JISC

A paper given today at the International World Wide Web conference in Edinburgh looks at how JISC services are working together to develop more flexible and practical approaches to the adoption and application of technical standards. The paper, called 'A contextual framework for standards' will be delivered by Brian Kelly of UKOLN, but has been jointly authored by representatives from the AHDS, CETIS, OSS Watch and JISC itself.

The paper, which will be delivered in an international workshop on open standards in e-Government at the week-long Edinburgh conference, offers a potted history of the selection, mandation and use of standards for the development of networked services in the UK HE and FE community. The paper stresses the development of a more user-focussed approach to the use of open standards, based on a contextual application of standards, in which standards are not necessarily always enforced rigorously, but offering a level of flexibility which recognises that, in some areas, standards may be immature, may fail to take off and may be too complex to be easily deployed. In particular, the paper draws on recent developments among various JISC services where a ‘layered’ approach to mandating standards, which takes in the needs of users, funders and services, is taken into consideration.

The paper builds on the experiences of the services in developing and supporting networked services within the sector. For example, the Arts and Humanities Data Service (AHDS) contributes to the paper by citing on its experience as a functioning digital library, working with those who wish to deposit digital data in its archive. In particular, it highlights its dealing with not only more straightforward digital formats (still image and text), but also more complex formats (e.g. audio data) where a greater deal of pragmatism is required. While open formats do exist for digital audio, there has been little take up of them within the wider communities; the AHDS therefore also needs to work with more common proprietary formats used within those communities.

Further information

On the paper, please go to: Pre-print 
On this area of work, please contact Brian Kelly on +44 125 383943 or email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk