UKOLN
Raising Awareness

"The IWMW event provides an opportunity for those involved in the provision of institutional Web services to hear about institutional case studies, national initiatives and emerging technologies and to actively participate in a number of parallel sessions."

IWMW 2011 is the fifteenth workshop.
IWMW logo

Institutional Web Management Workshop 2011:
Responding to Change

Risk Assessment

This page provides information on the possible risks associated with use of technologies at the IWMW 2011 event. The following issues are covered:

Risk Assessment Summary

Adobe Connect: Live Video Streaming
A live video stream of the plenary talks was provided using the Adobe Connect service. There may be dangers that the service does not operate correctly, potentially upsetting the remote audience. However the video-streaming is being provided by the local AV services department who are experienced in provided this service.
Vimeo: Video Recordings
Video recordings of the plenary talks are hosted on the Vimeo service. This places a dependency on a third-party service. However the Vimeo service is mature and the risk is felt to be low.
Slideshare: Hosting Slides
Slides from the plenary talks will be hosted on the Slideshare service and workshop facilitators will be encouraged to make their slides available in this group too, thus making it easier for the remote audience to view the slides. This places a dependency on a third-party service. However the Slideshare service is mature and the risk is felt to be low.
EventStreamApp: Hosting Content
Content for the event was initially hosted on the Eventstreamsapp service. However due to limitations of the service we abandoned use of the service. This did not cause any loss of content as the information was available locally in any case.
Lanyrd: Hosting Content and Social Networking
Information about the speakers and facilitators was made available on the Lanmyrd service. This places a dependency on a third-party service. However the Lanyrd service is mature and the risk is felt to be low.
Ideascale: Gathering Ideas for Content
An Ideascale site has been set up to crowd source ideas from people on sessions etc. There are risks that people will not submit ideas and/or that the ideas suggested cannot be implemented. It is important that expectations are managed and it is made clear to users that there is no guarantee that sessions will be run in suggested areas.
Flickr: Sharing Photos
Delegates are encourages to add their photos to Flickr and add the IWMW tag. There are risks that the photos available will not be available in the long term. Flickr has a policy that linked to photos remain available. Copyright may also be an issue but again Flickr is clear on rights.
Wikipedia: Informatuion about the event
Details of the IWMW workshop series have been added to Wikipedia. This service is provided by an externally-hosted service and anybody can edit this content. However Wikipedia is a stable and mature service and content misuse seems to be managed effectively. The risks are felt to be small.
Shhmooze: Communications for Attendees
As described in a post entitled Helping You Meet New People posted on the IWMW 2011 blog participants at the IWMW 2011 event were invited to install the Shhmooze app in order to evaluate the potential of this service. The data created by app is intended to be used only during the IWMW 2011 event. This risk of data loss is felt to be small.

In addition to the risks associated with the specific services listed above there may be other risks which are not necessarily associated with particular services, as listed below:

Loss of ID needed to access services
The username and passwords used to access several of the services belong to an individual. Access to such services are therefore dependent on the individual, and access could become unavailable if anything untoward were to happen. However since the services are not mission-critical, this should not be a major problem. If the services are felt to be valuable, a more open approach to access of the services will be taken in the future.

Risks of Not Using the Services

It should be noted that in addition to analysing the risks associated with the services listed above, there are also risks associated with not using such services! These are listed below:

Loss of Credibility
If UKOLN is not seen to be actively engaged in an area of work with high public profile, such as Web 2.0, our reputation as a leader in digital information management may suffer.
Failure To Provide Useful Services To Our Users
If we fail to provide services which the users value, this may undermine our credibility.
Failure to Learn
If we fail to make use of such services, we will fail to learn about the strengths and weaknesses of such services, which will undermine our advisory role.
Failure to Exploit
If we fail to make use of such services, it will be difficult to exploit successful services in future events we organise.
Conflicts with other Areas of Work
If we seek to develop related services inhouse, or to install software provided by others, this will entail technical effort, which may be more effectively deployed in other areas of work.