing access to a resource in one or more specific formats. The lifetime of a specific resource is determined by the degradation and/or format accessibility of that resource.

Retrieval

Obtaining digital files from storage without corrupting the stored files.

Interpretation

The digital files must be decoded and transformed into usable representations, for machine processing and/or human access.

Rendering

Making a digital file available for a human to access.

Re-digitising

Some early digitised resources are in formats that are, or are rapidly becoming, obsolete. Since it can be the case that poor results are obtained by migrating from the obsolete format to a newer format, it may sometimes be better to re-digitise from the original.

Emulation

Where specific playback equipment is no longer available, emulation software may need to be written in order to access the informational content using a different device.

Degradation

The process by which parts of a resource are lost over time. This may occur as a characteristic of a format (it becomes a less accurate representation over time) or a consequence of copying from another file or migrating from one format to another.

Effort

It appears that digital preservation requires more frequent and ongoing action than other types of media. The consequent requirement in terms of effort, time and money is a major stumbling block for preserving digital information.

This briefing document describes the issues to be considered when choosing and using metadata.

Why Use Metadata?

Metadata cannot solve all your resource management and discovery problems but it can play an important part in the solutions. Since time and effort is needed if metadata is to be used effectively, it is vital to look closely at the problems you wish to address.

Do you want to allow resources on your Web site to be found more easily by search engines such as Google? Or perhaps you want to improve local searching on your Web site? Do you need interoperability with other projects and services? Maybe you want to improve the maintenance of resources on your Web site.

While metadata has a role to play in all of these situations, different approaches will be needed to tackle each type of problem. And in some cases, metadata may not be the optimal solution; for example, Google makes limited use of metadata so an alternative strategy might be needed.

Identifying the Functionality to be Provided

Once you have clarified why you want to use metadata, you should identify the end-user functionality you wish to provide. This will enable you to define the metadata you need, how it should be represented, and how it should be created, managed and deployed.

Choosing The Metadata Standard

You will need to choose the metadata standard which is relevant for your purpose. In many cases this will be self-evident. For example, a project that is funded to develop resources in an OAI environment will need to use the OAI application, while for a database of collection descriptions you will need to use collection description metadata.

Off the Shelf or Custom Fit?

Some metadata can be used without further work – for example, MARC 21 format in library management system cataloguing modules or entries in the Cornucopia and MICHAEL collection description databases.

Other metadata requires decisions on your part. If you are using Dublin Core, you will need to decide whether to use qualifiers (and if so which) and which elements are mandatory and which are repeatable.

Managing Your Metadata

It is important that you think about this at an early stage. If not properly managed, metadata can become out-of-date; and since metadata is not normally displayed to end-users but processed by software, you won’t be able to check visually. Poor quality data can be a major obstacle to interoperable services.

If, for example, you embed metadata directly into a file, you may find it difficult to maintain the metadata; e.g. if the creator changes their name or contact details. A better approach may be the use of a database (sometimes referred to as a metadata repository) which provides management capabilities.

Example Of Use Of This Approach

The Exploit Interactive e-journal was developed by UKOLN with EU funding. Metadata was required in order to provide enhanced searching for the end user. The specific functionality required was the ability to search by issue, article type, author and title and by funding body. In addition metadata was needed in order to assist the project manager producing reports, such as the numbers of different types of articles. This functionality helped to identify the qualified Dublin Core elements required.

The MS SiteServer software used to provide the service provided an indexing and searching capability for processing arbitrary metadata. It was therefore decided to provide Dublin Core metadata stored in <meta> tags in HTML pages. In order to allow the metadata to be more easily converted into other formats (e.g. XHTML) the metadata was held externally and converted to HTML by server-side scripts.

A case study which gives further information (and describes the limitations of the metadata management approach) is available.

Managing And Using Metadata In An E-Journal, QA Focus briefing document no. 1, UKOLN, <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-studies/case-study-01/>

Once you have decided to make use of metadata in your project, you then need to agree on the functionality to be provided, the metadata standards to be used and the architecture for managing and deploying your metadata. However this is not the end of the matter. You will also need to ensure that you have appropriate quality assurance procedures to ensure that your metadata provides fitness for its purposes.

What Can Go Wrong?

There are a number of ways in which services based on metadata can go wrong, such as:

Incorrect content:

The content of the metadata may be incorrect or out-of-date. There is a danger that metadata content is even more likely to be out-of-date than normal content, as content is normally visible, unlike metadata which is not normally displayed on, say, a Web page. In addition humans can be tolerant of errors, ambiguities, etc. in ways that software tools normally aren’t.

Inconsistent content:

The metadata content may be inconsistent due to a lack of cataloguing rules and inconsistent approaches if multiple people are involved in creating metadata.

Non-interoperable content:

Even if metadata is consistent within a project, other projects may apply different cataloguing rules. For example the date 01/12/2003 could be interpreted as 1 December or 12 January if projects based in the UK and USA make assumptions about the date format.

Incorrect format:

The metadata may be stored in a non-valid format. Again, although Web browsers are normally tolerant of HTML errors, formats such as XML insist on compliance with standards.

Errors with metadata management tools:

Metadata creation and management tools could output metadata in invalid formats.

Errors with the workflow process:

Data processed by metadata or other tools could become corrupted through the workflow. As a simple example a MS Windows character such as © could be entered into a database and then output as an invalid character in a XML file.

QA For Metadata Content

You should have procedures to ensure that the metadata content is correct when created and is maintained as appropriate. This could involve ensuring that you have cataloguing rules, ensuring that you have mechanisms for ensuring the cataloguing rules are implemented (possibly in software when the metadata is created). You may also need systematic procedures for periodic checking of the metadata.

QA For Metadata Formats

As metadata which is to be reused by other applications is increasingly being stored in XML it is essential that the format is compliant (otherwise tools will not be able to process the metadata). XML compliance checking can be implemented fairly easily. More difficult will be to ensure that metadata makes use of appropriate XML schemas.

QA For Metadata Tools

You should ensure that the output from metadata creation and management tools is compliant with appropriate standards. You should expect that such tools have a rich set of test suites to validate a wide range of environments. You will need to consider such issues if you develop your own metadata management system.

QA For Metadata Workflow

You should ensure that metadata does not become corrupted as it flows through a workflow system.

A Fictitious Nightmare Scenario

A multimedia e-journal project is set up. Dublin Core metadata is used for articles which are published. Unfortunately there are documented cataloguing rules and, due to a high staff turnover (staff are on short term contracts) there are many inconsistencies in the metadata (John Smith & Smith, J.; University of Bath and Bath University; etc.)

The metadata is managed by a home-grown tool. Unfortunately the author metadata is output in HTML as DC.Author rather than DC.Creator. In addition the tool output the metadata in XHTML 1.0 format which is embedded in HTML 4.0 documents.

The metadata is created by hand and is not checked. This results in a large number of typos and use of characters which are not permitted in XML without further processing (e.g. £, — and &).

Rights metadata for images which describes which images can be published freely and which is restricted to local use becomes separated from the images during the workflow process.

This briefing document provides an introduction to Dublin Core metadata

What Is Dublin Core Metadata?

Identifying metadata elements in a standard way enables metadata to be processed in a consistent manner by computer software.

The Dublin Core Metadata Element Set is a standard for cross-domain information resource description. It is widely used to describe digital materials such as video, sound, image, text and composite media such as Web pages. It is the best known metadata standard in the Web environment.

Based on the Resource Description Framework, it defines a number of ‘elements’ of data that are required to find, identify, describe and access a particular resource.

Dublin Core metadata is typically recorded using Extensible Markup Language (XML).

Dublin Core is defined by ISO Standard 15836 and NISO Standard Z39.85-2007.

