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Institutional Web Management Workshop 2004: Transforming The Organisation Optional Introduction To The Web Community Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath Email [email protected] URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by: A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk Contents 11:00 • • • • • About This Session The Community The Challenges The Support Infrastructure Conclusions 11:30 • What Can JISC Offer? Louisa Dale, JISC 12:00 • Open session All A centre of expertise in digital information management 2 Brian Kelly, UKOLN www.ukoln.ac.uk About About This Session Background: • This is 8th annual Web Management Workshop • Previous workshops have helped develop Web management community by providing opportunity for face-to-face meetings, discussions, etc But: • Became clear last year that not all delegates were active on main mailing lists • Participants may be unaware of main issues, organisations, acronyms, personalities, etc. This optional session aims to provide: • An overview of the key issues we face • An introduction to significant groups & people who can help • An opportunity for you to raise any questions www.ukoln.ac.uk A centre of expertise in digital information management 3 About Contributors To Session Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus • Funded by JISC (and MLA) to support the HE/FE (and cultural heritage) sectors on Web issues • Based at UKOLN, University of Bath Louisa Dale, JISC • Partnerships Manager at JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) • Supports JISC's outreach activities Yourselves • Feel free to ask questions, raise issues, etc • Will be an open session at end A centre of expertise in digital information management 4 www.ukoln.ac.uk About 5 The Community What is "the Web Management community"? • Initially this was restricted to the Higher Education (HE) sector. However since the FE funding bodies agreed to co-fund JISC, JISC services now support the HE and FE community • The term tends to refer to those involved in developing, managing and supporting institutional Web-based services such as: Information: for external and internal users E-learning: not initial focus but now of growing importance E-research: a new area, including e-science & GRID work) Electronic communications: another new(ish) area A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk About Who Are We? The Web management community embraces a number of groups who are involved in a range of activities including: • Web developers, Web system administrators, etc. • Web authors & content providers • Web designers, user interface specialists, … • Information architects • Trainers and support staff • Learning technologists • Team leaders • Senior managers, budget holders & policy makers who provide services for our users A centre of expertise in digital information management 6 www.ukoln.ac.uk Challenges Challenges What challenges do you think you will face in your role as a member of a Web team? A centre of expertise in digital information management 7 www.ukoln.ac.uk Challenges Challenges You Will Face Not enough money Not enough staff Technical skills Managing resources CMS, Blogs, Wikis Not enough time Resources XML, HTML, CSS Technologies Skills Human skills Strategic Issues Users Do we have a strategy? What do they want? How do we implement the strategy? What do they find difficult? A centre of expertise in digital information management 8 www.ukoln.ac.uk Challenges Resourcing Challenges We are: • Part of large, well-resourced teams which implement information strategies agreed by the University and supported by user community Somewhere between the two • Isolated individuals regarded as political pawns and occasionally sacrificed as part of institutional power struggles A centre of expertise in digital information management 9 www.ukoln.ac.uk Challenges The Ideal Web Management Team At IWMW 1999 John Slater (former PVC and head of Computer Science dept at Kent Univ) described how: • There was no agreed organisational location for a Web team • There was no agreed model for a Web team • University budget holders will want the money for themselves Web teams were advised to: • Be aware of senior managers' concerns ("do I shut down history department & give more money to Web team?" • Think strategically – and don't think you have automatic right for more resources A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk 10 Challenges Getting More Resources • No simple answers • Need to make case for internal resources (staff, money, etc.) • Consider external sources (e.g. JISC calls – see later) • Exploiting sharing culture within community • Student help • … Or you could: • Work more effectively – e.g. implement ideas learnt at IWMW • Prioritise the areas you cover – and possibly drop some • Implement a Web / Information strategy to help address priorities Note you don't have to implement every new idea you learn at IWMW (and speakersAwho great newinformation idea may be weak in areas you are strong in)! centrehave of expertise in digital management www.ukoln.ac.uk 11 Web Technologies For Senior Managers Technologies XHTML, CSS, XML, XSLT, CMS, Wiki, … Web team members face challenges in: • Keeping up-to-date with technologies • Evaluating technologies • Deploying appropriate technologies • … So: • What are the key technologies to be aware of? • How should we keep up-to-date? A centre of expertise in digital information management 12 www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers Key Web Architectural Components HTML • Simple document markup language • XHTML 1.0 is latest version – but: • Are tools available MIME type issue • Have workflow processes to ensure HTML compliance (important in XHTML/XML world) • Avoid propriety extension and display markup CSS • Use to define appearance of HTML elements • Must use – helps with maintenance XML • Key meta format for creating other formats • Designed to enable resources to be reused • Critical importance (not just a cool new technology) A centre of expertise in digital information management 13 www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers 14 Browser Challenges Which browser should you deploy in your institution? What should your policy be on legacy browsers? Microsoft Internet Explorer: • Widely (but not universally) available • No longer developed (new version for Longhorn) • Will not be available on non (or old) Windows OSs Therefore: • Provided browser is your choice, but IE will not be available on Mac, Unix, … platforms • Your pages will therefore need to be usable on non-IE