The Next Steps For
Institutional Web Services
A Report on the Main Themes Discussed at the
Institutional Web Management Workshop
1
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
Email:
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
University of Bath
Bath, BA2 7AY
URL:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
UKOLN is funded by the Library and Information Commission, the Joint
Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils, as
well as by project funding from the JISC’s Electronic Libraries Programme and
the European Union.
UKOLN also receives support from the University of Bath where it is based.
About The Workshop
The Institutional Web Management workshop:
• Aimed at members of web teams responsible for
managing institutional UK HE web services
• Speakers from within the HE community (plus one
speakers from commercial world)
• Provides opportunity for interaction with fellow
participants
• Ambitious programme
• Third in series (first held at KCL in July 1997
followed by last year’s event at Newcastle)
• Took place at Goldsmiths College on 7-9 Sept 1999
Note that slides are available on Web.
See <www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue21/>
Only brief summaries are given here
2
Senior Management’s View
John Slater (P-VC at Kent) gave a talk:
• Provocative talk commissioned to respond to
previous year’s comments
• Stated that:




You are misfits
You are expensive
You are located in wide range of org. structures
You are miss-selling yourselves:
– I want more because I’m very busy / very stressed,
– I want to do XML / RDF / …
– University of X is doing it
 Universities want to jump on after the leading edge
• We’ve been here before: mainframes, networks, PCs
• There are opportunities for web editors:
•
3
Teaching and learning, PR, …
Building Relationships Online
Joe Passmore (Ulster) developed on first talk:
• We’ve build web sites because everyone does
• We are often technology-led
Instead:
• We need to build services based on our
customer’s needs
Examples of personalised web services include:
• UCLA at <http://my.ucla.edu/>
• Miami University at <http://www.muohio.edu/>
• Washington State University at
<http://cougnet.wsu.edu/>
Talk by Joe Passmore,
Ulster
4
Beyond Brochureware
David Christmas / Ian Roddis (OU) continued theme of
much richer web sites
Provided taxonomy of web sites:
• Indie sites: (e.g. beagle2.open.ac.uk/)
Vanity pages. May use new technologies.
• Webmaster sites: (e.g. www98.open.ac.uk/)
Corporate look-and-feel. Simple technologies.
• Embedded sites: (e.g. www3.open.ac.uk/courses/)
Back-end databases integrated organisationally with
decision-making, resourcing & operational activities
• E-business sites: (e.g. www.dell.com/)
Dynamic content. Business driven.
Functionality that can’t be achieved in print.
Goal to aim for?
OU system:
Talk by David Christmas and Ian Roddis, OU
5
• Expensive
• Authentication an issue
Content Management Systems
We need content management systems:
• We are now looking at more than documents and
simple images
• The content is not only displayed, it is:
– Replicated, archived, distributed and re-purposed,
• A file-based view of the web is limiting:
– Need to think about collections of resources (units bigger
than a page) and parts of a page (included fragments)
•
•
•
•
Relational database has advantages
But object-oriented technologies may be needed
Key technologies are probably XML and RDF
Choice of software is a challenge for community
Talk by Stephen Emmott, KCL
6
Multimedia
Use of multimedia on corporate web:
• Driven by top-down approach (exceptions tend
to be indie websites):
– JISC Moving Image Pilot Project
– CEI Working Group on Moving Images
• Challenges:
– Rights
– Computer requirements (CPU, storage,
network bandwidth)
• The vision:
– Moving images as first class citizens
– Pervasive, unremarkable
7Talk
by Greg Newton-Ingham, UEA
SMIL
SMIL:
• Synchronised Multimedia Interchange Language
• W3C recommendation, but Microsoft doing their
own thing
• Probably too soon
except for early
adopters
W3C’s SMIL:
Declarative
Easy to use
Microsoft’s HTML+TIME:
Procedural
For programmers
SMIL 2.0 will merge best
features?
