Service-Oriented Architecture and the future of the CMS
In a previous blog item I talked about the future of the institutional CMS and why TechWatch wasn’t going to commission an update to its 2001 report. You may remember that I focused on two of the main concepts from the CMS report: processes rather than products, and blurring the boundaries between systems. At the time I said that the future of the CMS is actually caught up in technological reinterpretations of these concepts, so I thought I should explain a little bit about what I meant by that.
In order to do that I need to take you back to TechWatch’s 2001 CMS report. In it, Paul Browning and Mike Lowndes, the report’s authors, list some of the processes that a CMS should facilitate (page 3). These include:
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“Engendering the re-use of information by allowing the ready integration of data from diverse sources”
“Permitting the efficient re-purposing of information”
“Allowing information maintenance to become devolved but at the same time preserving central control”
In fact, as they later acknowledge, these processes/benefits are not exclusive to CMSs and they go on to say: “The emergence of ‘portal frameworks’ (open source or otherwise) has done much to highlight the overlap and convergence of document management systems, knowledge management systems… There is a pressing need, in our view, for institutions to think holistically (reinforced by their work on information strategies) and to invest in and develop open and extensible information systems” (p.12).
This is the crux of the matter. What they are saying is that it’s the processes that are important, not the software applications per se. We need to shift the emphasis from thinking about kit to thinking about what it is we need to do and how that fits in to the bigger institutional picture.
As always, of course, this isn’t straightforward. One approach that’s being road-tested is Service-Oriented Architecture (’uppercase soa’), but this has not been without its detractors. The heart of this is for another day, but to start the ball rolling you should have a look at a case study that the e-Framework programme has just published and you’ll hopefully get a feel for how the big picture concerns raised by Paul and Mike are tackled through this particular technique.
Open call: Data mash-ups and the future of mapping
In the Web 2.0 report we published last year (What is Web 2.0? Ideas, technologies and implications for education) we noted the importance of geo-spatial data in the development of mash-ups and we’re now planning to return to this subject with a new open call.
The growing interest in the use of geospatial and geographical information in combination with Web-based information sources and services has been driven, at least in part, by the emergence of new and low-cost technologies such as high-spec digital cameras, handheld GPS location equipment and vehicular SatNav. Alongside this, increasingly popular Web-based mapping applications and 3-D mapping tools have supported the mash-up approach. On the social science research side there have been many developments in graphical visualisation and simulation using location-based data.
After a number of discussions with experts across the education sector it is clear that this will be a complex report to commission but interested parties should have a look at the full open call, on the TechWatch website.
E-books: open standards déjà vu.
TechWatch has recently been asked to contribute its thoughts on future technology developments that are likely to have the most significant impact on library and information services in higher education. It’s for Update, the journal of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals, and one of the interesting questions they’ve asked us is about developments that we didn’t initially anticipate or whose impact has been greater than might at first have been expected.
This is not actually a straightforward question – just because we don’t publish a report on something doesn’t mean we didn’t anticipate it – but it has prompted quite a bit of discussion. I think one of the things TechWatch may be in danger of missing is the whole e-reader development, which will present challenges in integrating e-books into academic library acquisition, discovery, and delivery systems.
At the moment there are three main devices squaring up for domination of the market: the Sony Reader (from Sony, of course), the iLiad (from iRex) and Kindle (from Amazon). One of the big issues for HE will be the document format standards used by each device.
Work is underway on an open, XML-based standard called EPUB through an organisation called the International Digital Publishing Forum. The other key standard is PDF, which is now an ISO standard. Sony’s reader supports PDF and the company has just announced that they will support EPUB in a forthcoming e-reader. By contrast, Kindle only supports Amazon’s own standards, MobiPocket and AZW. It does not support Adobe’s PDF although it provides an ‘experimental’ converter. The iLiad supports PDF and Mobipocket.
There is more than a hint of déjà vu, here. Last year TechWatch published a report on XML-based office document standards which focused on the arguments around open and proprietary standards and the difficulties that would be created by the imminent approval of a second ISO standard within the office document standards domain. You really need to read the report to get the picture, but my concern is that there may be another ODF/OOXML-type situation emerging, with Amazon taking on the role of Microsoft.
For those who would like to know more about e-readers there was a long piece in the Observer newspaper on the 27th of July, with an abridged version published online. A more technical look at matters relating to e-books, rather than the readers themselves, is provided by the team undertaking JISC’s own major investigation: the National e-books Observatory project. There is also an interesting paper, What Happened to the E-book Revolution?, by Lynn Silipigni Connaway and Heather L. Wicht, which looks at the history of e-books and some of the barriers to their widespread adoption.