JISC/DNER discussion : JISC

JISC/DNER discussion

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The DNER (Distributed National Electronic Resource) is the framework within which JISC is taking forward its activity in relation to network information services. The DNER provides secure and convenient access to resources through a managed information environment. Note: This document formed the basis for the current organisation and strategic framework of the information environment, collections and other activities of the DNER. It is released for general informational purposes but readers should refer to the JISC website for current strategy and planning information.

This document presents some issues about the DNER for discussion. It has two main purposes. The first is to briefly raise some general issues relating to the definition, planning and operationalising of the DNER. The second is to outline a strategy and planning framework within which these will be addressed and taken forward. It is labeled a 'discussion document' because issues need to be clarified or worked through within the DNER planning framework.

Some particular factors have shaped it:

Sources The DNER Team, collectively and individually, have been involved in various activities. These include the JCEI Away day; the very useful Content mapping study; the emerging JISC strategy and discussion with JISC partners; the Esys evaluation of eLib and the Tavistock evaluation of NFF; discussions about DNER 'branding'; discussion with various providers and users; discussion with DNER services, including a DNER JASPER meeting; and internal DNER Team discussion.

Communication The DNER comprises several components. These include production services, as well as the technical development programmes required to improve access to them in an increasingly convenient manner. This means that different aspects of it are of more interest or relevance to different audiences. This document does not focus on this issue, which is the subject of the Communications Strategy presented.

A note on words It is clear as different communities are increasingly brought together, we cannot assume shared understanding of terms. 'digital library', 'learning material', 'record', and others, are differently received. Apparently a small point, this issue has in fact caused much difficulty in various collaborative and internal discussions.

Some initial issues

Some specific issues emerged in consultation.

Policy context - vision

We need a better sense of purpose and rationale to guide activity. The current framework supports opportunistic and incremental development at the expense of strategic insight.

Goals DNER development has grown quickly in an opportunistic way, building on previous successes. This has been effective, but needs to be planned as the volume and variety of activity grows, or as a growing number of services need to be sustained alongside an accelerating development agenda. Activity needs to proceed within which goals and directions are widely understood.

Strategy: Opportunistic within a pattern of expectation We need a strategic view of preferred future directions, which reflects back into plans and policies. It is important to retain the ability to be responsive and opportunistic, but it needs to be balanced by an explicitly developed pattern of expectation. Services and users need to have a better sense of directions, roles and responsibilities within an overall pattern set by broad DNER goals. We need a framework which guides decision-making and priorities - especially as opportunity outstrips available funding.

Structures The DNER works within a complex political and organisational landscape. Structures need to be in place which support effective working.

Collaboration No single agency will create learning and information environments which meet all needs. Appropriate community-building and consensus-making , influence and advocacy are very important.

Propose A DNER strategy, with various component parts, is in development. This is described below, and inherits broad outlines from the JISC strategy. Some modified structures are also proposed below. A major aspect of the DNER Office's role will be to develop good working relationships with parts of the JISC 'family', and to provide a focus for wider national and international collaborative activity on information issues.

We believe that in the distributed environment in which we work, it is important to create appropriate frameworks to ensure smooth working. In particular, we need to have some coherence and clarity of goals to ensure alignment, and effective communication between components to ensure agreement. We will work within JISC structures, within DNER services, and more widely to support these aims. It is in this context, that we are working to put in place an explicit framework for activities.

User context - identity and presence

The DNER needs to have a more coherent identity and presence at various levels.

Identity The absence of a clear identity may mean that its value is less apparent.

Value. There are a variety of stakeholders in the DNER. The DNER adds value in different ways for these stakeholders - it needs to be clear how the DNER benefits each stakeholder group. There are different messages.

Market research The absence of effective market research has been noted in several fora. Associated with this is a need for richer consultation mechanisms.

The Information brandscape The user experiences across JISC services is not sustained or coherent. Within the current model, service providers compete for 'brand recognition' or 'shop front' space. JISC funded services do not hang together as a recognisable family in the way they present themselves on the network. They are marketed individually.

Propose We have established a definite communications focus within the DNER team to address these issues. This will work with JISC Assist and others to support communication, marketing and consultative mechanisms.

Service context - organisation and operations

Collections Collections development activity has developed rapidly to encompass various collecting areas, with different characteristics and models of procurement. It is important that this activity flows from clear goals and that service delivery and development aspects are considered within a life-cycle approach so as ensure that DNER goals are supported.

