This blog post is to thank all of the participants (presenters and delegates) to the Knowledge Hub Data & Apps workshop that was held in London yesterday (27 April 2011). The workshop was used to establish the foundations for the “KHub Data and Apps Advisory Group”, who we are hoping will help us to shape the forthcoming data/apps developments for the Knowledge Hub.
As readers of my previous posts about the Knowledge Hub may be aware, the first (Beta) release will go live next month (May – exact date TBD). This represents the completion of Sprint 9 of 22, which delivers the collaboration tools and facilities (blogs, wikis, library, events, people-finder, library, web conferencing, activity streams etc.). [NB. Sprints are the functional elements delivered as part of an agile development process].
The remainder of the Sprints will be delivering key data intelligence/data management features, including:
1. Semantic Matching Engine
- Will match aggregated conversations, communities and topics to people;
- Will suggest connections between people
- Will recommend content according to explicit and implicit profile data
2. Data library/catalogue
- Can upload data/datasets in semi-structured and machine readable formats (e.g. Excel, CSV, XML)
- Can identify and catalogue external (e.g. open and/or linked) datasets
- Ability to create/edit metadata for each dataset (e.g. for provenance, licensing etc.)
- Datasets can be permissioned.
- Datasets will be indexed by the KHub search engine
3. Mashup Engine
- Allows users to combine or compare data (meaningful comparisons will require a common schema)
- Data can be ‘mashed’ using KHub-sourced data and external data sources.
- Support for data visualisations
- Features similar to mashup.org
- Will use open source mapping services
- Potential to provide index of SPARQL end-points
4. App Store
- Supports any app compliant with the OpenSocial standard
- Mashups developed on KHub can be simply added to the App Store
- Will include reviews and star ratings
- Support for free and commercial (licensed) apps
- Apps will be able to use data from both Khub (via an API) and/or external sources
Data Repository
- Requirements to be refined, but intention is to be able to support triple-stores (RDF/SPARQL) and XQuery/XML)
All of the above is scheduled to be developed and released between June and October this year. The Data & Apps Advisory Group will be instrumental in shaping these features and capabilities, as well as providing advice on the underlying support and operational procedures, and skills/training needs.
Initial outputs from the workshop are available on the Knowledge Hub Community of Practice (Data and Apps Advisory Group Theme).
Terms of Reference for the Data & Apps Advisory Group is in the attached PDF. If anyone with the appropriate skills and knowledge wishes to be involved in this group, then please let me know (add your expression of interest into the comments section of this blog).
I will post an update to this blog once the full report from the workshop is available.
Data & Apps Advisory Group ToR
Great Infographic courtesy of KISSmetrics , tracking two decades of web design.
Click on the image to enlarge.
ONLINE INFORMATION CONFERENCE - CALL FOR PAPERS
Have you submitted a proposal yet? The deadline of May 6th is approaching fast.
Here’s why you should submit a proposal:
- Show case your work with 700 delegates from over 40 countries and be seen as a pioneer and leader in what you do
If you have been part of a successful (or unsuccessful) project with innovative best practices, lessons learned, hints and tips, then we want to hear from you
- Benefit from the extensive marketing campaign and promotional exposure/recognition you will receive from being part of one of the largest conferences serving the information industry.
You and your organisation will be listed in the printed brochure (sent to 22,000) and on the website (emails to 24,000).
- Join a roster of industry authorities and use this opportunity to raise your profile. Previous keynote speakers to the programme include:
- Dion Hinchcliffe, Co-Author of ‘Web 2.0 Architectures‘
- Charlene Li, Co-Author of ‘Groundswell’
- Dame Wendy Hall, Professor of Computer Science, University of Southampton
- Nigel Shadbolt, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Deputy Head Research, University of Southampton
- Blaise Cronin, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology
- Clay Shirky, Author of ‘Here Comes Everybody’
- Jimmy Wales, Founder, Wikipedia
- Dr David Weinberger, Co-author of ‘The Cluetrain Manifesto’
- Dr Jakob Nielsen, described as ‘The king of usability’
- Dame Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive, The British Library
- Selected speakers receive a FREE place to the 3 day conference and co-located exhibition, worth over £900
For information on conference themes, making your submission and review criteria please click on the links below
I look forward to receiving your proposal
Stephen Dale
Chairman
Online Information Conference 2011
Making your submission
Review criteria
SUBMIT YOUR PAPER
Remember that the deadline for papers is 6th May.
