The Challenge of Aggregation or ‘just when you thought online publishing was hard enough’

These slides online at... http://www.slideshare.com/nickpoole Twitter... #collectiontrust With thanks to Mike Ellis at Eduserv

In the Valley of the Geeks... ...a new momentum is building

It’s no longer about websites ...it’s about data

There’s a new mantra... ...aggregate, federate, syndicate

Data that is ‘locked in’ is... ...a wasted opportunity ...a liability Locked in = single use Single use = published on one web page

Information, content, images are being ‘atomised’ taken from their context shared machine-to-machine syndicated into other contexts aggregated into other databases served up through other services

It’s partly this guy’s fault...

It’s partly this guy’s fault... “ There are two philosophies to putting data on the web. The top-down one is to make a corporate or national plan, by getting committees together of all the interested parties, and make a consistent set of terms (ontology) into which everything fits. This in fact takes so long it is often never finished, and anyway does not in fact get corporate or national consensus in the end. The other method experience recommends is to do it bottom up. A top-level mandate is extremely valuable, but grass-roots action is essential. Put the data up where it is: join it together later. “ Sir Tim Berners Lee Special Adviser to the Cabinet Office

By data, he means ...everything

It’s partly technology’s fault... Atom API RSS microformats RESTful SWORD

It’s partly technology’s fault... Atom API RSS microformats RESTful SWORD All of these technologies were designed to facilitate the flow of content between machines, they are totally oblivious to organisational context or ownership

In this vision of the future, your content and images may be used on your own website... ...but they are just as likely to appear somewhere else, on someone else’s website, in a completely different context

Look at your geeks... ...chances are they’re a closet social media activist, plotting to expose your data to the crowd. Say ‘API’ to them and watch for the glint of excitement.

Two pathways... Legitimate: Harvesting/automated exchange Not so much: Screen scraping Both are regarded as equally valid, it’s just that screen scraping is mildly more difficult and hence annoying

So far, so familiar, this is just stealing... ...except that this is coming as a policy direction from Government, and is being picked up by funders as a priority

Funders who, from this year, will demand that your content is available to be aggregated into 3 rd party services... MLA/DCMS AHRC JISC/HEFCE HLF (probably)

The problem... Managing the use of copyright material is about licensing Licensing is about managing the transitions Recognising the transitions is about recognising the boundary points Aggregate, federate, syndicate is about eroding the boundaries

The other problem... The Internet is a network Networks work their way round points of failure Copyright law is regarded as a point of failure The network is simply re-routing to avoid the problem

The other other problem... Transactional economies depend on constraining supply The technology community is working towards an economy in which content is free and we monetise added value and brand equity instead Trading on trust and mediation rather than the unit value Is your organisation ready to manage that transition?

Case 1... 16 organisations signed up to enable their content to be harvested for the BBC CenturyShare pilot project 8 withdrew when they received the License Most of these were because their content wasn’t sufficiently ‘robust’ or ‘fit for purpose’

Case 2... The European Commission has said that it will divert European Structural Funds into funding Digital content In the UK, that content has to be made available to be aggregated by our Grid infrastructure Each national aggregator has to be available to be aggregated by Europeana

As the Copyright community... ...what is our response?

2 options... We can either stick to our guns, and in turn confirm the view that copyright is a barrier which should either be ignored or disrupted Or, we can take the initiative and think our way through the problem in a way which minimises our organisations exposure to risk while maximising their ability to participate in aggregated services

Thank you!

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