Network vs hierarchy This distinction was made in the content mapping study, and although there might be argument about the relative influence of each approach, the general point is well made. However, to operate in a 'network' context, we need to improve communication of strategic objectives, to clarify roles and relationship, to be more consistent in approach across services, and to think more systemically. An important issue, corroborated in discussion with the data centres and others, is the need to develop a 'business architecture', or an explicit view of what role services are expected to play in the DNER. We need a governance structure that combines control and autonomy in appropriate balance.

Systemic coherence This flows from the idea of a network of services, or a 'business architecture'. The JISC is not creating a set of individual opportunities; it is creating an environment of services which should be appropriately specialised and non-redundant, which should leverage off each other in sensible ways, and which should split out common functions into infrastructure. The current environment has some of these features, but more needs to be done. This has service, organisational and technical aspects.

Presentation There is no simple route into DNER resources. Services exist as individual opportunities.

Propose A collection development and management strategy is being prepared. A service delivery review is being commissioned, which will support the development of a service delivery strategy, which will in turn orient how we develop a robust platform for service delivery over the next few years. A DNER 'presentation layer' will be the subject of a study, and possible service.

Engagement with teaching and learning

Engagement with teaching and learning. It has been recognised that DNER resources are more oriented towards research support than learning support. This has been corroborated by recent JCALT work which shows overall 'low' levels of use of DNER resources by students (though it is an interesting to question what levels of use there should be). This is how the services have been set and continued for some time. We need to ensure that the DNER is an effective tool for learning and teaching.

Propose This is a significant issue which has exercised the DNER Team since being set up. A major rationale for the 'presentation' services discussed above and later is to make DNER services more visible, and hence used. A significant programme of work is proposed in relation to FE needs which should improve overall use for learning. A joint working group between DNER and LTSN is being set up to investigate how information can be folded more effectively into learning resources, and how effective contact can be made with teaching staff. Some 5/99 funds have been reserved to provide this initiative with resources to begin a process of change. Resource guide activity will be carried forward, in association with JCALT. The work of the DNER evaluation team, and of ongoing JCALT studies, will provide formative evaluation of development activity.
Information environment

Technical environment 'Distributed' tends to be used in discussion in two ways:

Distributed in a geographical or management sense The DNER comprises things that are physically scattered and autonomously managed.

Distributed in a computing sense An ambition of the DNER is to hide this geographical distribution, and to make all resources appear as if they are local to a particular user or within the same managed environment.

In theory these are complementary. In practice they are often in conflict, as we do not yet have rich enough infrastructure to support a distributed environment in the computing sense. It is important to avoid glib assumptions that 'distributed' is easy, especially in what is a very heterogeneous information environment. 'distribution' adds management, service and technical complexity.

Propose Development activity needs to be more directed. A technical review is being carried out which will inform a Development strategy, which can orient this activity. It needs to be noted that significant investment will be necessary to develop a leading information environment.

The DNER

Objectives

The draft Communications Strategy articulates three key long-term aspirations for the DNER:

To provide the globe's high quality digital content to staff and students in higher and further education, at any time, and from anywhere

production of printed and electronic material and consequent dissemination of these

To be the leading innovator in UK education in the field of digital information provision and take an influential role in developing the UK's lifelong learning and research agendas

To take a lead role in stimulating development both here and abroad (Here development refers to a) technological advancements and b) the process of encouraging educational institutions to place their content within the DNER and to locate their own information sources within/adjacent to the DNER 'window', thus growing the breadth, depth and seamlessness of the DNER proposition).

To meet these objectives while addressing the issues outlined above, the DNER must possess the following key attributes: clarity, coherence, value, engagement, richness and innovation. These need to be manifest in the services the DNER provides, in the strategy and policy framework which guides it, and in communications about it.

Clarity The design and development of the DNER is itself complex. However, this does not mean that our messages should be complex. We must communicate clearly with stakeholders about what they can expect from the DNER and about what we expect of them. This requires different messages for different stakeholders. It will involve clear strategy and policy frameworks, effective awareness activity, and open consultation. It will also involve clear pathways into resources for different users. Without clarity, it will be difficult to provide leadership, and to engage in consensus making and community building.

Clarity of message depends on coherence at all levels

Coherence We need internal coherence across the DNER. Coherence of user experience, coherence of collections and services, coherence of message, coherence of strategy and policy making, coherence of decision taking. We need to work towards coherence between DNER activity and related activity, whether at institutional level, or in other initiatives. Without coherence, we fail to respond to stakeholder expectation and create value.

