10 posts tagged “openness”
Earlier today I ran a half-day workshop entitled “Introduction To Blogs And Social Networks For Heritage Organisations“. This workshop was commissioned by ASVA (Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions, following a seminar I gave on “Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs And Social Networks” at the Museums and Heritage Show.
The workshop made use of a series of briefing documents which have been developed to support the cultural heritage sector. As well as the documents which have been published the workshop also provided an opportunity to receive feedback on a number of additional documents we have produced, including An Introduction to Twitter and An Introduction to Seesmic (the video micro-blogging tool).
A number of other briefing document were used in two day-long workshops which were commissioned by CyMAL to support staff working in museums, libraries and archives in Wales. These events, entitled Sharing Made Simple: A Practical Approach To Social Software, provided a broader overview of the potential of Web 2.0 in cultural heritage organisations, and also addressed barriers to the take-up of Web 2.0 and strategies for addressing such barriers.
The feedback we receive on the documents (and on the need for additional documents) is an important part of the quality assurance processes for the resources. It should also be noted that we are making these documents available under a Creative Commons licence and encourage their reuse.
This approach to use of Creative Commons for resources I’ve created over the past few years has been taken primarily in order to maximise the impact of the content of the resources. And I would encourage others to do likewise. However, as Scott Leslie has recently described in a blog post on “Planning to Share versus Just Sharing” there is a real danger of encountering “frustration with ineffective institutional collaborations“. The summary of Scott’s post exhorts readers to “grow your network by sharing, not planning to share or deciding who to share with“.
This approach reflects the views expressed by Mike Ellis and myself in a paper entitled “Web 2.0: How to Stop Thinking and Start Doing: Addressing Organisational Barriers” presented at the Museums and the Web 2007 conference. As I described in blog post back in July 2007 back then the cry was “Just do it!“. A year on, despite the economic problems we’re facing, the recent US election result seems to have resulted in a more positive approach to the world and a willingness to makes changes. So perhaps our cry should now be “Set up a blog? Use Creative Commons for our resources? Yes, we can!“
Posted in Blog, opennessApproaches To Openness in UK Higher Education
I commented recently on Andy Powell’s decision to live blog at the conferences he attends, so that his thoughts, opinions and comments can be shared with a wider community and his views discussed openly. This approach to openness reflects a culture which we can see increasingly in the high education sector, which is now will to make its research publications available though open access repositories, its data available under Science Commons licences and documentation and other resources available under Creative Commons licences.
Such approaches to openness in general aren’t being taken on ideological stances, but rather a belief that the benefits of education and research are best served by providing open access to the resources for use by others.
Approaches To Openness in the Wider Public Sector
In order to contribute to this forum it seems you need to fill in a cumbersome registration form, with a string of attached conditions. And, much worse, you even need to register in order to read the discussions on the forum. It’s therefore hardly surprising that there is hardly any discussion taking place on the forum.
Feel free to give your thoughts on these terms and conditions. One particular condition which struck me was:
“You acknowledge that www.communities.idea.gov.uk reserves the right to charge for the Community of Practice and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion.“
Now why do I feel that such terms and conditions provided on services such as Facebook would be used to condemn the service, but the Government seems to be able to get away with it?
Note that as the terms and conditions are so long, I have included a More tag in this blog post, so that you will have to follow the link in order to view the full list of terms and conditions.
Terms and Conditions for Communities of Practice Government Web Site
USER POLICY
Please take a moment to read the following User Policy. If there is anything you do not understand, then please Contact Us.
Communities of Practice is a website provided primarily for use by the Public Sector in the United Kingdom (”Public Sector”) by the Improvement and Development Agency for Local Government (”we” “us” “our” or “IDeA”) on behalf of the Public Sector.
1. Acceptance of this User Policy
Your access and use of this website located at (www.communities.idea.gov.uk), including any and all content, information and materials provided within it (the “Content”) (together referred to as “Communities of Practice”), is subject to your acceptance of, and compliance with, the provisions of this User Policy, which incorporates our Discussion Forum Policy, our Privacy Policy (both of which you should also read), and any other legal notices and/or instructions which may appear on Communities of Practice and/or within any Content from time to time (together this “User Policy”).
IMPORTANT: By accessing and using Communities of Practice you will automatically be taken to have read, understood and accepted this User Policy. If there is anything you do not understand please Contact Us. If you do not agree to be bound by this User Policy please cease to access and use Communities of Practice and any of the Content found within it (including any Content you have copied or downloaded).
2.Communities of Practice
Communities of Practice provides you with a rich collection of on-line facilities, rights and obligations.
* a person who has registered with us (see the section below on Registration and use of your data) (”Subscriber”); (together “Registered Users”).
Communities of Practice has primary components:
* Content, including documented processes compiled and contributed by Subscribers;
* Discussion Forums;
* Personal blogs
* Designated private areas for Subscribers containing Content specific to them, and which can only be accessed by its Subscribers (”Subscriber Areas”);
* Network of Practitioners which allows Subscribers to search for peers, advisers and other practitioners in the Community of Practice.
3.Your obligations
IMPORTANT: You may only use Communities of Practice (including any Content you access, copy or download) for either the lawful purpose(s) of the Public Sector or your own personal non-commercial use, and in any event in accordance with this User Policy.
You agree:
* not to use Communities of Practice (including any Content) for your personal commercial gain
* not to change any of the text or images contained in Communities of Practice or merge it with any other text or images, or forge headers or otherwise manipulate identifiers in order to disguise the origin of any of the Content;
* to comply with any legal notices contained in Communities of Practice (including in any Content); and
* to respect and comply with the legal rights of others, in particular our rights, and the rights of our licensors (please see the paragraph on Ownership below) and any rights of individuals under the Data Protection Act 1998, the law of confidentiality, and the right of privacy under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998.
