What Can Internet Technologies Offer?

1
What Can Internet Technologies Offer?
lthttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/seminars
/sussex-2004-07/gt
How can Internet technologies help us to support
communications with by students? How should IT
Library Services respond to use of Internet
technologies driven by students?

• Brian Kelly
• UKOLN
• University of Bath
• Bath

Email B.Kelly_at_ukoln.ac.uk URL http//www.ukoln.ac.
uk/
2
Contents

• About The Speaker
• How Times Have Changed
• Mobile Devices
• Commercialisation
• Technologies
• Instant Messaging
• Integrated environments
• Blogging ? Wikis
• Mobile phones ? Semantic Web / FOAF
• Strategic Challenges
• Open source ? Support
• Preservation ? Deployment
• Conclusions

3
About The Speaker

• Brian Kelly
• UK Web Focus funded by JISC and the MLA to
  support the HE/FE and museums, libraries
  archives sector on Web standards best practices
• Based at UKOLN a national centre of expertise
  in digital information management
• Located at the University of Bath
• Formerly worked in user support in Computing
  Service departments at Universities of
  Loughborough (1984-90), Liverpool (1990-91) and
  Leeds (1991-95) and for Netskills (1995-6)

4
How Times Have Changed
IT Skills Training
Users
IT Strategy1980-1990s
WordPerfect / Word
User Groups, Committees
Lotus / Excel
Research / Teaching
Mainframe / Unix PC / Mac
Centralised / Distributed
5
Mobile Devices
Challenges

• What are the implications of mobile devices?

What do these devices have in common?
6
New Devices
Challenges

• What are the implications of, say, Web / email
  clients on digital TV?

Cost about 120 (or 64.50 on offer from BT Shop)
http//www.netgem.com/
7
WiFi
Challenges

• WiFi technologies make mobile devices even more
  appealing. Imagine scenario
• WiFi access in all lecture rooms, teaching
  spaces,
• WiFi access in all halls of residences, flats,
  etc.
• WiFi access in all social spaces, such as bars,
  fields, etc
• WiFi access in town centre, pubs, Starbucks,
• and with Zeroconf you can walk into a room it's
  all available

• How will this change the dynamics of teaching
  learning?
• How will this affect purchasing patterns?
• How will this affect social activities?
• How will this affect the role of IT Services?

Thought Experiment Let's imagine you all have
networked mobile devices.
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Commercial Providers
http//www.bathstudent.com/
Challenges

• We are now faced with increasing numbers of
  commercial providers of IT services

• Bathstudent.com provides
• Personalised portal
• Diary calendar
• News alerts by email SMS
• Advice

9
GMail

• Who needs a University email account when you can
  get 1 Gb from a GMail account?

• My Plans
• Get GMail ID
• Use it as secondary source for mailing lists
• Don't divulge ID (no spam)
• Wait and see what extras Google provide (RSS feed
  would be nice)
• Gain feel for privacy issues

10
Instant Messaging
Technologies

• Instant Messaging
• Nothing new Unix talk anyone?
• New user communities driving its use
• Young people ? Overseas students
• Comments from recent UCISA poll
• "IM ... is 'here to stay' an 'unstoppable
  tide'. Seen as part of youth culture, along with
  SMS" Liverpool JMU
• "Students will arrive familiar with, and
  expecting to .. use such tools. Email seen by
  younger people to be 'boring', 'full of spam', IM
  and SMS immediacy preferred" Bath
• But
• "Complaints raised regarding students hogging PCs
  .. Also case with email some time ago" Liverpool
  JMU
• "APIs are known and therefore targets for
  hackers" London Met
• "Some challenges in interoperability " Bath

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IM - Tools
Technologies

• Popular IM tools include
• MSN Messenger
• Yahoo Messenger
• AOL Instant Messenger

Typically choosing a supported application
involved looking at functionality, cost, support,
security, ..
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IM Functionality (1)
Technologies

• MSN Messenger providesgroupware IM
  functionality
• Sharing desktop applications
• File transfer
• Webcams
• Games

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IM Functionality (2)
Technologies

• Yahoo Messenger is integrated with My.Yahoo
• Calender (which can be synced with Outlook)
• Personalised new, weather, etc.
• SMS (but not in UK)

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IM Guidelines (1)
Guidelines

• Guidelines developed for QA Focus (UKOLN/AHDS
  project)
• Scheduled virtual meeting with home worker and
  with project partner
• Formal agenda used and meeting chaired
• Use of Webcam planned (nb privacy issues)
• Transcript archived (confidentiality issues
  flagged)
• IM also used for informal purposes e.g. short
  term tasks such as agreeing on pub to meet in
• Recognition of dangers of interruption, privacy,
  etc. (similar to divulging personal phone no.)
• Need for guidelines to be implemented in protocols

lthttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/case-st
udies/case-study-12/gt
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IM Guidelines (2)
http//www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/documents/briefin
gs/briefing-56/
Guidelines

• The JISC-funded QA Focus project has developed a
  quality assurance framework for JISC's digital
  library programmes
• We also have support materials such as briefing
  documents, example policies and procedures
  documents, etc.