8
Talk by Michael Wilson, RAL
Browser Management
We need a browser management policy:
• We have management policies elsewhere
• More important for Web as it is becoming mission-critical
Exeter have analysed user-agents on their web sites:
• Large proportion are Internet Explorer
• This pattern is reflected elsewhere
• Netscape suffering massive loss in market share
Need for use of browser administrative kit:
• IEAK / Netscape
Other Issues:
• Specialist browsers (Opera, PDAs, WebTV)
• Microsoft’s dominance & unpopularity
Talk by Brett Burridge,
Essex
9
Experiences With XML
Example of corporate use of XML:
• Senate minutes stored in XML
• Enables richer searching:
<ACTION>Report by <ACTION-NAME>BK</ACTIONNAME></ACTION>
• Have developed MS Word wizard to allow
continued use of recommended wp
• Also have developed XML-based presentation
package
Worth looking at
Talk by James Currall,
10Glasgow
Indexing Issues
Based on UKOLN survey of
search engines used in 160
UK HEIs carried out in
July/Aug 1999.
Report to be published in
Ariadne issue 21. See
<http://www.ariadne.ac.
uk/>.
Talk by Helen Sargan,
11Cambridge
Name
Total
ht://Dig
25
Excite
19
Microsoft
12
Harvest
8
Ultraseek
7
SWISH
5
Webinator
4
Netscape
3
wwwwais
3
FreeFind
2
Other
13
None (found)
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Indexing Issues
Questions on software in use in community:
• Security concerns with Excite
• Muscat no longer available for free
• Do file-based indexers index too much junk?
Case Studies:
• Essex:
Windows NT indexer; 16 servers; 11,500 entries
• Oxford:
Unix indexer; 131 servers; 43,500 entries
• Cambridge:
Ultraseek indexer (expensive); 232 servers; 188,000 entries
Conclusions:
• Software is dependent on local requirements
• Sort out robot-based indexing controls
• Regularly review indexing software
12
Other issues discussed in parallel session
Getting Your Site Listed
Talk looked at how to get your pages listed in global
search engines (e.g. AltaVista):
• Problems with big sites (up to 500 pages per site)
• Multiple domains are a good idea:
www.plymouth.ac.uk/library/  library.plymouth.ac.uk/
• Don’t use frames!
• Think about bulk submission to engines (Go
accepts thousands, Hotbot – 50/day, AV – 5/day)
• Submit (and resubmit) to directories (e.g. Yahoo)
• Dynamic pages can cause problems – investigate
workarounds (e.g. Apache rewrite):
http://www.nike.com/ObjectBuilder.iwx?ProcessName=IndexPage&
SectionID-172000
• See http://www.searchenginewatch.com/links/
Talk
13
by Danny Sullivan, SearchEngineWatch
Parallel Sessions
Seven parallel sessions:
• Design, Access and Accessibility
• Legal, Decent, Honest and True
• The Web Editor
• Web Site Navigation
• Intranets and Extranets
• Web Tools
• Metadata
Lasted from 2:00-5:30
Between 10 and 25 participants each
A summary of the report-back session follows
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Intranets and Extranets (1)
• Most popular parallel session –
indication of current interest in Intranets
• Looked at:
– Definitions
– Where the community is at
– Case study
– Management & cultural issues
Session led by James Currall, Glasgow
15Reporter was James Currall, Glasgow
Intranets and Extranets (2)
Outcomes:
•
•
•
•
Provided opportunity to share experiences
We have similar problems
Authentication is a big issue
Intranets are more complex than normal web
sites
• We are not all talking about the same thing
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Intranets and Extranets (3)
Take home messages for individuals:
• Check security (*5)
• Look into authentication
• Redraft Intranet policy
• Rerun event in-house/elsewhere (*5)
• Get rid of Netscape 3
17
Intranets and Extranets (4)
Recommendations for work to be done
centrally:
• Clarify use of term Intranets
• Run more events
• Promote examples of best practice
• Guidance on authentication / CAs / digital
certificates / smart cards / LDAP / etc.
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Design
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Session led by Andrew Aird, Goldsmiths.
