An Interview With UK Web Focus:
Article For Library and Information Gazette, CILIP 2006

On the tenth anniversary of his appointment as UK Web Focus, Gazette speaks to Brian Kelly about his career highlights, which include registering one of the first fifty websites in the world.

Focus On The Future

Tell us about UK Web Focus

The post of UK Web Focus was set up by the JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee) to monitor developments to Web standards and innovations in order to advise the UK's higher education community (initially) on best practices for exploiting the Web. I started in the post, which is based at UKOLN (a national centre of expertise in digital information management) in November 1996.

Over time the remit of the post widened, initially to advise the further education sector in addition to higher education, and, then, due to funding from the MLA (Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) to the cultural heritage sector.

When did you first encounter the Web?

During the early 1990s I was employed as the Information Officer in Computing Services, University of Leeds. In December 1991 I attended a meeting in which I variety of Internet applications were demonstrated, such as FTP, Usenet and Gopher. I was familiar with these applications, but new to me was the Web. Despite being text-only at that time I was attracted by the benefits of the hypertext interface and felt that this had the potential to provide what was then known as a CWIS (Campus Wide Information System) for the University. So in January 1992 we set up a Web service for the University. This was very much pioneering effort and was probably the first institutional Web service in the UK, and when we registered our Web site at CERN (the organisation responsible for developing the Web) there were less than 50 organisations in the world listed with a public Web presence.

Our initial work was very much helped by a fortuitous visit to the University by Robert Cailliau, a co-developer of the Web with Tim Berners-Lee at CERN. Robert's wife was from Leeds and, on a family trip to Leeds, Robert took the opportunity to visit the local University in order to encourage take-up of what was then very much a little-known Internet application. Discussions with Robert convinced me of the potential of the Web to support not only our information needs, but also as a vehicle for enhancing teaching and learning and research support.

I can recall at the time, however, being slightly worried that we may have chosen a superior system, but the rest of the community may be happy to use the inferior but better known Gopher system. Being aware of the analogy with the Betamax versus VHS wars (in which VHS dominated the marketplace despite the technical superiority of the Betamax alternative) I was aware of the need to promote the benefits of the Web across the community. So during 1993 and 1994 I gave talks and demonstrations at a range of seminars, workshops and conferences. By the end of 1994 the superiority of the Web was widely accepted and we began to see the phasing out of Gopher services.

When did you move on from Leeds University to take a national role?

My early enthusiasm for the Web and my experiences in promoting it across the community led me to move on to seek a job with a national role. I left Leeds University in September 1995 to take up a post as Senior Trainer at the newly formed Netskills training organisation, based at the University of Newcastle. This enabled me to support the takeup of Web technologies across the community.

A year later an even more challenging role became available at UKOLN. The post of UK Web Focus was advertised with a remit to advise and support the community in maximising the potential of the Web. I was appointed to the post in November 1996.

What have been your key highlights during your time at UKOLN?

Although during the past 10 years or so I have seen a great many exciting technical innovations and have had the opportunity to attend conferences in a number of exciting locations (including Australia, Canada and Japan) I feel the most pleasing aspect of my work has been the establishment of a thriving community of institutional Web managers. This community has been supported by UKOLN's annual Institutional Web Management Workshop which has now been running for 10 years. This annual event, together with a number of smaller events and a number of thriving JISCmail mailing lists, have helped to develop a community of practice, with practitioners always willing to share their experiences and debate ways of providing the most effective institutional Web services.

What are the key challenges in the near future?

The Web 2.0 phenomenon, with technologies such as Blogs and Wikis and an philosophy based on openness and the importance of user involvement, will be of particular importance to the public sector. We are beginning to see this with the interests of the potential of Web 2.0 in e-learning and within the cultural heritage sectors (and the terms e-learning 2.0, Library 2.0 and Museum 2.0 are beginning to gain currency).

But perhaps the most exciting challenge is to explore how Web 2.0 can be used by the Web development community. We have started to explore use of Wikis and Blogs to enrich many of UKOLN's events. Our next step will be to support the development of a sustainable community, in which the culture of sharing will not be limited to exchanging ideas on mailing lists but will seek to build resources by and for the community. Work on this has already started within the higher education sector, and we are looking to extend this to the cultural heritage sector.

Brian Kelly is on the Advisory Committee of Internet Librarian International which takes place in London on 16-17 October. http://www.internet-librarian.com/