Simple Dublin Core

There are 15 core elements in the Dublin Core standard:

Title, Creator, Subject, Description, Contributor, Date, Type, Format, Identifier, Source, Language, Relation, Coverage and Rights.

Qualified Dublin Core

The core element set was deliberately kept to a minimum, but this sometimes proved a problem for early implementers. This led to the development of Qualified Dublin Core, which has a further 3 elements (Audience, Provenance and RightsHolder) and a set of element qualifiers, which restrict or narrow the meaning of an element.

For example, qualified Date elements are DateAccepted, DateCopyrighted and DateSubmitted.

Metadata Standards

Because so many communities now use metadata, there are a bewilderingly large number of standards and formats in existence or in development. Metadata is used for resource description and discovery; recording intellectual property rights and access data; and technical information relating to the creation, use and preservation of digital resources.

What Does It Look Like?

Dublin Core metadata is typically recorded in XML using <meta> tags. Each element has a label; this is recorded between <…> brackets and precedes the actual data, while another set of brackets and a forward slash <…> marks the end of the data.

Some examples are:

<Creator> Ann Chapman </Creator>
<Title> An Introduction to Dublin Core </Title>
<DateSubmitted>  20080417 </DateSubmitted>
<DateAccepted>  20080611 </DateAccepted>
<Relation> Cultural Heritage Briefing Papers series </Relation>
<Subject> Metadata </Subject>
<Format> Word document Office 2003 </Format>
<Language> English </Language>

Application Profiles

Implementers then found that even Qualified Dublin Core had insufficient detail for use in specific communities. This lack led to the development of Application Profiles which contain further elements and element qualifiers appropriate to the community of interest.

DC-Lib

Library Application Profile. Used to describe resources by libraries and library related applications and projects.

DC-Collections

Collections Application Profile. Used to describe resources at collection level.

SWAP

Scholarly Works Application Profile. Used to describe research papers, scholarly texts, data objects and other resources created and used within scholarly communications.

DC-Education

Education Application Profile. Used to describe the educational aspects of any resource, and/or the educational context within which is has been or may be used. It is intended to be usable with other application profiles.

This briefing document provides an introduction to metadata.

What Is Metadata?

Metadata is sometimes defined literally as ‘data about data’. More usefully, the term is understood to mean structured data about resources. The fact that the data is structured – broken down into very specific pieces – enables a range of automated processes to be built around the data to provide services.

Traditional ‘Metadata’?

In one sense, metadata is not a new concept. Library catalogues, abstracting and indexing services, directories of resources and institutions, archival finding aids and museum documentation all contain structured information.

What is the Value of Metadata

Firstly, it enables librarians, archivists and museum documentation professionals to work across institutional and sector boundaries to provide more effective resource discovery to the benefit of enquirers, students and researchers.

Secondly, it enables cultural heritage professions to communicate more effectively with other domains that also have an interest in metadata, such as publishers, the recording industry, television companies, producers of digital educational content, software developers and those concerned with geographical and satellite-based information.

Metadata Standards

Because so many communities now use metadata, there are a bewilderingly large number of standards and formats in existence or in development. Metadata is used for resource description and discovery; recording intellectual property rights and access data; and technical information relating to the creation, use and preservation of digital resources.

Metadata Encoding

Metadata is recorded in formats (e.g. MARC 21) or implementations of Mark-up Languages and Document Type Definitions (DTD). The main standards are:

SGML

Standard Generalised Mark-up Language.

XML

Extensible Mark-up Language.

Metadata for Libraries

Important metadata standards for use in a library context are:

MARC 21

A means of encoding metadata defined in bibliographic cataloguing rules.

ISBD series

International Standard for Bibliographic Description.

ONIX

A range of international standards for electronic information messages (about books, serials and licensing and rights) for the book industry.

Metadata for Archives

Important metadata standards for use in an archives context are:

EAD

Encoded Archival Description; a means of encoding metadata defined in archival cataloguing rules.

ISAD(G)

International Standard for Archival Description.

Metadata for Museums

Important metadata standards for use in a museum context are:

CIMI DTD

Computer Interchange of Museum Information.

SPECTRUM

The UK and international standard for collections management.

Metadata for the Digital World

Important metadata standards for use in a digital context are:

Dublin Core (DC)

Defines 15 metadata elements for simple resource discovery. Qualifiers for some of these elements enable more detail to be recorded. Further elements have now been defined to use in specific fields.

DC Application Profiles

A set of DC elements defined for use in the context of specific communities of practice; for example, education, libraries, collections and scholarly works.

This briefing document provides an introduction to using Collection Description metadata as a collection management tool.

Managing Collections

Many collections are in fact groupings of smaller collections. These smaller collections may have been bought, donated, acquired by exchange, or created through digitisation programmes. While organisations may think they know just what they have, in reality the next time someone asks a question about part of the collection, finding the answer can turn into quite a search.

Collection Description metadata provides a tool that enables all the information about a collection and its component sub-collections to be recorded in a structured way.

Lost Knowledge

A public library service was creating collection description records to add to a local area database. For some of the sub-collections there was little information actually recorded and former members of staff had to be contacted to fill in the gaps. Now that the information has been recorded, it is used not only as a collection management tool, but also in the induction process for new staff and as a look-up document at the enquiry desk.

Benefits

Collection Description metadata can be held in a private ‘staff access only’ database or in ‘not for public display’ fields in a public database. Keeping the information in such a database means staff can easily update entries as well as check specific details about a collection. A variety of information can be recorded: ownership and provenance, access conditions and IPR details, whether the collection is still being added to, how often and by what method. Some of these are detailed below.

Use and Re-use Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Who can use the collection for reference?
• Who can borrow items from the collection?
• Can the items be copied?
• Can the items be re-used in another resource?

Agent Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Who owns this collection now?
• Who owned it in the past?
• Who collected the items?
• Who manages the collection?

Acquisition Information

This group of data elements captures information on:

• Are items still being added to the collection?
• If yes, how often and by what method (buy, donation, exchange)?
• Was digitisation funded by an external grant?
• Is this collection part of another collection which has been split up (the findings of an archaeological dig, the exhibition which combined resources from several institutions)?
• Are the items on (temporary, long-term or permanent) loan from another institution or person?

Caution

As with any other reference source, a collection description database must be kept up to date and changes entered. An out-of date database will mean you have to track down those former members of staff again.

What Is A Social Network?

Wikipedia defines a social network service as a service which “focuses on the building and verifying of online social networks for communities of people who share interests and activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others, and which necessitates the use of software.” [1].

A report published by OCLC provides the following definition of social networking sites: “Web sites primarily designed to facilitate interaction between users who share interests, attitudes and activities, such as Facebook, Mixi and MySpace.” [2]

What Can Social Networks be Used For?

Social networks can provide a range of benefits to members of an organisation:

Support for learning

Social networks can enhance informal learning and support social connections within groups of learners and with those involved in the support of learning.

Support for members of an organisation

Social networks can potentially be used my all members of an organisation and not just those involved in working with students. Social networks can help the development of communities of practice.

Engaging with others

Passive use of social networks can provide valuable business intelligence and feedback on institutional services (although this may give rise to ethical concerns).

Ease of access to information and applications

The ease of use of many social networking services can provide benefits to users by simplifying access to other tools and applications. The Facebook Platform provides an example of how a social networking service can be used as an environment for other tools.

Common interface

A possible benefit of social networks may be the common interface which spans work / social boundaries. Since such services are often used in a personal capacity the interface and the way the service works may be familiar, thus minimising training and support needed to exploit the services in a professional context. This can, however, also be a barrier to those who wish to have strict boundaries between work and social activities.

Examples Of Social Networking Services

Examples of popular social networking services include:

Facebook

Facebook is a social networking Web site that allows people to communicate with their friends and exchange information. In May 2007 Facebook launched the Facebook Platform which provides a framework for developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features [3].

