Hi Nick
> Must....stop....replying...to...thread....
>
Me too :-)
> Echoing (I think) everybody, there is no such thing as Web
> 2.0 - which makes it the perfect fodder for this kind of
> email discussion.
No such thing as Web 2.0? I guess there's also no such thing as art or
beauty then, as we can disagree over these terms ("call that art - it's a
dead sheep!")
> The reds (hey, it may just be me, but it's my analogy) look
> at the blues and think 'how can you be so naïve'? Low cost of
> entry? We were promised that with Open Source Software and it
> turned out to be no cheaper. Reaching audiences while we
> sleep? They told us Z39.50 and interoperability would solve
> that and we're still not there. Content Management will make
> everyone a publisher? You just try and get a username and
> password out of the Council IT Admin.
Here, though, I would strongly agree with you! You touched on the naivety
of a belief that open standards such as Z39.50 will provide interoperability
and such comments could be widened to include a wide range of open
standards. And you could also include the naivety of a belief that mandating
compliance with WAI WCAG accessibility guidelines will provide universal
accessibility. But, as you know, this has happened - and some organisation
have come a cropper after deploying open source CMS software and mandating
use of open standards and conformance with WCAG accessibility guidelines.
But because such issues may be more complex than the Whitehall mandarins who
develop policies in these areas appreciate doesn't mean we shouldn't do
anything. Rather we need to develop more sophisticated understanding and
richer models for development. And, as you know, this is an area UKOLN has
been active in over the years. We have developed approaches for exploiting
the benefits of open standards [1] and, in conjunction with colleagues in
the JISC OSS Watch and CETIS services, extended this approach to include use
of open source software [2].
We have also developed holistic approaches to Web accessibility [3] and
developed that approach to include access to cultural resources [4]. And
I'm pleased to say our latest paper, which describes how this approach can
be used in a Web 2.0 context, has been accepted for the W4A 2008 conference
[5].
Myself and Mike Ellis have been worked on approaches to exploiting Web 2.0
in a museums context. Last year's paper at the Museums and the Web
conference argued that it was now timely to work in this area [6]. And next
week we are running a Professional Forum at the Museums and the Web
conference based on our paper on "What Does Openness Mean To The Museum
Community?" [7]. This will be an open discussion which will seek to address
many of the concerns you have raised. If you're at the conference next week
I hope you (and others on this list) can participate.
Thanks
Brian
References
1 Addressing The Limitations Of Open Standards.
Kelly, B., Guy, M. and Dunning, A. Museums and the Web 2007, San Francisco,
USA, 11-13 April 2007. Conference Proceedings (CD ROM).
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/mw-2007/paper-standards/
2. Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access.
Kelly, B., Wilson, S. and Metcalfe, R. ELPUB2007, Openness in Digital
Publishing: Awareness, Discovery and Access - Proceedings of the 11th
International Conference on Electronic Publishing held in Vienna, Austria
13-15 June 2007 / Edited by: Leslie Chan and Bob Martens. ISBN
978-3-85437-292-9, 2007, pp. 161-174
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/elpub-2007/
3. Contextual Web Accessibility - Maximizing the Benefit of Accessibility
Guidelines.
Sloan, D, Kelly, B., Heath, A., Petrie, H., Hamilton, F and Phipps, L. WWW
2006 Edinburgh, Scotland 22-26 May 2006. Conference Proceedings, Special
Interest Tracks, Posters and Workshops (CD ROM).
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/w4a-2006/
4. Accessibility 2.0: People, Policies and Processes.
Kelly, B., Sloan, D., Brown, S., Seale, J, Petrie, H., Lauke, P. and Ball,
S. WWW 2007 Banff, Canada, 7-11 May 2007.
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/w4a-2007/
5. One World, One Web … But Great Diversity,
Kelly, B., Nevile, L., Draffan, EA. and Fanou, S. WWW 2008 Beijing, China,
21-22 April 2008.
(paper available shortly)
http://www.w4a.info/2008/
6. Web 2.0: How to Stop Thinking and Start Doing: Addressing Organisational
Barriers.
Ellis, M., and B. Kelly in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.). Museums and the
Web 2007: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum Informatics, published
March 31, 2007.
<http://www.archimuse.com/mw2007/papers/ellis/ellis.html>
See also <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/papers/mw-2007/paper-web2.0/>
7. What Does Openness Mean To The Museum Community?
Kelly, B., Ellis, M. and Gardler, R. in J. Trant and D. Bearman (eds.).
Museums and the Web 2008: Proceedings. Toronto: Archives & Museum
Informatics. Published March 5, 2008. Consulted March 16, 2008.
http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/kelly/kelly.html
--------------------------------
Brian Kelly
UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UK, BA2 7AY
Email: [log in to unmask]
Phone: +44 1225 383943
Web site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/
Blog: http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
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