Overview of content related to 'software'

Editorial Introduction to Issue 42: Less Could Mean More

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Waller provides an editorial introduction to Ariadne issue 42.

Tomorrow, 31 January 2005 will be the moment of truth for those institutions among some 100,000 public authorities which received a request for information on the first operative day of the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) in the United Kingdom. For by tomorrow they must have responded to the request within 20 working days.

Advanced Collaboration With the Access Grid

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Michael Daw describes the Access Grid system and its claim to be an Advanced Collaboration Environment.

Collaboration between institutions based in different cities, countries or continents is becoming the norm in both commercial and academic worlds. The ability to attend meetings and interact with people effectively without incurring all the negative implications associated with travel - such as cost, expense, environmental impact and reduction in productivity - is a truly worthwhile goal.

Software Choice: Decision-making in a Mixed Economy

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Randy Metcalfe considers the role of free and open source software in UK Further and Higher Education.

Imagine a world where software is free. For the moment, let's not split hairs about this. In this imagined world software costs virtually nothing to obtain. And you are free to do things with this software - free to study how it works (which means getting access to the underlying code, not just the binaries or executables); free to modify that code to suit your needs and/or improve it; free to re-distribute that modified code. And everyone else is free to obtain, study, modify, and redistribute software as well as you.

This is not the world you live in.

The National Centre for Text Mining: Aims and Objectives

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Sophia Ananiadou, Julia Chruszcz, John Keane, John McNaught and Paul Watry describe NaCTeM's plans to provide text mining services for UK academics.

In this article we describe the role of the National Centre for Text Mining (NaCTeM). NaCTeM is operated by a consortium of three Universities: the University of Manchester which leads the consortium, the University of Liverpool and the University of Salford. The service activity is run by the National Centre for Dataset Services (MIMAS), based within Manchester Computing (MC).

Making the Case for a Wiki

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Emma Tonkin examines wikis and considers the feasibility of their deployment - and the danger of the 'tumbleweed' syndrome.

Introduction: What is a Wiki?

Software use cases are necessarily incomplete, a failing which seems to intensify in reverse proportion to the degree of simplicity in the software in question. Complex software responds to a given set of requirements, simple software as a partial solution to a much broader problem set. More concisely put, certain ideas just seem to catch on, particularly the simple, brilliant, 'now why didn't I think of that' class of ideas.

Planet-SOSIG

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Humphrey Southall looks at a new Web site's Vision of Britain while Emma Place examines new changes to the RDN Virtual Training Suite.

Vision of Britain

A new Web site allowing free public access to an unrivalled collection of British historic maps, statistics and stories went live in October 2004. By keying in a postcode or place name, or clicking on a map, users can call up a wealth of information on any locality.

Looking for a Google Box?

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Sebastian Rahtz gives us his evaluation of the Google Search Appliance.

Most Web sites of any size want to offer a facility to perform a free-text search of their content. While we all at least claim to believe in the possibilities of the semantic web, and take care over our navigation aids and sitemaps, we know that sooner or later our readers want to type 'hedgehog' into a search box. Yes, even http://www.microsoft.com [1] returns plenty of hits if you try this.

Web Focus: Experiences of Using a Wiki for Note-taking at a Workshop

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly describes how the Wikalong Wiki tool was used to support note-taking at a workshop.

Wikis: are they the latest cool Web technology or a pointless tool which merely duplicates features provided in content management systems and virtual learning environments? I have heard both views expressed recently. To some extent both views have some validity: a Wiki is a technology which has been adopted initially by those in Web developer communities (such as the Semantic Web community) to enable collaborative documents to be produced quickly and easily.

Shibboleth Installation Workshop

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

James Sankar and Masha Garibyan report on the first ever Shibboleth Installation Workshop in the UK.

Staff and students in Higher and Further Education institutions currently experience an overload of information. In many cases, this information is held on different systems, available via widely differing levels of access control, ranging from open to strictly controlled access. Access controls are also subject to data protection legislation and/or tough licensing conditions. One way of overcoming the problem of accessing information from various systems is to build Web portals. These can provide a superficial environment for the presentation of information from various sources.

Hyper Clumps, Mini Clumps and National Catalogues: Resource Discovery for the 21st Century

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

John Gilby reports on a one-day conference about resource discovery, held at the British Library Conference Centre, London in November.

Introduction
Keynote Speech: The Concept of a 'National Catalogue' - Jean Sykes
Interoperability: Architectures and Connections - John Gilby & Ashley Sanders
Making Sense of Hybrid Union Catalogues: Collection Landscaping in Complex Information Environments - Gordon Dunsire
Interoperability: The Performance of Institutional Catalogues - Fraser Nicolaides & George Macgregor

Tap Into Bath Takes Off

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Stephanie Round covers the launch of a small but promising collaborative effort.

As Local Studies Librarian for Bath & North East Somerset, UK, I am expected to know the whereabouts of original material and collections relating to the history of the local area. The recently launched Tap Into Bath online database is the ideal format for discovering this.

News and Events

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Ariadne presents a brief summary of news and events.

Digital Cultural Content Forum 2005

11-13 February 2005, Oxford, UK

The Digital Cultural Content Forum (DCCF) is an annual international gathering of key stakeholders in the digitisation and delivery of our global cultural assets. The focus of the meeting is to explore how public institutions that steward cultural content, the agencies responsible for public policy, and organisations in the public broadcast sectors can collaborate to deliver services to public audiences.

Book Review: Understanding Open Source and Free Software Licensing

editor — Sun, 30 Jan 2005 00:00:00 +0000

Mike Fraser asks whether a recent book on open source software licences will help him answer a few questions.

The picture on the cover of Understanding Open Source & Free Software Licensing by Andrew M. St. Laurent is a 19th century engraving of a shootout at a railway in the American West. What early conclusions should we draw from that less than innocent image? Leaving aside men with guns in the Wild West, Understanding Open Source is an in-depth study of software licences commonly used with the release of open source or free (as in speech) software.