See lthttp//www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/gt
16
Security Issues
Technologies

• "I've asked our IT bods to open up the port, but
  have been met (so far) with a stony silence."
• Tensions
• Users want the rich functionality
• IT Services also need to address security,
  privacy, support, etc. issues
• IM is an example of an edge service
• Name given to P2P programs such as instant
  messaging, file sharing, etc. Programs are
  located at the edge of the network, travelling
  through desktop PCs rather than a central server
• IETF working on "Open Pluggable Edge Services"
  standard, which will address security issues

17
Interoperability
Technologies

• Lack of interoperability
• Mainstream IM world is currently closed
• Multi-protocol clients exist (e.g. Trillian, IM)
  but don't support value-added features (? ?)
• XMPP - open protocol of IM
• Jabber provides open source clients servers
  which support XMPP
• Value-added services being developed e.g.
  BuddySpace at OU (note interesting movie)

18
Policy Issues
Policies

• For IM
• Functionality / support aren't main issues
• IM exists to facilitate communications the users'
  peers
• Should we
• Provide multiple clients to support users
  (Liverpool approach)?
• Chose client and manage the ids, so we can use to
  communicate IM students?
• Provide clients but support separate IM facility
  (e.g. as part of portal, VLE, )?
• Wait for standards applications to arrive which
  solve the problems?

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In Summary
Remote IM databases are populated by individuals
and managed remotely Finding people, managing
groups of students, etc. is difficult
AOL
AOLMessenger
MSN
MSNMessenger
Yahoo
YahooMessenger
Additional functionality Additional problems?
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Integrating Environments (1)

• Services such as YahooGroups integrate
• Mailing lists
• IM
• Voting
• Calendars

Technologies
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Integrating Environments (2)
Technologies

• JISCMail is extending its facilities to include a
  voting system and a chat room (currently being
  tested)
• Being part of our community it doesnt have
  adverts and is responsive to needs of the
  community

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Integrating Environments (3)

• IM can be integrated with other facilities within
  VLEs, portals, etc. For example
• Univ of Delaware (looking to integrate IM as a
  channel in uPortal)
• VLS

23
Let's Kill E-Mail!
Technologies

• E-mail has its role but
• Why send messages which time-out when many users
  will read them too late?
• Why not use delivery channels which are
  spam-free?
• Why not use delivery channels which are more
  suited to receiving information (as opposed to
  discussions)?
• Why not allow users to select their preferred
  channels?

Shouldn't RSS viewers be standard on
desktops? Shouldn't we be creating RSS feed for
news alerts?
24
Blogging (1)

• Blogging cult fashion or significant developing
  in publishing / communications?

Technologies
Student's learning diary. Created by student and
hosted on remote Blogger Web site. No longer
maintained?
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Blogging (2)
Technologies

• But
• I want new information to be pushed to me
• I want to create information using tools other
  than a Web browser
• I prefer an email interface (fewer images, )

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Blogging (3)
Google "auricle bath" for URL

• E-learning Unit at Bath provides a good example
• Team contributions
• Quality content
• Willing to address controversial e-learning
  issues
• and good software with rich functionality

Note getting the software installed is the easy
part bigger issues include sustainability,
scope, style, handling comments,
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Wikis

• Wiki
• An open shared space for collaborative editing

Emerging Technologies
QUB provide an environment for IT Society
students to collectively edit Web pages.
Wikipedia a example of shared
encyclopaedia. Yes, trust is an issue!
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Wikis (2)

• Your University may already be in the Wikipedia!

• Comments
• You can't stop people doing this
• This can be good publicity
• This can be effort for free
• If you create the page to start with you can set
  the tone

Note the Wikipedia is an example of a Web site
created using Wiki software. The Wikipedia is
sometimes confused with Wikis.
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The Potential For SMS
Technologies

• SMS
• Over 100 million SMS txts sent over New Year 2004
  why don't we send exam results, library alerts,
  ?
• A small number of institutions are using SMS
• "SHU used SMS during clearing - potential
  students texted in UCAS code of course of
  interest. The system sent back text saying
  whether places were still available - alleviating
  pressure on our call centre."
• "I believe Edinburgh student union uses SMS for
  their elections."
• "I believe there are plans afoot in our
  university at a high level to develop a method of
  'bulk sending' SMS messages out to students."
• Birkbeck are "hoping to pilot an SMS alert system
  soon for one of our Schools that they can use
  (via a simple Web interface) to send lecture
  cancellation messages etc to their students"

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From SMS ?3G
Technologies

• WAP
• Failed to take off, but some experimentation
  talking place
• 3G
• The SMS or the WAP of the future?
• Will developments be driven by
• Research interests e.g. lthttp//www.m-learning
  .org/gt
• Consumers?
• Will the killer app be
• Publishing information?
• Communications?
• Something else competition for WiFi competition
  e.g. Google for the pub quiz
• Nothing

