a centre of expertise in digital information management addressing the limitations of open standards...
TRANSCRIPT
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Addressing The Limitations Of Open Standards
Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK
UKOLN is supported by:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/mw-2007/talk-standards/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/mw-2007/talk-standards/
Co-AuthorsMarieke Guy, UKOLNAlastair Dunning, AHDS
Co-AuthorsMarieke Guy, UKOLNAlastair Dunning, AHDS
This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)
Resources bookmarked using ‘mw-standards-2007' tag Resources bookmarked using ‘mw-standards-2007' tag
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
2
Contents
This talk will cover the following topics:• Introduction• Standards are great • Standards don't always work • Layered approach developed by QA Focus• Application to JISC development programmes• Application elsewhere• Sustainability• Conclusions
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
3
About Me, About UKOLN
Brian Kelly:• UK Web Focus – national Web advisory post• Advises higher & further education & cultural
heritage sectors on Web innovations, standards & best practices
• Involved in Web since January 1993• Involved in Web standards for JISC development
programmes since 1995UKOLN
• National centre of expertise in digital information management
• Location at the University of Bath, UK• Funded by MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives
Council) and JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee)
Intr
od
uct
ion
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
4
Open Standards Are Great …
JISC's development programmes (like others):• Traditionally based on use of open standards to:
Support interoperabilityMaximise accessibilityAvoid vendor lock-inProvide architectural integrityHelp ensure long-term preservation
History in UK HE development work:• eLib Standards document (v1 – 1996, v2 – 1998)• DNER (JISC IE) Standards document (2001)
which influenced:• NOF-digi Technical Standards (digitisation of
cultural resources)
Op
en S
tan
dar
ds
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
5
… But Don't Always Work
There's a need for flexibility:• Learning the lesson from OSI networking protocols
Today:• Is the Web (for example) becoming over-complex
"Web service considered harmful" The lowercase semantic web / Microformats
• Lighter-weight alternatives being developed• Responses from the commercial world
Op
en S
tan
dar
ds
Other key issues• What is an open standard?• What are the resource implications of using them?• Sometimes proprietary solutions work (and users
like them). Is it politically incorrect to mention this!?
Other key issues• What is an open standard?• What are the resource implications of using them?• Sometimes proprietary solutions work (and users
like them). Is it politically incorrect to mention this!?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
6
What Is An Open Standard?
Which of the following are open standards?• PDF Flash• Java MS Word
UKOLN's "What Are Open Standards?" briefing paper refers to characteristics of open standards:
• Neutral organisation which 'owns' standard & responsible for roadmap
• Open involvement in standards-making process• Access to standard freely available• …
Note these characteristics do not apply equally to all standards bodies e.g. costs of BSI standards; W3C membership requirements; …
Note these characteristics do not apply equally to all standards bodies e.g. costs of BSI standards; W3C membership requirements; …
Op
en S
tan
dar
ds
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
7
Compliance Issues
What does must mean?• You must comply with HTML standards
What if I don't? What if nobody does? What if I use PDF?
• You must clear rights on all resources you digitise
• You must provide properly audited accounts
What if I don't?
There is a need to clarify the meaning of must and for an understandable, realistic and reasonable compliance regime
There is a need to clarify the meaning of must and for an understandable, realistic and reasonable compliance regime
Co
mp
lian
ce
JISC 5/99 programme ~80% of project home pages were not HTML compliant
JISC 5/99 programme ~80% of project home pages were not HTML compliant
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
8
The Context
There will be a context to use of standards:• The intended use:
Mainstream Innovative / research Key middleware component Small-scale
deliverable
• Organisational culture: National vs small museum Teaching vs Research Service vs development …
• Available Funding & Resources: Significant funding & training to use new standards Minimal funding - current skills should be used
• …
Co
nte
xtu
al I
ssu
es
An open standards culture is being developed, which is supportive of use of open standards, but which recognises the complexities and can avoid mistakes made in the past
An open standards culture is being developed, which is supportive of use of open standards, but which recognises the complexities and can avoid mistakes made in the past
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
9
Quality Assurance
External factors: institutional, cultural, legal, …
The Layered Standards Model
JISCJISC
JISC / project
JISC / project
3rd Parties
3rd Parties
Owner
Annotated Standards Catalogue
Purpose Governance Maturity Risks …
Prog. n Funding Research Sector …
Context: Policies
External Self assessment Penalties Learning
Context: Compliance
JISC's layered standards model, developed by UKOLN. Note that one size doesn't always fit all
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
10
Implementation
How might this approach be used in practice?
Programme XX Call / Contract
Committees Advisers
Programme Team
Proposals must comply with XYZ standardProposals should seek to comply with XYZProposals should describe approach to XYZ
Projects audited to ensure compliance with …Projects should develop self-assessment QA
procedures and submit findings to JISCProjects should submit proposed approach
for approval/information
Development ProgrammeDevelopment Programme
JISC Manager
ReportReport
Contract
Report must be in MS Word / … and use JISC template…
Co
nte
xtu
al M
od
el
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
11
Note recent feedback has identified the need for heading on usage in other programmes (i.e. political acceptance)
The Standards Catalogue
The information provided aims to be simple and succinct (but document will still be large when printed!)