MySpace

MySpace [4] is a social networking Web site offering an interactive, user-submitted network of friends, personal profiles, blogs and groups, commonly used for sharing photos, music and videos.

Ning

An online platform for creating social websites and social networks aimed at users who want to create networks around specific interests or have limited technical skills [5].

Twitter

Twitter [6] is an example of a micro-blogging service [7]. Twitter can be used in a variety of ways including sharing brief information with users and providing support for one’s peers.

Note that this brief list of popular social networking services omits popular social sharing services such as Flickr and YouTube.

Opportunities And Challenges

The popularity and ease of use of social networking services have excited institutions with their potential in a variety of areas. However effective use of social networking services poses a number of challenges for institutions including long-term sustainability of the services; user concerns over use of social tools in a work or study context; a variety of technical issues and legal issues such as copyright, privacy, accessibility; etc.

Institutions would be advised to consider carefully the implications before promoting significant use of such services.

References

1. Social network service, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network_service>
2. Sharing, Privacy and Trust In Our Networked World, OCLC,
   <http://www.oclc.org/reports/sharing/>
3. Facebook, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook>
4. MySpace, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myspace>
5. Ning, Wikipedia,
   <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ning>
6. An Introduction To Twitter, UKOLN Cultural heritage briefing document no. 36,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-36/>
7. An Introduction To Micro-Blogging, UKOLN Cultural heritage briefing document no. 35,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-35/>

This briefing document provides an introduction to Collection Description as a resource discovery tool.

Why Do We Need It?

Archives, libraries and museums each have their own approach to resource discovery. Traditionally libraries used catalogues to describe individual items, archives used finding aids which set items as an integral part of a collection, while museums arranged items in groupings for the visiting public but did not provide publicly accessible catalogues.

Now all three domains have digitised resources and users expect information on collections to be available. At collection level, users might be looking for:

• Images, sound recordings and/or text material on the use of a plant in herbal medicine – I’m creating a herb garden.
• Information about my family – I’m tracing my family history.
• Images relating to slavery in Bristol – for my history coursework.

Since 1991, a number of resources have been developed to help resource discovery at collection level. Some of these are described below.

Culture 24

Partly funded by the government this Web site promotes museums, galleries and heritage sites across the UK – see <http://www.culture24.org.uk/>.

CULTURE24

Event listings, collection information and venue details are held in a live database, that UK museums, galleries, libraries and museums can add to using passworded access.

ShowMe

Children’s zone that brings together interactive materials from collections across the UK.

MICHAEL

MICHAEL stands for “Multi-Lingual Inventory of Cultural Heritage in Europe”. The MICHAEL Web site is available at <http://www.michael-culture.org/en/home>.

Partners

The MICHAEL partners are France, Italy, UK. Phase 2: Czech Republic, Finland, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Sweden.

UK entries

Digital collections held by cultural heritage institutions. This service complements Cornucopia (described below) which holds details of physical collections.

Collection Description Databases

Some examples of collection description databases – each has a different focus:

Cornucopia

Initially this covered only physical museum collections in England; descriptions for library collections were added as part of the Inspire project. See <http://www.cornucopia.org.uk/>

Cecilia

The focus is on collections relating to music – everything from CDs to music scores and historic instruments to composers manuscripts. See <“http://www.cecilia-uk.org/>

SCONE

The Scottish Collections Network – materials held in Scotland and collections about Scottish issues held elsewhere. See <http://scone.strath.ac.uk/>

PADDI

Planning Architecture Design Database Ireland covers all aspects of the built environment and environmental planning in Ireland. See <http://www.paddi.net/>

Tap Into Bath

Cultural heritage and academic collections held in archives, museums, art galleries and libraries in the city of Bath. The database and software are available for free re-use. See <http://www.bath.ac.uk/library/tapintobath/>

Southern Cross Resource Finder

Describes UK-based collections that hold resources useful for the study of Australia and/or New Zealand. Uses the Tap into Bath database and software. See <http://www.scrf.org.uk/>

This briefing document provides a brief introduction to the concept of Collections.

What Is A Collection?

A collection is a group of resources that are related to each other in some identifiable way. The relationship might be through a topic, a place, a person, an organisation or a type of object.

A collection may be divided into smaller parts, or sub-collections, which may in turn be divided into smaller parts. For example, a library collection might be divided into fiction and non-fiction stock, with the non-fiction stock divided into lending and reference stock, while a museum might have collections of ceramics, textiles, coins and silverware, with the coins divided into categories or sub-collections by time period – Roman, Anglo-Saxon, medieval, etc.

How Many Items Make a Collection?

There is no minimum number of items for a collection – in theory it is possible to have a collection containing only one item! Collections can also be very large and, typically, large collections will divided into a number of sub-collections.

Physical or Digital?

The items in a collection can be physical (books, objects, paintings, etc.) or digital (e-books, digital images, databases). It is also possible for collections to be hybrids, and contain both physical and digital items. A collection may also contain digital items that are surrogates of physical items in that collection.

Whether physical, digital or a combination, the items do not have to be in the same location and can be distributed over multiple locations. Locations may also be a factor in creating sub-collections; a public library may have a number of branch libraries each with its own stock collection.

Permanent or Temporary?

A collection, whether physical, digital or combined, does not have to be a permanent resource. For example a collection of digital items may:

• exist only for the duration of a search – the results display
• be limited for a current subscription – an e-journals bundle

A collection of physical items may:

• have existed in the past but the individual items have been distributed to other permanent collections – the findings from an archaeological excavation
• be brought together from other collections on a temporary basis – an exhibition

Exclusive or Inclusive?

Items can belong to more than one collection or sub-collection at a time, although placed in a single physical location. A coin can be designated as part of a coin collection and part of the Roman collection. Likewise, a map could simultaneously be part of a library local studies collection, part of a maps collection and / or part of the reference collection. A donor bequest collection that either has no topic focus or has several could be split into several collections (theology, natural history, railways) but still retain its identity as a set of items collected and donated by someone.

Describing Collections using Metadata

The digitisation strand of the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) identified a need to describe resources at a collection level. An entity-relationship model for collections, created by Michael Heaney, was used as the theoretical basis for a metadata schema for collection description

Further information on the model is available in the document “An Analytical Model Of Collections And Their Catalogues” by Michael Heaney. This can be accessed at the URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/>

This briefing document provides an introduction to Collection Description.

What Is Collection Description?

Collection Description is a term which is used to describe structured information about a group of resources (a collection) that have some identifiable relationship to each other.

Where traditionally collection descriptions have been included in directories and guides of various forms, metadata records are used in today’s digital environment.

Why Use Collection Description?

Collection description can be used for several reasons:

• To provide easier high level navigation of a large resource base.
• To facilitate the selection of the most appropriate collections for item level searching.
• To support effective searching across archive, library and museum domains.
• As a tool for collection management.

Metadata Schema Model

The digitisation strand of the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP) identified a need to describe resources at a collection level. An entity-relationship model for collections, created by Michael Heaney, was used as the theoretical basis for a metadata schema for collection description for RSLP.

Further information on the model is available in the document “An Analytical Model Of Collections And Their Catalogues” by Michael Heaney. This can be accessed at the URL: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/metadata/rslp/model/>

RSLP Collection Metadata Schema

The key attributes of this metadata schema are:

• Title, description
• Resource type, collection identifier
• Language, physical characteristics, dates collected, dates items created
• Legal status, access control
• Accrual status (method, periodicity, policy)
• Custodial history, collector, owner, administrator, location
• Subject (concept, object, name, place, time)
• Sub-collection, super-collection, catalogue, associated collection, associated publication
• Note

Dublin Core Collections Application Profile

The key attributes of this metadata schema are:

• Title, alternative title, description
• Resource type, collection identifier
• Size, language, item type, item format, dates collected, dates items created
• Rights, access rights
• Accrual method, periodicity, policy
• Custodial history, collector, owner, location
• Audience, subject, place, time
• Sub-collection, super-collection, catalogue, associated collection, associated publication

Further Information

Further information is provided by the Collection Description Focus Web site tutorial which is available at the URI: <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cd-focus/cdfocus-tutorial/schemas/>.