31
FOAF

• FOAF (Friends-of-a-Friend)
• A Semantic Web application (SW creation of a
  distributed global database without central
  control)
• Allows structured information about people to be
  brought together
• Great potential for building online communities
• Featured in Guardian Online column 19 Feb 2004
• Paper at IADIS Web Based Communities 2004 on
  "Using FOAF To Support Community-Building" by
  Kelly Dodds

Emerging Technologies
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FOAF Example (1)
A view of my FOAF file, showing links to my
friends
Emerging Technologies

• FOAF Explorer - lthttp//xml.mfd-consult.dk/foaf/ex
  plorer/gt

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FOAF Example (2)
Emerging Technologies

• FOAFNaut - lthttp//www.foafnaut.org/gt

34
Creating FOAF

• Several types of FOAF authoring tools are
  available
• Do it by hand
• Web-based tools
• Dedicated tools
• Using a Wiki

Emerging Technologies
35
Creating Online Communities

• Students (and staff) want to be part of
  communities - as shown by success of
  FriendsReunited and (since Jan 2004) Orkut

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Strategic Challenges
Challenges

• Challenges we face
• AUPs
• Open Source vs Commercial Solutions
• Departmental Individual Autonomy
• Interoperability, Preservation, etc.
• People Issues
• Privacy, Data Protection,
• Sustainable Communities
• How we go about deploying such facilities

Note ran out of time for this section at UCISA
Management Conference
37
Open Source Software
Challenges

• Many Web/Internet -based tools described (Wikis,
  Blogs, Jabber, )
• Are available as open source software (OSS)
• Act as demonstrators of emerging new open
  standards
• Options for an institutional OSS strategy
• Replace MS Office products by Open Office
• Deploy new services using open source applications

Note the JISC-funded OSS Watch service can
provide advice on OSS strategies. See
lthttp//www.oss-watch.ac.uk/gt
38
Interoperability Sustainability
Challenges

• Current position
• Lots of interesting application areas and
  application software
• In the future
• Software products will fade away, be taken over,
  ..
• There will be a need to integrate areas (VLEs,
  with IM with Blogging) to provide seamless
  interface
• There will be a need for data to migrate
• There will be a need for data to be preserved
  (records of dialogue, group memory, FoI, )

The use of open standards will be important.
39
Deployment
Challenges

• How should we go about deploying more open and
  innovative collaborative systems?
• "Eat your own dogfood" use the tools to discuss
  the tools
• IM tools were used to discuss issues with staff
  evaluating IM at Edinburgh
• Small scale experiments
• Address local, regional, issues
• Sharing experiences
• Learn from the users and your children!

40
Experiment!

• "IM, WiFi, Blogs. Wikis, These are the future.
  We need to experiment - let's try them at UCISA
  2005"
• Brian Kelly, UCISAS 2004 19 March 2004

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Realtime IM-ing
http//www.ilrt.bris.ac.uk/news/conferences/colsto
n2004/programme

• Paul Shabajee gave a talk about use of IRC and
  Blogs

42
Colston Conference Blog
http//blog.ilrt.org/colston/

• Blogs were used to report on all of the talks.

43
Wikis For Shared Notekeeping
http//www.seedwiki.com/page.cfm?docictp-2004wik
iid4970

• The free, externally hosted Seedwiki (and Swiki)
  Wikis used to support workshop in Trieste
• They were used to note students areas of
  interests (Notepad normally used)
• This approach allowed students to contribute

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What If Things Go Wrong?

• Things do go wrong! So plan accordingly!

Two Wikis had been setup. One became unavailable
during workshop, so used other
It all goes wrong? Tell students they are taking
part in an experiment they might find this
exciting!
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Non-Technical Issues
Challenges

• Sustainability of online communities (IADIS WBC
  2004 paper on "Building Online Communities - The
  Barriers And The Bruises")
• Support Issues
• Technical support "How do I ?", "Why can't I
  ?"
• Support in use of the technologies (is this our
  job?)
• Policy Issues
• We should support students in their social
  networking activities in cyberspace as well as in
  real life
• We don't patrol student bedrooms so let's not
  patrol the PC in their bedroom
• IT facilities and networks are for teaching /
  research. We'll ban other use, especially if
  security's an issue

Such policy decisions may be influenced by bigger
HE funding issues
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Where Does This Leave Us?

• Can we afford not to have
• An Institutional WikiA managed, easy-to-use
  collaborative workspace
• An Institutional BlogA managing and
  interoperable diary and annotation environment
• Institutional IM FacilitiesSupported IM software
  and managed directory facilities

Before the environments, we should have a policy
in these areas. The policy could, for example,
leave provision of such services to the market
place.
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Conclusions

• Internet and Web collaborative technologies
• Provide a range of interesting new application
  areas of use in a teaching context
• Students will increasingly be familiar with such
  technologies and expect to continue to use them
• Many technologies are free/open source and will
  be deployed by individuals / in departments
• Issues of ongoing, security, interoperability,
  etc. will need to be addressed by IT Services
• Issues of sustainable communities, guidelines,
  etc. also need addressing but by whom?
• Many challenges but also great potential

48
Questions

• Any questions?