Value The value of the DNER to the learner or researcher is that it improves their learning and research. The value of the DNER to institutional information manager is that it enriches the services they provide, that it saves them time and money in execution of those services, and that it allows them articulate their services with a wider resource. The value of the DNER to policy makers and funders is that it is a vehicle for systemic change in learning and research, and for cost-effective evolution of information systems and services. The value for data and service providers is that enhances their visibility and usefulness by aligning their offerings with a larger resource. The value for the community is that it concentrates organisational and sectoral investment ensuring cost-effective long-term access to digital information content.

Engagement Value depends on engagement. The DNER will fruitfully engage the attention and interests of all its stakeholders. Engagement will depend on the richness of DNER collections and services, their effective presentation, and continuing innovation.

Richness Without a critical mass of resources, interest and use will not build up. This is turn will diminish the usefulness and value of the DNER.

Innovation Without innovation, the DNER cannot meet is objectives. The DNER will take a lead in scoping and developing the new information environment.

The scope of the DNER environment

The accompanying figure suggests some of the overlapping 'areas' within this environment. Within each area we have a range of stakeholders, each with several roles. For example, researchers are both consumers and producers of research materials.

Personal Users increasingly have their own personal information spaces, ranging from simple bookmarks, to local collections of materials, to more sophisticated arrangements based on interaction with a range of services. Users are also creators of a variety of materials. Users may typically belong to several communities of interest (e.g. home institution, discipline, ...). They may gradually expect support for their 'publishing' activities, and a personalised information experience. Increasingly, we expect to see information activities aligned with work and learning behaviours.

Institutional Institutions license, purchase and create informational resources and have service infrastructures for making these available and supporting their users. Institutions have library, archive and other local holdings. They also have a growing and variable interest in regularising, managing and disclosing their own intellectual assets - e-prints, learning materials, expertise, course catalogues, services to business, etc. There is variable interest across institutions in being articulated as a part of a national system of provision. There is also variable investment in local fusion services, and variable expertise (MLE, hybrid library, etc).

Community and Strategy

Community The HE, FE and research communities manage a significant collective research and learning resource. As noted above, there is variable interest in articulating it within some system of national provision, for various purposes.

Strategic national resource JISC has invested significantly in a strategic national resource. This comprises information collections, network services which make those collections available, and additional network services which improve information use within the community. These services are supplied through a service provider infrastrcture.

Global The 'public Internet' is a vast resource. The 'private Internet' is a vast resource (protected by fee, authentication, etc). As a proportion of the overall Internet, the private Internet is growing faster than the public. There are other 'communities' to collaborate with (e.g California Digital Library, Danish Electronic Research Library, ...). There are many commercial offerings.

This gives us a framework within which to articulate some DNER thinking:

From the end-user perspective - indicated by the arrow - it typically is not an issue in which area the resource of interest resides. Increasingly, the network is their work environment. The DNER challenge is to weave rich information and learning resources into the fabric of the web. This will depend on surfacing relevant resources within their personal information spaces, on connecting them with high-quality resources in useful ways, on making information and learning materials as accessible and apparent as the resources available on the open Internet. The DNER comprises the following overlapping resource spaces:

A managed, strategic resource JISC manages a strategic resource - information collections and services - which demonstrates the value of central activity. These complement institutional provision. HE and, increasingly FE, institutions must have information available to them which help them articulate their local provision with this resource in cost-effective and useful ways.

A leveraged community resource JISC supports the organised disclosure of institutional resources through the provision of catalogues and finding aids. A growing role will be to extend this activity to support institutions manage and disclose their intellectual assets in organised, cost-effective ways. Such resources include learning materials, image collections, 'special collections', e-prints, directories of expertise, theses, 'grey/coloured literature', and so on. In this way the benefits of the managed resource will be augmented by complementary community collections.

A discovered resource JISC supports the licensing or creation of resource discovery tools which point to the existence of high-quality resources within a global information space (these include A&I services and the RDN).

These are in turn supported by several areas of activity:

An information environment To achieve maximum advantage, these resource spaces much provide a continuous user experience. This in turn depends on a shared 'information environment'. We can characterise an information environment as the set of network services which support the publishing and use of information resources. The web provides a rather shallow, if powerful, information environment. We are now looking to a richer information environment, which supports web-like integration for richer, structured content. For this reason, it is important that the DNER is aligned where possible with other developments, nationally and internationally, and that it makes a leading contribution to the definition of the components of an information environment which supports a common fabric of information use and learning opportunity. It is also important that it works to support and influence institutions as they benefit from and contribute to this environment. Further development of an information environment rests on directed development programmes.

