a centre of expertise in digital information management an approach to standards: a presentation for...
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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
An Approach To Standards:A Presentation For CIE Partners
Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath
EmailB.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
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
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
2
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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Layered Approach to Standards
xxx
OSS
Policies (Catalogue?)
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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 …
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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End Of Part 1
Any questions?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
Part 2:Deployment And Support Infrastructure
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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Access Issues
A single central repository or a distributed approach?
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CatalogueCatalogue
Context Context
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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
A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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A centre of expertise in digital information management
www.ukoln.ac.uk
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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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