a centre of expertise in digital information management an approach to standards: a presentation for...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

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An Approach To Standards:A Presentation For CIE Partners

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath

[email protected]

UKOLN is supported by:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/meetings/cie-2005-08/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/meetings/cie-2005-08/

About This TalkThis talk describes:

• The difficulties in using open standards

• The layered approach developed for JISC

• The applicability of this approach for the CIE

About This TalkThis talk describes:

• The difficulties in using open standards

• The layered approach developed for JISC

• The applicability of this approach for the CIE


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Background

JISC development work:• Traditionally based on use of open standards to:

Support interoperabilityMaximise accessibilityAvoid vendor lock-inProvide architectural integrityHelp ensure long-term preservation

History:• eLib Standards document (v1 – 1996, v2 – 1998)• DNER Standards document (2001)

which influenced:• NOF-digi Technical Standards • ..

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Lessons Learnt

Experiences of the QA Focus (and NOF-digi Technical Advisory Service) revealed problems:

• Lack of knowledge of standards• Immaturity of standards• Failure for standards to take off• Difficulties when building on existing work• Uncertainty of what to do if standards not

implemented correctly• Lack of resources• Lack of understanding (why, how, best

practices, …)• …

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Need For Flexibility

A need for flexibility (lessons from OSI networking):• Is Web (for example) is becoming over-complex?• Lighter-weight alternatives being developed• Responses from the commercial world

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Compliance Issues What does must mean?

• .. must comply with HTML standards What if I don't? What if nobody does?

• .. must clear rights on digitised resources• .. must provide properly audited accounts

There's a need to clarify meaning of must and for an understandable & reasonable compliance regime

There's a need to clarify meaning of must and for an understandable & reasonable compliance regime


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The ContextThere will be a context to use of standards:

• The intended use: Mainstream Innovative /

research Key middleware component Small-scale

deliverable

• Available Funding & Resources: Significant funding & training to make use of important new

standards Minimal funding - current skills should be used

• Organisational culture: HE vs FE National museum vs small, volunteer organisation

• Cross-organisational cultural issues: Multimedia (BBC) E-learning

(BECTa/JISC)

• …

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Layered Approach to Standards

xxx

OSS

Policies (Catalogue?)


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Scope Of The Standards Work

What should the scope of Standards Catalogue be:• CIE development programmes• All work• …

Content areas will include:• Web File formats• Metadata Resource

discovery• E-learning Addressing• Alerting Authentication• E-Research …

What else?

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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

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…

JISC Manager

JISC ServiceJISC Service

Contract

Service must …Services must self-assess … and highlight significant deviations from …


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Collating The Content

We are using a Wiki to collect information about the standards:

• Being used by a small groups of trusted individuals

• Avoids bottleneck for uploading and maintaining content

Note: the Wiki is used for creation & maintenance of the data and is not intended as the final repository

At this stage, a simple template will be used. This can be enhanced in future iterations.

At this stage, a simple template will be used. This can be enhanced in future iterations.


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Scope / Differences

Scope of the standards catalogue• Initially technical standards which support

interoperability across CIE partners (i.e. not in-house Schemas)

• Initially avoid best practices and guidelines in use of standards?

Handling Differences• Template provides mechanism for flagging

subjective comments (e.g. maturity of standards) • Work does not aim at reconciling differences• Do we flag conflicts with the catalogue: "There are

conflicts over Foo vs Bar"; "JISC say 'Foo' but BECTa say "Bar"?; …

• Do we park the conflicts for others to resolve (and this exercise helps identify the areas)?

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End Of Part 1

Any questions?


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Part 2:Deployment And Support Infrastructure


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Publishing The Content

The Standards Catalogue:• Needs to be available as a document which can

be easily read• Data should be reusable and interoperable:

JISC Framework environment For CIE …

Plans:• Version 1 available as document• Data ported to CETIS's Framework software

We are currently talking to CETIS about this• Is it possible?• What are the resources implications?• …

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Building On The Work

The JISC work can form the basis of similar work for the CIE (Common Information Environment):

• Working with MLA, BBC, BECTA, …• Pooling existing resources• Identifying areas of agreement and

diversity

Note that the CIE work will not aim to reconcile differences, but to identify those areas

Note that the CIE work will not aim to reconcile differences, but to identify those areas

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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

Framework

The Standards Catalogue can be integrated with the JISC's 'Framework' The Standards Catalogue can be integrated with the JISC's 'Framework'

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Access Issues

A single central repository or a distributed approach?

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CatalogueCatalogue

Context Context


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Context

Policies

Compliance

Software

Context

Policies

Compliance

Accessibility

The Bigger Picture

The vision is for:

• Modularity in approaches to standards, accessibility, software, digitisation, ..

Context

Policies

Compliance

StandardsEvaluation

Feedback

Enhance

Use

• Feedback mechanisms to help refine model and advice

• Support infrastructure for funders, projects & 3rd parties on model and best practices through sharing via briefing documents, case studies, events, maximising benefits through Creative Commons licences

Projects 3rd Parties

Docs Events

Best practices

CC licences

Funders

Processes

To

On

By

Support


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Lessons About Support

Lessons from JISC/NOF-digi programmes:• Importance of being able to repurpose

support resources• Need to avoid embedding generic advice

with programme-specific details• IPR issues for support materials

Context

Advice

Support

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Support InfrastructureNeed for a support infrastructure which covers:

• Advice to Funders: Putting together Calls, Evaluation Criteria, Contracts, etc

• Advice to Projects: Why the standards are needed; Pros and cons of deployment strategies; Ways of ensuring standards are being implemented correctly

We'll build on UKOLN/AHDS QA Focus work:• 80+ briefing documents and 30+ case studies

published• Licensed under Creative Commons

Can CIE partners contribute to this?Will sharing technical support materials be less contentious than cultural heritage resources?

Can CIE partners contribute to this?Will sharing technical support materials be less contentious than cultural heritage resources?

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Conclusions

To conclude:• Approach to developing standards catalogue

based on QA Focus's experiences and JISC-commissioned review

• Acknowledges importance of context• Allows for hard-line implementation (which is

needed in some areas)• Can be developed within a CIE context• Need to consider wider support infrastructure• This will be an ongoing process

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