Liberation Technology - #OLITA 2012 Conference #opengov

A few weeks ago I attended the Ontario Library Information Technology Association's 2012 conference here in Toronto, hosted at the Toronto Reference Library. The focus of the conference was the use of technology to deliver social goods and social justice. Sessions included open data in a library context, inclusive and accessible design research, and the need for copyright to enable creativity and reuse. While I don't work in a public library (or in IT, for that matter), the topics jumped out at me with connections to projects I've been working on. The full conference program is here.



Open Data is dead! Long live Open Data! - MJ Suhonos

Suhonos advocated for open data as a natural evolution of the world wide web, with network effects that enable people to do new, unexpected things with existing resources. Unreleased data is really unrealized potential that can only be unlocked by sharing, combining, and using it in new ways. These arguments were familiar to me, and this really reinforced how successful the City of Toronto's Open Data program has been. Open Data in public libraries appears to be at an earlier stage. One useful open data evaluation tool I hadn't heard of before was Tim Berners Lee's 5 star system for ranking Open Data programs. It provides a concise evaluation framework for data providers and advocates to make open data programs as useful as possible.

Citizen Archivists: Transcribing History for Future Generations - Rebecka Sheffield

Since my position has recently been transferred to the Archives, I've become more interested in how we can better capture contextual information about images, graphics and design projects, to support archival descriptions. This talk re-inforced the value of distributed, public annotation and sharing while acknowledging that we are still challenged how to best incorporate this information into standard structures such as the Rules for Archival Description.

Outside In - Jutta Treviranus

Treviranus is the director of the Inclusive Design Research Centre (IDRC) at OCAD University. She delivered a wide ranging talk on the value of inclusive, accessible design and the work of IDRC. Much like the principles of privacy and access by design, inclusive design should include the needs of all users at the design phase rather than attempting to bolt on or modify near the end of design work. I was intrigued by the proposed open model of portable user preferences (font size, screen reading) allowing any system to seamlessly recognize and adapt. "By Design" is an excellent principle, but I can't help wondering if it means a (necessary?) brake on the culture of creativity, experimentation and fast prototyping of open data and hacker culture encouraged by other conference speakers. Reusable models and tools can hopefully streamline the incorporation of these inclusive design.

A Critical Account of Copyright in Canada - Carys Craig

Improving reuse of content is a key goal of the project I am working on, so I was very interested in getting a better understanding of copyright in Canada. Professor Craig delivered a fascinating and wide ranging talk which questioned some underlying assumptions and narratives about copyright. She was particularly critical of the rising narrative of copyright as total ownership, expanding and strengthening protections. In fact, the origins of copyright are in encouraging creative expression and intellectual dissemination. Expressing concerns about the direction of the Canadian copyright bill, C-11, she encouraged us to advocate for a more balanced approach, calling the digital locks provisions "electric fences" against use. As I work towards an improved model for access and reuse inside our DAM, I'm particularly trying to avoid an overly restrictive, technical approach to rights management. Copyright should reward creativity by respecting ownership, but it must also protect the public good by enabling fair use and creative innovation. Craig has recently published Copyright, Communication and Culture: Towards a Relational Theory of Copyright Law which I look forward to reading.

Big thanks to the organizers for putting together a broad ranging and affordable conference. I especially appreciated the mix of theoretical and practical content, examining challenges and opportunities inside and beyond Ontario libraries.

City of Toronto's Digital Asset Library - importing trends #DAM

Everyone loves measuring performance with statistics right?   At this point, we don't currently have a standard set of reports that can be automatically output from our Digital Asset Library (DAL).  I have to manually run a series of searches and compile information onto a spreadsheet, then output a chart.  Not the most elegant of solutions, but does provide a bird's eye view of our progress so far:

Observations:

Photo Video unit is by far the most active uploader into DAL.  This is not surprising because they were the originating unit of the DAL project, and the project requirements were tailored most closely to their needs.   They have less complex file types (typically TIFFs & JPEGs) than some of our other participating groups.  They also produce a large volume of photographs of City events which can be quickly tagged and uploaded as batches.  To their credit, they have been dedicated uploaders, typically importing hundreds of photos in batches each week.

