Open for Reuse: Library data and mashups

Open for reuse:library data and mashupsOwen StephensCILIP Cymru 2012 Conference

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://discovery.ac.uk

an initiative to improve resource discovery by establishing a clear set of principles and practices for the publication and aggregation of open, reusable, metadata


A lot of my thinking in this area informed by work I’ve done with the UK Discovery project, although I’m not here directly representing the project, and views my own!

What is Discovery? - the one liner:

“an initiative to improve resource discovery by establishing a clear set of principles and practices for the publication and aggregation of open, reusable, metadata”

RDTF - The ‘Resource Discovery Task Force’ – set up by JISC and RLUK (Research Libraries UK) to “discuss what needs to be provided to help people discover and access items from Higher Education Libraries, Museums and Archives throughout the UK. “ (http://rdtf.jiscinvolve.org/wp/2009/06/26/hello-world-2/ )Result was a ‘Vision’ document, which set out a strategy of useful data aggregations built on “open metadata about institutional collections”



Justin Hampton (originally posted on http://www.dangermousesite.com/)Wednesday, 23 May 2012

What is a mashup? “a digital media file containing any or all of text, graphics, audio, video, and animation, which recombines and modifies existing digital works to create a derivative work.”

For me - creativity meets technology. While I think it is arguable that technology is not an essential part of this, I believe it is the ease with which digital content can be repurposed latter not essential but enables?

Probably earliest ʻmashupsʼ were musical (term coined around 2001 as far as I can tell) - the Grey Album being a high profile example (2004) - remixing JayZeeʼs Black Album with samples from the Beatles White Album.With the increasing availability of video in digital form, as well as ways to share the results easily (i.e. YouTube), video mashups also became common

However the mashups Iʼll be talking about today mashup not music or video, but information

http://www.dangermousesite.com/

http://www.dangermousesite.com/

http://www.housingmaps.com/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise thingsGoogle Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK

http://www.housingmaps.com/


Powered by craigslist and Google Maps(this site is in no way affiliated with craigslist or Google)

http://www.housingmaps.com/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

So much data has a geographic aspect - when you combine that with map data, powerful way to visualise thingsGoogle Maps has clearly led the way here, but with the Ordnance Survey opening up their data, this opens new opportunities in the UK



“Life is like a box of chocolates”Libra

ry

data


Well, sort of, sometimes, if the box is locked, hidden and/or without a guide to what’s inside

http://www.flickr.com/photos/withassociatesWednesday, 23 May 2012

What does ‘open’ mean?Not a simple binary open/closed... but rather a continuumAmount of friction... Things that create friction:Explicit restrictionsUncertainty about possible restrictionsUnusual/Unfamiliar interfaces (Z39.50 anyone?)Lack of information on data and where it is available

Formats - Paul Walk argues we need a ’richer understanding of openness’ which encompasses not just permissive licensing but, more broadly, the ease with which data can be used, taking into consideration aspects such as format and access mechanisms

http://www.flickr.com/photos/withassociates


http://www.flickr.com/photos/25414047@N00/5656079620/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Friction can be good. What is not good is thoughtlessly or accidentally introducing friction.

Frictionless means losing control (over the data) - that’s ok if that’s what you want. Can combine approaches by making your interface the easiest to use (Kasabi and other data marketplace)

Going to talk about three aspects today: Licensing of data Discovering data Accessing data

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25414047@N00/5656079620/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/25414047@N00/5656079620/

Openly Licensed

©Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Licenses, OBDThings that create friction:Explicit restrictionsUncertainty about possible restrictions

Problems with anything beyond PDDL and CC0 - does anyone own the metadata? Conflicting legal advice and decisions

Do you have database rights?

“people simply didn’t believe the postcards in our museum shop were

showing the original painting”

The Problem of the Yellow Milkmaid

http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/858566/2cbf1f78-e036-4088-af25-94684ff90dc5Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Examples of ‘open’, and friction (some friction is OK?) Europeana BNB - originally released with an “NC” license. Moved quickly to CC0 Problems with NC Repositories - problems of understanding what is allowed. Not common not machine readable. Don’t really understand what the repo want to achieve (what is it they want to stop?)

http://pro.europeana.eu/documents/858566/2cbf1f78-e036-4088-af25-94684ff90dc5


http://www.data.gov/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

US Government produced catalogue of available data at data.gov



http://data.gov.uk/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

UK Government data.gov.uk



http://data.open.ac.uk


Now other organisations doing similar - Universities like data.open.ac.uk (and others)



http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.ukWednesday, 23 May 2012