Standard: Dublin Core About the Standard: Dublin Core is a metadata standard made up …Version: New terms are regularly added to … Maturity: Dublin Core has its origins in workshops held …Risk Assessment: Dublin Core plays a key role …. It is an important standard within the context of JISC development programmes. Further Information:
• DCMI, <http://dublincore.org/> • …
Author: Pete Johnston, UKOLN Contributor: Date Created: 04 Oct 2005 Update History: Initial version.
Example
Note that as the standards catalogue is intended for wide use the contents will need to be fairly general
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
12
Standards Catalogue Process
There's a need for developing and enhancing the standards catalogue in order to:
• Update with new standards• Learn from feedback and experiences
Review
Policies
Context
Compliance
SupportInfrastructure
QAFramework
User Experiences
Funder'sExperiences
Standards
…Standards
E-Framework
Fee
db
ack
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
13
Sustainability
How do we • Sustain, maintain & grow the standards catalogue?• Develop a sustainable support infrastructure?
Suggestions:• More resources for support infrastructure• Extend model to related areas to gain buy-in, etc• Exploit learning gained by projects, reuse
experiences, encourage sharing, etc.:• Build on QA Focus approach (briefing docs and
case studies)• Contractual requirement for projects to produce
end-user deliverables and deliverables related to development process
Su
stai
nab
ilit
y
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
14
Lessons From NOF-digi TAS
What have we learnt from supporting the NOF-digi programme:
Use of Standards• Best practices not necessarily embedded if
imposed externally• Formal compliance monitoring can be expensive
(& unproductive)
Establishing Community of Practice• Limitations of top-down & centralised support• Sustainability problems of large, monolithic and
centrally owned support resources
Su
stai
nab
ilit
y
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
15
Support InfrastructureOpportunity to exploit deliverables from JISC-funded QA Focus project:
• 100+ briefing documents & 30+ case studies• Licensed (where possible) under Creative Commons• UKOLN are continuing to publish new documents
(documents on Folksonomies, AJAX, Podcasting, Wikis, etc. published recently)
Case Study Template• About the Project• Area covered• Approach taken• Lessons Learnt /
Things We'd Do Differently
• …
Case studies:• Opportunity to describe
experiences in specific areas• Standard template to ensure
consistency & provide focus• Allows UKOLN to promote
projects' work • Project get better Google rating
Su
pp
ort
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
16
Support Infrastructure (2)
How do we integrate the standards catalogue with implementation experiences, etc.
• Linking to related information in Wikipedia (the world can help the updating)
• Uploading information to Wikipedia – the wider community can help to update and maintain it
• Making information available with CC licences – so others can use it, update it – and hopefully give feedback on enhancements
• Use of syndication technologies (RSS & OPML)
Su
pp
ort
Note this is a Web 2.0 approach:• Uses Web 2.0 syndication technologies• Trusts users and benefits from a wide user base• Contributes to Web 2.0 services
Note this is a Web 2.0 approach:• Uses Web 2.0 syndication technologies• Trusts users and benefits from a wide user base• Contributes to Web 2.0 services
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
17
Support Model
Different stakeholders have different interestsDevelopers
• Selection of standards & architectures
Users• Is it usable?• Will it do what I want?• Will I use it?• Can I use it in various
contexts?Funders, etc
• Addressing differing interests
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
18
Similar Approaches Elsewhere
AHRC (Arts & Humanities Research Council) programmes:
• Requirement for bids to include technical appendix • Covers open standards, metadata, documentation,
rights, preservation, …• Bids marked by technical experts• Flawed technical proposals are informed of
deficiencies• Training and Advice provided to community to help
raise awareness of best practices and improve quality of development proposals
Su
pp
ort
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
19
Parallels With Web 2.0
This approach has many parallels with Web 2.0
Web 2.0 Culture• Openness: Encourage of sharing by developers
(problems as well as successes); use of CC; …• Always beta: There is not a single correct solution,
but a process of continual development• User-focussed: Importance of satisfying user
communities, rather than a set of rules
Web 2.0 technologies• Alerts & Syndication: Speedy alerts for fellow
developers and reuse of content for developers• Blogs & Wikis: Tools for developers to facilitate
sharing and collaborative working
Web
2.0
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
20
Example: Syndicating Content
Note importance of: (a) RSS and OPML (b) modular approach and (c) Creative Commons licence to maximise use & reuse of 100+ briefing documents
Note importance of: (a) RSS and OPML (b) modular approach and (c) Creative Commons licence to maximise use & reuse of 100+ briefing documents
QA Focus resources are embedded in University of Waterloo Web site. Resources are also being ported to a Wiki to support ongoing maintenance by Web Standards community.
QA Focus resources are embedded in University of Waterloo Web site. Resources are also being ported to a Wiki to support ongoing maintenance by Web Standards community.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
21
Conclusions
To conclude:• Open standards are important for large-scale
development work• It is therefore important to have a pragmatic
approach and not hide behind dogma• The contextual approach:
Allows scope to address complexities of technologies; deployment environments; etc.
Best deployed within a supportive open standards culture
Can be extended to other relevant areas
• We can use Creative Commons licences for standards information; support materials; etc.
• We can (and should) take a Web 2.0 approach to support materials (and not just end user services)
Co
ncl
usi
on
s