Slides for workshop session A2 at UKOLN's IWMW 2009 on "Using the Social Web to Maximise Access to your Resources". See http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/iwmw2009/sessions/kelly/

1. http://iwmw.ukoln.ac.uk/iwmw2009/sessions/kelly/
IWMW 2009
A2: Using the Social Web to Maximise
Access to Your Resources
Brian Kelly Acceptable Use Policy
UKOLN Recording of this talk, taking photos,
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/
Resources bookmarked using ‘iwmw2009-kelly' tag
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This work is licensed under a Attribution-
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A centre of expertise in digital information management (but note caveat)

2. About This Session
Aims of the session:
• To describe how various Social Web
services can help to maximise access to
institutional resources.
• To discuss ways in which such services
can be used to support your particular
areas of interest.
• To address the ethical issues related to
use of the Social Web.
• To help you to develop plans for making
use of the Social Web to support your
institutional aims.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
2

3. Revisiting SEO
Web sites
Google
(Live Search
Bing, …)
Real Databases
world
Summary of key approaches:
• Apply various techniques to Web resources to
make resources easier to find in Google, …
Directories
• Resources may include organisational Web
suites, third party Web sites, databases, …
• Resources may also include real world objects
and ideas (i.e. your museum, your research
ideas, …)
• Based on understanding of importance of
Google to end users
A centre of expertise in digital information management
3

4. Beyond SEO
Web sites
Social Services
(Facebook,
Slideshare,
Twitter, …)
Real Databases
world
Summary of key approaches:
Directories • Make use of social networking services which
people may use of discuss your services
• Services may include Facebook, MySpace,
Slideshare, Twitter, …
• No need to touch your Web sites (so useful if
you can’t!)
• Based on understanding of popularity of SNs
and people’s interests in chatting and sharing
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4

5. Opportunities & Challenges
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5

6. It’s About The Individual!
Focus of the Social
Web is the individual.
Challenges posed:
• ‘It’s my space’
• ‘Sustainability
• Privacy
• Editorial control
• Branding
• …
A centre of expertise in digital information management
6

7. Structure of Session
Introduction Completed!
“Pimp Up Your Stuff” Talk
How Can I Use Social Web? Exercise
“Monitoring the Impact” Talk
Convincing the ‘Beancounters’ Exercise
“The Ethical Issues” Talk
Personal Action Plans Exercise
Questions and Conclusions
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7

8. Wikis What Does Google Find?
Pages in Wikipedia
are Google-friendly
• First 3rd party Web
site for search for
‘British Library’ is
from Wikipedia
• Similar results
found for a search
for ‘British Postal
Museum’
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8

9. Wikis Exploiting Wikipedia
Is your
organisation
listed in
Wikipedia?
If not you are
missing out on a
(free) marketing
opportunity.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
9

10. Blogs Why Blog?
Multiple reasons for blogging (not all to
do with maximising access to resources
and ideas):
• Reflection
• Dissemination
• Engagement
• News and alerts
• Note-taking
• Experimentation
• ‘Think out loud’
• Personal development
• Syndication
•…
Jo Alcock (librarian at Wolverhampton University) has a blog which
allows her to engage with her users on library developments and
solicit feedbackin digital information management
A centre of expertise
10

11. Blogs Why I Blog
Reasons mentioned
previously.
In addition:
• Talk about plans for
new ‘stuff’ (events,
papers, ideas, …)
• Talk and ‘stuff’ I’ve
delivered (as
illustrated)
Use of a blog allows this
to be:
• Commented on
• Syndicated
• Repurposed
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11

12. The Paper In The Repository
The paper in the
repository can fail to
engage with
potential interested
parties: especially if
only the metadata is
available and
access is restricted!
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12

