Image directories by RSS aggregation

Phil Barker(1), Lisa Rogers(2)

(1) Engineering Subject Centre &(1&2) ICBL, Heriot-Watt University.

Phil Barker, Jan 2007. You may reproduce all or any part of this presentation but please retain acknowledgement of authorship & copyright. Also I would appreciate it if you let me know how you are using it and sent me any feedback <philb@icbl.hw.ac.uk>.

Background

• CLIC (Community Led Image Collections) Report:

• Exist many (sometimes small) image collections run by enthusiasts / specialists focussed on narrow topics

• Visual image directories might be useful in disseminating information about these

• Kick-start interoperability using RSS feeds

http://www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/CLIC_Report.pdf

Background

• JISC offered funding to (some?) subject centres to test this idea.

• We agreed to– Appraise value of the image

collections CLiC had found– Build a demonstrator – Try to get collections to implement

RSS to populate demonstrator... 22 days work

(work done in middle of 2007)

Value of engineering image collections

• Commissioned reviews from engineering academics of relevant collections in CLiC report.– Did want to use images– Want series of images or animations

showing current technical practice: processes

– Found static images of historic interest

Value of engineering image collections

“Really the only use for these images would be in giving a historical perspective on civil engineering and the types of projects which were undertaken.

There is not much to excite a prospective student, nor to assist in the learning process for current undergraduates. In my view, only around five or six of the images [out of the 50 available online] would be useful for teaching and learning purposes”

http://www.flickr.com/photos/thepatersonsphotos/457035018/

Demonstrator

• No problems finding tools to create and aggregate RSS feeds

• Most of the aggregators didn’t handle images well– Image as enclosure, as in podcasts ...

but don’t want “play” icon instead of image being displayed.

Demonstrator

• Found RSS2HTML (JavaScript) will handle images well http://www.rss2html.com/

• But only from a single feed per page

• So used iFrames to several pages in one window

• http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/images/images.html

Demonstrator

• Gives good visual overview of image collection

• Slooooooowfor each page need– Real-time connections to multiple

sites– Download many images (which aren’t

always thumbnails!)

Demonstrator

• Asynchronous approach to downloading images (AJAX)

• Grazr (http://www.grazr.com/)

• http://www.icbl.hw.ac.uk/images/engimages.html

Demonstrator

• Faster• But less effective at giving quick

overview of collection– Since have to look at images one by

one

Demonstrator

• If doing this now would looked at slideshow / carousel widgets, but didn’t find any at the time– E.g. http://billwscott.com/carousel/

• Technology of demonstrator qualified success

Getting feeds

• We couldn’t get any. Not one.– Most collection owners (all the ones

we could find) were agreeable to concept (though they didn't all see the point)

but– They had no time, – or no money, – or it had to be done by someone else

within/outwith their organization.

Conclusions

• A simple technical solution is possible ... if a little limited.– Loads of possible enhancements

• No way to implement interoperability after development– Need commitment from the right

people at the right time

• Organizational issues matter