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Personal or Institutional Use of Social Web Services For Scholarly Communication?

UKOLN is supported by:

Personal or Institutional Use of Social Web Services For Scholarly Communication?

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath UK

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/online/scl-2010/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/online/scl-2010/

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

About This TalkSocial Web services, such as blogs, have been used successfully by early adopters. But should we now see such services being migrated to the institutional environment in order to address institutional concerns? Or should the institution seek to exploit the benefits of such out-sourced approaches?

About This TalkSocial Web services, such as blogs, have been used successfully by early adopters. But should we now see such services being migrated to the institutional environment in order to address institutional concerns? Or should the institution seek to exploit the benefits of such out-sourced approaches?Email:

b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

Twitter:http://twitter.com/briankelly/

Blog:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

Social Networks

• Focus on individual, not the institution3

Ouseful.info blog by Tony Hirst

Relaunched in July 2008

Original blog launched in March 2005

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Martin Weller’s Ed Techie Blog.

Launched in May 2006

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Steve Wheeler’s Learning with ‘E’s blog

Launched in December 2006

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eFoundations blog, provided by Andy Powell & Pete Johnson

Launched in Sept 2006

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Marieke Guy’s Ramblings of a Remote Worker blog.

Launched in Sept 2008

My ‘Must Read’ Blogs

Characteristics of my ‘must-read’ blogs:• Ouseful.info: hosted at ouseful.wordpress.com

• Ed Techie: hosted at nogoodreasons.typepad.com

• eFoundations: hosted at efoundation.typepad.com

• Learning with ‘e’s: hosted at steve-wheeler.blogspot.com

• Ramblings of a Remote Worker: hosted at remoteworker.wordpress.com

Hosted outside the institution

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Early Adopters

Characteristics of established & successful early adopters:

• Willing to take risks• Passionate about communicating• Identified ways of balancing personal

approaches & institutional concerns• Have developed established communities• Want to continue to do a good job

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Acceptance by Organisations

Increasingly the institutional perspective is:• We must use blogs• We need a Twitter account

Situation today:• Social Web widely accepted• Evidence of ROI, value, etc. still needed

But:• Where does early adopter work fit in?• Should existing approaches be continued?

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Institutional Concerns

Concerns regarding use of Social Web being:• On-message: having an authoritative,

consistent & authentic voice • Appropriate: relevant to organisation’s

mission • Legal: not being sued!• Present: not disappearing over holidays

or when author leaves

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Co

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rns

Changes to Terms & Conditions

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Co

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rns

Ning changed their terms and conditions in 2010, removing the free service

Blog Dies

Blogs which are abandoned

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Risks that abandoned blogs attract comment spam

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Blogs can also disappear

Inappropriate Content

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Story

Council blocks Twitter due to tweet saying “A squirrel could run rings around journalist” (meant to be private message)

Addressing the ConcernsAppropriation of Professional Uses

• Close down blogs, Twitter accounts, …• Requirement to use institutionally

approved accounts

Professional Responses to Institutional Concerns

• What goes here?

Leave Well Alone• Accept the risks• Avoid confrontation

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Inappropriate Content

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Story

Council blocks Twitter due to “A squirrel could run rings around journalist” tweet (meant to be private message)

Parallel

Email message sent to list rather than individual.

Email service suspended

How To Respond

Training and advice on when mistakes are made (e.g. apologise)

Blog Dies

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Abandoned blogs may be hosted in the institution

Miles Metcalfe is now based in Shanghai – and has no access to institutional account (though he would be able to update Cloud blog).

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In-house blogs can disappear – and reappear due to value placed on them by their owner

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The revived Auricle blog, which the author cared about.

Now at http://www.auricle.org/auriclewp/

Experience at Croydon Council illustrates the need for lightweight and flexible policies

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Lightweight Policies

Mosman Council provides an example of a lightweight policy for Twitter

Policies

Managed Closure

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There’s a need to manage the closure of Social Web services (in-house or external)

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iPres 2010 paper on “Approaches to archiving professional blogs hosted in the cloud” gives advice on best practices for closing blogs

JISC Use of Social Media

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Increasing about of usage of Social Web services by JISC

Popularity of iTunes for OU“The Open University (OU) today reached a milestone as the first university to hit 20 million downloaded tracks on iTunes U, a dedicated area within the iTunes Store (www.itunes.com). With an average of over a quarter of a million downloads per week*, the OU’s popularity has soared since content was first made available on iTunes U in June 2008.”

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Institutions are using Social Web services, but what about individuals?

A University Perspective

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Article on academics’ personal home pages published in THE

Personal Web Sites (1)

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Professor David Gauntlett’s Web site

Personal Web Sites (2)

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Professor Robert West’s Web site

Personal Web Sites (3)

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Dr Jim Wilde’s Web site

Exemplar

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Jo-Anne Alcock’s blog as an exemplar, launched in June 2007

Jo-Anne Alcock’s blog continues in her new role at BCU

http://www.joeyanne.co.uk/

Moving From Personal to Organisational Use?

What moves:• The data and the service?• The contacts, the comments, the social

graph?• The expertise, the approaches, …?

The organisation moves:• To make greater use of Cloud Services• To accept that staff may leave the

organisation & take (copies of) their content• To appreciate and value staff commitment

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Individual Responsibilities

Context:• Many information professionals use the

Social Web to fulfil business objectives• The ownership of the underlying

technologies is no longer as important

Implications:• Need to adopt (and be seen to adopt)

approaches which address concerns of organisations and others

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Social Web Audit

Memo

From: PVC (Sustainability)

To: HoDs

As agreed at Senate all departments must provide an audit of use of Social Web services used for departmental/institutional purposes.

In the audit you must provide:• Details of third party services used• A risk assessment • Strategies for addressing risks

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Blog Example

Aline Hayes, Assistant Director of SLS/ Director of Information & Systems Technology at Sheffield Hallam University

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Blog Policy (2)

Policies For This Blog

This blog is hosted by Sheffield Hallam University, therefore the content of this blog belongs to them and remains theirs in the event that I either cease to contribute to this blog, or leave the University.

Policies for the use of & inclusion of Twitter Feeds

The content of any Twitter feed relates to a mix of work and personal matters. … Staff who choose to follow me on Twitter are assumed to be happy that I may follow them in return … I reserve the right to treat the Twitter id Aline_Hayes as mine & not the property of SHU36

Blog Policies

Blog policy for UK Web Focus blog

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A Scientist’s Approach

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Full disclosure page on Cameron Neylon’s blog covers:

• Ownership• Responsibilities• Finances• Copyright• …

http://cameronneylon.net/about/disclaimers-and-full-disclosure/

Professionalisation

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Guidelines for JISCinvolve blogs covers in-house blogs.

Guidelines on writing is applicable generally.

• Supporting organisation’s goals

• Personal responsibilities

• Personal style

• Legal issues

• Blogs are about links

Cloud Services As SaviourRisks of:

• Reduction in funding across public sector organisations

• Loss of staff, technical expertise and in-house services

Therefore need for:• Scenario planning• Contingency plans for outsourcing to Cloud

services• Education and trust in staff offset loss of in-

house solutions

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Conclusions• The Social Web is here and to stay• Institutions are now recognising that

approaches taken by early adopters have provided benefits

• In-house Social Web services are being implemented – but may not be ideal

• There is a need for a mixed environment• Library staff may be well-positioned to

demonstrate responsible approaches for working in this environment

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Questions

Questions are welcome – you can engage in discussions on UK Web Focus blog. See

http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/

TBC