Presenter or main title…

Session Title or subtitle…

2 March 2011, The National Archives

What lies between archives and the future…

David F. Flanders

Digital Infrastructure Innovation Team

Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)

Learning Objectives (by the end of this presentation you will want to ask questions about...)• ...how has JISC allocated its budgets in the past and how is this applicable to archives (e.g. how could you get involved in a JISC funded project?)• ...how does JISC know what future technologies are coming down the pipeline?• ... what innovations can archives achieve in the next 2-3 years with a zero or minus budget change?• ... what innovations can archives start to prep so they are ready to bounce back once the economy recovers in 3-5 years?• ... what innovations are on the horizon in 5-10 years that will inevitably change the way we do everything?!

Easy and widespread access to information and resources, anytime, anywhere; a vision with technology and information management at the heart of research and education.

Cost effective infrastructure

Efficient and effective institutions

Enhanced learning experience

Research quality, impact & productivity

JISC Vision & Strategy

JISC Budget 2010-11

Partner with an HEI and

Bid!

Follett Review = eLib ProgrammeSpecial collections & Archives

£45M

Archives Hub

Collection Description

ISAD(G) aka DACS

EAD

Z39.50 for Archives

Digitisation

SEO

Semantic Web / Linked Data

AIM 25

RDTF – 2010 - 2012

OAI-PMH

What has JISC invested in Archives over the years?

Repositories & Preservation Programme

£14m Semantic Infrastructure

£??

But what makes *good* technology?

The technology will fail if not directly motivated by users.

“There is a significant difference between what users actually do versus what they should do; in short, the web is not a science… At best the Web is a social science and even then it is subject to very disturbing psychological flaws!”

Experiment Time!

archives

vs.

google

Users and trust

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

good info later

vs.

bad info now

Users and patience

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

browse

vs.

search

Users and search

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

full text

vs.

chunks of text

Users and completness

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

text

vs.

video

Users and media

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

natural lang

vs.

specific bits

Users and media

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

friends

vs.

experts

Users and thinking

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

authoritative

vs.

communal

Users and wisdom

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

essay

vs.

blog

Users and expression

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

delivery

vs.

discovery

Users and finding stuff

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

praise

vs.

criticise

Users and opinion

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/briefingpapers/2010/bpdigitalinfoseekerv1

Experiment Conclusion:

You are NOT your user!

The archive of the future must begin to embrace technologies that engage users in any given web situation:

Go to them wherever they are…

Work at “Web Scale”, not as a 19th century established institution.

Dig into the data you do have – especially user activity data

Embrace all content available to you – especially user content

Approaching real time is approaching success.

Above from ‘Thrive or Survive’ workshop

If you are not the user how do you choose technology for users?

=SKILL-UP!

Skills for how Archives become "of the web" not just “on it”?

JISC Advance

JISC Advance

JISC TechD

is

JISC TechD

is

OSS WatchOSS

Watch

JISC Infokits

JISC Infokits

Strategic Content Alliance(SCA)

Strategic Content Alliance(SCA)

UKOLN & CETISUKOLN & CETIS

Resource Discovery Taskforce

Resource Discovery Taskforce

Short term innovation (next 1-3 years)

What innovation archives can do for free or with a zero cost spend“efficient innovation”

Your URLs are the coat hooks by which your organisation can hang future digital content, get the slashes “/” right and your content will be found, e.g. what/is/the/address/on/the/envelop?

Short term innovation (2-3 years):Build user pathways w/ URIs

http://linkingyou.blogs.lincoln.ac.uk/

A ‘Cool URI’ will mean your message will have a

chance of finding its user.

A ‘Cool URI’ will mean your message will have a

chance of finding its user.

Make your website appear 10 years younger!

Short term innovation (2-3 years):Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2010/01/16/download-new-seo-report-with-case-studies//

Register with Google Webmaster

Install Google analytics

Set Google Alerts

Read all the advice on the web re “SEO”

Know thy keywords and their placement.