A persistent resource JISC supports R&D and consensus-making activity which will lead to the development of a strategy to secure long-term access to the intellectual record.

A service delivery framework This collective resource must be made available in a robust and coherent way. The DNER is delivered through a set of contracted service providers, and a more diffuse wider group of providers.

Advisory services The advisory services have an important influencing role across the DNER, institutions and further.

Creating the information environment: the architecture of the DNER

The accompanying figure sketches a high-level technical architecture for the DNER. This will be refined in further work, and tied to a technical Development strategy which will support more directed development activity.

The current network environment is largely one in which there are many monolithic, 'stovepipe' information services. Each develops its interface and sees itself as the sole focus of a user's attention. Services do not work together, and they do not easily share content between themselves. They throw away structure to present services as HTML for human users. This is an increasingly less effective way of providing information services for various reasons.

In the DNER, we will work towards separating out various components of current information systems so that they can be reassembled more flexibly to support various user and business requirements. This will allow content to be fused from different information services and re-represented for various user communities; it will support business to business operations to provide seamless integration of supply and demand chains (e.g. article discovery and delivery); it will support sharing of structured content for intelligent reuse; it due course it will provide a better basis to build agent-based applications which provide higher level services.

This is in line with general Internet development and will be aligned with national and international initiatives, with whom discussion has already begun.

In the high-level model presented here there are four classes of architectural component: content/service delivery, fusion, presentation and middleware. We say a little about each here.

Presentation This is the 'front-door', the human-accessible unstructured web entry-point. Currently most information services provide their own front door. We are scoping a DNER wide 'front door', as a possibly interim measure to make DNER resources more visible. This might include the use of RSS-based newsfeeds, simple personalisation, and other services.

Content/service delivery Resources currently sit on the network accessible through standard web protocols. Increasingly, they will be encouraged to expose services through richer protocols (Z39.50, Open Archives Initiative, LDAP, etc) so that they can support machine to machine communication in aid of 'fusion' services, thereby becoming more amenable to being integrated.

Fusion services These are services which 'fuse' content from different services and re-present it in ways suitable to the particular needs or interests of user communities. The JISC will be funding 'portal' activity in this area. However, we also want to encourage institutions to begin supplying services in this way through digital library systems, managed learning environments and so on.

Middleware We use this term in the specialised sense it has within Internet 2 and JISC discussion, where it refers to shared security and authentication considerations. We are interested in extending services here to include 'infrastructural' services which should not be developed on a provider-by-provider basis. These include authorisation services, user profile services, and a directory service. The feasibility of developing these is being investigated.

Moving the DNER forward

Strategy, plans and policies

We are developing a DNER strategy to guide activity - to establish the 'pattern of expectation'. This will be organised as a DNER umbrella with the following additional components: collection development and management; service delivery; preservation; development; preservation; communications.

Of these, collection development and management (building on significant existing work of the Asst Dir - Collections, and the CWG), preservation, and communications are in hand. Others will start soon, though some work waits on a full complement of staff.

Staff Structure

This work will be supported by several preparatory investigations:

content mapping study (a review of procedures, practices and actors - completed and reported),

collections subject mapping exercise (being commissioned - to survey collections against some subject benchmarks to identify collecting gaps and directions),

service delivery framework (being commissioned from CHEMS - to survey pattern, governance and coherence of service delivery in a consultative manner),

and a survey of presentation requirements (currently being specified and to be let to tender).

JCEI Structure

Organisation

Committees

To meet the requirement that Committee time be released to consider strategic aspects of development, we suggest some alterations to the existing structure.

The first is that there be 2/3 working groups for JCEI. The Collections WG would have the nominal remit of the Content Working Group - but its membership and working practice would be reviewed to ensure a broad overview of collections activities. The Development WG would consider the articulation of service providers and development requirements in support of the Information Environment. The second is that we consider how the work is addressed. We suggest some formalisation of the current approach in the next section.

The importance of marketing and communication has been hightlighted and it is important that the nascent DNER communications effort works closely with JCALT and JISC Assist and other relevant parties to achieve appropriate results.

