Web 2.0 And Social Networks: Their Relevance To The Archive Community
Web 2.0 And Social Networks: Their Relevance To The Archive CommunityThe Society of Archivists Data Standards Group is hosting a day's workshop on "Sharing Made Simple: a Practical Approach to Social Software" which will be held at the South Camden City Learning Centre on 5th June 2007. This workshop, which is being organised by Jane Stephenson, Archives Hub and Brian Kelly, UKOLN, is one of a series of events which UKOLN is currently contributing to in order to support the take-up of Web 2.0 technologies within the cultural heritage sector. In this article Brian Kelly introduces Web 2.0 and suggests Web 2.0 deployment strategies for the archives sector.
The term Web 2.0 was coined at a conference in 2005 in order to describe an emerging set of Web 2.0 technologies and patterns of use which appeared to be significantly different to how the Web was initially deployed. Organisations typically first used the Web as a centralised publishing system, with centralised tools, such as content management systems, and corresponding workflow and quality control mechanisms. However by 2005 it was becoming apparent that radically new approaches to the Web were becoming mainstream. These included significant uses of the Web by individuals, as opposed to organisations, using technologies such as blogs which allowed individuals to express their thoughts, views and opinions in an online diary and wikis, which allowed groups to collectively co-author documents without, in some cases such as Wikipedia, traditional quality control processes.
Other emerging patterns of usage were being noticed. Blogging services allowed the content of blogs to be syndicated elsewhere through use of RSS (Really Simple Syndication). Such simple technologies, which allowed content to be easily embedded within third-party Web sites, helped to develop the concept of 'mashups' - Web sites which contain content and services from a variety of sources. This concept, although it can provide benefits to the end use, could be regarded as infringing copyright. Fortunately Creative Commons provides a licensing framework which can allow content to be legitimately repurposed.
The final Web 2.0 characteristic to mention is the notion of the network as the platform for delivering applications, rather than the traditional approach of a desktop or server computer hosting an application. The Google search engine is a well-known example of an application which resides on the network. Many popular Web 2.0 services, including blogging applications (e.g. Blogger), social networking services (such as MySpace and Facebook) and photographic and video sharing services (such as Flickr and YouTube), exemplify this concept. An important characteristic of many of these social networking services is that improve as more people join the service.
How should an organisation go about making use of Web 2.0 services? What difficulties may be faced? These are issues which are being addressed at a number of the workshops and seminar which UKOLN is participating in. If, however, you can't attend any of the workshops, a brief summary of the deployment strategies is given below.
What are the possible concerns organisations may have? There will be issues about the costs of providing such service (will the software be expensive to purchase and deploy) and the levels of expertise needed to run such services, and related issues of staff training and development. There will also be legal issues to consider (copyright, data protection, etc.). Perhaps most importantly, however, is understanding the reasons why your organisation is looking to provide Web 2.0 services.
With a rapid growth in the amount of digital content being produced there will be a need for archivists to gain a better understanding of Web 2.0 in order to support their professional activities. And the ease-of-use and interactivity provided by many Web 2.0 services is raising the expectations of Web users. To put it simply, if archives services fail to respond to the Web 2.0 environment, there is a danger of being marginalised.
Fortunately there are some simple steps which can be taken. Perhaps the initial approach should be to gain experiences in finding resources, using search engines such as Technorati. This service indexes blog resources and RSS feeds, are can often help to find blog postings and news alerts which have been published only minutes ago.
What about blogging? The Archives Hub's Blog provides a good example of how an archives service can make use of a blog to engage with its user community. But in addition to using blogs to engage with users, an alternative approach may be use of blogs to help support the archives community. This approach is being taken within the libraries sector, with an increasing number of blogs, in both the public and academic library sector, being used to document tasks being carried out within the library and to reflect on possible enhancements to the library service, including ways of exploiting Web 2.0. The comments facility available in many blogs can support and develop a community of practice.
As for use of wikis, one low-cost approach would be to contribute to Wikipedia. This global encyclopedia is one of the Web's most popular resources, and its value can only be enhanced by professionals checking and updating entries, and perhaps even creating a new entry for your organisation.
If the benefits of use of Web 2.0 technologies within your organisation become apparent you may think about software to be installed within your organisation. However, as has been mentioned, with the notion of 'the network as a platform' you do not necessarily need to install software locally, as many thriving services are based on use of externally-hosted services. You may be concerned about the sustainability of such services, and there will be a need for a risk management strategy. However reliance on third party services occurs in many walks of life - and we don't store our saving under the mattress, do we? And let's remember that there are risks in using licensed software (companies do go out of business) and there's also a risk associated with doing nothing.
Brian Kelly is the UK Web Focus adviser, based at UKOLN, University of Bath. This post, which is funded by the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) and the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), has a remit to advise the cultural heritage and higher and further education sectors on standards and best practices related to use of the World Wide Web. Brian current main area of interest is Web 2.0, and, in particular, in exploring ways in which organisations can exploit Web 2.0 technologies. He keeps his user community informed on Web developments on the UK Web Focus blog at <http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/>. Details of Brian's forthcoming presentations are available at <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/>
UKOLN is a national centre of expertise in digital information management which is funded by the MLA and JISC to support the cultural heritage and further and higher education sectors. An important aspect of UKOLN's current work plan is advising the cultural heritage sector on strategies for the successful implementation of Web 2.0 services.