In addition you agree NOT to upload, post, email or otherwise send (together “upload”) or knowingly receive any Content which:
* is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, indecent, obscene, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, or discriminatory whether racially, ethnically, sexually, religiously or otherwise, or which may incite or instruct any person or organisation to undertake such activities;
* contains any viruses, trojan horses, worms, time bombs or any similar component likely to cause harm;
* constitutes an advertisement, encouragement, or specific recommendation to trade in any specific share or security;
* contains forged headers or manipulated identifiers in order to disguise the origins of any Content;
* infringes our legal rights or any other User, or any other person or organisation; or
* passes you off as, or in which you impersonate any person or entity, including any Public Sector Organisation or IDeA official, or otherwise misrepresents yourself or your connection with a third party in any way.
4.Uploading Content
In addition to Your obligations you shall only upload Content:
* in accordance with any instructions we may issue from time to time;
* which does not contain any information which may constitute investment advice under the Financial Services Act 1986. Under this Act it is a criminal offence to pass on any opinion (whether your own or another person’s) on investment merit and potential, unless you are subject to regulatory rules of membership of a self-regulating organisation;
* in accordance with any legal rights of other persons, including any rights under the Data Protection Act 1998, the law of confidentiality, the right of privacy under Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, or any other rights or which you are otherwise not entitled to so upload; and
* where it is into a Subscriber Area in accordance with our requirements set out below.
You warrant and undertake that any Content you upload is accurate and up to date, and of a quality reasonably appropriate to the nature of the Content.
You warrant and undertake to ensure that no copyright or other IP Rights (as defined in the section on Ownership and Licence below) will be infringed by either:
* your uploading of any Content; or
* such Content being accessed, downloaded and used (in accordance with this User Policy) by either Users or, where you upload Content only to a Subscriber Area, by the relevant Subscribers.
IMPORTANT: Unless you include a clear legal notice, prominently positioned on the first page of any Content you upload, informing Users of any restrictions in their use of such Content, it will be deemed that Users are free to access, download and use such Content as they see fit, in accordance with this User Policy.
IMPORTANT: We reserve the right to either block access to, delete or amend any Content which you upload, as and when we deem appropriate (in our absolute discretion) from time to time, without notice to you.
If we receive any complaint in relation to any Content you have uploaded, in addition to our right to block access to, delete or amend such Content, we shall also be entitled to terminate your access to Communities of Practice.
Where we consider it appropriate, we will endeavour to contact you to inform you that a complaint has been received in relation to Content which you have uploaded, the action that we have taken, our evaluation of the allegation, and what steps (if any) we require you to take.
5.Availability of Communities of Practice
We shall use reasonable endeavours to ensure that Communities of Practice is available between the hours of 09.00 and 17.30 Monday to Friday, excluding public holidays. While Communities of Practice may be available outside of those times, we make no representation or guarantees as to such availability.
We reserve the right to withdraw access to all or any part of Communities of Practice for periods of time in order to modify Content, scheduled or emergency maintenance and other purposes without notice to you.
Since you will receive Communities of Practice via third party telecommunications networks, you acknowledge that we cannot guarantee that the availability of Communities of Practice will be uninterrupted or error free. Similarly we cannot guarantee that the transmission of any information over such telecommunications networks will be secure nor that you will be able to access Communities of Practice at all times.
IMPORTANT: Communities of Practice is therefore provided to you on an “as is” and “as and when available” basis, and your use of Communities of Practice is at your own risk.
6.Registration and use of your data
(Please see paragraph 3 Discussion Forum Policy in relation to the registration and use of Forum User’s data.)
In order to register as a subscriber you must have a valid email address.
(”Registered Users”)
In any event we may from time to time register persons as Registered Users as we see fit.
When registering as a Registered User, you agree to provide accurate, up-to-date and complete information about yourself, as prompted by Communities of Practice (”Your Data”) and to promptly update Your Data as and when any changes to Your Data occur.
In return we agree to use Your Data only in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
When you successfully register as a Registered User you will create a Username and Password. You are responsible for keeping your Password confidential and shall take all necessary steps to ensure that it is kept secure and not disclosed to any other person.
IMPORTANT: If you know or suspect that your Password has been disclosed to any other person you must Contact Us immediately and change your password. Please note that you are responsible for all activities that occur under your Password.
Where you are a Subscriber and you cease to work (as an employee or consultant) within the organisation, you must immediately notify us (Contact Us) of this fact (so that we can update your registration and rights of access as a current Subscriber).
7.Fees.
You acknowledge that www.communities.idea.gov.uk reserves the right to charge for the Community of Practice and to change its fees from time to time in its discretion. If www.communties.idea.gov.uk terminates your Subscription because you have breached the User Policy, Discussion Forum Policy or Privacy Policy you shall not be entitled to the refund of any unused portion of subscription fees.
8.People Finder
People Finder is a search facility accessible by all Subscribers to search for peers, advisers and other practitioners in the Community of Practice, based upon enhanced search criteria (the “Search Facility”).
This Search Facility searches through the fields contained in Subscribers’, Records in the “My Profile” section of Communities of Practice, to produce one or more links to profiles of relevant Subscribers
For further information as to how personal information is used in relation to the Search Facility, and how you may opt-out of your personal information being included in it, please see paragraph 5 of the Privacy Policy.
Your use of the Search Facility shall at all times comply with this User Policy, and in particular is subject to strict adherence with the following rules:
* Acceptable Uses - you will use the personal information and contact details obtained from the Search Facility (”Search Facility Data”) only for the purpose of the provision of a relevant public sector services
* Sharing information - you will not sell, pass or otherwise make available any Search Facility Data to a third party. You may share Search Facility Data with your colleagues in your Organisation only where there is a reasonable need to do so (and for the purpose of the provision of a relevant public sector services), and provided that you ensure such colleagues are aware of these rules.
* Communications - any communication you make with individuals found via the Search Facility (”Relevant Individuals”) must clearly identify your name, your job title, your Organisation and your contact details. Communications must be kept to a minimum and must immediately cease if the individual(s) indicate they do not wish to be contacted;
* Unlawfulness - your communications with Relevant Individuals must not be unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, indecent, obscene, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, or discriminatory whether racially, ethnically, sexually, religiously or otherwise, or which may incite or instruct any person or organisation to undertake such activities.