13. Best Practices For Bloggers
Examples of best practices:
• Have a blog policy (e.g. ‘Don’t be stupid’)
• Define the scope and target audience
• Link to others
• Allow comments
• Respond to comments
• Decide on team or individual blog
• Make use of your blog posts elsewhere
See UKOLN’s Cultural Heritage IntroBytes
briefing documents
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13

14. Blogs From A Distance Blog
Chris Sexton, IT Service’s
Director at University of Sheffield
& current UCISA chair
Her blog:
• Outlines senior management
strategic thinking
• Embed title and link to my
most recent blog post
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14

15. Blogs Reading, Even If Not Blogging
Negative impact –
the bad things they
say about your stuff
Can be useful to
monitor:
• Your brand
• Your ideas
• Your reputation
• Your stuff
• ….
Some minor criticisms from Stephen Downes, A speedy reply, and
a well-read Canadian e=learning guru a positive response
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15

16. Twitter What Can Twitter Offer?
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16

17. Twitter What Can Twitter Offer?
Promoting blog
post about
possible event.
Brief - designed for
retweeting (RT)
Should you add
“Please RT”?
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17

18. Twitter What Can Twitter Offer?
“OMG they’re
criticising us – and
this is being
retweeted to new
groups!”
Note you don’t have
to respond (but you
may address issues
raised)
A centre of expertise in digital information management
18

19. Quick Surveys
Twitter for rapid
surveys & feedback
“Firefox is crashing
frequently. Is this
true for others?
Respond with
#firefoxcrashes or
#firefoxisfine.
Please RT.”
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19

20. Twitter Writing Style
New blog post published which I hope to gain a wide
audience for.
Announcement tweeted.
First draft
“Respect Copyright (and Subvert It!)" My thoughts on
copyright and openness in light of the #digitalbritain report
http://bit.ly/4XOMJ”
Second draft:
“Respect Copyright (and Subvert It!)" Thoughts on copyright
& openness in light of #digitalbritain report http://bit.ly/4XOMJ”
Rationale:
• Allow retweeting in entirety
• Clause which can be removed
(“in light of #digitalbritain report”)
A centreallow for commentary (e.g. “great post”)
to of expertise in digital information management
20

21. Twitter Twitter – Some Evidence
Personal experience
• Most popular post on
UKOLN’s Cultural heritage
blog in May 2009:
“Explaining the Risks and
Opportunities Framework”
• Announced on Twitter at 08.55 on 21st May:
Blog post explaining the Risks & Opportunities
Framework published at http://tinyurl.com/p72kld
“I haven’t got the time to use Twitter. And it can’t
Ajustify expertise in digital information management
centre of the ROI” Really?
21

22. Twitter Twitter – Further Evidence
Where are the visits coming from?
As the top post has been tweeted, possibly the visits
are from a Twitter client (rather than the Twitter Web
site)
A centre of expertise in digital information management
22

23. “The Power Of Passed Links”
The Value Of Twitter Is In “The Power Of Passed
Links”
Wilson predicts that at current growth rates, Twitter
“will surpass Google for many websites in the next
year.” And that just as nearly every site on the Web
has become addicted to Google juice, they will
increasingly try to find ways to get more links from
Twitter. Because Twitter equals traffic. …
Moreover, he asserts that these Twitter links “convert
better” than search links because they are often pre-
filtered and come in the form of a recommendation
from someone you are following.
TechCrunch, June 2009
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23

24. Slides Slides To Engage Users
Slides designed to allow
users to make use of
content and links:
• AUP giving permission
to reuse content &
exploit WiFi network to
discuss content
• Hyperlinks in slides
• Link to master copy
provided in title slide and
footer in handout
• Tag used in del.icio.us to
The PowerPoint file is a resource which can bookmark resources (no
be easily accessed, discussed and provide need to copy URLs)
links to relevant resources during a talk and
subsequently. of expertise in digital information management
A centre
24

