Web 2.0 and Social Networking for Museums, Libraries & Archives

1. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/mla-east-of-england-2008/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/mla-east-of-england-2008/ Web 2.0 and Social Networking for Museums, Libraries & Archives Acceptable Use Policy Recording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised. Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, UK Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ Resources bookmarked using 'mla-east-of-england-2008' tag UKOLN is supported by: This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

2. Introduction About Me • Brian Kelly: • UK Web Focus: a national Web advisory post • Based at UKOLN, a national centre of expertise in digital information management • Located at the University of Bath • Funded by JISC and the MLA • Involved in Web since Jan 1993 • Currently advising on best practices for Web 2.0

3. Introduction About This Talk • This talk aims to provide: • A better understanding of ‘Web 2.0’ • An awareness of how cultural organisations may benefits from Web 2.0 • An understanding of possible dangers, both for users and the institution • An opportunity to discuss how we should address the opportunities and challenges (and inevitabilities!) • The Facebook social networking service will be used to illustrate these points

4. Introduction About You • How many of you: • Have heard of Web 2.0? • Have read content in a blog or wiki? • Use Facebook? • Have used MSN Messenger, Skype, …? • Use photo sharing sites (e.g. Flickr)? • Have viewed video clips on YouTube? • Do you: • Use the tools for work? • Use the tools for social purposes (e.g. communicating with your children)?

5. Introduction Contents • Web 2.0 – What Is It? (Talking …) • Blogs  Wikis • Mashups  Comms tools • Social Networks (… exploring …) • Facebook: opportunities and challenges • Ning – grow your own social network • Deployment Strategies (… doing) • User focus • Information literacy; staff development • Risk assessment & safe experimentation

6. Introduction Let’s Do It Now! http://www.gabbly.com/... • Let’s not just talk about Web 2.0 – let’s use it now (assuming WiFi network available!): • Let’s Talk • Go to http://www.gabbly.com/ and in box enter www.mlaeastofengland.org.uk • Let’s Share Resources • Go to <http://del.icio.us/lisbk/mla-east-of-england-2008> to access resources Note You can set up a chat facility in 10 seconds. But this doesn’t mean you should built a service using it!

7. Web 2.0 Web 2.0 Web 2.0 • What Is Web 2.0? • Marketing term (derived from observing 'patterns') rather than technical standards - “an attitude not a technology” • Characteristics Of Web 2.0 • Network as platform • Easy-to-use (Ajax) • Always beta • Remix and mash-ups • Syndication (RSS) • Architecture of participation • Blogs & Wikis • Social networking • Social tagging (folksonomies) • Trust and openness Web2MemeMap, Tim O’Reilly, 2005 (or see Wikipedia )

8. Web 2.0: Why? Web 2.0 • Realisation of Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s dream: • Web was meant to be participative & user-driven • Technical infrastructure now in place • But only now are standards in place, use cases tested, commercial infrastructure deployed, … • User acceptance: • Many users love it – look at popularity of SNs • Saving scarce in-house resources: • Institutions can now focus on relevant areas, rather than duplicating services already available • Enhancing quality of what we do do • Developing digital citizenship • Addressing the gaps (e.g. information literacy, …)

9. Key Characteristics Openness Syndication Collaboration http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/blog/ Increasingly professional (e.g. developers) use blogs to describe what they're doing. Note that a Comments field can allow you to engage in discussions Blogs Web 2.0 http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/antarctica/ • Blogs – social phenomenon of the C21st? • Need for information professionals to: • Understand Blogging & related technologies (e.g. RSS, Technorati) • Be able to find resources in the 'Bloggosphere' • Explore how to Blogs to support business functions (support users, staff & organisation) This blog … tells what it's like spending the winter in Antarctica conserving artefacts from the explorer's hut left behind by Ernest Shackleton in 1908.

10. Openness Syndication Collaboration BlogBridge – a desktop Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page. Blogs - Reading Web 2.0 • How do you keep informed of developments? • Do you use a dedicated Blog reader? • Are you alerted of changes to key Blogs? • Do you focus on the content, and avoid the distractions of ads, etc. http://www.bloglines.com/myblogs Bloglines – a Web-based Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page.

11. Blended blogging See (and discuss) UK Web Focus blog post 25 Jan 2007 Blogs aren’t just one-way publishing, but an implementation of Tim Berners-Lee’s vision of a collaborative Web Blogs – Engaging With Users http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2007/01/25/experiments-with-meebo/ • The ukwebfocus.wordpress.com blog provides: • Discussions on Web 2.0 in culture, research and learning • Comments option for all postings • A realtime chat facility • Benefits: • Feedback on my thoughts and ideas • Evaluation • …

12. http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~schizoid/para/ … Blogger Web Comments tool lights up if Blog comments about Web site have been made. Alternatively go to the Google Blog search What Are They Saying About Us? Web 2.0 http://piclib.nhm.ac.uk/antarctica/ • Blogs are very interconnected with each other (bloggers discuss other blog postings). • This can help to provide feedback; measure impact; engage in discussions; etc.

13. RSS Syndication Finding Resources Web 2.0 http://www.technorati.com/ … • Technorati can help find Blog articles, etc. • Technorati search for "Museum of Antiquities" finds: • Blog posting about current exhibition posted 11 minutes ago! • Google search finds: • Museum home page What do users want: the home page and what people are saying today. Google & Technorati are valuable tools, so organisations should ensure that their Web site can be found in both.

14. Openness Syndication Collaboration http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/community/index/IWMW2006_Information_About_Social_Aspects http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/interop-focus/community/index/IWMW2006_Discussion_Group_Notes_for_Group_A • Note-taking at events • Social discussions at events Remember whennotes were trapped in the non-interoperable world of flip charts & paper. This need no longer be the case. Wikis Web 2.0 • Wikis – collaborative Web-based authoring tools • I use wikis for: • Collaborative papers (avoiding emailed MS Word file around) http://docs.google.com/ Google Docs – Web-based word processor or Wiki? Does it matter, it does the job

15. http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=culture http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=british+museum In top 10 in Google list Do you try and ensure your Web site is easily found when searching? If so, then an entry in Wikipedia could help with this business objective Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Museum • Wikipedia – not only a community-developed encyclopedia, but also a well-linked Web site, which boosts Google rankings

16. Openness Network effect Syndication Collaboration http://www.flickr.com/photos/tags/iwmw2006/interesting/?page=6 Sharing - Flickr Web 2.0 • Web 2.0 includes community-building • You can help support your community-building by making it easy to share photos at events (e.g. this seminar) • Simply suggest a tag e.g. ‘sharing-made-simple-20080910’ and encourage delegates to upload their photos with this tag http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=iwmw2006&m=text

17. Openness Network effect Syndication Collaboration Sharing – del.icio.us Web 2.0 http://del.icio.us/lisbk/sharing-made-simple-20080310 • Another aspect of sharing is sharing bookmarks • This can be used to: • Manage your bookmarks • Allow others to contribute resources • Allow lists of bookmarks to be repurposed • Carry out impact analysis • National Archives Web site bookmarked by 374 others: • Who are they? • What else are they interested in?

18. Openness Syndication Podcasts Web 2.0 • Podcasts are syndicated MP3 files • New items in a podcast can appear automatically in your Podcast client (e.g. iPod) or RSS reader • Resources can be accessed via iTunes http://www.podanza.com/podcast/... The University of Bath won a European award for its podcasts from guest lecturers, etc. We can regard this as maximising impacts of the ideas and promoting the University, at little cost

19. I am experimenting with video chat tools such as Seesmic to: • Encourage video debate • Reuse content in talks Video Blogs • Use of video is becoming more popular: • Cheap consumer devices • Easy-to-use services such as YouTube & Google Video As well as Web interface, other tools can display video clips

20. Openness Mashup APIs http://northumbria.ac.uk/browse/radius5/ More sophisticated mapping applications are being developed, such as Radius 5 at Northumbria Univ. Google Maps Mashups Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/maps/ • Google Map ‘mashup’ used for IWMW 2006 event: • ~ 20 lines of JavaScript. • Code taken from Google Maps Web site and coordinates added

21. Web 2.0 Communications • We said: • Content is king! • But maybe: • Communications is king! • Communications tool include: • Chat tools (MSN Messenger) • Audio & video (including MSN Messenger, Skype, …) • … Using Web 2.0 Also note Web-based video chat services such as TokBox and Seesmic

22. Openness Tags Collaboration Creative Commons Web 2.0 http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/publicity/ • Let’s allow others to legitimately reuse our content. • I do this for my event details: • Creative Commons licence assigned to publicity details • I also do this for my blog posts, slides, etc Note that the openness is a key aspect of Web 2.0: open source; open standards and open content can all help to bring benefits through maximising usage of services

23. Flickr Commons • Flickr Commons provides a repository of photographs which have a Creative Commons licence

24. Searching For CC Resources http://search.creativecommons.org/ • A number of search engines allow users to search for resources with various type of CC licences, e.g. can be used for commercial purpose http://search.yahoo.com/cc

25. Facebook Integration of Services • Web 2.0 applications can be used in isolation • They can also be integration into other services (e.g. widgets in blogs and Web sites) • Facebook is (currently) the leading platform for integrating many Web 2.0 tools Let’s look at Facebook in more detail, as an example of a popular Web 2.0 service

26. Facebook The Facebook Platform • The Facebook platform provides access to (a) Skype (b) Twitter micro-blogging service (c) mini-questions

27. Facebook What is Facebook? • Facebook: • A social networking Web site • Had the largest number of registered users among college-focused sites with over 30 million members worldwide • Ranked between top 10–20 Web sites • Seventh most visited site in the US Let’s now look at one very popular Web 2.0 application – the Facebook social networking service From Wikipedia

28. Facebook Your Profile Page • Here’s an example of a profile page: • Your details • Access to default applications • Access to applications your added • Facebook could be used as a personalised portal to various applications And here’s how others may see your profile Boring isn’t it!

29. Facebook It’s a Social Network (1) • The strength of Facebook is when it is used as a social network. Here people can see: • My updates to my Facebook account • Applications I’ve installed • Groups I’ve joined • Photos & videos I’ve uploaded • Blogs posts I’ve written • Messages I’ve sent & received • …

30. Facebook It’s a Social Network (2) • Here’s the page of a former colleague (now at Eduserv). This is valuable to me: • Spot friends in common • Keep informed of Andy’s professional interests (of interest to me) • Keep informed of Andy’s discussions with others • …

31. Facebook Student Use (1) • Example of groups subscribed by a student: • Student society Social Networks Facebook seems to be very popular for use with Student union societies (nb is this a threat to similar services provided on Student Union Web site?)

32. Facebook Student Use (1) • Example of groups subscribed by a student: • Student society Social Networks Notice how the issue of local versus global Facebook groups is being discussed. Would a local-only group act as a barrier to student alumni?

33. Facebook Student Use (2) • Example of groups subscribed by a student: • Student society • Social Social Networks Facebook is popular for various social activities – especially for keeping in touch over summer

34. Facebook Student Use (2) • Example of groups subscribed by a student: • Student society • Social Social Networks Note that Facebook provides access to videos and photos – a way of providing seamless access or a bandwidth hog?

35. Facebook The Opportunities • Facebook provides great opportunities for colleges and universities: • It’s popular • It’s easy-to-use • No need for in-house development or to purchase software • Useful for staff and post-graduate students too • We can easily integrate our resources into Facebook (e.g. RSS feeds, blogs, etc.) • It can provide alternative access to our services cf. MyNewport portal which took a day to port to Facebook Social Networks

36. Facebook What’s The Downside? • Various concerns have been expressed about: • Privacy (is Facebook a private or public space?) • Is Facebook a space for students or for all? • Is Facebook a closed environment? • …

37. You Can Manage Your Privacy • You have control over the information others can see about you

38. You Can Manage Your Privacy • You have control over the information others can see about you • But how many users change the default settings? And what about what Facebook can do with your information? Note that Wikipedia provides useful information on Facebook’s terms and conditions

39. Deployment Strategies • I want to do use the Social Web but: • The IT Services department bans it • The council bans it • My boss doesn’t approve • Area of interest to UKOLN: • “Just do it” • Subversive approach – ‘Friends of Foo’ if Foo can’t use it • Encourage enthusiasts • Don’t get in the way UKOLN briefing papers available (with CC licence). More to be released shortly.

40. Conclusions Conclusions • To conclude: • Web 2.0 can provide real benefits for our users • There are many opportunities for cultural heritage organisations • We need to be seek ways we can exploit such opportunities • We also need to acknowledge risks and dangers • Further discussions on Web 2.0 issues are given on the UKWebFocus.wordpress.com blog

41. Questions • Any questions?