browsers (and should be in any case) Legacy browsers: • Many old browsers are 'broken' • ofDon't HTML to cater for broken browsers! A centre expertisebreak in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers Managing Resources How should you: • Manage your HTML resources? • Manage workflow, publication, etc processes? Approaches: • HTML files: Use HTML authoring tool. Difficult to manage large nos. of resources. • HTML fragments: Use SSIs to pull in standard fragments • HTML and scripting: Use SSIs and conditional processing • CMS: As above plus workflow environment A centre of expertise in digital information management 15 www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers CMSs What CMS should I use? • • • • • No simple answer May be expensive (even if free) Likely to need institutional commitment Talk to people here See JISC TechWatch Report by Paul Browning & Mike Lowndes on Content Management Systems at <http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm? name=techwatch_report_0102> A centre of expertise in digital information management 16 www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers Key Application Areas Information Provision • Mature – public Web & Intranet E-Learning • Big area from senior manager's perspective • Expensive (cf UKeU) • Issues about applications (WebCT, Blackboard Bodington, Moodle) and standards (IMS, …) • CETIS is key JISC advisory service Blogs, Wikis, … • New areas of potential in HE/FE? • Distracting toys which can divert from our mission? • See talk on Wednesday & parallel session today A centre of expertise in digital information management 17 www.ukoln.ac.uk Managers SeniorManagers ForSenior TechnologiesFor WebTechnologies Web 18 Open Source Technical, strategic or resource issue? Religious warfare or business decision? Should you seek to make software you develop (e.g. through JISC funding): • Available with an open source licence? • Available through a commercial licence so that your institution can gain a return on its investment? Open Source issues will be addressed in Sebastian Rahtz's plenary talk and parallel session. Sebastian is manager of the JISC-funded OSS Watch advisory service, which advises the HE and FE communities on OSS issues A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk Web Technologies For Senior Managers Maximising Access We should be seeking to maximising access to our resources and avoid problems of the past: • Device dependency: only works on a PC • Application dependency: only works if you have the same software as me • Future proofing: will work on new devices and not just on IBM mainframe, Unix system, Sinclair Spectrum, BBC micro, IBM PC, Apple Mac, PocketPC, Palm PDA, digital TV, WAP, 3G, … The Web provides answers to application and device dependencies – but the commercial sector can make more money by trapping users into their solutions A centre of expertise in digital information management 19 www.ukoln.ac.uk The Bigger Picture There is more to service development than just standards Standards: concerned with protocols and file formats Open standards vs. Proprietary HTML / XML vs. PDF CSS / XSL vs. HTML GIF vs PNG Applications: software products used to implement systems Apache / IIS FrontPage / Dreamweaver Oracle / SQLServer ColdFusion vs ASP vs PHP Zope vs Plone vs … Architectures: models for implementing systems Which standards are applicable NT / Unix File system / database application HTML tools / content management Resources: financial and staff costs needed to implement systems Development vs. Migration costs Use of in-house expertise In-house vs. out-sourced Licensed vs. open source A centre of expertise in digital information management 20 www.ukoln.ac.uk Users What About The Users? What about our users? Standards Architecture Users Resources Applications Do users want open standards, open source, …? If not, what strategies do we adopt to get them on our side, as the producers? A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk 21 Users Our Users The users: • What we are about • But not really represented at IWMW (except that we are all users) • Do we forget users when we promote our passions (standards, open source, favourite applications, application areas, operating systems, languages, …) • There is a need to ensure that our development activities address: User needs analysis (talk at IWMW 2003) Usability testing … A centre of expertise in digital information management 22 www.ukoln.ac.uk Skills Skills How do members of Web management teams ensure they develop appropriate skills? Your Staff Development Unit • Talk to your institution's staff development unit. They may have training on 'softer issues Netskills • National training unit based at Newcastle University. See plenary talk on Thursday IWMW • Make attendance part of your annual skills update! Regional • Join (or establish) regional groups (e.g. .gamut) UCISA • UCISA groups run seminars & conferences, etc. A centre of expertise in digital information management www.ukoln.ac.uk 23 Support Who Can Help Me? Institutional Web Management can be a challenging: • Web manager as political pawn in institutional power struggles! • Different cultures in different sectors (PR, Library, IT, …) • Lack of mature job definitions, titles, promotion criteria, … due to newness of profession The good news: you are not alone! • Mailing lists, etc can be a valuable support mechanism • Strong tradition of sharing • Face-to-face opportunities such as IWMW A centre of expertise in digital information management 24 www.ukoln.ac.uk Support Use JISCMail http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind0407&L=web-support JISCMail: • JISC-funded service which provides national mailing lists • The web-support (techie queries) and website-info-mgt (strategic queries) lists are widely used by community • A valuable resource But do we need a richer communications infrastructure? See talk on ofWednesday A centre expertise in digital information management 25 www.ukoln.ac.uk Conclusions Get Involved! To conclude (part 1): • There is a good support infrastructure within the UK HE/FE community (better than the US!) • More about JISC shortly • Don't ask what the community can do for you, but what you can do for the community! Opportunities: • Find a problem, discover others have the same problem? Research the area and become a guru (cf. Adrian Tribe & data protection) • Set up a regional group • Give talk or facilitate session at IWMW 2005 A centre of expertise in digital information management 26 www.ukoln.ac.uk Questions Any questions? A centre of expertise in digital information management 27 www.ukoln.ac.uk