* Use of Language - your communications with Relevant Individuals must not contain language that is in any way unlawful, threatening or offensive. This includes the use of swear-words, bad language and offensive nicknames.
* Breach of Confidence - your communications with, and your use of any communications received from, Relevant Individuals, must not in any way breach the confidence of any person.
* Impersonation - you must not impersonate any person or identity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or organisation or disguise the origin of any content of such communication with a Relevant Individual.
* Viruses - you must not send any communications to a Relevant Individual that might contain computer viruses or any other computer code, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment.
* Illegal and Harmful Activities - you must not send any communications to a Relevant Individual relating to (or including links to) pirated software (including computer games), counterfeit goods or any other material which is, or might reasonably considered to be, illegal or otherwise harmful.
* Pornography - you must not send any communications to a Relevant Individual relating to (or including links to) any kind of pornography.
* Personal Data - you must not send any communications to a Relevant Individual containing another person’s personal information (including their name, home address, job title, telephone number or other contact details) without first obtaining the relevant person’s consent.
* Advertising - you must not send any communications to a Relevant Individual containing or including links to any overt advertisements or promotional materials, or otherwise use the Search Facility or such communications to overtly generate personal business.
9.Freedom of Information
Subscribers are subject to the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (the “FOIA”).
Where we receive a request under the FOIA which includes any information that belongs to, or is confidential to, a Subscriber, as we deem appropriate in accordance with the FOIA, we will refer such request is to the Subscriber.
10. Forums
You agree to only access and use Communities of Practice’s Discussion Forums in accordance with the Discussion Forum Policy.
11.Ownership and Licence
You acknowledge that all rights in copyright, patents, design rights, trade marks and other intellectual property rights (whether registered, capable of registration or otherwise) throughout the world, for the full duration of such rights (”IP Rights”) in Communities of Practice (including in the Content) are owned by us.
Except for your use of the Content in accordance with this User Policy, you are granted no IP Rights in respect of Communities of Practice.
You may print, copy or download the Content provided always that:
* Communities of Practice and/or any Subscriber or third party responsible for creating the Content, is the acknowledged source;
* all titles credits and URLs are included; and
* you comply with any legal notice contained in the Content.
This permission is revocable by us at any time.
All trade marks, logos, titles, brand and product names (”our Trade Marks”) which are featured in Communities of Practice are owned by us or our licensors (including Subscribing Authorities, other Local Authorities and the Service Provider.
You may only use or refer to our Trade Marks which are included in Content downloaded, copied or printed by you in accordance with this User Policy. Otherwise you must not offer or distribute any products or services under or by reference to our Trade Marks, or otherwise reproduce any of our Trade Marks without our express written consent.
In relation to any Content which you upload, you grant to us a non-exclusive royalty free licence (which includes the right to grant sub-licences) to include such Content on Communities of Practice so that it can be made available by us as part of Communities of Practice and be viewed and downloaded by Users and used and exploited as they see fit, subject to them respecting any reasonable legal notice which you may place on such Content.
12.Links
Communities of Practice contains links to websites which are not under our control. These links are provided for your convenience only. We are not responsible for the availability or content of such other websites, nor for any products or services available from them. Any such link should not be seen as an endorsement of such websites, or any products or services contained on them.
You should be aware that your use of such other websites may be subject to additional terms and conditions imposed by the owners of those websites. Your dealings with such third parties are between you and the third party, and we accept no liability as a result of you accessing such websites or entering into contractual arrangements with the operator in question.
13.Modifications to this User Policy
This User Policy (including the Privacy Policy and Discussion Forum Policy) may be amended from time to time, and we therefore suggest that you review it periodically.
14.Disclaimers
We do not limit our liability if you die or are injured as a result of our negligence or you suffer loss as a consequence of any fraud by us, and nothing in this User Policy should be read as making any such limitations.
You should note that since Content is provided not only by us but also by Subscribers we cannot and do not undertake to monitor every item of Content uploaded onto Communities of Practice and as a result:
* we are unable to guarantee that Communities of Practice is virus and/or error free. You should always check Content before downloading. Any Content is downloaded by you at your own risk, and on the basis that you will be solely responsible for any damage to your computer system or loss of data that result from the download of such Content; and
* we make no representations, warranties or endorsements about the information included in Communities of Practice or its accuracy (including in relation to any opinions or advice given, or any links to other websites). Anything on Communities of Practice is for information purposes only and does not constitute investment advice, legal or professional advice and should not be relied on without taking independent advice. Nor can we guarantee the prompt editing or removal of any inappropriate or inaccurate Content.
IMPORTANT: Please note that you are solely responsible for any decisions you take based on the information contained in the Content.
On the basis that you are accessing Communities of Practice for business and commercial purposes, you agree that, unless we specifically state otherwise, we provide Communities of Practice to you without any conditions, warranties, or guarantees, whether express or implied, including but not limited to any implied warranties or conditions as to the satisfactory quality or fitness for a particular purpose, which are expressly excluded to the extent permitted by law.
15.Our liability
We shall not be liable to you in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for:
* any damage or loss arising from the consequences of viruses received by you via Communities of Practice or of our failure to provide Communities of Practice in accordance with this User Policy;
* any economic losses (including loss of profits) any indirect or consequential losses, loss of data, goodwill or reputation, or for any wasted expense including but not limited to losses caused by viruses,
and any other liability we may have to you whether in contract, tort (including negligence) or otherwise for any loss or damage suffered by you in relation to Communities of Practice
In any event we will not be liable for any failure to perform our obligations if we are prevented from doing so by an event beyond our reasonable control including (but not limited to):
* strikes or labour disputes;
* acts of God, war, riot, civil action, malicious acts or damage, fire, flood or storm;
* compliance with any law, governmental or regulatory order, rule, regulation or direction, any act or omission of any government or other competent authority; and/or
* accident, equipment or services failure, including the unavailability of third party telecommunications services, lines or other equipment.
IMPORTANT: You acknowledge that, on the basis that you are accessing Communities of Practice that the disclaimers and limits on our liability contained in this User Policy (in particular Paragraphs 13 Disclaimers and 15 Our Liability) are fair and reasonable.
