Open Metrics for Open Repositories, Kelly, B., Sheppard, N., Delasalle, J., Dewey, M., Stephens, O., Johnson, G. and Taylor, S. OR2012: the 7th International Conference on Open Repositories, 9-13 July 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Paper: [About] – [PDF format] – [MS Word format]

Can LinkedIn and Academia.edu Enhance Access to Open Repositories? Kelly, B. and Delasalle, J. Open Repositories 2012, 9-13 July 2012, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Paper: [About] – [PDF format] – [MS Word format]

Slides from the plenary talks and several of the parallel sessions are available on the IWMW 2012 web site.  In addition video recordings of the plenary talks together with several brief video interviews which were recorded at the event are also available on the UKOLN Vimeo account.

The harnessing of tags in the deployment of this Drupal platform has proven central to the degree to which the extensive legacy material (dating back to the mid-1990s and the eLib Programme) has been more readily exposed to Ariadne’s readership. These tags or keywords will also serve to assist readers, sometimes in their first post (and third language), concerned with new concepts arising in the most current articles where they will equally provide a path to complementary information on new concepts as much as the old. The adoption of features such as ‘Forthcoming content’, the revolving gallery and Today’s choice also cater for readers’ inclination to browse at the same time as Ariadne’s various feeds offer them the opportunity to pull in specific information to which they will want to subscribe.

The re-design of Ariadne also means that its authors benefit from the exposure of a wide range of new data, of particular use to readers seeking information on particular themes or on authors’ interests and expertise. This is most apparent in the construction of author profiles which now operate independently of the articles by their author which they list in full. Editor Richard Waller will be very pleased to hear from authors published in earlier issues who would like to update their details, for which messages a contact form stands ready.

Brian Kelly has written, “I am pleased to announce developments to Ariadne which not only enhance the user interface but also, perhaps more importantly, provide much richer access to the large number of articles which have been published during its lifetime.

Ariadne was launched at a time when mailing lists provided the main communications channel with Web sites acting primarily for publishing information. In today’s environment there is a much greater diversity of communications and publication channels including blogs, wikis, Twitter and social networks. Ariadne continues to have a valuable role to play in this space and we hope the developments which have been launched in this issue will appeal to both existing readers and those who may not have come across Ariadne previously. In light of the changing landscape we have reduced Ariadne’s publication frequency from four to three times per year. We feel Ariadne provides a valuable publishing channel which is positioned between the many blogs which describe digital library developments and peer-reviewed journals.”

Further information on the new Ariadne can be obtained from a complementary news feature on the UKOLN Web site.

A draft version of this report may be downloaded from this page. Please note that comments are very welcome, and should be emailed to the author, Emma Tonkin (e.tonkin@ukoln.ac.uk).

The UK Government has been working on the development of a policy on use of open standards.  A formal public consultation focused on open standards for software interoperability, data and document formats in government IT requirements and sought evidence to inform:

• the definition of open standard in the context of government IT;
• the meaning of mandation and the effects compulsory standards may have on government departments, delivery partners and supply chains;
• international alignment and cross-border interoperability.

This consultation was launched on 9 February 2012 and will scheduled to closed on 3 May 2012 (although the closing date was subsequently extended until 4 June 2012).

UKOLN ISC has giving feedback on the initial survey an the open standards consultation document.

Dates

Work started: 9 Feb 2011

Planned completion date: 3 May 2012

Actual completion date: 25 April 2012

Activities

This work involved reading documents published by the UK Government, responding to the documents and encouraging involvement from others within the UK higher and further educations sector.

Outputs

The outputs of this work were:

• Blog post on Preparing a Response to the UK Government’s Open Standards: Open Opportunities Document, UK Web Focus blog, 26 April 2012 which summarised experiences of support for open standards in JISC development programmes since the 1990s and encouragement of others to participate in consultation.
• Response to Chapter 1: Criteria for open standards
• Response to Chapter 2: Open standards mandation
• Response to Chapter 3: International alignment

This work was also mentioned in the JISC Daily News Update, 27 April 2012.

People

This work was led by Brian Kelly.

However despite the widespread use of CERIF as an underlying standard, many institutions are not engaging with CERIF directly. Staff find CERIF complex and rely on external expertise from CRIS vendors and UK user groups; only institutions involved in JISC projects are properly engaging with CERIF. Many staff are keen to engage more – this is likely to happen as local CRIS implementations are completed and institutions are able to start exploiting the many efficiency benefits offered by CERIF.

