Slides used to introduce panel session on "Dealing with the Commercial World Saviour or Satan" at the IWMW 2007 event held at the University of York on 16-18 July 2007. See http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/talks/panel-1/

1. A centre of expertise in digital information management
Dealing with the Commercial
World: Saviour or Satan?
Brian Kelly
UKOLN
University of Bath
Bath
Email
B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk
UKOLN is supported by:
http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/talks/panel-1/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2007/talks/panel-1/
This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
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My Contribution
“Brian, can you take part in
the panel. And can you be
controversial, funny … or
something?”
“I’ll try”
My Contribution
“Brian, can you take part in
the panel. And can you be
controversial, funny … or
something?”
“I’ll try”

2. A centre of expertise in digital information management
2
A One-Dimensional Argument?
Commercial world, saviour or satan?
• A one-dimensional argument
• The perspective in 1980s/90s:
 “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie”
• Today’s position:
 We’re all New Labour
Militant
SWP
Young Tories
Monday Club
Blair
Brown
Cameron
OSS
Commercial

3. A centre of expertise in digital information management
3
Are we:
• Managers of information,
resources, services, …
• Responsible for ensuring
compliance with rules &
best practices
or
• Providers of user-
focussed services?
Remember:
• It’s nice when we’re both
• Uncomfortable when we
have to choose
The Other Dimension
But what about the other
dimension of the debate?
CommercialNon-
Commercial
Owner /
Publisher /
Institution
User

4. A centre of expertise in digital information management
4
Your Choice (1 and 2)
Show of hands (your main preference):
1A We should provide quality content on our
Web site (Edinburgh, Nov 2006)
1B We should provide a quality experience
for users of our Web site (Warwick)
2A No HTML email as (a) it’s used for
marketing and (b) I don’t like it
2B (a) Marketing is legitimate and (b) let’s
give users choice over this
Yes, I know it’s more complex than this. But I’ve only 10 minutes!Yes, I know it’s more complex than this. But I’ve only 10 minutes!

5. A centre of expertise in digital information management
5
Your Choice (3 and 4)
Show of hands (your main preference):
3A Users can’t attach their own devices to the
campus network (cf blog post)
3B We allow our students to use PDAs, iPods,
WIIs, etc. on the network (cf. TCD)
4A All pages must comply with WCAG AA
4B We’ll seek to ensure pages are usable &
accessible, but we’re prepared to break
rules if this gets in the way of our users

6. A centre of expertise in digital information management
6
Your Choice (5)
Show of hands (your main preference):
5A The National Library will develop its own national
search engine, digitise its resources in-house (and
develop networked services applications in-house?)
The French position
5B The National Library will make use of Google’s
search engine, work with other commercial & non-
commercial players in digitisation activities and in
the provision of networked services such as Google
Maps mashups
The UK position (as described by Lynne Brinley at
Umbrella 2007 conference, 28 June 2007)

7. A centre of expertise in digital information management
7
Where Are You Going?
Questions for you:
• Where are you?
• Where would
you like to be?
• How will you get
to where you’d
like to be?
• What are the
barriers?
• How will you
address them?
Owner /
Publisher /
Institution
User
A A
B B

8. A centre of expertise in digital information management
8
Saint Or Saviour?
The question we’ve been asked:
• Commercial World: Saviour or Satan?
The question we should be addressing:
• Web Managers: Saviour or Satan?
Acknowledgements to Stephen Emmott for alerting me of the
importance and challenges of the “being user-focussed” issue
(at Web Futures: Implications For HE seminar, 27 January 2006)
Acknowledgements to Stephen Emmott for alerting me of the
importance and challenges of the “being user-focussed” issue
(at Web Futures: Implications For HE seminar, 27 January 2006)
And yes, we need to develop richer
models for understanding the
challenges our community faces
(‘views of progress’ axis?)
And yes, we need to develop richer
models for understanding the
challenges our community faces
(‘views of progress’ axis?)