Areas of interest (collecting areas) and subject groupings

As noted above, there is a need to compartmentalise activity, while at the same time ensuring communication across areas. It is proposed that a matrix structure of 'collecting area working parties' and 'subject groups' will provide the depth and quality of attention to resource issues. The former focuses on the complete resource life-cycle within a particular area; the latter on the needs of particular subject groups. We are considering how such an apparatus might be articulated so as to minimise the resource and logistical burdens it presents.

To ensure appropriate attention to activities, it is proposed that each 'collecting area' have an associated Working Party to consider relevant life-cycle issues. How these might be organised is the subject of current discussion.

Terms of reference for these Working Parties should include:

reporting to both the Collections Working Group and the Development Working Group

liaison with relevant rightsholders

advice to JCEI and its sub-committees on issues relating to the digital lifecycle of resources (i.e. collection development, hosting, delivery, user support, preservation, and reuse)

develop and evaluate costed proposals for moving DNER development forward in the relevant area

steering the work of relevant projects and services

liaise with other area Working Parties and subject groups

Collecting areas for the DNER are currently:

e-books

discovery tools

journals

geospatial resources

images

learning materials

moving pictures and sound

primary data

It is recognised that JCEI will need to be aware of, and responsive to, changes that would necessitate combining, removing, or adding groups. Some relevant groups are already in existence (e.g. in books, journals, geospatial resources, and moving pictures and sound) and consideration will need to be given to transition these groups into their new roles. A collecting area for special collections and archives is also under consideration. High level objectives for each area are contained with the DNER Collections Strategy and will be complemented by the DNER Development Strategy when available.

Subject consultation groups

Subject groups have been identified as an important mechanism for consultation with the user community. Initial subject groupings for FE and HE have been proposed in the context of the Collections Subject Mapping study underway, and these may be refined in the course of the study. It is important that where a subject-based approach is taken, that there is good alignment with existing subject-based services (e.g. RDN, FERL, LTSN). Membership of these subject groups should include information intermediaries and end users. Terms of reference for these groups should include:

developing a consensus view of priorities for collection building and development

liaising with collecting area groups and other subject groups

reporting to CWG and DWG

raising awareness of DNER services in the relevant communities

liaising with Resource Guides.

DNER Office

We have developed an organisational structure within the DNER Office. It comprises several closely interworking groups with some structure (as shown in the accompanying diagram). A document outlining structures is presented as an appendix to the progress report.

Following the discussion of Service delivery framework above, it is worth noting that no coordinator effort has been made available to oversee JISC service providers, and we are considering how to address this.

DNER Office

DNER Office again

The accompanying figure outlines some main areas of attention and how they are overseen. Collection development is the responsibility of the Collections Group. The Information Environment will be the responsibility of the Development Group when it is at full strength. Preservation is the responsibility of the Preservation Focus. The advisory and support area needs to be clarified as several JISC committees are active here, and there are JISC wide activities in this area; the Communications Group is taking this discussion forward with JISC Assist and others.

Coordination across the DNER Team is provided by the Management Group (Director, Assistant Directors) who monitor collaborative activity, alignment of practice, priorities, and shared areas of interest.

DNER layers

Development areas

This section presents suggestions for areas which might be taken forward for further technical development, leading to JCEI request for further funding in 2001/2.

This list has formed the basis for the separately presented Funding requirements 2001/2. For that reason, costs are not presented here.

Areas for further development

Development areas are proposed under thee heads:

Consolidation making the DNER a world-class resource. This line addresses the presentation of the DNER, extends the services that glue it together, and adds a communications component. It enriches the service environment through which the DNER is delivered
A community harvest bringing the collective resource of the community into the DNER. This line addresses the construction of a framework for assisting institutions manage their learning, information and cultural resources and articulating them as part of a collective national resource. This line extends the DNER's work in leveraging the community resource. It adds depth and breadth by developing mechanisms for content submission to the DNER
Infrastructure strengthening the fabric of the DNER through the addition of middleware and other services, working with JCAS. It supports a more sustained user experience

This section does not consider the DNER Office staff, and the probable need to provide some more support there if some of the larger initiatives suggested below are accepted.

Important note This list should be seen as indicative of development areas. There are a range of other needs that require separate attention.