The Freeze Frame project went through every UK undergraduate course, identifying which would be interested in their collection of polar images – geology, geography, fashion, health, nutrition, history, etc.

...and tagged them with those keywords accordingly!

SEO+ build it and they will come? – Nope, users need to be actively

engaged if they are to use a resource

http://www.freezeframe.ac.uk/

The coolest thing to do with your data will be thought of by someone else...

Short term innovation (2-3 years):Application Profile Interfaces (APIs)

http://www.flickr.com/groups/greatwararchive/

APIs are now free:

Flickr

Google Docs

CSV via Dropbox

Delicious

RSS/ATOM via Blogs and Wikis!

the First World War Poetry Archive asked members of the public to digitise and

comment on their own collections – the pool of content and expertise was hugely increased. Plus a whole trench recreated

in Second Life

Do you have a strategy for enabling your content to be easily discovered and delivered (i.e. URIs, APIs & SEO), if not check out the Resource Discovery TaskForce (RDTF).

http://rdtf.jiscpress.org

PS ‘digitisation’ is a bottomless pit

Medium term innovation

(next 3-5 years)What can you do to prepare for when budgets are on the increase?

Building up your community so you can utilise their skills *is* a worthwhile investment.

Medium term innovation (3-5 years): Crowdsourcing content

http://www.digitalnz.org

Worrying about the metadata later and focusing in on engaging users participation so they both create, modify and consume.

See also Scottish Wills and Testaments & Australia Newspapers Online.

Community is the new Empire Building...

Medium term innovation (3-5 years): Crowdsourcing metadata

http://sounds.bl.uk

The Archival Sound Recordings has over 44,000 audio files on wildlife, oral history, the Holocaust, artist’s testimonies, lectures. Each recording is scrupulously catalogued, so the rights are clearly labelled, and the recordings findable via Google.

#Locah Project

Medium term innovation (3-5 years): Linkeddata

http://blogs.ukoln.ac.uk/locah/

Exposing Archives Hub Data as LoD

Creating an EAD to RDF transform (crosswalk model)

Prototype Demonstrator due July 2011

+Linked Data...

Real world experimentation in doing the full “5 Stars of

Linkeddata”:Library & Archives Data, Humanities Data, Music Data, Geography Data &

Science Data

http://code.google.com/p/jiscexpo/

PS ‘digitisation’ is a bottomless pit

Long term innovation (next 5-10 years)

What disruptive innovation is going to change everything all over again!?

Lorum ipsum doler

Long term innovation (5-10 years): Why is Digitisation a Bottomless Pit?

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2007/03/10/business/11archive.chart.ready.html

Prioritisation...

Cost options...

...

The biggest problem with the web at the moment is that there is no way to know the spacetime context of the things you are looking at...

Long term innovation (5-10 years):Are there constants in an ever changing world?

Spacetime Camp

Geospatial Working Group (GWG)

Geospatial Programme

– 12 Projects (8 months – Products in Nov 2011)

– £1 million investment

– #jiscGECO Community

http://code.google.com/p/jiscgeo

In a world where change is constant the only way to not continually loose the capability of reusing content due to near sighted licensing is by licensing it as open.

Long term innovation (5-10 years):Open as a business model for change?

The Open Agenda:

Open Social Scholarship

– Open Access

– Open Bibliography

– Open Citation

– Open Bibliogrpahy

Open Education Resources (OER)

Augmented Reality

3D Printing

Long term innovation (5-10 years):Are you ready for the next change?

#streetmuseum

#reprap #pif3D

In Summary...Ok what should I remember about this

presentation?

Now: put your data on the web using “hooks” (URIs, APIs, SEO)

Soon: create community, link your data and license everything!

Anon: invest in skills that enable you to work with your user so you will choose the right technologies.

Innovation can be the most productive thing you do during times of economic down turn.

Subscribe to JISCs Funding Roadmap!

Questions?

@dfflandersGoogle: “David F. Flanders”