25. Slideshare Slideshare To Promote Ideas
I use Slideshare to maximise
awareness of ideas in papers I deliver
at conferences. Approaches:
• Slides uploaded in advance
(accessibility benefits)
• Allow slides to be embedded in
blogs, Web pages, …
• Text, tags, links & metadata to
support searching & provide context
A centre of expertise in digital information management
25

26. What About Video?
Increasingly
users want video
content – and are
likely to use
Google or
YouTube to find
videos
Google Video might have been an obvious place to
store videos – but it is how being deprecated
A centre of expertise in digital information management
26

27. YouTube
Want to make your
University
appealing to
potential students?
They’re likely to
look at YouTube
What will they find?
A centre of expertise in digital information management
27

28. YouTube
Want to make your
University
appealing to
potential students?
They’re likely to
look at YouTube
What will they find?
Student-published videos may appeal to potential students –
but the approaches (drunkenness, copyrighted sound clips,
etc.) won’t be expertise in digital information management
A centre of used officially
28

29. Your Institutional Video
Is it worth trapping
your marketing videos
in your institutional
Web site?
The SEO tips for
enhancing the visibility
of your videos in
YouTube follow well-
“Given that YouTube is by far the most popular established guidelines
video website, you should be publishing (e.g. title, description,
videos there (even if you are a B2B company tags, …)
like HubSpot ”
A centre of expertise in digital information management
29

30. What About Facebook? (1)
Should you have a
Facebook presence for
your organisation?
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30

31. Social Networks What About Facebook? (2)
There may already be
multiples pages and
groups for your
organisation
• <http://www.facebook.com
/pages/Milton-
Keynes/The-Open-
University/7084005675?>
• <http://www.facebook.com
/group.php?
sid=b8c4e095201c81eb2d
a026ea04067fb0&gid=221
2434521>
• <http://www.facebook.com
/openuniversity/>
Note vanity URLs made available on 12 June 2009 – if
you have > 1,000 fans. Did you miss out?
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31

32. Risks of Doing Nothing
Webinar held on
16 June 2009
Advice for US
Universities on how
to exploit social
networks
What are the
risks of being
left behind?
Must a
service be
100% ‘pure’
before
choosing to
A centre of expertise in digital information management
32 use it?

33. Conclusions
The Social Web:
• Can be used to enhance access to digital
resources, real world resources and ideas
and concepts
• Ignoring the potential may mean you lose
out to your peers, competitors or rivals
• Can form part of your organisation’s
mission and not just an added extra for
dissemination
• But there are risks – to be explored later
A centre of expertise in digital information management
33

34. Using the Social Web to Maximise Access to your Resources:
Group Exercise 1: Demonstrating the
Impact of the Social Web
Group Exercise 1: Challenges In
Making Use of the Social Web
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NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
A centre of expertise in digital information management (but note caveat)

35. D
Group Exercise 1
Break into small groups
Find someone to report back
Discuss:
• How you might demonstrate the impact of
use of the Social Web
• How you might gather and use evidence to
convince sceptics e.g. funders who wish to
reduce funding; tabloid newspapers; …
Try to ensure that everyone contributes to the
discussion
A centre of expertise in digital information management
35

36. D
Group Exercise 2
Break into small groups
Find someone to report back
Discuss:
• What are the main challenges in exploiting
the Social Web to enhance access to your
resources and services?
• How might you address such challenges?
Try to ensure that everyone contributes to the
discussion
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36

37. Report Back
Summaries from the discussion groups
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37

38. 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
38

39. 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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39

40. 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 ,…
A centre of expertise in digital information management
40

41. 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.
A centre of expertise in digital information management
41

42. 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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42

43. 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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43

44. “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
44

45. 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)
45

46. 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?
46

47. 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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47

48. 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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48

49. 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
A centre of expertise in digital information management new technology
49

50. 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/>
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50

51. 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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51

52. 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
52

53. Conclusions
Acknowledgments to Michael Edson for the Web Tech Guy and Angry
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53 Staff Person post / comic strip