Both Graphics & Visualization, City Planning and Information Production, City Clerk's Office have a steady but moderate growth in their files uploaded.  Specific staff have been using DAL for sharing completed projects (as PDFs).   An individual design project naturally takes more time to complete than a single event photo, and therefore there are fewer overall files than Photo Video.  However, these numbers also make clear that we must continue expanding our pilot managing more complex working Adobe Illustrator & InDesign files with placed art, leading to full adoption throughout these units.  These files take more time to upload and tag, as each individual working file has unique metadata.  We are currently planning an embedded XMP metadata project which should reduce workload when reusing working files in new projects.

Archives are using DAL to upload batches of JPEG access copies, which have embedded XMP metadata.  The fall-off in imports in early 2012 reflects some challenges in updating application components that allow DAL to read embedded metadata on import.  There is a learning curve for sustaining and managing new systems and we are certainly experiencing this.  We have a plan to resolve this issue in the near future, so batch imports can resume later in 2012.

This snapshot of DAL uploads reinforces the need for better reporting, which is essential for identifying trends and areas for improvement.  We are planning to upgrade our reporting capabilities in 2013.

digital asset management at the City of Toronto - priorities for 2012 #DAM

2012 is a year of ongoing improvements and next phase planning for our Digital Asset Library.  We are focusing on improving our standards and processes around working files, embedded metadata and copyright.  We are also gathering requirements to build a business case for our next phase - incorporating feedback, functional needs as well as necessary application and environment upgrades to support growing numbers of users and content.

What has really struck me over the last year I've been working on this project is the great interest from City staff  in better image management and reuse.    Staff really do recognize the value of sharing assets between units.  In 2012, we'll be laying the groundwork for improved functionality, new partnerships and better sharing of resources.   Here's an overview of DAL priorities, as I see them, over the next year.  Your feedback is welcome.

DAM project feedback from #Toronto Urban Design staff #EIM #OpenGov #ToCouncil

Last year, I had the opportunity to introduce our Digital Asset Library project to the City Planning Urban Design team at a staff meeting in Etobicoke.   Our first phase is a pilot with a smaller unit that is part of Urban Design, the Graphics and Visualization unit, but we wanted to provide an update to the larger team.  I sat in on the full meeting, and it was fascinating to get a big picture view of design and planning projects underway.  I was intrigued by work to connect South Etobicoke and Mimico with the waterfront, and integrate a growing Humber College into the surrounding community and historic campus. 


There were some great questions during my presentation and many staff took the time to speak to me afterwards with their thoughts.  A few key issues that came out of our conversations:

digital asset management inside the City of Toronto #TOcouncil #opengov



The Digital Asset Library is a an application for managing images inside the City of Toronto


Recently, David Eaves' post on the future of academic research got me thinking again about the benefits of openness and collaboration.  Eaves praises a British Columbia scientist, Rosie Redfield, for blogging her way through an ongoing experiment.  In the process, she's encouraged international feedback and provided rare insight into her thought processes as a scientist.  Redfield stands out because she is breaking with protective scholarly publishing traditions that dampen collaboration. 

The pyschology of classification #opengov #taxonomy #EIM

A few years after hearing him speak in Toronto, I finally got around to reading David Weinberger’s Everything is Miscellaneous. The book is partly a history of classification and library science, and partly an investigation into how the web enables new approaches to organizing information. I enjoyed his writing very much, especially his accessible summaries of research. Today’s blog post focuses on how human perceptions of categories can shape how we develop and deploy classifications at the City of Toronto.

Can governments innovate? #govcamp grows up #opengov #opendata

Earlier this month I attended GovCamp, a conference for open government and open data enthusiasts and practitioners. A good breadth of speakers and panelists were loosely organized around three streams:  gov tech & open data, public involvement & communications, and public service innovation.  Dreamy!

The well attended conference did lose some of the free wheeling intimacy of the first evening GovCamp that met at the Toronto Reference Library in the summer of 2010.  That event, dubbed an “unconference” for its organic approach to the sessions, had every presenter introduce their topic for 1 minute on stage.   Attendees got a great preview of both the topic and the speakers themselves.  This approach beat deciding to attend a session based on a 4 or 5 word title by a long shot.  In the organizers’ defence, they had planned this but some opening speakers went over their time and the session introductions had to be cut.  Also owing to its smaller size, the previous GovCamp was more interactive.  Participants gathered to discuss particular topics at tables rather than listening to panelists and speakers in larger rooms.  That being said, there were many interesting speakers this year, and the unexpected conversations were equally enjoyable.  On to the sessions: