How Small Museums Can Exploit The Social Web

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/yorkshire-federation-2009/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/yorkshire-federation-2009/ 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. How Small Museums Can Exploit The Social Web Email: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/briankelly/ Brian Kelly, UKOLN, University of Bath Bath, UK Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/ Resources bookmarked using 'yorkshire-federation-2009' tag UKOLN is supported by: This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Contents Introduction • Introduction • About me and UKOLN’s work for museums • About you • The Social Web • What is it? • How can it be used to support museums • Addressing Barriers • I don’t understand it • My bosses don’t get it • We get it – but have limited technical expertise • We can’t afford it • We get it, have the skills & resources but we’re concerned about legal issues, accessibility, interoperability, long term preservation; …

Introduction About Me Introduction • 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 & the Social Web

UKOLN’s cultural heritage blog provides: • Dissemination • User engagement • Access to other resources A series of workshops and talks have been given Recent Work For Museums • UKOLN has been proactive in providing support for the cultural heritage sector Over 30 briefing documents have been published

Introduction About You Introduction • How many of you: • Have heard of Web 2.0/ the Social Web? • 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)?

You Are Not Alone • WetPaint wiki provided to allow participants at workshops to share information about their background and interests The Social Web UKOLN has run several Web 2.0 workshops for MLA Regional Agencies, Renaissance Hubs & other cultural heritage organisations on benefits of Web 2.0 and approaches to addressing the challenges

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) • Institutional barriers  User focus • Information literacy  Staff development • Risk assessment  …

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 yhfed.org.uk • Let’s Share Resources • Go to <http://del.icio.us/lisbk/yorkshire-federation-2009> 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!

Introduction Let’s Do It Now! – Backup Plan • Problem: • Service is unreliable • Company goes bankrupt • Firewall blocks access • Service isn’t good enough • Solution: • Have alternative prepared The TinyChat.com service enables online chat rooms to be created easily e.g. <http://www.tinychat.com/5vw7>

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” The Social Web • 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 )

Web 2.0: Why? • 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, …) The Social Web

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.

Openness Syndication Collaboration Blogs - Reading http://www.google.com/reader/view • 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.? The Social Web Google Reader – a Web-based Blog reader. You are informed of changes since you last viewed the page.

A blog ‘widget’ provides automated feeds of other content (events & briefing documents) • Beware, though, of having too much ‘blog bling’! Enriching Your Blog • UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage blog is aimed at practitioners and policies makers in museums, libraries and archives

Openness Syndication Collaboration Blogs and RSS • Blog content is available is RSS format, which can be read by RSS readers. • Netvibes is another example of an RSS reader As well as blog posts, other content can be syndicated using RSS Here UKOLN blog posts, details of events & briefing documents are available in RSS, allowing the content to be reused elsewhere

RSS Syndication Finding Resources 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 The Social Web 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.

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 • Wikis – collaborative Web-based authoring tools • I use wikis for: • Collaborative papers (avoiding emailed MS Word file around) http://docs.google.com/ The Social Web Google Docs – Web-based word processor or Wiki? Does it matter, it does the job

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 The Social Web

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. ‘renaissance-west-midlands-2009’ and encourage delegates to upload their photos with this tag http://www.flickr.com/search/?w=all&q=iwmw2006&m=text

Openness Network effect Syndication Collaboration Sharing – del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/lisbk/renaissance-west-midlands-2009 • 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 The Social Web • National Archives Web site now bookmarked by 798: • Who are they? • What else are they interested in?

Openness Syndication Podcasts • 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 Social Web 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

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 The Social Web As well as Web interface, other tools can display video clips

Google Maps allows me to have a personalised route planner  From Maps To Reusable Maps • We’ll have maps showing the location of our organisations. • But are these maps: • Zoomable? • Configurable? • Embeddable? • Reusable? • Personalisable? The Social Web

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

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, …) • … The Social Web Also note Web-based video chat services such as TokBox and Seesmic

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

Openness Sharing Collaboration Renaissance East Midlands • Renaissance East Midlands published Simple Guide to Digitisation & provided CC licence to allow reuse. • Benefits: • Maximise impact • Outreach to new audiences • ‘LOCKSS’ approach for long term access • Content reused in alternative format • Marketing by UKOLN • Closer links established

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

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

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 The Social Web Let’s now look at one very popular Web 2.0 application – the Facebook social networking service From Wikipedia

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!

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 • …

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 • …

Facebook It’s Not Just For People • Facebook can now be used by organisations

Facebook The Opportunities • Facebook provides great opportunities for the sector: • It’s popular • It’s easy-to-use • No need for in-house development or to purchase software • Useful for staff and users too • We can easily integrate our resources into Facebook (e.g. RSS feeds, blogs, etc.) • It can provide alternative access to our services cf. Artshare app: “Share works of art from Museums around the world” The Social Web

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? • …

Effective use of Twitter can be helped through use of dedicated Twitter clients such as Tweetdeck Not Forgetting Twitter • Twitter can provide various benefits: • Outreach • User engagement • Community-building

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 Implementation UKOLN briefing papers available with Creative Commons licence. (over 30 docs published)

The Challenges Expertise Money Implementation Time Resources Understanding Reliability Sustainability Culturalissues Challenges Interoperability Colleagues Technical Issues Management Privacy, DPA, FOI, .. Council Accessibility IT Services Legal Issues