As we approach the first (Beta) release of the Knowledge Hub, a project that has consumed my very existence as lead consultant for these past 2 years, I thought I would share a presentation I put together for the Knowledge Hub Conference that was held on 1st March 2011 (yes, a month ago, but still relevant). My previous blogs on this topic…
…will give some appreciation of the scope, scale and capabilities of the Knowledge Hub, but in a paragraph….
“The Knowledge Hub will build on Local Government (LG) Improvement and Development’s community of practice (CoP)-based approach to knowledge management. It will support multiple communities, using the best features and functionality that have evolved through the development of the CoP service. It will offer a range of free tools and services to help the sector share and analyse their data and engage more effectively online. It will provide a platform for developing and publishing open source applications created and owned by the sector.”
But even this doesn’t begin to explain what this is all about; an issue I was well aware of before the 1st March conference. Until people are actually using the Knowledge Hub and exploring for themselves its capabilities, any text-heavy communication is likely to paint a rather abstract picture in people’s minds.
Not that a PowerPoint slide set will achieve a level of understanding that I was striving for, but based on the old adage that “a picture paints a thousand words” it’s probably as good as I can do pending users experiencing the product for themselves.
The quirky angle on this was to consider how social media and the social web is currently being used (or not, as the case may be) across UK local government and the wider public sector (target audience for the Knowledge Hub). I’m only too aware of the fact that many public sector organisations block (or severely restrict) access to social media facilities for their staff. Even after several years of accumulated evidence of how social media and social networks can lead to greater productivity and improved learning and sharing opportunities, the word ‘social’ means ‘wasting time’ or ‘reputational risk’ to many senior managers.
In order to realise the full benefits of the Knowledge Hub, users will need to have access to the rich conversations on their particular domain of knowledge that are happening beyond the limits of their enterprise firewall. Conversations – e.g. on blog sites or Twitter – that many staff can only access via their smart phones or when they are at home. One of the many features of the Knowledge Hub is to aggregate and connect these conversations and associate them with user profiles – i.e. users see information that is relevant to them and not so much of the irrelevant noise.
One of the other features of the Knowledge Hub is the ability for councils to upload datasets – e.g. on performance – and compare (benchmark) with other councils, thereby highlighting potential areas for improvement or savings. Is this new? No! Most of us do something similar when we’re buying products, e.g. car insurance (e.g. Compare the Market/Meerkat), who’s got the best value in terms of coverage and cost?
And then there’s the issue of how we attach value and trust to what we read. Do we always believe what is in the travel brochure, or do we check out websites such as Tripadvisor to find out what real people have to say about the hotel or resort we’re thinking of booking? Similarly for the Knowledge Hub, where we’ll be able to see peer reviews of documents and other knowledge assets, and gain a degree of confidence in using or adapting that particular policy or process.
And not forgetting our Amazon experience, where recommendations are made on what we’ve previously bought. In a similar way, the Knowledge Hub will recommend contacts, workspaces (communities) and documents based on what the user has flagged as relevant, or what the user has shared in their personal profile (e.g. expertise, location etc.).
So, most people seem to be comfortable using social web facilities and applications in their personal lives, and maybe not even realising they are doing so. All we need to do is to provide a trusted and secure environment where these same activities can be conducted in a business environment. The real power of the Knowledge Hub is that you don’t even have to go to lots of different websites and applications – each with their unique design and interface – to find the information you need to do your job, or to do those performance comparisons or download that app you need. You can do it all in one place – let the data and information come to you! That, in essence, is the Knowledge Hub!
Check out the slides below. The Slideshare originals include notes, which will explain why the elephant appears (a clue – it’s to do with the time, pain and anguish of public sector procurement!)
It is now over two years since The LIS Research Coalition was established (see the history page) and a review of its value and impact has been launched.
To encourage a wide contribution to this review, the Coalition has designed an online survey that can be accessed at this link.
The survey will take no more than 15 minutes to complete. It will ask you to comment on your familiarity the Coalition’s work, your assessment of its activities and achievements so far, its value to your work, and your comments on plans for the next 12 months.
As an Information Professional I am pleased to support this review and urge you to respond to this survey, which will remain open until 17.00 on Friday April 8th 2011.
Please encourage your colleagues and networks to respond too.
The review is being undertaken by external consultants Sandra Ward, Beaworthy Consulting and Ian Wooler, IDW Ltd.
