Category: Uncategorised

Yahoo Pipes – a new challenge? opportunity? for museums

I'm cheating and posting something I sent to the Museums Computer Group list.

Bill Thompson has written about Yahoo Pipes in 'The mash-up future of the web'.

If you haven't heard of Yahoo Pipes before, this is a reasonable summary from the article:

"Their new offering, Pipes, lets you take a data feed such as the result of a web search, or an RSS feed from a blog or news site, or a set of tagged photos on Flickr, and transform it to produce the outcome you want. You can then make it available for other people to see.

It's web-based, no more complicated than creating programs for Lego MindStorms, and already stirring up a lot of interest.

Yahoo!'s Pipes do the same with a simple graphical tool that lets you define and connect data feeds, filters and user prompts, so that you can quickly build the service you want. You still need some technical ability, but you don't need to be a programmer."

My first thought was 'cool, let's make sure our feeds are in a compatible format so people can use our data' and my second thought was 'how on earth will we measure usage?'.

It would be cool to know who's using our data and how, but overall, do we need to measure how it's used and how often it's accessed? Given that we probably can't anyway, are there other potentially useful indicators of use? Would use of our data in a mash-up affect our museums' Key Performance Indicators by driving traffic away from our sites? I'd like to say that's the wrong question, but website visitors count under some funding models.

From the AHDS blog:

The AHDS has done some investigation of the user statistics of the Stormont Papers resource. Two main points are uncovered

1. User searches show the 'long tail' effect. The bulk of searches are not on the most popular terms (which account for 21% of searches) , but on terms, phrases and words that are used very rarely (which account for 54% of searches)

2. Of the ten most popular search terms, all are available as pre-arranged links on the home page. A quick click on a link, rather than typing something into a keyboard, provides a more user-friendly way for a user to get to know what is within a resource.

Source: Users do not want what you expect, AHDS.

Oracle get into the Semantic Web

I just got an email from the Oracle Technology Network:

"Explore OTN Semantic Web (Beta) – and Provide Feedback!
OTN Semantic Web, now in Beta release, is a proof-of-concept application that demonstrates the use of RDF (Resource Description Framework)-based "Semantic Web" technology as the basis for a user experience that relies on dynamic relational navigation as well as Ajaxian user interfaces."

They've given links to the demo and FAQ.

As a developer, I thought this FAQ point was interesting:
"Why do different collection pages have different user interfaces?
This Beta is intended to expose users to a range of Semantic Web functionality and Ajaxian UIs. For that reason you will see several different varieties of each, and we welcome your feedback about each of them."

I wonder if they're collecting data on mouse patterns and running path analyses to see which interfaces are more effective.

Tagging goes mainstream?

"A December 2006 survey has found that 28% of internet users have tagged or categorized content online such as photos, news stories or blog posts. On a typical day online, 7% of internet users say they tag or categorize online content.
…
Tagging is gaining prominence as an activity some classify as a Web 2.0 hallmark in part because it advances and personalizes online searching. Traditionally, search on the web (or within websites) is done by using keywords. Tagging is a kind of next-stage search phenomenon – a way to mark, store, and then retrieve the web content that users already found valuable and of which they want to keep track. It is, of course, more tailored to individual needs and not designed to be the all-inclusive system"
Pew Internet and American Life project: Tagging

The report also goes into the definition of tagging as well as who tags and there's an interview with David Weinberger on 'Why Tagging Matters'.

More on Web 2.0 post-CAA

Some more quick thoughts as conversations I had at and after CAA UK settle into my brain. This doesn't really apply to anyone I talked to there, but as a general rule I think it's worth saying:

Don't chase the zeitgeist. It's not a popularity contest and it's not a race to see who can cram the most buzzwords into their site.

Also, here's a link to the blog of the AHRC-funded Semantic Web Think Tank I mentioned, and the original announcements about the SWTT.

Finally, what's hopefully a quite useful link for those considering official institutional blogs: Sample guidelines for institutional blog authors.

Via the Museums Computer Group list, the Emerging Technologies Initiative 2007 Horizon Report has just been released. It "highlights six technologies that the underlying research suggests will become very important to higher education over the next one to five years. A central focus of the discussion of each technology is its relevance for teaching, learning, and creative expression. Live weblinks to example applications are provided in each section, as well as to additional readings."

CAA UK 2007 Chapter Meeting

Last week I went to the Computer applications and quantitative methods in archaeology (CAA) UK 2007 Chapter Meeting in Southampton. There was a range of interesting papers and it was really exciting to talk to people with similar passions.

I managed to overrun and didn't get to the last few slides of my paper, which were some random suggestions for cultural heritage organisations looking to get started with Web 2.0. They're based on the assumption that resources are limited so the basic model I've suggested is that you think about why you're doing it and who you're doing it for, then start with something small. I would also suggest matching the technology to your content, using applications that meet existing standards to avoid lock-in, ensuring you backup your data regularly (including user-generated content) and taking advantage of existing participation models, particularly from commercial sites that have User Interface and Information Arcitect specialists.

  • Start small, monitor usage and build on the response
  • Design for extensibility
    • Sustainable

    • Interoperable

    • Re-usable
  • Use existing applications, services, APIs, architectures, design patterns wherever possible

  • Embrace your long tail

  • It's easy and free/cheap to create a blog, or a Flickr account to test the waters

  • Investigate digitising and publishing existing copyright free audio or video content as a podcast or on YouTube

  • Add your favourite specialist sites to a social bookmarking site

  • Check out Myspace or Second Life to see where your missing users hang out

  • Publish your events data in the events microformat so they can be included in social event sites

  • Geotag photos and publish them online

  • Or just publish photos on Flickr and watch to see if people start creating a folksonomy for you