Author: Joss Winn

All recommendations lead back to Cool URIs

Joss Winn Analysis, Discussion , , , , , , ,

I’ve spent much of the day trawling through the list of resources that JISC provided in the briefing paper for the Information Environment programme call last year (i.e. the programme that is funding this project). There’s a lot of really well articulated and useful reports and blog posts that have been written over the last few years, but having reached the end of the list, it feels to me like there’s been a lot of repetition, too, and it can be summarised by the following:

Right now, my own thinking about this project is that we simply have to articulate Cool URIs in a way that is meaningful and useful to our organisation. That’s all. The manifesto and technical specification have been written.

Changes to Top Level Domains

Joss Winn Discussion , ,

A rehash of some quick thoughts I posted to our project mailing list. Please do read the responses. I’ll follow up with a more considered post in the near future.

David sent me this story about the changes to TLDs. Very interesting. I didn’t realise the flexibility that will be available. As far as I can see, potentially any* TLD will be up for grabs. So I could ask to register .kljhasdfkjhasdf and .josswinn and .jlwinn and .jossisasexgod and so on.

Of course, people have been trying to get around the current limitations for a while e.g. services like http://domai.nr/

I think that combined with the recent developments in browser location bar technology where search of page titles and URLs is now integrated with web search (even instant web search with the omnibox, encouraging a google click, rather than a direct click from the bar), you could argue that this combination of moves is further commodifying natural language expression at the level of TLDs, supported by and integrated into browser technology.

There’s now a much more free market in domain names, rather than one restricted by TLDs. The value of some existing domains, can only decrease as a practically infinite number are now made available. It clearly has implications for thinking about URIs as ‘assets’.

With the most recent browsers, the following could all serve the same function quite well:

studyatlincoln.lincoln.ac.uk

lincoln.ac.uk/studyatlincoln

lincoln.ac.uk/kljhasdf (with page title ‘Study at Lincoln’)

lincoln.ac.uk/kljhasdf (with page content including ‘study at lincoln’)

kjhsdfkjhsd.lincoln.ac.uk (with page title ‘Study at Lincoln’)

kjhsdkjd.lincoln (with page title or content including ‘Study at Lincoln’)

studyatlincoln.lincoln/kjhsdkjd (with page title or content including ‘Study at Lincoln’)

As David said on Twitter, the perceived value of the .ac.uk domain could plummet over time as institutions develop their brand to the extent of their own personalised TLD. I guess that we need to be ready to grab .unilincoln .lincolnuni .universityoflincoln .lincolnuniversity at the very least.

I think that we need to produce a considered** blog post about the implications of all of this for SEO, as clearly search is increasingly all that matters. James is writing a nice post about browser location bar developments. I could write one, furthering my thoughts here. Alex, Nick: could one of you write a post on what this all means for SEO? Is this something worth doing? It seems that the value of ‘cool URIs’ has been decisively pushed to the technical/developer domain, where good, reliable syntax remains valued as a predictable source of data but offers few user benefits over the instant search omnibox, for example. What do you think?

* re-reading the story, it’s not quite the situation I imagined where *any* phrase can be registered as a TLD. It looks like there will remain some regulation over the use of the new TLDs, but the University of Lincoln examples above still seem valid. I’m assuming that if there could be a .mashable or .redcross, then there could be a .unilincoln or .lincoln, too. The comments in the article also suggest that the cost of the new TLDs will be $185K, which clearly has implications for this new ‘market’. I’m trying to find recent documentation on the ICANN website about all of this, but don’t see it.

** this is not that post!

Projected Timeline, Workplan & Overall Project Methodology

Joss Winn Project Plan , , , , , , ,
WORKPACKAGES February March April May
1. Project Initiation X


2. Technical ‘blue sky’ consultation X


3. Visual representation of proposed model X X

4. Data Modelling
X X
5. Wide ranging Consultations

X
6. Prototyping


X
7. Case studies


X
8. Documentation X X X X
9. Evaluation and Project Closure


X

Methodology

A collaborative, cross-departmental approach will be taken by the Corporate Web Team and University Online Services Team. Key stakeholders will be identified, ‘needs assessed’ and requirements drawn up. Mapping these requirements to a visual representation will drive policy creation and underpin the technical development.

The decisions around the construction of our identifiers will be informed by best practice and existing guidance from the community.i.e. http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/media/301253/puiblic_sector_uri.pdf and http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/jisc-ie/blog/identifiers/identifiers-quick-reference/

Project Team Relationships and End User Engagement

Joss Winn Project Plan , , , , , , ,

Linking You is a four month project involving the Web Team in Marketing and Communications, the Online Services Team in the ICT department, and the Centre for Educational Research and Development.

Chris Goddard (Website Manager) has worked at the university for 10 years and is responsible for the management of the University’s corporate website and online communications.  He’ll assist in engaging university Stakeholders and ensure that the outcomes of the project are embedded in university web policy and integrated in the forthcoming review of our web sites.

Alex Bilbie (Developer) works in the ICT Online Services Team and currently works on the Total ReCal and Jerome projects. Previously, he worked on the JISCPress project and developed WordPress plugins for OpenCalais and the Talis Platform. Alex is also a Computing student, working for the University during a year out.

Nick Jackson (Developer) also works in the ICT Online Services Team and currently works on the Total ReCal and Jerome projects. Together with Alex, Nick runs the Online Services Team’s Labs environment. Nick has recently graduated from the university with a degree in Computing and, like Alex, is valued for his fresh and student-centred perspective on the University’s online services.

Tim Simmonds (Online Service Manager) has worked for the university for over 20 years and is in charge of all online services managed by the ICT department. He’ll bring this experience to the project and represent ICT Services as a Stakeholder.

Joss Winn (Technology Officer) works in the Centre for Educational Research and Development (CERD). He’s currently Project Manager of Total ReCal and was Project Manager on the JISCPress and ChemistryFM projects, as well as Project Officer on the JISC-funded LIROLEM project. CERD led the Learning Landscapes project and Joss will ensure that the work of this proposed project is understood within the wider context of its benefits to research, teaching and learning. He will manage the project and co-ordinate the work of Alex and Nick.

Engagement with the Community

Alex, Nick and Joss regularly attend JISC workshops and conferences and look forward to discussing their experience on this project and other related work they have done. As with previous JISC-funded projects, we will make heavy use of the project blog and Twitter to post ongoing reflections, solicit feedback and disseminate the project deliverables.

Our comparative case studies will provide an opportunity to formally discuss our work with at least one other HEI and the visual representation (poster) of the proposed data model will allow non-technical users, internal and external to the university, to understand the context of our work and its relevance to them.

The prototype will also allow users both inside and outside the university to test our work and offer feedback via the project blog. As with other recent services, we encourage the re-use of our data.