Museums and the Web Mashup Workshop

mashing it up: why, and how mike ellis, solutions architect, Eduserv http://www.flickr.com/photos/plasticrevolver/61068219/

so..
here’s what we will be doing:
1.30 - 2.00: introductions - about me (and you) - what you want from the day 2.00 - 2.30: what ARE mashups and why use them? - a brief overview of the concept - some (museum) examples - why are mashups important and what are the benefits? 2.30 – 3.00: group exercise: what have you seen? - what have you seen - what would you like / what are you planning to do? 3.00 – 3.30: a mapping mashup case study - case study and deconstruction: mapping and mashing of UK museums 3.30 - 4.00: coffee in Ballroom Foyer 4.00 – 5.00: mashup techniques and tools - typical mashup “design pattern” - a superfast look at Yahoo! Pipes, Google Mashup Editor, MS Popfly - Yahoo! Pipes in action: a simple example 5.00 – 5.15: data, issues - getting and providing data and “what if...?” 5.15 - 5.30: summing it all up, questions, and “what next”..? - moving it forwards: This week...Birds of a Feather...”mashedmuseum”... 1.30-2.00: introductions

today
people have a variety of backgrounds, skills and requirements
the entire point is that you go away with what you need from today...
...so please ask questions at any time
or at any time this week, grab me!
...or do it virtually. There is also a Google Group.
1.30-2.00: introductions

me, me me
I am..Mike Ellis
I was Head of Web for NMSI for 7 years
..and now a “Solutions Architect” for Eduserv (I am a consultant who helps people realise their content vision using appropriate technologies)
I’m fascinated with the real use of technology: I’m a geek but hopefully a “real-world” one...
...in other words, the things I’m going to talk about should be useful (!)

about Eduserv
Eduserv are a not for profit IT company
We work to “realise the benefits of ICT for learners and researchers”
We provide web dev, hosting, consultancy, ATHENS, CHEST, and have a Foundation who plough money back into the HE community
We are actively looking at providing mashup-style services
Please come talk to me anytime this week, or via email/blog/phone/skype/twitter/... [details at the end of the day]

you...
74% have some experience of html/coding but you aren’t experts...
75% know what a mashup is, and 35% have “been involved” in building one
Most people have heard of the “top 3” tools: Yahoo Pipes, Google ME, MS Popfly
78% want to go away with confidence to guide and manage a “mashup project”

mashup overview
“ more than one source”
consumption of data and services
mashup environment = paradigm shift:
the “web of data”
machines talking to each other
RSS
this is (or can be) a black-box environment
but more important, this is about approach :
data and services are “out there” and available
“ we are smarter than me”
2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

the black box he knows how to drive... ..but he doesn’t know what makes the car work. 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

in one sentence “ mashups let you do more with less” 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

mapping “ Museums in Paris with free admission” http://www.archi-nova.net/paris/tips.html 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

you provide the data (museum name, location, review, description, etc)
mapping service provides a way to display these locations on a map (plus some additional stuff)
data and service is mashed and displayed on your site
mapping data service your site 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

mapping 1. Page loads the API 2. Call includes your key 3. Initialize() is called 4. Your data is included here 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

timeline From UK Natural History Museum “dinosaur directory” http://simile.mit.edu/timeline/examples/ 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

you provide the data (exhibit date, description, etc)
timeline service provides a way to display these dates
data and service is mashed and displayed on your site
timeline data service your site 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

timeline 1. Page loads the API 2. Options for display 3. Your data 4. Display it 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

RSS
A lightweight data source
Traditionally used for news, but actually is starting to gain mileage because it is simple
As we’ll see later, things like Yahoo! Pipes make extensive use of RSS

RSS From me (!) – “RSS to Image” http://electronicmuseum.org.uk/experiments/rss-to-image/ 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

RSS
services provide data RSS (title, description, link..)
service provides means to analyse this content
my code provides a way to mash data and display
RSS (news) Flickr search API display Term Extractor data service your site 2.00 – 2.30: what are mashups and why use them?

why?
developing these things from scratch would be:
expensive
complicated
bespoke
...and therefore silly...
you also get a shared resource pool for any problems that occur

group exercise
what have you seen?
what did you like?
what are you planning to do?
which sites do things well?
how do they do it?
which sites do things badly? why?
2.30 – 3.00: group exercise

case study
aim : to put all UK museums on a Google map
data : from 24hr museum
required considerable munging
postcode lookup (hacked API!)
extensive use of Excel, Access, Word...!
service : Google Maps (Google Earth) + Postcode lookup
site : display using Google maps but also output as KML for use with Google Earth (NB: and other services...!)
3.00 – 3.30 : a mapping mashup case study

identify the need from your users
find data and service sources
look to see who/what else is out there – and see if you can borrow or copy. View source!
decide on an acceptable SLA, and work on contingencies
determine how you’re actually going to do it based on these decisions
project pattern 3.00 – 3.30 : a mapping mashup case study

case study “design pattern”
determine what you want to do
identify map service (Google, Yahoo, MS)
sign up for API key (specific to URL root)
identify your data source(s)
identify any data services
shape data sources to fit requirement
drop these into the code
shape the prototype
3.00 – 3.30 : a mapping mashup case study

data service your site design pattern 3.00 – 3.30 : a mapping mashup case study

case study “ Museum Directory v3” http://www.mashedmuseum.org.uk/mm/museumdirectory/v3 3.00 – 3.30 : a mapping mashup case study

coffee... http://www.flickr.com/photos/basak/1264568795/ 3.30 – 4.00 coffee (Ballroom Foyer)

techniques and tools
there are three major “mashup building” tools:
Yahoo! Pipes ( http://pipes.yahoo.com )
Google Mashup Editor ( http://editor.googlemashups.com )
Microsoft PopFly ( http://www.popfly.com )
these do similar things but are for different audiences
all require you to “think flowchart”
we’ll look at Y!Pipes in more detail in a moment...
4.00 – 5.00 : mashup techniques and tools

Yahoo! Pipes
drag and drop
“ patchbay”-like
RSS-focus
techniques and tools 4.00 – 5.00 : mashup techniques and tools

Google Mashup Editor
code, pseudo-code, html
google gadget output

MS PopFly
nice but confusing interface
requires Silverlight
webpages, too

we’ll use Yahoo! Pipes to do something simple...
build something! 4.00 – 5.00 : mashup techniques and tools

problems!
you are relying on 3 rd parties
often no SLA – is this ok for you?
what if the service, system or data disappeared?
accessibility: a changing landscape...
how do you measure goodness...?
where can you get data from?
5.00 – 5.15: data, and some issues

next..?
let’s talk this week
birds of a feather?
keep an eye on www.mashedmuseum.org.uk
join the mailing list
keep in touch!
5.15 – 5.30 : summing up

thanks! thanks very much for coming along you can talk to me anytime – you should have my details by now, or go here: twitter: dmje blog: http://electronicmuseum.org.uk or http://blog.eduserv-psg.net/

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Museums and the Web Mashup Workshop

by Mike Ellis on Apr 10, 2008

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Museums and the Web Mashup Workshop Presentation Transcript