a centre of expertise in digital information management saasy api (openness in the cloud) or...

A centre of expertise in digital information management

www.ukoln.ac.uk

SaaSy API (Openness in the Cloud)or Approaches to Exploiting the Potential of Cloud Computing and APIs

Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of BathBath, UK

UKOLN is supported by:This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording of this talk, taking photos, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Acceptable Use PolicyRecording of this talk, taking photos, discussing the content using email, instant messaging, blogs, SMS, etc. is permitted providing distractions to others is minimised.

Resources bookmarked using 'mw2009-kelly-workshop' tag Resources bookmarked using 'mw2009-kelly-workshop' tag

Email:[email protected]

Twitter:http://twitter.com/briankelly/

Blog:http://ukwebfocus.wordpress.com/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/mw-2009/workshop/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/cultural-heritage/events/mw-2009/workshop/


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About The Session Abstract“What are the potential benefits which Open APIs and Software as a Service (SaaS) seek to provide? What about the associated risks in moving from an environment in which software is installed and managed either locally or by a hosting agency with formal contractual agreements to a environment in which there may be no formal agreements, the services may be hosted in different countries and governed by different legal frameworks? And at a time of global economic uncertainties, is it sensible to be seeking to make use of Open APIs and SaaS? …”Workshop will “explore strategies for exploiting the benefits of and managing the risks associated with these services”.

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About MeBrian Kelly:

• UK Web Focus: a national Web advisory post• Based at UKOLN, a national centre of expertise in

digital information management• Located at the University of Bath• Funded by JISC and the MLA• Involved in Web since Jan 1993• Currently advising on best practices for Web 2.0 &

the Social Web• Not a software developer!• Colleague of Paul Walk, UKOLN Technical

Manager & author of paper for workshop (who is a software developer)

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About The Mini-Workshop

Introduction• About me, about you, about the session• What are we talking about (primer)?

Benefits• Why are we interested?

Risks• Why should we be concerned?

Strategies• What do we do next?

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About You

Please:• Introduce yourself, giving your name, your

organisation & what you do• Describe what you hope to gain from this

session

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The Hype


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Take-up Of New TechnologiesThe Gartner curve

Developers

Rising expectations

Trough of despair

Service plateau

Enterprise softwareLarge budgets…

Early adopters

ChasmFailure to go beyond developers & early adopters (cf Gopher)Need for:

• Advocacy• Listening to users• Addressing concerns• Deployment strategies• …

This workshop looks at approaches for avoiding the chasm & reshaping the curve

This workshop looks at approaches for avoiding the chasm & reshaping the curve

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What Do We Mean By “The Cloud”?

Cloud computing is Internet ("cloud") based development and use of computer technology ("computing").

It is a style of computing in which dynamically scalable and often virtualised resources are provided as a service over the Internet.

Users need not have knowledge of, expertise in, or control over the technology infrastructure "in the cloud" that supports them.

From Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cloud_computing.svg


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What Is Cloud Computing?

“.. a broad array of

web-based services aimed at

allowing users to obtain a wide range of functional capabilities

on a ‘pay-as-you-go’ basis

that previously required tremendous hardware/software investments

and professional skills to acquire.”

Via Irving Wladawsky-Berger Via Irving Wladawsky-Berger


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Example: Amazon

Amazon Web Services:• CPU: 1.0Ghz x86 @ $0.11 /hour• Blob Storage @ $0.12 /GB month• External Data Transfer @ $0.10 /GB

Used, for example, by Slideshare.net


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What About SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc?

“The concept incorporates infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS) as well as Web 2.0 and other recent (ca. 2007–2009) technology trends which have the common theme of reliance on the Internet for satisfying the computing needs of the users.”