16.Your liability
We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your registration as a Registered User and/or your access to all or any parts of Communities of Practice without notice to you, if we reasonably believe you to have breached this User Policy.
You agree to indemnify us from and against any liability, loss, damage or expense caused to any person (including us or any other User), to the extent such losses, damages and expense is caused by:
* your use of Communities of Practice, or to whom you have disclosed your Password (whether inadvertently or not); and/or
* any Content which you have uploaded.
17.Termination
We are entitled to revoke your status as a Subscriber or otherwise limit your right of access to Communities of Practice at any time:
* where you have materially or persistently breached this User Policy, Privacy Policy or Discussion forum ; or
* in any event on 1 week’s notice.
18.General
Please note the following:
* any failure or delay by us to bring legal proceedings in relation to Communities of Practice, the Content or this User Policy shall not be regarded as a waiver of any rights. Indeed if we do waive any such rights, this shall not be regarded to be a waiver of any other or future rights we may have;
* if any paragraph, or part of any paragraph, of this User Policy is found by any Court, or other competent body to be wholly or partly illegal, invalid, void, voidable, unenforceable or unreasonable, that part shall be deemed to be severable from this User Policy and the remaining provisions of this User Policy shall continue in full force and effect;
* the User Policy is not intended, nor shall it operate, to create a partnership or joint venture of any kind between us and you, and you are not authorised to act as our agent;
* no term of this User Policy shall be enforceable under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 (”Act”) by a third party, who is not a party to this agreement save for any other User who shall be entitled to exercise any rights it may have under that Act against you. Notwithstanding that any term of this User Policy may be or become enforceable by any other User, we shall be entitled to vary, amend, modify, suspend, cancel or terminate our agreement with you in accordance with the other terms of the User Policy, without their consent;
* you may serve any formal notice on us by Contacting Us, and we may serve a formal notice on you, by either first class post or email to the contact details you submitted upon registration (as may be updated by you from time to time) and such notice will be regarded as formally received by the other on the next day that is not a weekend or a public holiday;
* this User Policy represents all the terms and conditions of your agreement with us that arises automatically when you use Communities of Practice, and supersedes any previous agreements between us relating to your use of Communities of Practice. If there are any inconsistencies between our Discussion Forum Policy, our Privacy Policy or any legal notices or instructions, and the terms and conditions set out on this webpage, then the latter shall prevail;
* you acknowledge that (in relation to your use of Communities of Practice) you have not relied on any statement, representation, warranty or understanding made by us or on our behalf (whether or not made negligently) other than those expressly set out in this User Policy;
* this User Policy shall be interpreted in accordance with English Law and you and we submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English Courts.
19.Contacting Us
You can contact us by sending an e-mail message to: communities@idea.gov.uk.
Or by writing to us at:
IDeA
Layden House
76-86 Turnmill Street
London EC1M 5LG
DISCUSSION FORUM POLICY
Please take a moment to read the following Discussion Forum Policy. This should be read in conjunction with our User Policy and Privacy Policy. If there is anything you do not understand, then please Contact Us.
This Discussion Forum Policy sets out certain rules that will govern your use of the discussion forums (”Discussion Forums”) including some guidelines that we hope you will find helpful.
The Discussion Forums are only available to users registered with Communities of Practice (”Forum Users”). Some specific Discussion Forums are further limited to specific user groups.
To become a Forum User you must either:
* be registered as a Subscriber of Communities of Practice (please see our User Policy for details); or
* otherwise register here.
The Discussion Forums are provided as a place for Forum Users to report information, seek advice and share ideas. As in a real community, Forum Users are asked to respect other Forum Users and their rights.
1.This Discussion Forum Policy
Your access and use of the Discussion Forums is subject to your acceptance of, and compliance with the provisions of this Discussion Forum Policy and any other legal notices and/or instructions which may appear in the Discussion Forums (including in any messages or attachments posted on a Discussion Forum) from time to time.
IMPORTANT: By accessing and using the Discussion Forums you will automatically be taken to have read, understood and accepted this Discussion Forum Policy. If you do not agree to be bound by this Discussion Forum Policy, please cease to access any Discussion Forums. If you fail to observe any of the provisions of this Discussion Forum Policy, we reserve the right, at our discretion and without notice, to remove or edit any Messages and/or to exclude you (either temporarily or permanently) from the Discussion Forums, depending on the nature and severity of your breach.
This Discussion Forum Policy may be amended from time to time, and we therefore suggest that you review it periodically.
2.Rules for using the Discussion Forums
* General Behaviour - Forum Users must not transmit to any Discussion Forum (”Post”) any message or reply (including attachments) (”Message”), or knowingly receive via a Discussion Forum (”Access”) any Message that is unlawful, illegal, fraudulent, offensive, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, indecent, obscene, defamatory, invasive of another’s privacy, or discriminatory whether racially, ethnically, sexually, religiously or otherwise, or which may incite or instruct any person or organisation to undertake such activities.
* Use of Language - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages containing language that is in any way unlawful, threatening or offensive. This includes the use of swear-words, bad language and offensive nicknames.
* Breach of Confidence - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages that might in any way breach the confidence of another individual. For example, an email received from an individual cannot be placed on a Discussion Forum without first obtaining that individual’s consent.
* Breach of Intellectual Property - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages that might in any way infringe any patent, trade mark, trade secret, copyright, database right or other similar right of any person.
* Impersonation - Forum Users must not impersonate any person or identity, falsely state or otherwise misrepresent your affiliation with a person or organisation or disguise the origin of any content of a Message.
* Viruses - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages that might contain computer viruses or any other computer code, or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software, hardware, or telecommunications equipment.
* Illegal and Harmful Activities - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages relating to (or including links to) pirated software (including computer games), counterfeit goods or any other material which is, or might reasonably considered to be, illegal or otherwise harmful.
* Pornography - Forum Users must not Post or Access Messages relating to (or including links to) any kind of pornography.
* Personal Data - Forum Users must not Post any messages containing another person’s personal information (including their name, home address, job title, telephone number or other contact details) without first obtaining the relevant person’s consent, nor may you use the Discussion Forums to collect or store personal information concerning other persons.