Chasm • Failure to go beyond developers & early adopters (cf Gopher) • Need for: • Advocacy • Listening to users • Addressing concerns • Deployment strategies • … This talks looks at approaches for avoiding the chasm & reshaping the curve Take-up Of New Technologies • The Gartner curve Implementation Rising expectations Service plateau Enterprise software Large budgets … Trough of despair Developers Early adopters

The Backlash Is Predictable • When significant new things appear: • Enthusiasts / early adopters predict a transformation of society • Sceptics outline the limitations & deficiencies • There’s a need to: • Promote the benefits to the wider community (esp. those willing to try if convinced of benefits) • Be realistic and recognise limitations • Address inappropriate criticisms Implementation Web 2.0: It’s a silly name. It’s just a marketing term. There are lots of poor Web 2.0 services. There wasn’t a Web 1.0. What follows it? It does have a marketing aspect – and that’s OK. It isn’t formally defined – it describes a pattern of related usage. There will be poor (and good) Web 2.0 services – just like anything else. Any usage will arrive at a follow-up term. Twitter? Another silly name. Trivial junk. Only for people with nothing better evolves to We must have a Twitter feed – impact; marketing; audiences; … and then (from the early adopters) It was meant to be fun. It’s been institutionalised, We want it back!

Deployment Strategies • Interested in using Web 2.0 in your organisation? • Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc? • There’s a need for a deployment strategy: • Addressing business needs • Low-hanging fruits • Encouraging the enthusiasts • Gain experience of the browser tools – and see what you’re missing! • Staff training & development • Address areas you feel comfortable with • Risk and opportunity management strategy • … Implementation

What Do We Mean By ‘Risk’? • “Risk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities” • When should we take risks? • Never • If the probability is low • If the dangers are insignificant • If the context if appropriate • But what if human life is at risk: • In the army • Driving a car • Travelling on the train • … • We can’t ignore the context, the benefits (real and perceived) Implementation

Risk Management • JISC infoNet Risk Management infoKit: “In education, as in any other environment, you can’t decide not to take risks: that simply isn’t an option in today’s world. All of us take risks and it’s a question of which risks we take” Implementation • Examples of people who are likely to be adverse stakeholders: • People who fear loss of their jobs • People who will require re-training • People who may be moved to a different department / team • People .. required to commit resources to the project • People who fear loss of control over a function or resources • People who will have to do their job in a different way • People who will have to carry out new or additional functions • People who will have to use a new technology

IWMW 2006 & Risk Management • IWMW 2006 has taken a risk management approach to its evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies: • Agreements: e.g. in the case of the Chatbot. • Use of well-established services: Google & del.icio.us are well-established and have financial security. • Notification: warnings that services could be lost. • Engagement: with the user community: users actively engage in the evaluation of the services. • Provision of alternative services: multiple OMPL tools. • Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings! • Long term experiences of services: usage stats • Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g. standard Web server log files. • Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc. Implementation

Paul Walk (UKOLN) was described as a ‘critical friend’ of JISC See <https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0903&L=MCG&T=0&F=&S=&P=19929> See <http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.org/2009/02/10/five-minute-interview-paul-walk/> • But is such open debate encouraged in other sectors? Critical Friends • JISC U&I programme is encouraging establishment of “Critical Friends” See <http://critical-friends.org/>

Let The Public Know • Frankie Roberto as a Critical Friend Social services, communities, etc. are now being used to seek evidence of value-for-money. We need to be able to demonstrate appropriate processes are in place. “The paper sets out to answer this question by way of original research and experimentation on real data sets of museum objects, obtained from a number of UK museums by way of a Freedom of Information request.”

Biases IntendedPurpose • Critical friends • Application to existing services • Application to in-house development • … • Sharing experiences • Learning from successes& failures • Tackling biases • … Benefits (various stakeholders Risks (various stakeholders Missed Opps. (various stakeholders Costs (various stakeholders Subjective factors Towards a Framework • “Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services”, Museums & the Web 2009 conference

Twitter for individuals Organisational Fb Page IntendedPurpose Community support Marketing events,… • Critical friends: • Paul Walk / Brian Kelly blog posts) • MCG discussions • Learning • UKOLN cultural heritage guest blog post • Conferences • Papers • … Benefits (various stakeholders Rapid feedback Large audiences Risks (various stakeholders Justify ROIOrg. brand Ownership, privacy, lock-in Missed Opps. (various stakeholders Community-building Marketing opportunity Costs (various stakeholders Low? Low? Using The Framework • Use of approach in two scenarios: use of Twitter & Facebook Note personal biases!

IntendedPurpose Benefits (various stakeholders Risks (various stakeholders Missed Opps. (various stakeholders Costs (various stakeholders Use The Framework Yourself • Feel free to you apply framework to: • Services you’re planning • Existing services • Large scale initiatives (e.g. Creative Spaces) Implementation What is the purpose? Who are the users? What are the benefits? To whom? What are the risks? To whom? What are the risks of doing nothing? What are the costs – to developers, to users,… Remember the biases! Is the service really intended to sustain the service provider? Remember the need for the critical friend and the need for sharing?

How Small Museums Can Exploit The Social Web