Local Government - eg Warwickshire

http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.uk

http://opendata.warwickshire.gov.uk


http://id.loc.gov

http://bnb.data.bl.ukWednesday, 23 May 2012

http://bnb.data.bl.uk



http://openmetadata.lib.harvard.edu/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://openmetadata.lib.harvard.edu/

http://openmetadata.lib.harvard.edu/

http://data.bnf.fr/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://data.bnf.fr/

http://data.bnf.fr/

http://www.dnb.de/DE/Service/DigitaleDienste/LinkedData/linkeddata.html




http://datos.bne.esWednesday, 23 May 2012

http://datos.bne.es/

http://datos.bne.es/

http://librisbloggen.kb.se/2011/09/21/swedish-national-bibliography-and-authority-data-

released-with-open-license/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://librisbloggen.kb.se/2011/09/21/swedish-national-bibliography-and-authority-data-released-with-open-license/




http://viaf.org/viaf/data/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://viaf.org/viaf/data/

http://viaf.org/viaf/data/

http://www.amazon.co.ukWednesday, 23 May 2012

Not necessarily about open licensing - but being clear about T&C

Amazon, Twitter, Guardian - not open, but still used. Not always the only factor. Amazon have T&C that dictate ‘purpose’ and mandate linking to Amazon - deliberate friction that has not prevented massive uptake of the API



Openly Accessible

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tawheedmanzoor/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Things that create friction:Unusual/Unfamiliar interfaces (Z39.50 anyone?)

FormatsAPIs

APIs are not experimental: More than half of all the traffic to major companies like Twitter and eBay come through APIs (http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2011/12/15/explaining-the-api-revolution-to-your-ceo/)

Allegedly Jeff Bezos threatened to fire anyone who didn’t offer APIs to content/assets they were responsible for

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tawheedmanzoor/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tawheedmanzoor/

http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2012/03/api-design-is-ui-for-developers/

“It’s the API designer’s job to make life easy for

developers”


http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2012/03/api-design-is-ui-for-developers/

It’s the API designer’s job to make life easy for developers

Standards no-one has heard ofOne-way (publication not interaction)

Z39.50 does not make life easier!

Openly Discoverable

http://www.flickr.com/photos/halighalie/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Things that create friction:Lack of information on data and where it is available

Schema.orgCKAN/Datahubgetthedata



http://www.flickr.com/Wednesday, 23 May 2012




This is not an excuse to show a picture of my two gorgeous children, but to show how Flickr integrates with my photo management system


There is an API, but you wouldn’t know, unless you are ‘in the know’


Not just about on your site - also advertise elsewhere - e.g. http://thedatahub.org/


.... engage with those looking for your data - e.g. http://getthedata.org

http://libraryhack.org


Australian initiative to encourage Library mashups - http://libraryhack.org/




We don’t tell anyone about themNeed more on Schema.org? Illustration of rich snippets

?Wednesday, 23 May 2012

What is the outcome of ‘open’?Rufus Pollock said “The coolest thing to do with your data will be thought of by someone else” - but is this true?

“internal use of APIs is going to have the largest impact for most businesses”

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danwoods/2011/12/15/explaining-the-api-revolution-to-your-ceo


“We built APIs to simplify internal apps, open data is just a happy fallout.”

http://twitter.com/#!/jacksonj04/status/183123086491660289


http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/qld/default.aspxWednesday, 23 May 2012

Libraryhack entry ‘Queensland Churches’http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/qld/default.aspx

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/qld/default.aspx

http://www.slsa.sa.gov.au/qld/default.aspx

Lewis Wagner, http://www.lewiswagner.me/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

What happens? My local council (Warwickshire) released a number of data sets and ran a competition to encourage local developers to build applications on top of this data. One set of data with a list of new books in the library - and a local developer (nothing to do with libraries) built this - shows books, covers (from Amazon) and links to previews in Google books. This WON the competition.

Not the only example. Rewired State is an organisation which “runs hackdays where developers show government what is possible”, recently ran a ‘Youth’ event - and one of the winners was based around integrating library services into Facebook

Believe it or not Library Data is SEXY!

http://www.lewiswagner.me/

http://www.lewiswagner.me/

http://www.version1.europeana.eu/web/api/hack4europeWednesday, 23 May 2012

Competitions and events to encourage exploitation suggest that skills and enthusiasm exist to innovate with open data: Discovery developer competition Europeana ‘Hack day’ - incredible outcomesMight question if these would happen without ‘priming’ - manipulating the market

Europeana Hackday example - take photo of picture/art, brings back data from Europeana

http://www.version1.europeana.eu/web/api/hack4europe

http://www.version1.europeana.eu/web/api/hack4europe

http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2011/07/compose-yourself/Wednesday, 23 May 2012

http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2011/07/compose-yourself/

http://www.meanboyfriend.com/overdue_ideas/2011/07/compose-yourself/

iTunes App StoreWednesday, 23 May 2012

Cambridge iPhone app suggests even outside this there is appetiteDiscovery will be doing more to demonstrate what can be built...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ucam-library-search/id459882806?mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ucam-library-search/id459882806?mt=8

