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Moving From Personal to Organisational Use of the Social Web

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

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

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Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording/broadcasting of this talk, taking photographs, discussing the content using Twitter, blogs, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

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Email:b.kelly@ukoln.ac.uk

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

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

Track 2Tuesday 30/11/10

Social Networks

• Focus on individual, not the institution2

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

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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• Persistent: Content and service is

sustainable• Consistent: Content, user interface, …

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Changes to Terms & Conditions

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

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

Addressing the ConcernsInstitutional Appropriation 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 & advice for when mistakes are made (e.g. apologise)

Blog Dies 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 blog hosted in Cloud).

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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)

What we did for IWMW 2009 and 2010 blogs

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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

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The 1 – 9 – 90 Challenge

Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute

In most online communities, 90% of users are lurkers who never contribute, 9% of users contribute a little, and 1% of users account for almost all the action.

Jakob Neilson, Oct 2006

Implication: to maximise impact, go where the audiences are

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Benefits of putting resources on a popular service rather than a richly functional service or an in-house service

Note ability to pay for ad-free service

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.”

26 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/

JISC Use of Social Media

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Increasing about of usage of Social Web services by JISC

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 importance of the conversation• To accept that staff may leave the

organisation & take (copies of) their content• To appreciate and value staff commitment33

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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Social Web Audit

Departmental blogs (UKOLN):• UK Web Focus & Remote Worker blogs

have policy on ownership and migration• Data migration has been tested• Content hosted on stable service with

local implementation available• SUETr , IWMW 2009 and JISC PoWR

blogs have been officially frozen with announcement provided

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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 SHU38

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 Saviour

Risks 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 solutions42

A Code of Conduct?

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Is there a need for a professional code of conduct for librarian bloggers?

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

adopters were right• In-house services are being implemented –

but may not always be appropriate• There is a need for a mixed environment• The trust placed in librarians provides sector

with opportunity to demonstrate responsible approaches for working in this environment

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Questions

Questions are welcome

Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UKEmail: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.ukWeb site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/Blog: http://ukwebfocus./wordpress.com/Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed)

Name: Brian Kelly Address: UKOLN, University of Bath, BATH, UKEmail: b.kelly@ukoln.ac.ukWeb site: http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/Blog: http://ukwebfocus./wordpress.com/Twitter: briankelly and ukwebfocus (automated feed)