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Wikipedia

“Everything as a service (EaaS, XaaS, *aaS) is a concept of being able to call up re-usable, fine-grained software components across a network” Wikipedia

“I think there is a world market for maybe five computers” Thomas Watson mis-quote Wikipedia


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Definitions

SaaS: Model of software deployment where provider licenses an application to customers for use as a service on demand. SaaS software vendors may host application on their own web servers or download the application to consumer’s device.

PaaS: Delivery of a computing platform and solution stack as a service. It facilitates deployment of applications without the cost and complexity of buying and managing the underlying hardware and software layers.

IaaS: Delivery of computer infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) as a service … an evolution of Web hosting.

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Peter Laird’s ‘Cloud Map’

Peter Laird’s ‘Cloud Map’


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Open APIs“Open API (often referred to as OpenAPI) is a word used to describe sets of technologies that enable websites to interact with each other by using SOAP, Javascript and other web technologies.”

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Wikipedia

Programmeable Web


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What’s Missing?

What is missing from this introduction to the Cloud, SaaS, Open APIs?In

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Why The Interest?

Small group exercise

1. What benefits can use of ‘the cloud’ provide?

2. Why should museums publish open APIs for their services?

3. Why should museums consume open APIs provided by others?

Include both tangible examples & possibilities

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Case Studies

Case studies illustrating benefits of the Cloud and open APIs (from Sebastian Chan, Powerhouse Museum).

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The Challenges

Challenges:Web 2.0 (and Clouds,

APIs, …?)

Resources

ExpertiseTime

Money

Understanding

Legal Issues IT Services

Colleagues

Management

Accessibility

Sustainability

Reliability

Culturalissues

Technical Issues

Interoperability

Privacy, DPA, FOI, ..

Council

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What About The Barriers?

Small group exercise

1. What problems might be envisaged in making use of ‘cloud services’?

2. What are the dangers in museums publishing open APIs for their services?

3. What are the dangers in museums consuming open APIs provided by others?

4. What approaches can be taken to addressing such problems and minimising the dangers?

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What Do We Mean By ‘Risk’?“Risk is a concept that denotes the precise probability of specific eventualities”When should we take risks?

• Never• If the probability is low• If the dangers are insignificant• If the context if appropriate

But what if human life is at risk:• In the army• Driving a car• Travelling on the train• …

We can’t ignore the context, the potential benefits and the costs

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Core vs Chore

What type of services can you provide via the cloud?

• Chore services: Services you have to provide even though they aren’t part of your organisation’s key mission (e.g. email, payroll, …). Keep the core services that you care about in-house.

• Core services: Services key to organisation’s mission. Global organisations (Google, Amazon, etc.) are better placed to provide such services, especially if you have limited technical expertise, resources, … Keep the chore services in-house, allowing you to manage internal IT services.

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From David Harrison, (Cardiff Uni.) and developed by Paul Walk

From David Harrison, (Cardiff Uni.) and developed by Paul Walk

What’s the most appropriate context for museum services?


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Sustainability Concerns

What happens if SaaS services:• Are unreliable?• Change their terms and conditions (e.g start

charging)?• Become bankrupt

Things to remember:• Services may be unreliable e.g. Twitter• Market pressure is leading to changes to T&C – &

paid-for services may become free (e.g. Friends Reunited)

• Banks may go bankrupt too – but we still use them• Need for risk assessment and risk management

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Interoperability Issues

What happens if SaaS services host your data and:• You can’t get the data back out?• You only get the unstructured or poor quality data

back out?• You can’t get the comments, annotations, tags

out?

There’s a need to:• Ensure data export capabilities or• Upload data from an alternative managed sources• Understand limitations of data export / import and

make plans around limitations

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Deployment Strategies

What strategies do we need for exploiting the benefits of Cloud services and open APIs whilst minimising the risks?Possible areas:

• Educating senior managers / policy makers• Identifying appropriate areas• Carrying out risk assessment • Testing risk management strategies• …

What else?