* Permitted Use - You may only use the Discussion Forums for either an Organisations lawful purpose(s) or your own personal non-commercial use. You must not Post any Messages containing or including links to any overt advertisements or promotional materials, or otherwise use the Discussion Forums overtly to generate personal business from other Forum Users.
3.Your Personal Information
When you register as a Forum User you must submit your name, email address and other details. In return we agree to use all such personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
You are responsible for ensuring the safety of all other personal information. We recommend that you do not include your home address, telephone number or other more sensitive personal information in any Messages, unless you are entirely satisfied that such information should be made public.
4.Monitoring
In order to provide Forum Users with general support and advice in relation to their use of the Discussion Forums and for security and abuse-management reasons, we reserve the right to:
*access and monitor the use of Discussion Forums and any Messages Posted on them; and
*take whatever other steps we consider are necessary to protect our Forum Users, including editing or removing any Messages or suspending or discontinuing any Discussion Forums.
We do not undertake to monitor every Message nor to monitor the conduct of every Forum User. Facilitators will access the Discussion Forums from time to time in order to help ensure that other Forum Users are adhering to this Discussion Forum Policy.
5.Liability and Disclaimers
Please read carefully the paragraphs entitled Disclaimers in our User Policy.
Please note that:
* as the Discussion Forums consist largely of Messages Posted by Forum Users that are not employed or contracted by us, we can accept no liability in respect of the content of any Messages, including the accuracy or truthfulness of any such Messages or any responsibility for the consequences of your acting in reliance on such Messages, nor do we endorse any opinions expressed by any Forum Users in any Messages;
* we cannot guarantee the prompt editing or removal of any Messages;
* we reserve the right at our sole discretion to remove or edit Messages from the Discussion Forums or to suspend or discontinue any Discussion Forums at any time for any reason; and
* we reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to deny any Forum User access to the Discussion Forums, without notice, for any breach of this Discussion Forum Policy.
PRIVACY POLICY
Please take a moment to read the following Privacy Policy. This should be read in conjunction with our User Policy and Discussion Forum Policy. Please note that words which are defined in our User Policy also apply to this Privacy Policy. If there is anything you do not understand then please Contact Us.
1.This Privacy Policy
We are committed to protecting your privacy online. This Privacy Policy sets out how we treat your personal information, allowing you to make informed choices about the personal information that you provide to us either via our website at www.communities.idea.gov.uk, or otherwise in relation to Communities of Practice.
IMPORTANT: By accessing and using Communities of Practice and submitting any personal information to us via or in relation to Communities of Practice or (including our Discussion Forums) or your registration as a, Subscriber, you will automatically be taken to have read, understood and accepted this Privacy Policy.
If you do not want us to collect, use and/or transfer your personal information in this way then you should (depending on what it is you object to) cease to access and use Communities of Practice and/or Contact Us and ask for your registration as a, Subscriber, to be deleted.
This Privacy Policy may be amended from time to time, and we therefore suggest that you review it periodically.
2.What we mean by personal information
Personal information means any data from which you can be identified (including information such as your name, email address and password) and which concerns you. All personal information that we obtain from you in relation to Communities of Practice will be dealt with in accordance with the provisions of this Privacy Policy and the Data Protection Act 1998.
3.Personal information that we collect
Your “Record” constitutes the information we collect:
* via the “Registration” page as a, Subscriber, comprising various details about you, including your name, email address, job title, and any other comments you may have about your application to register to use Communities of Practice;
* via the “My Profile” page about your areas of interest.
We also collect personal information when you submit personal information contained in any Content you may upload onto Communities of Practice (including posting messages on a Discussion Forum), or when you email, write to, or telephone us. From time to time we may also request additional information, either by contacting you directly or through Communities of Practice. There will be no obligation on you to provide this additional information.
Finally, we use session cookies to store information about your current Communities of Practice session. These cookies are deleted when you leave Communities of Practice and close your browser. Please see below for more information About Cookies.
4.How we use your personal information
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Posted in opennessThe printed copy of the proceedings of the Museums and the Web 2008 conference divides the papers into four sections: Institutions, User Participation, Web Space and Reflecting. The concluding section, on Reflecting, contains only two papers: one on Semantic Dissonance: Do We Need (And Do We Understand) The Semantics Web? by Ross Parry (University of Leicester), Nick Poole (The Collections Trust) and Jon Pratty (Culture 24) and my paper on What Does Openness Mean To The Museum Community?, co-authored by Mike Ellis (Eduserv) and Ross Gardler (JISC OSS Watch), which I’ve posted about recently.
It is pleasing that the two papers which reflect on the challenges and opportunities posed by recent Web developments have been written by a combination of researchers and practitioners based in the UK.
Ross Parry’s paper is based on a series of workshops funded by the AHRC which were held at various locations in the UK during 2006 and 2007. The paper describes discussions which have taken place recently in the UK in which it has been suggested that “museum data with good URIs, consistent metadata and simple tagging are seen to provide a vitally stable infrastructure on which to build“.
To this list I would add the importance of providing data which is free from restrictive licence conditions and which is exposed for reuse by other applications which can exploit the rich semantic data.
But stable URIs, consistent metadata, simple tagging, open data and machine interfaces - isn’t this what Web 2.0 is about? From one perspective, people may regard Web 2.0 as shorthand for referring to blog, wiki and RSS applications. But Tim O’Reilly’s original Web 2.0 diagram makes it clear that Web 2.0 is broader than this.
In a chapter entitled ‘‘If it quacks like a duck…’ - developments in search technologies‘ in a recent Becta Research Report on Emerging Technologies for Learning Volume 3 (200
By “semantic”, Berners-Lee means nothing more than “machine processable”. The choice of nomenclature is a primary cause of confusion on both sides of the debate. It is unfortunate that the effort was not named “the machine processable web” instead.
I think Emma is right: the term Semantic Web has caused much confusion. But if the Semantic Web is really a machine processable Web in which clean URIs can help to provide programatic access to structured data, then isn’t this very close to what Web 2.0 may be considered to be about?