GIST, State University of New York College at GeneseoWednesday, 23 May 2012

Not just about pretty things for library customers thoughThe Getting It System Toolkit (GIST) is a customizable set of tools and workflows that will enhance interlibrary loan and just-in-time acquisitions services; purchase request processing; and cooperative collection development efforts. Developed at the State University of New York College at GeneseoBrings together disparate information sources with key data, such as: uniqueness; free online sources; reviews and rankings; and purchasing options and prices


Have a look at http://blog.ouseful.info/2011/04/04/just-do-it-yourself-my-uksg-presentation/ or basically the whole of http://blog.ouseful.info for useful tips and tricks for getting started (and getting more complex) with mashups. Suggest UKSG presentation good starting place


How can we find the resource to do this type of innovation? Doesn’t have to be ££££ Barcamps and Unconferences

The final push to do something was an event organised by Mike Ellis - previously at the Science Museum, now at Eduserve - the ‘Mashed Museums’ event. So I shamelessly reappropriated the name and so...

Mashed Libraries

After I got back from ALA, I wrote a speculative post for my blog suggesting the idea, and got a really enthusiastic response. Luckily I was at a meeting with Paul Walk from UKOLN that same week, and he encouraged me to press ahead and offered support from UKOLN to make the first event happen.

I setup a ning to enable discussions and get some idea of who might come along and what they’d like to see on the day.We got a venue provided for free (by David Flanders, then at Birkbeck, now at JISC) , the catering costs covered by UKOLN, and speakers who all gave their time for free - and about 30 people came along.

There were problems (not enough power, and me failing to organise vegan options on the catering) - but overall it was fun, and the response was positive, and Dave Pattern quickly volunteered to run a 2nd event in Huddersfield - Mash Oop North. This was quickly followed by Middlemash at Birmingham City University in the same year, followed by ‘Liver and Mash’ (Liverpool). The next event is at the end of this month (MashSpa in Bath - still time to sign up), and currently Haggis and Mash in Edinburgh in January 2011 being planned, with a further one being hosted at the University of Lincoln at some point in 2011

For me as much as the events is the ongoing sense of community - I think we are starting to build a community of tech interested and able librarians - and others (not just about librarians!) - twitter key for me.


Mashedlibrary.com

http://www.mashedlibrary.com


Mashedlibrary.com

Step 1: Find a venue, get a date


Organising a Mashed Library event is simple. 6 Steps described here, see also http://www.mashedlibrary.com/wiki-content/organise-a-mashed-library-event/

Step 1: Find a venue, get a date

(this gives you a deadline!)


Organising a Mashed Library event is simple. 6 Steps described here, see also http://www.mashedlibrary.com/wiki-content/organise-a-mashed-library-event/

Step 2: Tell people


Step 2: Tell people(twitter, mailing lists, blogs,

mashedlibrary.com, facebook, etc.)


Step 3: Find speakers


Step 3: Find speakers(if you want)


Step 4: Look for sponsorship


Don’t need much money, best sponsorship may be getting the venue donated!

Step 4: Look for sponsorship

(companies, publishers, data providers, Universities, etc.)


Don’t need much money, best sponsorship may be getting the venue donated!

Step 5: Catering


Cake is very important

Step 5: Catering (but can tell people to bring their own, or have near/in a

cafe if you want)


Cake is very important

Step 6: Let people register


Charging? Maybe good to have nominal charge - makes people commit. But not necessary.

Step 6: Let people register

(and pay if you are charging)


Charging? Maybe good to have nominal charge - makes people commit. But not necessary.

What’s the worst that can happen?



Remember - Doesn’t have to be a big all day event - DMU MashedLibrary - lunchtime sessions run at De Montford University in Leicester

http://www.mashcat.info/


?Wednesday, 23 May 2012

Actions

• Consider what ‘friction’ there is for others wishing to use your data

• Start to exploit the APIs for your own purposes

• Engage with developers - ask them what they want, and find out what they can do

• Organise a mashed library event


What ‘friction’ is there in your systems around re-use? Is it deliberate or accidental? Could it be useful to introduce some friction?

Are you using your own APIs? How could these already help your work?

Where are the developers - do you actively engage with them? Do you promote your APIs?

Eat chocolate; Share chocolate


Thank youhttp://ostephens.com

@ostephens


Open for Reuse: Library data and mashups

Technology

Transcript of Open for Reuse: Library data and mashups