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DevelopersSenior Managers

Users

Colleagues

Str

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Funders

Other Stakeholders


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Deployment StrategiesInterested in exploiting the Cloud and Open APIs in your organisation?Worried about corporate inertia, power struggles, etc?There’s a need for a deployment strategy:

• Addressing business needs• Low-hanging fruits• Encouraging the enthusiasts• Gain experience of the browser tools – and see

what you’re missing!• Staff training & development• Risk and opportunity management strategy• …

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Risk Management JISC infoNet Risk Management infoKit:

“In education, as in any other environment, you can’t decide not to take risks: that simply isn’t an option in today’s world. All of us take risks and it’s a question of which risks we take”

Examples of people who are likely to be adverse stakeholders:• People who fear loss of their jobs • People who will require re-training • People who may be moved to a different department /

team • People .. required to commit resources to the project • People who fear loss of control over a function or

resources • People who will have to do their job in a different way • People who will have to carry out new or additional

functions • People who will have to use a new technology

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IWMW 2006 & Risk Management IWMW 2006 has taken a risk management approach to its evaluation of Web 2.0 technologies:

• Agreements: e.g. in the case of the Chatbot.• Use of well-established services: Google &

del.icio.us are well-established and have financial security.

• Notification: warnings that services could be lost. • Engagement: with the user community: users actively

engage in the evaluation of the services. • Provision of alternative services: multiple OMPL

tools. • Use in non-mission critical areas: not for bookings! • Long term experiences of services: usage stats• Availability of alternative sources of data: e.g.

standard Web server log files.• Data export and aggregation: RSS feeds, aggregated

in Suprglu, OPML viewers, etc.

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Critical Friends

JISC U&I programme is encouraging establishment of “Critical Friends”

See <http://critical-friends.org/>See <http://critical-friends.org/>

Paul Walk (UKOLN) was described as a ‘critical friend’ of JISCSee <http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.org/2009/

02/10/five-minute-interview-paul-walk/>

See <http://dev8d.jiscinvolve.org/2009/02/10/five-minute-interview-paul-walk/>

But is such open debate encouraged in other sectors?

See <https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0903&L=MCG&T=0&F=&S=&P=19929>

See <https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A2=ind0903&L=MCG&T=0&F=&S=&P=19929>


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Biases

Subjective factors

Towards a Framework

“Time To Stop Doing and Start Thinking: A Framework For Exploiting Web 2.0 Services”, Museums & the Web 2009 conference

IntendedPurpose

Benefits (various

stakeholdersRisks

(various stakeholders

Missed Opps. (various

stakeholdersCosts


• Sharing experiences

• Learning from successes& failures

• Tackling biases• …

• Critical friends• Application to

existing services

• Application to in-house development

• …


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Using The Framework

Use of approach in two scenarios: use of Twitter & Facebook

IntendedPurpose

Benefits (various

stakeholdersRisks



stakeholdersCosts


Community support

Rapid feedback

Justify ROIOrg. brand

Community-building

Low?

Twitter for individuals Organisational Fb Page

Marketing events,…

Large audiences

Ownership, privacy, lock-in

Marketing opportunity

Low?

Critical friends:• Paul Walk / Brian

Kelly blog posts)• MCG

discussionsLearning

• UKOLN cultural heritage guest blog post

• Conferences• Papers• …

Note personal biases!Note personal biases!


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Use The Framework Yourself

Feel free to you apply framework to:

• Services you’re planning

• Existing services• Large scale

initiatives (e.g. Creative Spaces)

IntendedPurpose

Benefits (various

stakeholdersRisks



stakeholdersCosts


What is the purpose? Who are the users?

What are the benefits? To whom?

What are the risks? To whom?

What are the risks of doing nothing?

What are the costs – to developers, to users,…

Remember the biases! Is the service really intended to sustain the service provider?

Remember the need for the critical friend and the need for sharing?


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Conclusions

a centre of expertise in digital information management saasy api (openness in the cloud) or...

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