Reporter was Paul Booth, DISinHE
• W3C Quicktips card very useful for authors and for
training. Should consider bulk distribution and printing
distribution of these (centrally or in institutions).
• Training for authors is important. It should not be
treated as a separate issue to general design, but an
integral part of the process (the WAI video is useful).
• New material/web interfaces should be designed with
access in mind, and checked with Bobby.
• Training materials that raise access issues is vital.
• Policy makers should provide funding so that
accessible web material can be developed.
• Web community needs advice on where funding may
be available to redress poor design / access.
• Important for web managers to know what their
institutions disability policy is, and who can help them.
Web Site Navigation
Session provided many useful tips:
• Use the Keywords and Description META tags
• It may be worth submitting key resources to Yahoo – but
may have to resubmit
Participants completed several exercises:
• Analysis of (a) UK HEI search engines and (b) 404 error
pages [see Ariadne issue 20 and 21]
• Led to decisions to review own provision
Web Site Navigation:
• Consistency and simplicity are important
• Server logs may provide useful information
Participants would like:
• One stop web site of useful information and briefing sheets
• Rerun of session,
possibly on regional basis Session led by Helen Sargan, Cam.
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Reporter was Jane Carne, UKERNA
Legal
Session addressed three topics:
AUPs
– You need one
– If it’s based on JANET AUP, remember it has changed
– Think about your concerns (being sued, bad publicity, etc.)
Data Protection
– Likely to be part of Web Editor’s job
– New act comes into force in March 2000
Copyright
–
–
–
–
New EU directive out soon
You should assert your copyright
You should trademark your logo
You should probably trademark name variants
(e.g. oxford-university.com is up for grabs)
Session led by Colin Work, Southampton
21Reporter was Jeremy Speller, UCL
Web Editor (1)
Addressed four topics:
• Getting a Job
• Managing the Job
• Being Supported
• Being a Professional
Session led by Miles Banberry, Kent
22Reporter was Damon Querry, Newcastle
Web Editor (2)
Getting A Job
•
•
•
•
•
Survey of web editor job ads over last 3 years
Wide range of job titles
Variety of pay scales
Do employers know what they want?
Do we have to write our own job descriptions?
Managing The Job
• Who should we work for?
• Need to define composition of ideal web team
• Be integral. You should have a voice in the main
University business.
23
Web Editor (3)
Being Supported
• Lack of training. Therefore need:
–
–
–
–
National accreditation
Regional groups
Mailing lists
Forum to exchange ideas with receptive audience
• Need to sell yourself and your services
Being A Professional
• Need to think about involvement in
professional groups (e.g. BCS, IIS)
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Metadata
Session used the HE Mall as an example of a
metadata-driven service and addressed several issues:
• Need for the HE Mall:
• Difficulties in providing structured information for
application-application use
• Technical solutions
Recommendations:
• HE Mall developers need to be aware of potential
difficulties within institutions
• Institutions would like software to help manage their
metadata
• Institutions would like case studies illustrating how
institutions approach participation in the HE Mall
Session led by Brian Kelly, UKOLN
25Reporter was Anne McCombe, MIMAS
Web Tools
Session looked at:
1 - Browsers and Browser Administration Kits:
• Opera is lightweight and has good support for
accessibility, but it’s licensed, has no
development kit and its Java support is poor
• Web pages may look OK in WebTV browsers
under certain circumstances. If WebTV takes
of it may have many implications for us.
• Agreement that browser administration
software is desirable, but may be (political?)
difficulties in implementation
Session led by Dave Hartland, Netskills
26Reporter was David Lomas, Salford
Web Tools
2 - Middleware:
Zope
• An open source middleware system
• Used at Newcastle and Bristol
Lycee
• A commercial content management system
• Can release webmaster from mundane chores
• Aims to enable non-technical people to publish
• Under trial at KCL and Liverpool
• CHEST deal?
Lotus Notes
• Used at City University Business School
Need for a day on content management systems
27
Questions?
Opportunity for questions:
• About the workshop
• About the web in general
Comments welcome from participants at
the workshop who are attending JUSW
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