Although, as described in [1] AJAX can enhance the usability of Web-based services developers need to be aware of various usability problems which may be encountered.

Challenges For AJAX Developers

Concept of State

Once a Web page has been downloaded it has traditionally remained static. AJAX uses dynamic Web page updates which means that state transition (the move from one page view to another) is more complex, as separate elements may update asynchronously. AJAX applications frequently do not store application state information; this breaks the ‘back’ button functionality of the browser. Many Web users use the back button as their primary means of navigation and struggle to control the system without it.

AJAX requires developers to explicitly support this functionality in their software, or use a framework that supports it natively. Various solutions to this problem have been proposed or implemented, such as the use of invisible IFRAME elements that invoke changes which populate the history originally used by the browser’s back button.

A related issue is that as AJAX allows asynchronous data exchange with the server, it is difficult for users to bookmark a particular state of the application. Solutions to this problem are appearing. Some developers use the URL anchor or fragment identifier to keep track of state and therefore allow users to return to the application in a given state.

The asynchronous nature of AJAX can also confound search engines which traditionally record only a page’s static content. Since these usually disregard JavaScript entirely, an alternative access must be provided if it is desirable for a Web page to be indexed.

User Expectations

There are certain expectations of how Web-based information will be displayed and processed. Without explicit visual clues to the contrary, users are unlikely to realise that the content of a page is being modified dynamically. AJAX applications often do not offer visual clues if, for example, a change is being made to the page or content is being preloaded. The usual clues (such as the loading icon) are not always available. Solving this requires designers to explicitly support this functionality, using traditional user interface conventions wherever possible or alternative clues where necessary.

Response Time

AJAX has the potential to reduce traffic between the browser and the server as information can be sent or requested as and when required. However, this ability can easily be misused, such as by polling the server for updates excessively frequently. Since data transfer is asynchronous, a lack of bandwidth need not be perceivable to the user; however, ensuring this is the case requires smart preloading of data.

Design Issues

AJAX provides techniques that previously were available only by using DHTML or a technology like Flash. There is a concern that, as with previous technologies, designers have access to a plethora of techniques that bring unfamiliar usability or accessibility problems. Gratuitous animation, pop ups, blinking text and other distractions all have accessibility implications and stop the user from fully focussing on the task at hand.

Accessibility

Most methods of AJAX implementation rely heavily on features only present in desktop graphical browsers and not in text-only readers. Developers using AJAX technologies in Web applications will find attempting to adhere to WAI accessibility guidelines a challenge. They will need to make sure that alternate options for users on other platforms, or with older browsers and slow Internet connections, are available.

Conclusions

The concerns surrounding adoption of AJAX are not unfamiliar. Like Flash, the technologies comprising AJAX may be used in many different ways; some are more prone to usability or accessibility issues than others. The establishment of standard frameworks, and the increasing standardisation of the technologies behind AJAX, is likely to improve the situation for the Web developer.

In the meantime, the key for developers is to remember is that despite the availability of new approaches, good design remains essential and Jacob Nielson’s Ten Usability Heuristics [2] should be kept in mind. AJAX applications need to be tested to deal with the idiosyncrasies of different browsers, platforms and usability issues and applications should degrade gracefully for those users who do not have JavaScript enabled.

Note that as the use of AJAX increases and more programming libraries become available, many of the issues will be resolved. In parallel it is likely that over time browsers will standardise and incorporate better support for new technologies.

References

1. An Introduction To AJAX, Cultural Heritage briefing document no. 43, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/briefing-43/>
2. Ten Usability Heuristics), Useit.com,
   <http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html>

Heuristic evaluation is a method of user testing, which enables a product to be assessed in order to identify usability problems – that is, places where the product is not easy to use. It is a discount (“quick and dirty”) method, which means that it is cheap and requires relatively little expertise.

What’s Involved In Heuristic Evaluation?

In this technique, a number of evaluators are first introduced to the heuristics, then given some tasks to complete and invited to report the problems – where the system fails to comply with the heuristics – either verbally or in some form of written report or checklist. Unlike many forms of usability testing, the evaluators do not have to be representative of the system’s expected users (although they can be!), nor do the evaluators have to be experts, as the heuristics can be read and understood in a few minutes. Just three to five evaluators are needed to find the majority of usability problems, so the technique is quite efficient and inexpensive.

The problems found in heuristic evaluation essentially represent subjective opinions about the system. Evaluators will frequently disagree (there are no absolute right or wrong answers) but these opinions are useful input to be considered in interface design.

What Heuristics Should I Use?

There are several sets of possible heuristics available on the Web and elsewhere. This reflects the fact that they are “rules of thumb”, designed to pick out as many flaws as possible, and various sets of usability evaluators have found different formalisations to be most useful for their needs, e.g. [1]. Probably the most commonly used is Nielsen’s set of ten usability heuristics [2] given below with a sample question after each one:

• Visibility of system status: Does the system give timely & appropriate feedback?
• Match between system and the real world: Is it speaking the users’ language?
• User control and freedom: How hard is it to undo unwanted actions?
• Consistency and standards: Does it follow conventions and expectations?
• Error prevention: Are potential errors recognised before becoming a problem?
• Recognition rather than recall: Does the system rely on the users’ memory?
• Aesthetic & minimalist design: Are dialogs cluttered with information?
• Help users recognise, diagnose & recover from errors: Are error messages useful?
• Help and documentation: Is there online help? Is it useful?

An excellent resource to help you choose a set of heuristics is the Interactive Heuristic Evaluation Toolkit [3] which offers heuristics tailored to your expected user group, type of device, and class of application.

When Should Heuristic Evaluation Be Carried Out?

As heuristic evaluation is simple and cheap, it is possible to use it to quickly test the usability of a web site at any stage in its development. Waiting until a fully functional prototype Web site exists is not necessary; interface ideas can be sketched out onto paper or mocked up using graphics software or Flash. These mockups can be tested before any actual development takes place.

Most projects will benefit from a user-centred design process, an approach that focuses on supporting every stage of the development process with user-centred activities. It is advisable to test early and often, in order to ensure that potential problems with a design are caught early enough that they can be solved cheaply. However, even web sites that are already active can benefit from usability testing, since many such problems are easily solved, but some problems are difficult or expensive to solve at a late stage.

Conclusions

If a developing design is tested frequently, most usability problems can be found and solved at an early stage. Heuristic evaluation is a simple and cheap technique that finds the majority of usability problems. An existing Web site or application will often benefit from usability testing, but testing early and often provides the best results. Finally, it is useful to alternate use of heuristic evaluation with use of other methods of usability testing, such as user testing, since the two techniques often reveal different sets of usability problems.

References

1. Heuristic Evaluation – A System Checklist, Deniese Pierotti, Xerox Corp.
   <http://www.stcsig.org/usability/topics/articles/he-checklist.html>
2. Heuristic Evaluation, Jakob Nielsen,
   <http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/>
3. Interactive Heuristic Evaluation Toolkit,
   <http://www.id-book.com/catherb/>

Further Information

• Ten Usability Heuristics, Jakob Nielsen,
  <http://www.useit.com/papers/heuristic/heuristic_list.html>
• Getting Started With User Centred Design, UsabilityNet,
  <http://www.usabilitynet.org/tools/gettingstarted.htm>

The cognitive walkthrough is a method of discount (“quick and dirty”) usability testing requiring several expert evaluators. A set of appropriate or characteristic tasks to be completed is compiled. The evaluators then “walk” through each task, noting down problems or difficulties as they go.

