Slides for talk on "Challenges in Making Use of the Social Web" given by Brian Kelly, UKOLN in a workshop session.

1. http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/sca-seo-20090629/
Using the Social Web to Maximise Access to your Resources:
Challenges In Making Use
of the Social Web
Brian Kelly Acceptable Use Policy
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University of Bath discussing the content using email,
Bath, UK instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc.
is permitted providing distractions to
Email:
others is minimised.
b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
Twitter: Blog:
http://twitter.com/briankelly/ http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/
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A centre of expertise in digital information management (but note caveat)

2. D
Your Views
What do you think are the main challenges in
exploiting the Social Web to enhance access
to your resources and services?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
2

3. The Challenges
You Colleagues
ROI (demonstrate/
Unconvinced maximise?
Firewalls Lack of resources
Sustainability No time
Limited
Interoperability Challenges Understanding
Technical Issues No support from
management
It’s “my” space
Concerns
Doing it
ethically It’s a Social Branding,
(not work) Web editorial control
A centre of expertise in digital information management
3

4. Deployment Strategies
Interested in using Social Web in your organisation?
Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc?
There’s a need for a deployment strategy:
• Addressing business needs
• Low-hanging fruits
• Observe emerging best practices
• Encouraging the enthusiasts (don’t get in the way)
• Staff training & development
• Address areas you feel comfortable with
• Impact analysis and assessment
• Risk and opportunity management strategy
• Accept that you won’t do it
• …
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4

5. You Don’t Need To Blog!
Perhaps blogging &
twittering (and speaking at
conferences) is best left to
those with a passion for user
engagement?
Suggestions:
• Encourage the
enthusiast
• Lightweight
bureaucracy: “Don’t be
stupid”, emerging
patterns of Twitter
usage ,…
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5

6. What You (Maybe) Shouldn’t Do
Aim: Maximise traffic
Approach: Use “Topless Swedish Model” in title
Comment: But you may wish to use humour, puns, …
So be honest in your reporting.
Aim: Maximise comments
Approach: Misspell people’s names in order to get then
to respond (and then say thanks)
Comment: But you may make spelling mistakes. Again
be honest in your reporting.
Aim: Maximise traffic
Approach: Run an automated tool over site.
Comment: But you may wish to use such tools. Again
be honest in your reporting.
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6

7. You Might Need a ‘Policy’
Dangers:
• A policy is bureaucratic,
• Fails to understand new technologies
• …
Dangers of no policy:
• Over-the-top
reaction
A lightweight policy:
• Mosman Council page describes “who is tweeting
on behalf of the Council (the web team based at
the Library); why they are doing it; their reply
policy and how to stop them following you”
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7

8. Return On Investment
Justifying ROI
• What’s the purpose of the Social Web service:
 Dissemination
 Engaging with users Remember 1-9-90 ‘rule’
 Reflective thinking
 Providing opportunity for comment
 …
Maximising ROI
Tuesday post
• Timeliness
• Appropriateness Monday post
• Challenging
Saturday
publishing post
assumptions
Friday post
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8

9. “It‘s My Space”
“Can you send this message
on your list?”
“Can you mention it in your
blog?”
NB Happy to
mention Oxford’s
“Wall of 100 Faces”
Get your students to
say how great the
Uni is and make
interface attractive
A centre of expertise in digital information management
and appealing
9

10. My Political Views
A poll carried
out by the Daily
Mail on 19 June
2009
Surprised by results?
A triumph for the liberal intelligentsia on
Twitter? Echoes of public protests in
dictatorships.
But what if I had been promoting the BNP?
(Note thecentre of expertise in digital information management
A
wording in my tweet)
10

11. Influencing & Observing
The Daily Mail hid the
results
Blog post published
on activism & ethics
• Encouraging votes
• Multiple votes
• Citing tweets
• Capturing images
of tweets and
Twitterers
Opportunity to analyse influence in social networks –
but is of expertise in digital information management
A centre this ethical?
11

12. Dodgy Use of Twitter
Habitat:
• Monitor ‘trending’
Twitter hashtags
• Publish advertising
tweets with these
hashtags
Including:
• Hashtag about
Iranian elections!
How do we ensure we use
SNs in ethical way? Do we
simply avoid their use?
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13. What About Metrics?
Martin Wellers blog post on
“Connections versus Outputs”
on impact in Social Web
Lists in 'distance learning‘ of:
• Top influencers
• Sites/people have a high
level of 'hubness‘
("characteristic of
disproportionately linking
to those who are
authoritative on a given
topic“)
But how reliable is this?
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13

14. 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”
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
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14

15. Critical Friends / Friendly Critics
JISC U&I
programme is
encouraging
establishment of
“Critical Friends”
Paul Walk (UKOLN)
was described as a
‘critical friend’ of
<http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.or
g/2009/02/10/>
JISC
See <http://critical-friends.org/>
Phil Bradley’s post
provided a similar role
– and CILIP responded
A centre of expertise in digital information management accordingly 
15

16. Towards a Framework
Biases
• Critical friends Intended • Sharing
• Application to Purpose
experiences
existing Benefits • Learning from
services (various successes
• Application to stakeholders
& failures
in-house Risks
(various
• Tackling biases
development
stakeholders •…
•…
Missed Opps. “Time To Stop Doing and Start
(various Thinking: A Framework For
stakeholders Exploiting Web 2.0 Services”,
See blog post on Costs
Museums & the Web 2009
Critical Friends, conference
(various
Friendly Critics stakeholders
(and Hostile Subjective factors Note also JISC’s
Opponents!) Scenario Planning work
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16

17. Using The Framework
Twitter for individuals Organisational Fb Page
Community Intended Marketing Critical Friends /
support Purpose events,… Friendly Critics
Benefits • UKOLN blogs
Rapid Large • Email list
(various
feedback stakeholders audiences discussions
Risks Learning
Justify ROI (various Ownership, • Many blogs
Org. brand stakeholders privacy, lock-in Engaging with a
Missed Opps.
Community- Marketing Twitter
(various
building stakeholders opportunity community
Costs • Conferences
Low? Low? • Papers
(various
stakeholders •…
Note personal
biases!
Use of of expertise in digital information management use of Twitter & Facebook
A centre
approach in two scenarios: CILIP
17

18. Conclusions
Acknowledgments to Michael Edson for the Web Tech Guy and Angry
A centre of expertise in digital information management
18 Staff Person post / comic strip