The workshop is described on the SCONUL website, along with links to the ‘vision’ and the accompanying presentation, both of which are linked to below for convenience:

• the vision
• the accompanying presentation on Slideshare

The events were accompanied by a series of blog posts published on the UK Web Focus blog which provided a combination of evidenced-based surveys of usage of online services, discussions of the implications of the findings and reflections on the survey methodologies.

A report on this work is available as a series of self-contained documents which have been published on the Evidence, Impact, metrics blog.  These reports are also available below:

• Why the Need for this Work?: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of Events: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of Blog Posts: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Feedback from the Second Workshop: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Summary of the Final Workshop: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• Running Your Own Surveys: [HTML] – [MS Word]
• A Framework For Metrics: [HTML] – [MS Word]

Note that the report on Running Your Own Surveys may be of particular interest to projects which have a requirement to be able to provide quantitative evidence of the benefits of the project activities.

Feedback on this work is welcomed.

The JISC Inform Spring 2012 issue highlighted a number of ways on which open practices were being used across the UK’s higher and further education sector. In order to complement this work, a series of guest blog posts on openness were published on the UK Web Focus blog.

Dates

Work started: 2 Oct 2011

Planned completion date: 31 April 2012

Actual completion date: 10 April 2012

Activities

This work involved commissioning and publishing a series of guest blog posts and reviewing this work.

Outputs

The posts published were:

• Announcement of a Series of Openness Guest Blog Posts, Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus blog, 29 March 2012
• Open Access to Science for Everyone, Ross Mounce, UK Web Focus blog, 30 March 2012
• Being Openly Selfish and Making “OER” Work for You, UK Web Focus blog, James Burke, 2 April 2012
• Librarians meet Wikipedians: collaboration not competition!, Simon Baines, UK Web Focus blog, 3 April 2012
• Professional Development Using Open Content, Marieke Guy, UK Web Focus blog, 4 April 2012
• Opening Up Events – The GEII Event Amplification Toolkit, Kirsty Pitkin, UK Web Focus blog, 5 April 2012
• Openly Commercial, Joscelyn Upendran, UK Web Focus blog, 6 April 2012
• Syndicated Post: The Commons Touch, Steve Wheeler, UK Web Focus blog, 7 April 2012
• Openness in One Country, Brian Kelly, UK Web Focus blog, 10 April 2012

Links

The openness articles published in JISC Inform were:

• Open Doors, JISC Inform (33), Spring  2012
• Making the most of the open web, JISC Inform (33), Spring  2012
• The Open Researcher: Follow the leaders and lead the followers, Jennifer Jones, JISC Inform (33), Spring  2012

People

This work was led by Brian Kelly.

As part of the Greening Events II project, UKOLN published a report on Event Amplification.

Dates

Work started: 1 Oct 2011

Planned completion date: 18 Jun 2012

Actual completion date: 18 Jun 2012

Activities

This work involved the analysis of a variety of amplified events and writing a report on best practices.

Outputs

A report has been published:

[About] – [PDF format] – [MS Word format]

Links

• Greening Events II, JISC
• Greening Event II, project web site

People

This work was led by Brian Kelly.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is implementing legislation related to use of cookies on web sites.  We are involved in an activity which will summarise the implications of the legislation and provide guidance on implementation strategies.

Dates

Work started: 1 Oct 2011

Planned completion date: 29 Feb 2012

Actual completion date: 16 April 2012

Activities

This work involves setting up a small group of interested parties within the web management community, with additional input being provided by the JISC Legal service. Monitoring of advice from government bodies will be carried out and the implications shared across the sector.  The approaches being taken across a small number of institutions  to conform with legislation will be shared and advice provided on emerging best practices.

Outputs

An article was published in the JISC Inform ejournal.

A series of blog post have been published.

In addition a workshop session will be held at the IWMW 2012 event.

Links

• The Half Term Report on Cookie Compliance, 15 December 2011
• Next Steps In Addressing Forthcoming Cookie Legislation, 20 February 2012
• How is the Higher Education Sector Responding to the Forthcoming Cooking Legislation?, 16 April 2012
• The new cookie laws: how aware are you?, Spring 2012
• Why I Welcome the Government’s Business-Friendly Approach to Cookies, 26 May 2012

People

This work was led by Brian Kelly.