Since cognitive walkthroughs are often applied very early in development, the evaluators will often be working with mockups of interfaces such as paper prototypes and role-playing the part of a typical user. This is made much simpler if user personas, detailed descriptions of fictitious users, have been developed, because these simplify the role-playing element of cognitive walkthrough. These are often developed at the beginning of a user-centred design process, because designers often find it much easier to design to the needs of a specific user.

Evaluators are typically experts such as usability specialists, but the same basic technique can also be applied successfully in many different situations.

The Method

Once you have a relatively detailed prototype, paper or otherwise, you are ready to try a cognitive walkthrough.

Start off by listing the tasks that you expect users to be able to perform using your Web site or program. To do this, think about the possible uses of the site; perhaps you are expecting users to be able to book rooms or organise tours, or find out what events your organisation is running in the next month, or find opening times and contact details for your organisation. Write down each of these tasks.

Secondly, separate these tasks into two parts: the user’s purpose (their intention) and the goals that they must achieve in order to complete this. Take the example of organising a tour; the user begins with the purpose of finding out what tours are available. In order to achieve this, they look for a link on your Web site leading to a Web page detailing possible tours. Having chosen a tour, they gain a new purpose – organising a tour date – and a new set of goals, such as finding a Web page that lets them book a tour date and filling it out appropriately.

Separating tasks into tiny steps in this way is known as decomposition, and it is mostly helpful because it allows you to see exactly where and when the interface fails to work with the user’s expectations. It is important to do this in advance, because otherwise you find yourself evaluating your own trial-and-error exploration of the interface! Following these steps “wearing the users’ shoes” by trying out each step on a prototype version of the interface shows you where the user might reach an impasse or a roadblock and have to retrace his or her steps to get back on track. As a result, you will gain a good idea of places where the interface could be made simpler or organised in a more appropriate manner.

To help this process, a Walkthrough Evaluation Sheet is filled in for each step taken. An example is shown below [1]:

1. Will the users be trying to produce whatever effect the action has?
2. Will users see the control (button, menu, switch, etc.) for the action?
3. Once users find the control, will they recognize that it produces the effect they want?
4. After the action is taken, will users understand the feedback they get, so they can go on to the next action with confidence?

Advantages and Disadvantages

Cognitive walkthroughs are often very good at identifying certain classes of problems with a Web site, especially showing how easy or difficult a system is to learn or explore effectively – how difficult it will be to start using that system without reading the documentation, and how many false moves will be made in the meantime.

The downside is principally that on larger or more complex tasks they can sometimes be time-consuming to perform, so the technique is often used in some altered form. For example, instead of filling out an evaluation sheet at each step, the evaluation can be recorded on video [2]; the evaluator can then verbally explain the actions at each step.

Conclusions

‘Cognitive walkthroughs are helpful in picking out interface problems at an early stage, and works particularly well together with a user-centred design approach and the development of user personas. However, the approach can sometimes be time-consuming, and since reorganising the interface is often expensive and difficult at later stages in development, the cognitive walkthrough is usually applied early in development.

References

1. Evaluating the design without users, from Task-Centered User Interface Design,
   <http://hcibib.org/tcuid/chap-4.html>
2. The Cognitive Jogthrough,
   <http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=142869>

About This Document

This document provides advice on approaches you can take to evaluating the effectiveness of your blog.

The Role Of Your Blog

In order to evaluate the effectiveness of your blog, you should have a clear idea of its purpose (although you may find that the purpose evolves over time). Possible uses of a blog service include acting as a dissemination channel for an organisation, engaging the user community in discussion and debate acting as a gateway to other resources, or perhaps more speculative purposes, such as experimentation or ‘thinking out loud’.

Policies For Your Blog

It may be advantageous to provide documented policies for your blog, which might include details of the purpose(s) of your blog, the scope and target audience and possibly details of quality assurance processes you will use to ensure the blog implements its purposes successfully.

The UK Web Focus blog has published its policy statement [1], which includes details of its purposes (dissemination, user engagement, providing information on and commentary on new Web technologies, experimentation with blog tools and speculative thinking), scope (Web and related issues) and target audiences (Web development community, especially in the UK education and cultural heritage sectors).

Feedback For Your Blog Posts

If your blog aims to provide two-way communications, you should allow comments to be made for individual posts. One policy decision you will have to make is whether to allow unmoderated comments to be made. This can provide a more interactive service, but there may be risks in allowing inappropriate posts to be published.

User comments on individual posts will help you to gain feedback on the content of the posts. In order to encourage your blog readers to post their comments, you should seek to provide speedy responses to comments which are made.

Evaluating Blog Usage

If only small numbers of people read your blog, then it may fail to fulfil its purpose (if the purposes are dissemination and user engagement; for blogs used for other purposes, such as reflective thinking, such usage statistics may not be relevant). Systematic monitoring of your blog site’s usage statistics can therefore be helpful in identifying the effectiveness and potential impact of your blog service.

The diagram shows growth in visits to the UK Web Focus blog since its launch in November 2006, with a steady increase in numbers (until August 2007 when many readers were away).

Note that if your blog readers make significant use of RSS readers or your blog is aggregated in other locations, your blog site’s usage statistics may under-report the numbers of readers.

What Are They Saying About You?

It can be useful to explore the links users follow when they read your posts. Such information may be provided on your blog service. For example the image shows a number of the referrer links to recent posts on the UK Web Focus blog. In this case, two links are from blogs which commented on a post about a Web service called VCasmo. The comments give an indication of the blog’s effectiveness and impact.

As can be seen in their use with the UK Web Focus blog, blog search engines such as Technorati [2] and Google Blog search [3] can help find posts which link to your blog.

Systematic Evaluation

It may prove useful to carry out an online evaluation of your blog, as was done towards the end of the first year of the UK Web Focus blog [4].

References

1. Blog Policies, UK Web Focus blog,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/blog-policies/>
2. Blog Reactions, Technorati,
   <http://technorati.com/blogs/ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/?reactions>
3. Google Blog Search, Google,
   <http://blogsearch.google.com/blogsearch?q=link:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/>
4. Your Feedback On The UK Web Focus Blog, UK Web Focus blog, 23 Aug 2007,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/08/23/your-feedback-on-the-uk-web-focus-blog/>



Background

The briefing document provides suggestions on approaches you can take to building a blogging community, including a community of authors and a community of peers.

The Potential Benefits Of A Blogging Community

Blogging is often perceived of as an individual activity. However successful blogs are likely to involve community building, whether this is a community of co-authors, a community of readers or a community of peers.

Team Blogging

The responsibilities of producing regular blog posts over an extended period may be onerous. A solution to this would be to provide a team blog, in which the task of identifying topics of interest, writing the post and responding to comments can be shared. The Archive Hub blog provides an example of this type of approach [1]

It should be noted, though, that a team approach can dilute the ‘voice’ of a blog, and may not be applicable in all cases.

Guest Blog Posts

Another approach to sharing responsibilities for writing posts may be to encourage occasional guest blog posts. This approach has been taken on the UK Web Focus blog [2]. Advantages of guest blog posts include adding variety and a different voice to your blog, providing a forum for others and engaging with new communities.

Blog Widgets To Support Community-Building

Blog widgets enable additional functionality to be provided on your blog. A wide range of blog widgets are available which cover a range of functions. Of relevance to this document are widgets which can support community building. Widgets such as Meebo [3] and TokBox [4] provide realtime text chat and video conferencing facilities for your blog which can help to provide more interactive and engaging services for your blog readers.

