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Presentation to the Museums Copyright Group looking at the technical trends toward Aggregation, and the legal and institutional challenges this might present.
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The Challenge of Aggregationor ‘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 useSingle use = published on one web page
Information, content, images are being
‘atomised’taken from their contextshared machine-to-machinesyndicated into other contextsaggregated into other databasesserved 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 LeeSpecial Adviser to the Cabinet Office
By data, he means
...everything
It’s partly technology’s fault...
Atom API
RSSmicroformats
RESTf
ul
SWORD
It’s partly technology’s fault...
Atom API
RSSmicroformats
RESTf
ul
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 3rd party services...
MLA/DCMSAHRC
JISC/HEFCEHLF (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!
http://openculture.collectionstrustblogs.org.uk
http://www.collectionstrust.org.uk
http://www.collectionslink.org.uk