Presentation given at the JISC Digital Content Conference held July 1st 2009. Audience was mostly library managers and other digitisation managers.

1. Form-Factor, Format & Agile Prototyping in Academia David F. Flanders Programme Manager Twitter = dfflanders Blog = dfflanders.wordpress.com

2. Who am I? “Results... I have gotten a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work.” (Edison) Past: Developer background, having worked at the British Library and University of London (PM bottom-up). Present: JISC Programme Manager working w/ Rapid Innovation projects = 40 X 6mo. projects creating software that will scratch user itches in the now! Future: Thinks we should make a lot of mistakes and make them fast; and that the coolest thing to be done with your data will be by someone else (CRIG).

3. Objectives: Why UK universities need a sustainable, digital content strategy... Gov’t desires to move towards a fully digitally literate society... #jdcc09 To get you thinking about RAPID INNOVATION for your users. To suggest a framework for helping to identify user needs = form-factor & format To provide a methodology that will help you achieve success on behalf of your users = Agile To encourage institutions to once again embrace innovation (not just “change”)

4. What is FORM-Factor?

5. Define: “form factor” <etymology> In physics, form factor relates the proportion of energy transmitted by that object which can be transferred to another object. In computing, a form factor specifies the physical dimensions of major system components... the physical size and shape of a device; often used to describe the size of servers in a rackmount enclosure. A term used to describe the way a device is constructed so as to pragmatically work with another commonly used device or entity.

6. What is form-factor?

8. Human Device Interface Hand Thinking Eye Leaning Forearm Sitting Mouth Standing Lap Walking

9. Device <=> Human <=> Situation

10. flickr.com/groups/whats_in_your_bag/

11. UseCase = FormFactor It is the fuzzy interactions (form-factors) between entities (device, human and situation) that should define your user needs. User needs = Use Case (remember this for the Agile part of talk)

12. Form-Factor Examples

13. No. 1 Android

14. Open Source Operating System (by Google)

15. Small Computers WIN!

16. Use cases Read your news on the tube (while still holding onto hand railing) Read your news on train without spreading entire paper over person sitting next to you Read your tweets in the middle of the night (without disturbing your partner by having light on).

17. Storyboard & Wireframe Student wants to read the blog posts by all his other classmates on the latest essay they had to write, while riding the bus to class. Login Get data (3G) Cache Store data Annotate

18. No. 2 EBM(Electronic book machine)

19. Video of book birth... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vI03wqMkVNs&annotation_id=annotation_930983&feature=iv

20. Espresso Book Machine

21. Million book van

22. Use Cases Print your blog as a coffee book (with interleaved tweets/comments) BenO Print up book at airport before flight. Carry entire library of books on flashdrive. Print your dissertation for submission to markers (costs less than printer). Print up your flickr pictures tagged with mum/mom as a photoalbum for mother’s day.

23. Storyboard & Wireframe Lecturer wants to publish his blog as a book with comments on the opposite page aggregated from all over the web. RSS content is consumed vis CSS and published to a PDF format for book print with custom fonts...

24. No. 3OS H/W(Open Source hardware)

25. Component Devices

26. Makezine

27. User cases Take pictures of a location while reading a book and submit them as annotation to the book for others to read and add to... Plugin in a metal detector on geology field work... Use compass to school field trip to find...

28. Storyboard & Wireframe skip skip

29. Formatis FORM-Factor!

30. = Format (content)

31. What is format?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_format ...the properties of a data object, usually encoded as a set of instructions to an application on how to present the data through various output devices, such as the computer display or printer. The problem with formats is that they are (and will remain) a moveable feast. <getOverIt>

32. format flux XML RSS RDFa HTML

33. Q: So how do we use FF&F to Innovate?

34. A: Agile Proto-typing

35. What is Agile (theory)? Agile Manifesto Principles “Guidelines” SCRUM Sprints (2-3 week WP cycles) Next planned WP sprint based on reflection of previous sprint. Practices (pragmatic) that encourage principles...

36. What is Agile (Pragmatics)? (Paper) Prototyping From FF&F UseCases comes Storyboard From Storyboard comes Wireframes From Storyboard and Wireframe comes negotiable / achievable workpackages (sprints)

37. What is Agile (Pragmatics)? War Room Use Cases (FF&F), Storyboards & Wireframes on four walls surrounding space <UserVoice> Daily/Weekly Meetings (Standing) Defined Roles (PM, UX, Dev, etc)

38. What does agile and open development look like?

39. Summary Format => UseCase (Form-Function) + Method (Agile) = Innovation Form-Function is how you define the needs of your users Agile is how you action your users needs into reality.

40. Thanks David F. Flanders Twitter = twitter.com/dfflanders Blog = dfflanders.wordpress.com Open Notebook = code.google.com/p/jiscri License: Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0 UK