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This is the UK Web Focus blog, written by Brian Kelly, UKOLN. UKOLN is a national centre of expertise in digital information management, based at the University of Bath. UKOLN is funded by the JISC.
The ‘Me Too’ Web 2.0 Applications
Posted by Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) on 17 September 2007
A few day’s ago I notice that Phil Bradley had updated his Twitter status with the comment “playing around with Trooker.com It’s really good… music videos galore!“.
As I trust Phil’s views on Web 2.0 applications I had a look at Trooker. Sure enough, it’s another easy-to-use Web 2.0 service which provides access to video clips from services such as YouTube, allows comments to be provided, the video clips to be embedded in blogs and Web pages, etc.
I know think that we are in now an era of plenty, with many Web 2.0 services providing similar approaches in the provision of access to multimedia resources, sharing resources, blogging, etc. (as an example compare Jaiku and Yappd). And I think this richness is to be appreciated – it is helping to demonstrate that there is a need for such services, and the variety of services available provides the user with choice, with features which are providing popular helping to open up the marketplace (who, for example, predicted the popularity of micro-blogging).
Of course in a time when the harvest is bountiful, we need to make plans for the winter. For me, this involves ensuring that the data associated which such applications can be managed – and the approaches to the management can include hosting it locally or depositing it with a third-party service, having a just-in-time approach to data management (migrating the data if the licence conditions change) or even having a ‘am I bovvered?’ approach, which regards the data as playing a peripheral role to the needs of the service. This might be regarded as heretical in some circles but, to be honest, I’ve never bothered recording my phone calls, and just because I could record my Skype calls doesn’t mean I will.
Andy Powell said
Re: even having a ‘am I bovvered?’ approach, which regards the data as playing a peripheral role to the needs of the service I agree in part, though obviously it depends on context.
Your thinking here seems to run counter what has been argued in the past about persistent access to, say, JISCMail archives?
We don’t record phone calls because the technology doesn’t make it easy to do so. And even if it did, we don’t have the technology to manage the resulting mess of recorded audio. Text-based communication is slightly different. It’s a largely manageable problem??
Also… consider the the online discussion that leads to the cure for cancer? Consider the online discussion between two students that eventually leads to one of them being accused of plagiarism and having their degree withheld and an ensuing appeal against the University. These things do need to be preserved and managed as far as possible. Don’t they?
Brian Kelly (UK Web Focus) said
Hi Andy
I agree with you that this depends on the context.
I tend to agree with you on the poetntial benefits of preserving data which may appear to be peripheral – for example, I’ve copied data created in various chat tools and in wikis which might normally be lost in the analogue world (and I’ve even provided open access to my nostril). However others may actually welcome the transient nature of such services – I don’t think it is for me to impose my partiucular ideological views in this area.
And you may have missed the recent discussion on JISCMail Owner-talk list (restricted to list owners) in which a couple of list owners argued for the benefits of closed discussions.
So although I would be in broad agreement with your sentiments – and would actively engage in such discussions, I’m prepared to accept that others mightn’t agree with this (and there will be a cost in preserving such data and finding relevant data if a case every came to court in the example you described) and therefore this argument isn’t a clinching one.
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