	Making the DNER a world class resource
Presentation services	A coherent identity Services will be requested to align themselves around a coherent JISC/DNER brand. This is important to the visibility and identity of the DNER as a set of managed services. This amount is to support redesign of sites and materials. DNER presentation layer DNER services will be made available through 'portals'. However, this activity involves considerable development work and will take some time to deliver results across the whole of the DNER. At the same time, work in Further Education has highlighted the absence of well-designed approaches to the DNER. There is no 'place' where one can see the full range of DNER services, presented coherently. We are beginning work on a DNER 'presentation' layer which will meet this requirement, drawing in resource guide and other work. We need to maintain and host this work. What's going on The W3C is working on infrastructure for sharing current information between commercial portals and other services (under the RDF Site Summary initiative). This provides a simple to implement mechanism for services to provide 'feeds' or 'channels' which report changes, events, etc. in a dynamic way. We propose some funds to put in place a framework to allow DNER services to report news and events to the DNER presentation services.
Folding information into the learning experience	JISC is creating a significant body of content for learning and teaching. This needs to meet the needs of learners who increasingly will interact with resources through managed learning environments. We propose several exploratory projects which look at making content funded through JISC activity available in forms which are amenable to processing within the emerging technical framework being established by IMS and others for the management of learning objects. The HEFCE commissioned study e-Tools for the e-University (Universities of Bath and Hull) has several recommendations which could form the basis of a very focused call for exemplary projects. This work will be taken forward under the auspices of a joint DNER/LTSN working group being set up with Chris Woolston as chair.
Fusion services	Fusion services will be at the heart of the DNER. They are services which fuse content from different sources and re-present it in ways which respond to the needs of different users and user communities. We are funding several fusion services through the 5/99 call (subject portals, join-up). However, this is a relatively small number of projects relative to the overall aspiration we have. We propose the following additional funding, which flows from the discussion above. We are creating several subject portals. We propose that these be complemented by portals within collection areas which are responsible for aggregating content within those areas for reuse by subject portals and institutions. They will provide discovery services across those areas, they will work to embed resources in learning and teaching practice through the provision of analytic and other tools in a coherent use environment, they will work with subject groups in their areas to ensure effective surfacing of DNER resources. These development activities would be positioned in such a way that they benefit from existing investment and expertise in these areas. In some cases these services will provide a focus for harvesting the community resource in their respective areas as discussed below. Bibliographic portal (including reference linking approaches). This will be to transition the Edina 5/99 project ZBALSA into a service, which incorporates emerging technical approaches (especially openURLs). The aim of this work is to finally move to a unified approach across DNER journal collections. Geospatial portal Based on ongoing GeoBrowser and related work, we anticipate funding a service which manages access to geospatial data. Current projects will report to the May 2001 JCEI meeting with recommendations for future work in this area. Social science data portal This work will create unified routes into a rich resources spread over several services, it will provide a platform for analytical tools which embed use in Images portal This will be an entry point into the JISC Distributed Image Service, providing cross-searching and other services. Moving picture and sound portal This will provide an entry point to the JISC collection, providing cross-searching and other services. Vocabulary and related services. We need to provide support for a shared taxonomy service.
Communication services	Evaluation and referral The JISC constituency has benefited from the services of Mailbase in creating communities of interest on the network. We need to build on this work to provide richer services for shared working, collaborative operations, and referral. This may be especially important in serving the collaborative needs of new communities, especially in FE where there is great interest in sharing and reuse of resources. We propose two pilot initiatives in this area: The learning exchange: This would provide a service to FE and HE which supported a range of services involving the evaluation and exchange of learning materials. It would provide a shared communication space, tools for linking to and describing learning materials, an evaluation and recommendation framework, and so on. Ratings: The use of ratings schemes to associate values with descriptions is of great interest. It provides an additional level of filtering. For example, a ratings scheme could be used to indicate suitability to particular curriculum needs. We propose some funding to assess the feasibility of designing and implementing a ratings scheme in association with the above service.
Content services	Nesli. We will be asked to fund some of the service costs of this, especially those relating to negotiation.
Advisory services	The JISC Strategy recognises the need to rationalise Advisory Services, and to fill gaps. It is important that the advisory services are articulated in such a way that they are more than the sum of their parts, that they assume collective responsibility for a planned set of services, and that they actively support community and DNER needs. These services might also have a more active role in training DNER stakeholders - including JISC services. We propose funding to establish an umbrella activity which presents and coordinates advisory service activities. This activity needs to be closely aligned with JISC Assist and JCALT work.
