Designing the Digital Knowledge Gateway

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Designing the Digital Knowledge Gateway

• Summer Course L385T
• School of Information
• Instructors
• Andrew Dillon
• Dan Updegrove
• Liz Aebersold guests

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Course logistics

• June 4th - Aug 13th, Wed 1.30-3.00pm
• 11 meetings others as needed
• No fixed readings, guest speakers, discussion
  issues
• Goal deliver output for use in the KG

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Schedule

• June 4th Week 1 Overview
• June 11th Week 2 Core concerns for the UT KG
  team
• June 18th Week 3 The user experience issues
• June 25th Week 4 Personalization and portals
• July 2nd Week 5 Metadata and multiple related
  matters!
• July 9th Week 6 Project review
• July 16th, 23rd 30th
• Weeks 7 to 9 will involve a mix of guest lecture,
  discussion and exploration of the emerging
  projects.
• Aug 6th Aug 13th Project presentations

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What is the Knowledge Gateway?

• A means of providing all Texans with access to
  the University's wealth of knowledge and cultural
  assets.
• "The great treasures of this institution belong
  to all citizens of the state. We want all to use
  them.Also, we intend to be a leader in the new
  realm where research, learning and scholarly
  discourse are not limited by the walls of
  classrooms and laboratories."
• President Faulkner, 2002.

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The grand vision
The goal is to push the Universitys value out
to all citizens in new and imaginative ways

• Retaking the internet!
• Shaping global cyberspace
• Break down barriers between access and location
• Information as the C21st currency
• Check out the video

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Not just another web site!

• Rich content
• UT branding
• Authortitative
• Multimedia
• Transparent interactivity
• Dynamic, configurable
• Explorable at many levels
• Assistants? Guides?

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Major (practical) goals

• To greatly accelerate ongoing efforts to digitize
  and make available online UT-owned resources held
  in its libraries, museums, collections and other
  areas.
• To deliver this content and related service
  online via an innovative, personalized online
  gateway, which customizes access for each user.

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Concerns

• User side
• Multilingual audiences
• Levels of technical support
• Levels of technical abilities
• Technical side
• Creating personalizable options
• Implementing seamless interactions
• Management side
• Managing the immense materials
• Politics of collections
• Maintaining the KG
• And then some

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Projects

• Liz will provide list of needs in week 2
• Goal is to develop a contribution to the KG
• Demo
• Paper
• Model
• Data

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• If we are to product a Gateway for all citizens,
  how might we best handle the design of
  information for multi-lingual access and for
  optimal accessibility by users with varying
  capabilities.
• How will we operationalize the grand portal
  vision of allowing personalizable access? How
  will we know who is a citizen of Texas as they
  connect from schools, public libraries, Internet
  cafes, and homes?
• How will KG serve students, their families, and
  other citizens who do not have access to
  computers in their homes? In particular, how can
  KG engage effectively with Texas public libraries
  as sources of access and support?
• What current and future delivery systems should
  the Gateway target? What other emerging
  technologies should we be tracking
• How might the KG be designed to leverage our
  citizens' interests, expertise, concerns, and
  propensity to communicate?
• What unintended consequences might follow from
  specific design choices made for the Gateway?
• If the Gateway is a huge success, what resources
  will be required to support such an unprecedented
  networked constituency? What can be learned,
  about server requirements, network bandwidth,
  technical architecture, 24x7 support, et al.,
  from the experiences of, say, AOL, MSN,
  Amazon.com, eBay, and Dell?
• How can we evaluate usability and acceptability
  for a product that has no obvious competitor or
  comparisons? What range of interface designs
  might be needed to cover the diverse user
  communities? How can we design customization into
  the Gateway?

Original issues/ Suggestion only
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Grading

• Based on project delivered (80) and
  participation (20)
• Class
• Blackboard
• Can work alone or in teams
• http//www.ischool.utexas.edu/i385t6ad

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For next week

• Who else is offering a KG?
• What are they doing well?
• What are they doing badly?
• What lessons have been learned so far?

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Logistics

• Instructor emails
• adillon_at_ischool.utexas.edu
• aebersold_at_austin.utexas.edu
• updegrove_at_austin.utexas.edu
• TA Libby Peterek
• libby_at_ischool.utexas.edu
• Website
• http//www.ischool.utexas.edu/i385t6ad/index.html