http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/umbrella-2007/
Managing New Technologies:
The Challenge Of Web 2.0
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
Acceptable Use Policy
Recording/broadcasting of this talk,
taking photographs, discussing the
content using email, instant
messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is
Email
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk permitted providing distractions to
others is minimised.
Resources bookmarked using ‘umbrella-2007' tag
UKOLN is supported by:
A centre of expertise in digital information management
This work is licensed under a AttributionNonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
(but note caveat) www.ukoln.ac.uk
Contents
• Web 2.0 has arrived – let’s just use it
• Or has it?
 Sustainability
 Reliability
…
 Quality
 Dependencies
• Deployment strategies:
 Do nothing
 Middle ground
 Embrace fully
• Application in your areas of interest
A centre of expertise in digital information management
2
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Web 2.0: Why?
Realisation of Sir Tim’s dream:
• Web was meant to be interactive & user-driven
Technical infrastructure now in place
• But only now are the standards in place, use cases
tested and commercial infrastructure deployed
User acceptance:
• Users love it – look at popularity of SNs
Saving scarce in-house resources:
• Institutions can now focus on relevant areas, rather
than duplicating services already available
• Enhancing quality of what we do do
• Developing digital citizenship
• Addressing the gaps (e.g. information literacy, …)
See Web
2.0:
Supporting
Library
Users for other examples
A centre
of expertise
in digital information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
3
In Slightly More Detail
Talk last week at UCISA
SDG conf on Facebook:
• Embraces social
constructivism, informal
learning, …
• Allows us to get our data
(e.g. RSS) to where the
users are
• Can develop apps for
the platform (e.g. OPAC)
• Can engage with our
peers
• Avoid IT Services
conservatism
•…
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
4
Web 2.0: Why Not?
Small group exercise:
• What concerns do you have?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
5
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Web 2.0: Why Not?
Sustainability
Always available
Licence conditions
…
Technical
Security
Performance
…
Why not?
Users
Training
Understanding
…
Other Reasons
…
…
Management
Philosophical
Dumbing down
Privitisation
…
A centre of expertise in digital information management
6
Support
Expertise
…
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Did You Miss?
Web 2.0 concerns:
• I’ve got my own empire and I don’t want it
undermined
• I feel threatened by stiff I don’t understand
• We’ve just bought a new CMS (on my
recommendation) and it doesn’t do Web
2.0 stuff
• …
A centre of expertise in digital information management
7
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Context
You are considering:
• Encouraging your staff to blog using the
WordPress.com service
• Using a hosted Wiki service (e.g. WetPaint) to
engage with your users in planning of a Podcast
service
• Providing access to library RSS feeds on
Facebook
• Setting up a group on Facebook to solicit
feedback form your users
• …
What processes should you take to ensure these
services work effectively?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
8
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Approaches
Scenario Planning
Embracing
Diversity
Risk Assessment
Opportunity
Costs
Approaches
Risk Management
Cultural
Change
User
Engagement
A centre of expertise in digital information management
9
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Scenario Planning (1)
Scenario Planning
• Being piloted in JISC’s Users and
Innovation (U&I) programme
• Identify various futures (even unlikely
ones) and exploring:
• The implications
• Preparation for the unlikely
The Unlikely May Happen
In the 1980s and early-mid 1990s would we have expected
• A Labour government in power for 3 terms
• Labour PM admits his admiration for Margaret T.
• Conservative
leader
triesmanagement
to move party to left of centre
A centre
of expertise in digital
information
www.ukoln.ac.uk
10
Scenario Planning (2)
Web 2.0 wins
Steady as
she goes
Like today,
only more so
Google/Yahoo …
provide services
Social networks
Why JISC?
Web 2.0
fails
Web 2.0 fails
Google goes bankrupt
Yahoo nationalised
???
Student
revolts
“SNs? For primary
school”
Appeal of “retro VLEs”
A centre of expertise in digital information management
11
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Risk Assessment
Understanding risks:
• Walking across a busy road
General application of risk assessment:
• Future of JISC services and projects (cf. AHDS)
• Future of established vendors (cf. Blackboard)
Application to Web 2.0:
• Stability of the company
• Persistency of the data
Note parallels with selection of open source software: is there a community;
is it sustainable; is it taking me in a direction I’m happy with; …
Advice given in “Top Tips For Selecting Open Source Software” QA Focus
briefing document
no. 60in digital information management
A centre of expertise
www.ukoln.ac.uk
12
Risk Management
Risk management:
• What to do if risks occur?
Possibilities:
• Migration of service and data
• Provision of alternatives
• Acceptance:
• Times change
• The service provided valuable learning
•…
A centre of expertise in digital information management
13
www.ukoln.ac.uk
User Engagement
User engagement:
• Talking to the users and strengths and
weakness on proposed Web 2.0 services
• Giving them a feeling of ownership
• Libraries should be good at this 
• IT Services possibly less so 
Case Study
Skype use allowed on campus, but user feedback from students in
halls of residence show performance problems
• Banning on Resnet in response to user concerns
• Discussions with SU exec over increasing student demand
• Ban removed during summer vacation
• Technical
solutions
deployed
in vacation
A centre
of expertise in
digital information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
14
Cultural Change
“Using Google is privitisation of the educational sector!”
• Do users care?
• Hasn’t this happened already?
“Folksonomies is dumbing down!”
“Users must learn boolean!”
• This isn’t being user-centric
• Education and training needs to complement what
users will actually do
“Libraries are trusted. Amazon links will lose endanger
our relationship with our users & devalue our brand ”
• Will it?
• …
A centre of expertise in digital information management
15
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Opportunity Costs
“We can’t use del.icio.us as it might not be there in 5
year’s time. We’ll develop something in-house”
Consider:
• Missed opportunity costs in no service during this
time
• Costs of in-house development
• Enhancement of quality of del.icio.us service
• Deployment of additional del.icio.us products
A centre of expertise in digital information management
16
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Embracing Diversity
Diversity is central to the nature of higher education &
cultural heritage
Teaching & Learning / Research
• Different disciplines & teaching methods
• Need for innovation
Users
• Different learning styles
• Accessibility
• …
What Second Life Could Offer
Imagine a paraplegic user who cannot operate a PC. How a helper
can support the users engagement in Second Life. The user can
now
flyof in
this deeply
immersive
environment.
A
centre
expertise
in digital information
management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
17
Application In Your Context
How might the approaches of:
• Risk assessment & risk management
• User engagement
• Understanding implications of cultural
change
• Avoiding missed opportunity costs
• Embracing diversity
apply in your areas of work?
See Web 2.0: Addressing the Barriers to Implementation
in
a Library
for further
suggestions www.ukoln.ac.uk
A centre
of expertiseContext
in digital information
management
18
Questions
Questions and comments welcomed
A centre of expertise in digital information management
19
www.ukoln.ac.uk