Engaging With Your Peers

Another approach to community-building is sharing experiences and best practices with one’s peers, such as fellow bloggers who work in the same sector.

In the information sector this could include participating in mailing lists aimed at the blogging community (such as the lis-bloggers JISCMail list [5]) or participating in social networking services, such as the Library 2.0 Ning group [6] or the Library 2.0 Interest Group Facebook group [7].

Staff Development

An important aspect in the provision of quality blogging services is professional development for those involved in the provision of blog services. Fortunately there are a range of online services available which can be used to improve one’s blogging skills. As well as blogs provided by experienced information professionals [8] and [9] there are online blogging courses, such as the 31 Days project [10].

References

1. Archives Hub Blog, Archives Hub,
   <http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/>
2. Guest Blog Posts, UK Web Focus Blog,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/tag/blog/guest-post/>
3. Meebo – A Follow-Up, UK Web Focus Blog, 26 Jan 2007,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/01/26/meebo-a-follow-up/>
4. TokBox – A Useful Video-Conferencing Tool Or Something Sinister?, UK Web Focus Blog, 19 Sep 2007,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/09/19/tokbox-a-useful-video-conferencing-tool-or-something-sinister/>
5. lis-bloggers, JISC Mail,
   <http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html>
6. Library 2.0, Ning,
   <http://library20.ning.com/>
7. Library 2.0 Interest Group, Facebook,
   <http://bathac.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2212848798>
8. Phil Bradley’s Blog,
   <http://www.philbradley.typepad.com/>
9. Tame The Web blog, Michael Stephens,
   <http://tametheweb.com/>
10. 31 Days to a Building Better Blog Challenge, The Bamboo Project,
    <http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/join-the-31-days-to-build.html>

About This Document

This document provides advice on steps you may wish to take once you are in the process of launching a blog.

Claiming Your Blog In Technorati

Technorati is the best known search engine for blogs. If you wish to make the contents in your blog easily found by others you are advised to ‘claim your blog’ in Technorati.

This process involves first registering with Technorati [1] and then providing the address of your blog to Technorati [2] and keywords which are relevant for your blog. This enables Technorati to automatically index new posts, shortly after they have been published. Please note that, in order to stop others from claiming your blog (which would enable them to view statistics for your blog) you will need to temporarily embed some special code in your blog in order to establish that you own the blog).

Accessing Technorati Information About Your Blog

Once you have successfully claimed your blog you should find that your blog posts will be indexed by Technorati shortly after they have been published. To check this, simply sign in to the Technorati Web site and you should be able to view further information about your blog, including details of the posts which have been indexed. You can also see details of Technorati users who have added your blog to their list of favourites. You may wish to use Technorati to add blogs you find of interest to your list of favourites.

Viewing Technorati Statistics

You will also find that Technorati provides statistics for the Authority and Ranking for your blog. This is based on the numbers of links there are from other blogs (which Technorati knows about) to your blog over a period of 6 months.

Further information on these statistics is available on the Technorati Web site [3].

Keeping Records

It can be useful to ensure that you keep records related to the usage and impact of your blog from its launch.

Many blog services will provide statistics on the numbers of visitors to the blog Web site, but you may find it useful to complement this with an embedded usage monitoring service such as SiteMeter, used on the UK Web Focus blog [4].

As described on the UK Web Focus blog [5] services such as Blotter can be used to visualise the trends in Technorati ratings, as illustrated. This can be helpful in making it easy to spot sudden jumps or falls in the ratings.

Marketing Your Blog

As well as making use of various Web services which can help users to find your blog, you should also implement a marketing strategy for your blog. Possible approaches to this could include: (a) including details of your blog in your email signature, your business card, etc. (b) providing flyers, posters, etc. about your blog and (c) citing blog posts in other media, such as in responses to email queries, in presentations, etc.

Documented Experience

The experiences gained after launching the UK Web Focus blog in November 2006, including details of ‘claiming’ of the blog and how this helped people to find the blog and how this helped in attracting traffic have been documented in the blog [6] [7].

References

1. Member Sign Up, Technorati,
   <http://technorati.com/account>
2. My Account, Technorati,
   <http://technorati.com/account/blogs/>
3. What Is Authority?, Technorati,
   <http://support.technorati.com/faq/topic/71?replies=1>
4. SiteMeter Added To Blog, UK Web Focus blog, 22 Jan 2007,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/01/22/sitemeter-added-to-blog/>
5. Blogging And Learning From Ones Peers, UK Web Focus blog, 31 May 2007,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/05/31/blogging-and-learning-from-ones-peers/>
6. I’ve A Blog – What Next?, UK Web Focus blog, 6 Nov 2006,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/06/ive-a-blog-what-next/>
7. Word of Blog – 3 Week’s Later, UK Web Focus blog, 23 Nov 2006
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2006/11/26/word-of-blog-3-weeks-later/>

About This Document

The briefing document provides advice on implementing quality assurance processes for the content of your blog, including the establishment of appropriate editorial processes, identification of an appropriate writing style, mechanisms for minimising spam and approaches to ensuring you blog contains quality content.

Quality Process Issues

There are two important quality issues for blogging success – style and content. Readers of your blog will notice poor spelling or grammar, and unstructured ramblings are unlikely to maintain your reader’s attention.

Using the following techniques and tips can help improve the quality of your blog. If you are uncertain about your content or writing style, try working collaboratively with a colleague who is willing to check your material before posting.

Editorial Processes

Most blog sites allow you to save and preview your posts before publishing. Using these functions allows you to reflect on the content and review the spelling, grammar and general ‘readability’ of your post before making it live. It also allows you to see how any embedded media such as slides or videos will appear and whether paragraphs and text are spaced correctly.

Writing Style

A good writing style will help maintain your blog reader base. Blogs are known for their short, informal style that allows for quick, easy scanning of content.

It is very important to check your posts for accuracy in spelling and grammar. Unfortunately spell-check is not a function available on all blog writing pages, so it may help to copy and paste your work into a word processing document to help find errors.

If you have a group or collaborative blog, it may help to set out some guidelines on the feel you want posts to have – will they be formal, informal, lengthy, minimalist, will images be included, how will you reference links and so on. You may also wish to agree on how tags are to be used and standardise them.

Policies On Comments

Deciding whether you will open your blog to moderated or un-moderated comments is another issue for consideration. Think about your audience and the scope of your blog to help with this decision.

Minimising spam is another important quality process. Unfortunately all blogs need to be monitored for spam or inappropriate material, and employing a spam-filter such as Akismet [1] is sensible.

Content Quality

Good content is what makes your audience return to your blog or subscribe to your RSS feed to see when updates appear. Setting down quality measures for the content of your blog helps to build a reader community, and has the added benefit of making it an easier transition for new authors wanting to know what you write about on the blog. Do your posts capture current issues or techniques? Are you relating experiences or activities that will benefit a community of users?

Successful blogs are those which capture the reader’s interest. Many blog authors add small pieces of their lives, outside of the blog topic to personalise their content and help readers relate to the author. However you should first establish a policy which determines whether this is acceptable for your blog.

Once you’ve posted your blog post, standard practice is that it remains unchanged, except for minor typographical changes. If changes are significant or needed to clarify a point, good practice dictates that a note or addendum is added to the original post, or the text font is changed to ‘strike-through’.

Make sure your blog posts are marked with the date and time of posting and, on a multi-author blog, the name of the person posting.

Document Your Processes

It may be useful to outline in your blog policies the quality processes through which your blog will be subjected. Not only does this help with consistency in the content and how it’s presented, but it gives your readers an understanding of the processes your material has undergone before release. As an example, see the UK Web Focus’s blog policy [2] . You may also wish to carry out a periodic evaluation of your blog policies to see whether modifications or enhancements may be appropriate.