Marketing and promotion	The Away day recognised that marketing was a gap. We also need to launch various inititiaves (DNER, JDIS). We are also keen to work more closely with subject groups, technical groups, and others to pull in community expertise. It would be useful to be able to support some of this through funding of expenses.
Studies	We have a small amount of money to support studies. However, the scope and scale of the DNER suggest that we need to make sure that activities are informed by appropriate preparatory work. These include feasibility work, but also looking at barriers to take-up (as for example in the electronic theses area).
	Harvest: bringing the collective resource of the community into the DNER
Harvest: building a community resource	An important part of the role of the DNER is to provide a framework within which the community wide resource is effectively articulated for use. To address this aim, we propose the establishment of a set of linked initiatives, supported by a technical and service framework which is in line with emerging international practice. This is an ambitious set of activities. It might be sensible to manage them separately, but to achieve the benefits of an infrastructural approach within the context of the Open Archive Initiative. Issues of IPR, identifiers, metadata formats, service frameworks, and so on would have to be worked through in consistent ways. These collectively support the concept of a community harvest. Open archives initiative and harvesting The Oai is a framework for allowing information providers to make metadata about resources available in a consistent way: it supports organised disclosure. This metadata may then be collected by third party services who re-present it in their own services. The Oai is emerging as a leading candidate for allowing educational institutions publish the existence of resources. We propose a Harvest clearinghouse which makes Oai software and advice available to institutions, and which coordinates liaison with the Oai Steering Committee about use and requirements. Such a clearinghouse may also have expertise of other harvesting approaches. We then propose the following pilots to explore models of harvest and service provision. In each case a selection of institutions would work within an established framework to work through organisational, service and technical issues. In each case also, there would be some experiment with the collection of data: in some cases it would be harvested into RDN catalogues, in others into other portals, in others a new service might be needed. Learning materials A project which supports institutions in making details about their learning materials available. This would be harvested into a resource which would be a valuable component of the National Learning network and complement the learning materials repository being developed by Becta. Links between these services would be developed. Electronic theses A group of institutions would work together to explore issues involved in providing electronic theses. This work would be closely coordinated with the work of Ed Fox in the US. The aim would be to work through issues, leading to a generalisable model which forms the basis for future service provision. e-prints These gave rise to the Open Archives Initiative and there is strong support for creating more e-print resources. There is an open question about whether this is done on a subject basis or on an institutional basis. In this initiative a range of institutions would explore the institutional model where e-prints are managed as part of the institutional intellectual assets. Social and technical aspects would be explored. Image collections A group of institutions would work through issues involved in making image collection metadata available in this way.
Open source for content management(tentative)	Institutions are moving into an environment where they having to manage a diverse range of content. It is in the community's interest if such content is effectively managed, and, where appropriate, can be easily added to a national resource. We propose an advisory service which advises on the availability of open source content management approaches, and works with other relevant initiatives to develop an appropriate software archive.
Collecting collections	Collections Through NFF and RSLP work, a variety of collections have been made more accessible. The archives hub is in operation. The HE and FE communities contain a rich unique resource across archives, museums, and special collections in libraries. This is an important point of contact with wider cultural and learning initiatives. We propose an initiative to build on existing work to weave this resource more strongly into the, by supporting the description of collections in a consistent way, and the disclosure of these descriptions through a service. UK National union catalogue study This will make recommendations. Note JISC strategy comments in this area.
	Making the fabric stronger: middleware
Middleware services	National user profile provision We will be carrying out a feasibility study into user profiles which support personalisation services across the DNER. Any such service is likely to be closely connected with authentication services. It is anticipated that a service will be funded. Directory A part of the technical review will investigate the creation of a DNER directory. This would be a resource to support fusion and presentation services, as well as human users. It would include collection and service descriptions of the DNER components, in such a way that portals could use it to configure their services, and that presentation services could derive descriptions of services. The aim would be to have an authoritative source for such data. The Directory would be populated in various ways, including a harvest of collection and service descriptions made available in a managed way by service providers. We will need to provide some development funding to services so that they can establish some infrastructure for the timely disclosure of collection descriptionss, and establish the Directory as a service. (Note: we are using 'directory' in the sense of a potentially distributed database of structured descriptions of DNER resources - for human access and to support automatic configuration of portals). Authorisation services In the current DNER environment, authorisation and authentication are mixed in the same service. They are in fact separate services and should be provided separately. We will be holding a workshop on authorisation services, with a view to identifying development needs. An authorisation service would require funding.

JISC