And can you claim to be in favour of the Semantic Web if you are critical of the architectural aspects of Web 2.0? Or, to put it another way, isn’t engagement with Web 2.0 a needed stepping stone towards the Semantic Web? And won’t we find that those who come out with reasons for not engaging with Web 2.0, will come out with a similar set of reasons for not engaging with the Semantic Web?
Myself, Mike Ellis (Eduserv) and Ross Gardler (JISC OSS Watch) are the co-authors of a paper on “What Does Openness Mean To The Museum Community?” which has been accepted for the Museums and the Web 2008 conference. And I’m pleased that David Bearman (conference co-chair) response when he read the paper was that it should be discussed in a Professional Forum at the conference. Indeed David’s comment on the paper was “it sounds like it could be the most amazing session at MW this year”
The paper suggests that openness can include open standards, open source, open APIs, open access and an open culture (i.e. a willingess to encourage user-generated content). But the paper also acknowledges that there is a downside to each of these aspects. Some of these concerns were raised by Nick Poole, Chief Executive of the MDA in a thread on “The speculative aspect of using Web 2″ on the MCG JISCMail list. Nick commented:
… ‘how can you be so naïve’? Low cost of entry? We were promised that with Open Source Software and it turned out to be no cheaper. Reaching audiences while we sleep? They told us Z39.50 and interoperability would solve that and we’re still not there. Content Management will make everyone a publisher? You just try and get a username and password out of the Council IT Admin.
I’m pleased that Nick raised such concerns. He’s right when he suggests that the potential benefits of both open source and open standards have been over-hyped. And, similarly, the benefits of Web 2.0 can also be exaggerated. But my response to the concerns raised by Nick are to argue that we need to develop more sophisticated ways of engaging with these aspects of openness - and just because policy makers appear to feel that simply mandating use of open standards and open source software will be sufficient to deliver their benefits, doesn’t mean we are faced with the binary choice of accepting or rejecting such views. Rather we need to engage in discussions and debate on ways in which real benefits can be realised.
I’ve been involved in working collaboratively with others in developing models for exploiting the potential of open standards and open source software. At the Museums and the Web 2.007 conference I presented a paper on Addressing The Limitations Of Open Standards, co-authored with my colleague Marieke Guy and Alastair Dunning (then of AHDS). These ideas were further developed and extended to include open source and an open access in a paper on Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access co-authored by Scott Wilson (JISC CETIS) and Randy Metcalfe (then of JISC OSS Watch).
But there’s a need to build on these approaches and to develop approaches for exploiting other aspects of openness. And such approaches need to recognise the dangers and difficulties. But just because there are difficulties, doesn’t mean we should reject openness - rather it means we need to continue having the debate, whether it’s on mailing list such as the MCG list, on this blog or at the professional forum at the Museums and The Web 2008 conference. So I’ll ask here the questions w’ll be discussing in a few day’s time: what does openness mean to your community, what are the benefits it can provide, what are difficulties which are likely to be faced and, most importantly, how do you feel such difficulties should be overcome.
Your feedback is warmly welcomed.
Open Science
One of the ways in which myself and my colleagues in UKOLN keep up-to-date with new developments across our communities is through the UKOLN seminar programme. The speakers tend to be those who are working in areas related to our interests and have something new to say.
The most recent seminar was given by Cameron Neylon, of STFC Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and School of Chemistry, University of Southampton. The title of Cameron’s talk was “A Beginner’s Guide to Open Science: Not for beginners but by beginners“. Cameron described his involvement in various aspects of ‘openness’ within the context of scientific research. Further information on his work is available from his Science In the Open blog - and he also contributes to the Openwetware blog, as you can see from his thoughts on his visit at UKOLN. He described how Web 2.0 technologies such as blogs and wikis are being used by the scientific research community, not only for making notes and sharing ideas, etc. using blogs and wikis in ways which will be familiar with readers of this blog, but also what I would describe as ’semantic blogging’ - use of templates to allow structured information (e.g. names of objects, processes, etc) to be used in ways which allowed for rich use with the blog/wiki environment and reuse in other contexts. For example in the Sortase Cloning example, the data in the table in not created using a table editor (which can lead to errors being introduced) - rather a template will ensure that the data is valid. In addition the data is integrated with other relevant areas of the blog. Effectively the blog is being used as a structured scientific content management system.
Cameron also described OpenWetWare - “an effort to promote the sharing of information, know-how, and wisdom among researchers and groups who are working in biology & biological engineering” which runs on the MediaWiki software. Another example Cameron provided of use a a wiki within this community was UsefulChem, which this in this case uses the externally-hosted Wikispaces service.
As well as illustrated how blogs and wikis are being used by the scientific research community, Cameron also described how he is embracing the Web 2.0 philosophy of openness. In a post on “The OPEN Research Network Proposal - update and reflections” Cameron described an open process for submitting a proposal for a research grant. The proposal was written using Google Docs and the final version, prior to its migration to an in-house application for producing the PDF in a format required by the research council, is freely available for viewing. - and, if you are interesting, you can compare this with the version which was submitted(PDF file) to the funding council.
Use of blogs, wikis and open development - some great example of how Web 2.0 is being used by the research community. And, as I discovered when Googling for further information on Cameron Neylon’s work, it doesn’t stop there. A number of given by Cameron and others involved in open Science activities have been videoed, screencasted or recorded. For example a talk by Jean-Claude Bradley on “Open Notebook Science: Putting the Information User in Control through Transparency” is available as a screencast using the Google Video playerand several talks are available as podcasts through iTunes, as illustrated below.
Open Seminars
This latter example reflects some of my current activities. Cameron kindly gave me permission to video his talk and, as an experiment, I have uploaded the first 10 minutes of the talk (which is all I took) to YouTube.
I’m aware of the limitations of this particular video: I didn’t have my tripod to hand, for example and there is visual clutter - bottles of mineral water - in front of the speaker (although perhaps this could provide an for a sponsorship deal :-). And there are clearly resource implications in recording seminars on a systematic basis (provided, of course, that speakers would be willing for their talks to be made publicly available). In this case, however, (using my Casio Exlim EX-Z1080 camera) I simply needed to take the recording and plug the camera into my PC. I was then asked which application I wished to use. selecting the YouTube uploader, I simply needed to fill in a few fields and press the upload button. Simplicity itself - and it was pleasing to receive an unsolicited email from a colleague saying “Thanks Brian, that was useful to get a feel for the seminar since I missed it yesterday“.
I think it was particularly appropriate that a seminar on Open Science provided an opportunity for this initial experiment in opening up access to the talk to a wider audience. But what do you feel about this? Is the light weight approach adequate? Is the 10 minute clip sufficient or does the lack of the full talk frustrate you? From the point of view of the speaker and the main audience (colleagues at UKOLN and other participants from the University) would such openness tend to stifle open discussion and debate? And, finally, can we, if we are thinking about making greater use of video recordings, really justify the additional time and effort this make take?
Myself, Scott Wilson and Randy Metcalfe co-authored a paper on “Openness in Higher Education: Open Source, Open Standards, Open Access” which Scott presented at the ELPUB 2007 conference. The paper described the potential benefits of use of open standards and open source software and an open approach which characterises much of the Web 2.0 environment.
We were aware when writing the paper, though, that there was a gap related to open data. I’m pleased to report that this gap is now being addressed with the launch by Talis and Creative Commons of a new open data licence, which the press release describes as “a milestone for sharing data on the Internet”.
I was aware of Talis’s work in this area when I attended a session on Open Data at the WWW 2007 conference, which I wrote about some time ago. One of the questions I asked at the conference related to the governance of Talis’s Community Licence. I was assured that Talis aimed to get it established as an open licence governed by a trusted neutral provider and this was confirmed in a post by Paul Miller in September 2007. And now the results of that work is openly available.
Talis’s press release is given below.
Talis and Creative Commons are delighted to announce the release of the Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence, the first output of a successful partnership with the Science Commons project of Creative Commons. Creative Commons is well known for its advocacy and licensing work in the arena of ‘creative works’ such as songs, images, and copyrightable text.
In developing the Public Domain Dedication and Licence, Talis secured the efforts of Jordan Hatcher and Dr. Charlotte Waelde, asking them to build upon the principles of the earlier Talis Community Licence in ways that ensured its fitness for international purpose whilst aligning it more closely to the phrasing of Creative Commons’ overarching protocol.
Talis Technology Evangelist Dr. Paul Miller commented, “At Talis we’ve been arguing for a more permissive culture around use and reuse of data for a very long time. Working with our partners at Creative Commons and elsewhere we now have a clear framework upon which to build, and in our Public Domain Dedication and Licence we have the very first licence to conform to that new Science Commons Open Access Data Protocol. With this announcement we provide a tool to those who already understand the value of unlocking their data. We can also use discussion of this first tool to carry a wider set of messages to those who remain unaware of the importance of data licensing to their own activities.”
The legal environment within which data exist is radically different to that for creative works, and although there have been attempts to apply existing Creative Commons licenses to data, the legal validity of those efforts is questionable. In Europe we have Directive 96/9/EC of the European Parliament, and its various expressions in the laws of member states to define the so-called Database Right. These protections do not apply in jurisdictions such as the United States. A different approach is therefore required if we are to facilitate the widespread availability of data upon which the emerging Semantic Web will depend.
John Wilbanks, Creative Commons’ Vice President responsible for the Science Commons project, commented “For a commercial organisation such as Talis, with a heritage in the business of creating and managing data, to recognise the importance of the ‘freedom to integrate’ says much about changing attitudes to the ownership and use of data. That they went beyond this recognition and did something about it with their licensing and advocacy work says much about them and the team with which they collaborated. The Open Data Commons Licence is the fruit of that collaboration. Both CC0 and the ODCL offer a sound legal basis upon which creators can follow Talis’ example and recognise that there is far more to be gained by enabling access to data than by continuing to lock it away. Uniquely built for data, the Open Data Commons Licence approach furthermore implements the norms of data sharing for scientific data, providing the guidance for scientists to act as good citizens without exposing them to lawsuits and lawyers.”
Jordan Hatcher, who completed the redrafting effort, commented, “Building an open data licence for the community is very much a collaborative process and we need everyone’s input to make the licence be the best it can be — including meeting everyone’s needs for open data. The project’s goal is to produce an easy to understand licence and that means having it user tested just like software. In the end, the Open Data Commons licence will provide a workable and easy to use solution for data integration that will take care of the relevant rights over data and databases.”
The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for use from today. We are working with the Cambridge-based Open Knowledge Foundation in the expectation that they can take on the support and development of this and related licenses in the future, ensuring true community ownership of the licensing cornerstone upon which so much data will come to rely.
The Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence is available for download from www.opendatacommons.org, along with the first set of documented Community Norms.
Many congratulations to Talis for this work. Now that the licence is available, let’s start making use of it and share our data as well as our text, images and software.
Open Development
Ross Gardler, Manager of the JISC OSS Watch service, visited UKOLN yesterday to give a seminar on open development. Although OSS Watch’s main interest is in the application of this methodology within open source software development, as Ross made clear open development can also be applied in other contexts, including the development of content and in learning contexts. Ross has recently commentedon the application of an open development approach by the JISC-funed WepPA project.
I am very much in favour of the approaches which Ross described, and personally have been making much of the materials I have developed available with a Creative Commons licence for a couple of years. I have also participated in Wikipedia, creating a number of entries and helping to improve the quality of content created by others. This very much fits in with Ross’s views on open development, I think.
Open Development and Amplified Events
UKOLN has been taking a similar approach to the exploitation of networked technologies at events over the past few years. Lorcan Dempsey coined the term “Amplified Conference” to describe events in which the content and the discussions aren’t restricted to the closed community of participants who are physically present at the event, but can be freely accessed by all. A paper on “Using Networked Technologies To Support Conferences“ presented at the EUNIS 2005 conference described our initial work in this area, which was subsequently followed up by a series of briefing papers which provide advice on best practices for doing this.