References

1. Akismet,
   <http://akismet.com/>
2. Blog Policy, UK Web Focus Blog,
   <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/blog-policies/>

Background

This briefing document provides advice on planning processes for setting up your blog.

Getting Started

Before you commit to a blog, you need to be sure that a blog is the right tool for the job. Use the checklist below to see if a blog will work for you.

Blogs are an informal and ‘chatty’ medium

Blogs can be useful for providing a more personal and friendly face to the world but are not necessarily a good way of presenting formal information. You will probably need content that lends itself to a more personal interpretation. A blog is the place to write about how you survived the fire drill, rather than a place to publish the standard issue health and safety rules on fire drills in public places.

Blogs are a dynamic medium

Blogs are designed for readers to comment on the contents of each post, so make sure your material is suitable for this dynamic approach as it is great for getting feedback and ideas, but not so good if comments are really not required. On a library blog, for example, outlining a project for introducing e-books and asking for comments would be fine, but don’t post on something you don’t want public opinions on. A blog will lose credibility if you remove comments or don’t accept reasonable input.

Decide on whether the blog is to be open access or closed access

This can change your view of suitable material. Blogging about plans for implementing a new technology, for example, might not be appropriate for a public blog open to end users. But a closed blog available just to staff within your organisation could be a useful tool for keeping everyone up-to-date with progress.

Is the blog to be about something that requires regular updates?

If you start a blog but find the subject matter isn’t really changing on a regular basis, and you are struggling to find something to post about, then you haven’t got a blog! Before you commit to blogging, sit down and do a list of ten topics for posts on the themes your blog will tackle. If you can’t easily generate this amount of ideas, you haven’t got a bloggable subject.

If the blog is open access, decide on an editorial policy for dealing with comments

There are grades for monitoring comments – from no moderation at all where submitted comments are published without checking to complete authorisation of each comment. Be aware of possible spam postings as well as un-welcome (e.g. rude or abusive) comments and make sure you are in control. If you are promoting an organisation via a blog, be aware that comments are as much a part of the blog as the blogger’s posts. Although you don’t want to stop an exchange of views and thoughts, you do want to make sure you don’t aid in the publication of inappropriate material. A few simple precautions can keep everything running smoothly.

Ongoing Processes

In order to ensure that your blog service is sustainable:

Ensure that you have regular posts on the blog

Plan ahead and consider asking someone to be a guest blogger if you are away or too busy to post regularly for any short period of time.

Consider group blogging with colleagues

This could work for both an internal, project-based blog and also for a public-facing organisation-based blog. Different bloggers can bring a new perspective to a topic and give the readers a different take on your themes. See a library from the point of view of a cataloguer, a web master, inter-library loans. Get an insight into a museum from the perspective of the curators of different collections or view an archive from the inside. Follow progress on different strands of a project via the technical lead, the project manager and the customer liaison contact.

Keep your blog fresh

Don’t forget that the idea of Web 2.0 is to interact and share with your readers, so use the comments section to generate new ideas. Acknowledge the source of your ideas and reference the reader and their comment and you will help your blog community to grow.

Keep an eye on comment spam

Remember that as well as the automated spam that can be clearly identified as spam, there may be comments )e.g. “This is a great post”) which have been generated automatically, in order to provide links back to a commercial blog. This is known as ‘blog comment spamming’.

Share Your Planning Processes

You will not be the only cultural heritage organisation which is considering best practices for providing and maintaining a blog service. A good way of validating your planning processes is to share these with your peers and solicit constructive criticism and feedback.

This document gives ideas for using blogs to enhance services provided by museums.

Blog Can Enhance A Museum’s Image

Museums cannot afford to ignore the community they service. They no longer simply provide a repository of artifacts. Museums need to be seen to serve the community by engaging with the public. Blogs provide an excellent tool for doing this.

Blogs Differ From The Museum’s Web Site

Blogs typically have a different style from the museum’s institutional Web site. They often do not use an institutional tone of voice but are conversational and personal and may consist of many contributors’ voices.

The institution’s Web site is normally accessed for informational purposes, such as factual information about the museum, opening times, access details, etc. Blogs, on the other hand, often provide access to community, which may include museum staff, but also museum visitors and other interested parties. The character of blogs is not necessarily fixed and may evolve depending on the often changing contributors.

Blog posts typically incorporate many links to other blogs, similar interest groups, etc. Such links can also include slide shows, videos on YouTube links, games, and other resources.

Since blogs often have the voice of the enthusiast and encourage discussion and debate they may be more trusted that conventional marketing-focussed Web sites.

Blogs Can Complement The Museum’s Web Site

Blogs can add depth and richness to museums’ descriptions by providing contextual information (“How this exhibition came to be) or a new angle (“Techniques in hanging the new exhibition”).

Blogs can provide an opportunity to get to know the experts (“Day in the life of the education outreach coordinator) or engage with them (“How are works of art lent to other institutions?”). They can build a new audience, often younger (“We would like to see this type of event happening here”).

Blogs can provide new and fresh content on a regular basis (“Charlie Watts seen in the museum looking closely at the Rubens”).

Blogs Are About Communication

Blogs can create a environment of person to person communication by seeking opinions, ideas and feedback and by encouraging the visitors to participate and contribute (“What we think of the new exhibition“) and share experiences (“This series of lectures is great, what do you think?“).

By responding to comments the museum is seen to be listening to its public (“What a good idea to stock this in the shop“). This can help to create an atmosphere of openness and trust.

Problems And Solutions

There can sometimes be opposition from management or colleagues within the organisation. Why is this and what solutions may there be?

Control

The use of social media in a museum’s context is concerned with releasing control and ensuring that knowledge is not only in the hands of the curators. However there are many examples of the public contributing additional and hitherto unknown information about a museum object. The advice: “Just relax and try it!“.

Resources

Maintaining blogs can be seen as a drain on resources, both human and financial. However, a system of regular contributors who post their own articles in a structured schedule only require overseeing. Each deals with their own related comments. The technology can be cheap. Advice on best practices for using blogs (and other Web 2.0 technologies) is available from the UKOLN Web site [1].

Contributions

There may be difficulties in finding contributors within the museum. Look wider – children who use the educational facilities, local artists who come for inspiration, the people who serve in the cafe, Friends, Trustees. This provides a variety of different voices and engages new communities.

References

1. Briefing Documents for Cultural Heritage Organisations, UKOLN,
   <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/documents/>

Acknowledgments

This briefing document was written by Ingrid Beazley, Dulwich Picture Gallery based on a Blogging workshop facilitated by Brian Kelly (UKOLN) and Mike Ellis (Eduserve) at the Museums and the Web 2008 conference.

The briefing document provides suggestions for ways in which blogs can be used to enhance the services provided within libraries.

Blogs Can Help To Communicate With Your Library Users

Librarians have long used a variety of means for getting information about the library out to our communities – newsletters, alerts, emails, posters and flyers and more.

Using a blog offers the opportunity to innovate your communications. Blogging gives you a way to push information out, but also to gather feedback and build a community without having very much technical know-how.

Types of Blogs

Blogs can be personal or professional. They may be private with use internally in an organisation or they may be publicly available – this is controlled by the settings on your blog site.

Blogs can be individual, group or subject blogs. An individual blog is a personal blog reflecting the thoughts of one person. A group blog is a collective effort written by a team or organisation, and a subject blog is written by any number of people, and is focused on a particular topic[1].

Once you have decided on the blog’s purpose think about which of these different approaches will work best for you. You may also like to think about developing a set of blog policies to help outline the blog’s scope, and focus your target audience.

Ideas For Using Blogs

The following provides a few ideas for blogging in your library. This is just a small selection – blogs are very versatile and there are many more practical applications.

News gathering and dissemination:

Blogs provide a useful way for librarians to disseminate small snippets of information to their library users. A subject librarian in an academic library might find it useful to gather database updates, new site and service notices and event information in the one place on a blog.

From the librarian’s desk:

Blogging about your daily work gives your library users an insight into your roles and responsibilities. It helps to provide openness and transparency, whilst informing of library news and events.

Community building:

As librarians we are part of a group of professionals that benefit from the sharing of good practice and experiences. Blogs can be a very timely way to offer advice and commentary on current library issues.

Library resources:

Raise the profile of the resources in your library by blogging about their features. If you have a collection of resources for speakers of other languages, why not invite a few people using these materials to blog about them, and build an online community.

Special projects:

Are you building a new library, refurbishing a new section, or other library developments that are visible to your library community? Blogging about the project will allow your users to engage in the project and become involved in decision making, and photos or videos of progress can add interest to your blog.

Task groups:

Use a blog to capture and collect the thoughts of members involved in a task group. Blogs have built in archive features to record your work and tagging can be used to categorise sections.

Reflective journaling:

Blogs don’t have to be public affairs. Think about your own professional development and chronicle your activities on a blog. It’s amazing how a few minutes spent reflecting on your daily activities adds up so you can see a path of progression and achievements. If appropriate, share these thoughts with your colleagues so they also have a record of your activities.

Getting Started with your Library Blog

Blogs can be as resource and time intensive as you make them. Deciding to use a blog to communicate with your users allows you to be as creative or serious as you like.

There is a wealth of information and advice available especially for librarians wishing to investigate blogging: read other briefing papers, join mailing list such as lis-bloggers [2] or participate in services aimed at the blogging librarian community.

References

1. Blogging and RSS: A Librarian’s Guide. Sauers, M.P. 2006. New Jersey. Information Today
2. lis-bloggers, JISCMail, http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/LIS-BLOGGERS.html>

Acknowledgements

This briefing document was written by Kara Jones, University of Bath.

About This Document

This briefing document provides an introduction to blogs and key blogging tools and concepts.

What Is A Blog?

A blog (a portmanteau of web log) can be simply described as a Web site where entries are written in chronological order and commonly displayed in reverse chronological order.

A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs.

Providing A Blog

Blogs can be provided in a number of ways. Blog software can be installed locally (open source or licensed), or blogs can be deployed using an externally hosted service (Blogger.com and WordPress.com are popular).

In an organisation or educational institution you may find tools provided by existing systems (e.g. a VLE, a CMS, etc.) which have blog functionality provided. Alternatively, many social networking services (e.g. Facebook, MySpace, etc.) provide blogging or similar functionality.

Reading Blogs

A key strength of blogs is that they can be accessed and read in a number of ways. Blog readers can take the conventional approach and visit the blog Web site using the Web address. New posts on a blog can be read using an RSS reader. These readers can be Web-based (e.g. Bloglines, Google Reader, etc.) or a desktop RSS reader (e.g. Blogbridge). If you read a number of blogs, you may wish to use a blog aggregator, which allows you to view posts from lots of blogs in one place or have subscribe to have blog posts delivered to your email. Blogs can be accessed by using a mobile device such as a PDA or mobile phone.

Blog Features

There are some features which are standard on most blog services:

RSS or Atom Feeds

Feeds are small snippets of XML that allow you to subscribe to a blog and have updates or new posts sent to your desktop automatically. This is useful is you have a number of blogs to keep up with, as you can read a number of feeds in one place using an RSS aggregator or feed reader.

Tags/Categories

Tags are similar to subject-headings or category words given to a post. A blog author can create as many or as few tags as they like. A collection of tags displayed as words of differing sizes is called a tag cloud. Tags may also be called ‘labels’ or ‘categories’.

Blogroll

A blogroll is a list of blogs that the author of the blog has favourited or reads regularly. The links on a blogroll are a great way to find new blogs, often on a similar topic to the blog you are currently viewing.

Comments

Many blogs have a comment function which allows readers to provide feedback on the post. Comments may be moderated by the blog owner and can be configured so that readers may need to be registered or they may be anonymous.

Archive

Most blog sites will automatically archive posts, usually by month. This helps to keep blog pages reasonably short and tidy.

Widgets

Blog sites may display widgets, often in a sidebar, which may provide additional functionality on a blog site.

Finding Blogs

Finding blogs on a particular topic can be a challenge. Try using Technorati [1] or Google Blog Search [2] which are search engines for blogs, or similar blog directories. Many good blogs are found by recommendation, such as inclusion in the blogroll of a topical blog or reviewed in the literature.

References

1. Technoratori, <http://www.technorati.com/>
2. Google Blog Search, <http://blogsearch.google.com/>

What Is Web 2.0?

Web 2.0 is a term which is widely used to describe developments to the Web which provide an emphasis on use of the Web to provide collaborative and communications services, as opposed to a previous environment in which the Web was used primarily as a one-way publishing tool.

Web 2.0 also refers to a number of characteristics of this pattern of usage including a richer and easy-to-use user interface, delivery of services using the network, continual development to services, the social aspect of services and a culture of openness.

Criticisms Of Web 2.0

It should be acknowledged that the term ‘Web 2.0′ has its critics. Some dismiss the term as ‘marketing hype’ whilst others point out that the term implies a version change in the underlying Web technologies and some argue that the vision described by the term ‘Web 2.0′ is little different from the original vision of Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web.

In addition to these criticisms of the term ‘Web 2.0′ others have doubts concerning the sustainability of Web 2.0 services. The use of externally-hosted Web 2.0 services has risks that the service may not be sustainable, that its terms and conditions may inhibit or restrict the ways in which the service may be used and that social networking services may be inappropriate for use in a work context and may infringe personal space.

Using Web 2.0 Effectively

Although the criticisms have an element of truth, and it is also true that Web 2.0 can be used purely for its hype value, it is also true that many Web 2.0 services are very popular with large numbers of users. Organisations which seek to exploit the benefits of Web 2.0 should be mindful of the need to address their potential limitations such as the sustainability of the services; accessibility challenges; dangers of a lack of interoperability; privacy and legal concerns; etc.

Web 2.0 Technologies

The main technologies which are identified with the term ‘Web 2.0′ are:

Blogs

Typically Web pages provided in date order, with the most recent entry being displayed first. Blog tools produce RSS, which allows the content to be read via a variety of tools and devices.

Wikis

Simple collaborative Web-based authoring tools, which allow content to be created and maintained by groups without needing to master HTML or complex HTML authoring tools.

RSS

The Really Simple Syndication (RSS) format allows content to be automatically integrated in other Web sites or viewed in applications, such as RSS readers. A key feature of RSS readers is the automatic alerts for new content.

Podcasts

Podcasts are a type of RSS, in which the content which is syndicated is an audio file. New podcasts can be automatically embedded on portable MP3 players.

AJAX

The user interface of many Web 2.0 applications is based on a technology called AJAX, which can provide easier to use and more intuitive and responsive interfaces than could be deployed previously.

Web 2.0 Characteristics

The key characteristics of Web 2.0 services are:

Network as platform

Rather than having to install software locally, Web 2.0 services allow applications to be hosted on the network.

Always beta

Since Web 2.0 services are available on the network, they can be continually updated to enhance their usability and functionality.

Culture of openness

A key benefit of Web 2.0 is provided by allowing others to reuse your content and you to make use of others’ content. Creative Commons licences allow copyright owners to permit such reuse. This has particular benefits in the cultural heritage sector.

Tagging

Rather than having to rely on use of formal classification systems (which may not be meaningful to many users) tags can be created by users. The tags, which may also be meaningful to their peers, provide communal ways of accessing Web resources.

Embedding

Many examples of Web 2.0 services allow the content to be embedded in third party Web sites, blogs, etc.