Open Development and UKOLN’s “Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs and Social Networks” Workshop
The UKOLN workshop on “Exploiting The Potential Of Blogs and Social Networks” will take place in Birmingham on Monday 26th November 2007. Although the workshop is fully subscribed, with about 100 participants, we intend to allow remote participants to access the workshop materials and, we hope, either view a live video stream of the plenary talks or event view the video stream within Second Life.
The live video stream and use of Second Life service will be provided by Andy Powell, Eduserv Foundation (sponsors of the workshop). Andy has described the plans for the technological infrastructure which will be used to make the talks available to a remote audience, so I won’t repeat this here. What is worth commenting upon from Andy’s post is the openness about the potential problems we may experience: “Sounds complex? Probably. Do-able? I think/hope so. It’ll be interesting to see how things work out.” But rather than having a low profile experiment with a closed group of friends, the approach Andy and myself are taking is to be open about this experiment (on both our blogs and on a number of mailing lists), which we hope will maximise the learning of the potential benefits of this approach, but perhaps also more useful, the problems we may encounter and the things we might do differently things next time.
As well as the technical challenges which Andy will be addressing, there are also various non-technical issues which I have been focussing on. I have been in contact with all of the speakers informing them of our plans and getting their agreement to be streamed to a live audience (additional pressure on them, but I’m pleased to say that they are all willing). We have produced an Acceptable Use Policy document for the event, intended for participants who plan to make use of their laptop (or other networked device) during the workshop. And Andy and myself and currently discussing the best ways of providing real time chat during the talks. This can be used to support the remote audience, for example to inform them of the slide which is being displayed. But should we have separate channels for the various media - would the video streaming audience be interested in the Second Life discussions “nice avatar“)?
And, of course, as well as the work which Andy and I (and my colleagues in UKOLN’s events team) are involved in, this open approach encourages input from potential participants and others who may have taken part in similar amplified events. Such open development also involves shared responsibilities (for example, we would expect remote participants to try out the various tools in advance of the event and to take responsibility for fixing any local configuration problems) and sharing the risks (being supportive if not everything works as planned). But the open source development approach of ‘release early, release often’ in order to maximise the feedback can also be provide benefits in many other areas.
We welcome your thoughts.
I attended a meeting recently at which a civil servant introduced a report which he was summarising as ‘exciting’. I had to stifle a yawn, thinking that what might be exciting for a civil servant would probably be very dull and boring. But I was wrong - the report on “The Power Of Information” is of much interest to those of us (and I include many readers of this blog) with an interest in promoting open access to information.
The report (which is available as a PDF document - 280 KB, 57 pages) was commissioned by the government and published in June 2007, as described on the Cabinet Office Web site.
The background to the report is an awareness of the popularity of Web 2.0, especially those which provide user generated content and how such technologies, coupled by a more open agenda, can enable information provided by government bodies to be reused in various interesting ways (Paul Walk recently commented on the phrase “The coolest thing to do with your data will be thought of by someone else“).
The government’s response to the review (which is available as a PDF document - 610 KB, 20 pages) was very encouraging, broadly agreeing with all of the recommendations.
Although this report is aimed at information produced by central government bodies (i.e. information covered by Crown Copyright) my view is that the publication of the report and its acceptance should be welcomed by those in the educational and cultural heritage sectors. The report can help to move the debate within these sectors on the reuse of data and encourage experimentation and sharing, rather than the conservatism we have seen in the past, with worries about loss of IPR and potential (though perhaps seldom realised) income-generation possibilities.
A report worth reading, I feel.
Melissa Knighton, who works on the Staff Development Unit at the University of Leeds, and I took part in a workshop at ITCP held in Trieste a couple of years ago. So I was interested to rediscover her Elgg blog recently. Her posting on Wikipedia - a resource for learning and teaching? described s staff development course on the role of Wikipedia in learning and teaching. Further exploration of the Elgg blog service at the University Of Leeds led me to a posting on Wikipedia: What the critics say by Angela Newton, the Information Literacy Team Leader in the Library at the University Of Leeds. Angela’s posting summarises Wikipedia’s strengths and weaknesses - issues which, I’m sure, will be addressed more fully in the staff development course.
But how much time and effort will be spent in duplicating the development of similar materials across the library and information sector? The Library sector, in particular, should appreciate the benefits to be gained by providing open access to resource, and such benefits need not be restricted to research publications - Creative Commons licences can also be used with document and training materials. This is an argument I made in a paper on Let’s Free IT Support Materials! which I presented at the EUNIS 2005 conference.
Which will be the first Library to provide a Creative Commons licence for its documentation and training materials? And have a Creative Commons logo on slides used in training courses? Or is this already happening?
A colleague came in to my office yesterday clutching a book (“Wiki A New Wave in Web Collaboration“) she had just received which, she informed me, had a contribution from me. Rather than a brief mention I was surprised to find that it included an 8 page article on “Experiences of Using a Wiki for Note-taking at a Workshop“. I had to search for this title before finding that this was an article I’d written which had been published in Ariadne (Issue 42, January 2005). I then recalled that over a year ago we had received a request from someone in Indian working for ICFAI (Institute of Chartered Financial Analysis of India) for permission to include this article in a book he was editing. I was happy to give my permission - and was very pleased to receive a copy of the book just before Christmas.
Having a article published in a book produced in India reminded me that back in January 1995 I sent out an announcement about a handbook on “Running A WWW Service” which I had written and which was mirrored in the US, Sweden,Turkey and Slovenia (not Singapore, as I mistakenly announced, misinterpretting the .si country code). The handbook was also, at one stage, included in the SuSE Linux distribution pack.
I’ve always has an open attitude regarding materials I’ve written, and, for the past year, my slides have contained a Creative Commons logo. In June 2005 I gave a talk at the EUNIS 2005 conference on “Let’s Free IT Support Materials!” in which I argued for support services in our institutions should be pro-active in allowing documents produced for internal use available for re-use by others.
Three days before Christmas it is timely to repeat this proposal. Remember, openness is about giving, not taking.
Merry Christmas
Brian
