Edinburgh Workshop Feedback Notes

On the 26th of September 2015 we held our first community consultation and co-design workshop. Here are the feedback and notes from the event – we shall be using this going forwards.

Contents

  • Some Initial Reflections
  • Table Feedback and Facilitator notes
    • Policy Implications for service development
    • Technical Suggestions
    • Service Development Implications
    • Data Management Issues (RDM)
  • Post-It points
    • Annotations
    • Interface issues
    • Access Control and Security and Rights
    • Data management
    • Policy
    • Service Development Implications
    • Search
    • Sustainability / Support
    • Technical

Some Initial Reflections

  • After the data management feedback definitely got to check out the older clipper project docs for standards metadata and data flow etc.
  • Need an idea of the Clipper document structure (graphics)
  • Need a graphic of the workflow
  • Differentiation of Clipper from other tools is needed
  • Data management of big interest to some. Search function will need to reflect this. Suggest we have a simple search option then an advanced search option?
  • Suggestion for contextual search – OK but setting would need to be clear to the user – i.e. you need to know where you are searching
  • Interface issues –go for the biggest stumbling blocks first
  • We need to be able to accommodate more detailed data management model(s) in the future phase
  • Annotations are of big interest:
    • Tags and search tools for annotations, common some used, search by tag, title, description full text, rights, (categories?) relation of annotations to parent clips and cliplists for searching. Granular search options.
    • Option to name Annotation and Describe its contents and more:
    • Title /Author(s) / Description /Tags
    • URI for sharing an annotation
    • Rights for annotations (use URI refs for the rights licences and terms)
    • Access permissions for annotations
    • Embargo on annotations
    • Rights / Licence statement on Annotations
    • Ability to have rich formatting in annotation
    • Annotation version control and track changes?
    • Annotate specific points in the frame and
    • Links between the annotations i.e. jumping from one annotation to another (in the same clip / different clips in a cliplist / between different clips in different cliplists
    • Delete annotations?
    • Import slides from powerpoint/
    • Can we reference the annotations as URIs?
    • Feedback on annotations (and clips and cliplists?) Have comment on the feedback and stop it becoming a forum! Like Derek at Stirling – limit conversation to an initial annotation by the ‘author’ (nb there could be more than one author) and then one level of comments by other users of the system. In the comments section people could have a ‘conversation’ using the twitter style protocols of @ and perhaps # – like in the BBC blogs etc.
    • Annotations for screen readers – needs to be accessible
    • Audio annotations?
    • Also suggestion to be able to annotate parts of the screen – either by textual reference (top right) or graphically by use of the Canvas property
    • Have a pencil icon in an Annotation list view open editing functions (simple) have a WordPress style kitchen sink icon to open the rich text editing functions. Perhaps have the option to have the editing window expand to fill the available space for text intensive work and then toggle back to the smaller default display?
  • User customisation options for both authors and consumers – to choose the interface style they want to work with and functions
  • Access Control and Sharing
    • SSO for security and access levels of permissions
    • Permissions (General) Ability for admin to act as superusers
    • To determine the access privileges of users and to determine the parts of the toolkit they have access to (e.g. simple text or full formatting tools etc.)
    • Restrict the collections they have access to
    • Restrict how widely they can share (/)
    • Sharing levels of permissions? To share things – default is project defined and levels start with the owner then named people, then organisational units then whole organisation.
    • Onion ring metaphor for sharing in the system is useful
  • Make clipper standout from competitors
  • Clipper on the local network – simple but effective?
  • Upload slides to display in synch with a video
  • Bookmarklet in browsers for adding video to their existing user clipper collections?
  • Integration with Kaltura? And similar systems – be good to try with Phase 3 scenario have had an enquiry from a University
  • Legal Issues
    • Need an option to have attribution credits and legal statement at start of each clip
    • Annotations attribution credits and legal statement
    • Project attribution credits and legal statement
    • Option for project / Clip IPR audit statement (could be made mandatory?) where the users authors enters the ownership and rights status of the project / clip (NB this would be good to have as much automatic entry as possible from settings pre-entered by the system, the author and the admin)
    • Embargo options on revealing projects / clips / annotations (timed settings) to their pre-determined level of sharing in the system.
    • There are a range of other legal issues to consider beyond copyright (as in any digital media) such as privacy / data protection / confidentiality clauses / know how / patents / etc. would be good to be able to record them somehow
  • Editing the Project name and description needs to be more intuitive
  • The active resource / clip needs to be highlighted in the list to the left
  • Will annotations pop up when you reach them?
  • If you wanted to annotate a whole video would you have the option to do that as one clip

Table Feedback and Facilitator notes

Policy Implications for service development

  • Not just platform related issues – we need to fit into Institutional Policy and Practice
  • A range of access management needs from just me to the whole world and points in between (onion skin metaphor)
  • Capture and represent the intentions of the authors in respect to copyright, sharing and access and provide means for users to communicate and follow up with authors / creators.
  • Usage should be / is covered by existing institutional policy – really? How would we know? It’s not my job!…implications?
  • Should highlight copyright statements from sources included in a very clear way

Technical Suggestions

  • It is important that there exists a clear and detailed document / metadata/ data model structure (that acts as a foundation for future extensions etc.)
  • Search options should be deep and full text with filters
  • Access privileges should be controllable to fine levels of clip and annotation

Service Development Implications

  • Set embargoes on:
    • Metadata
    • Annotations
  • Need access controls and privacy levels down to annotations not just to clips
  • Need to highlight (to service providers) the importance of permanence in relation to URIs and URLs and permalinks and persistence generally
  • Could clipper be integrated with Office 365 for deployment in the cloud for institutions and with individual usage with access to CDN style facilities for upload and transcoding and sharing etc.? This might satisfy the needs of many individual researchers?
  • Using annotations as surrogate access to inaccessible archive resources

Data Management Issues (RDM)

  • Sensitive   Privacy issues affecting storage and access
  • Retention policy also needs to reflect funding agreements and content
  • Permissions and access control:
    • Single sign on can help by enabling levels of access / control
    • Need access to videos / audio to be set by these controls
    • Password protections (?)
    • Encryption of data as an option (?)
  • Creative Commons – no modifications – would Clipper infringe this?
  • Ownership & Rights etc.: / Original researchers / Producers / Contractors / Contributors / Subjects etc. / Institutional / Funding Body
  • Usage of Data controlled by requirements of funders and institutional policy
  • The different ways the researcher wants to categorise things

Post-It points

Annotations

  • Annotation start and end timestamps
  • Annotation version control
  • Links between annotations (and other clipper items?)
  • Annotate specific points in a frame
  • Pop up and or info symbol to remind you to set the time of the annotation then save
  • Click into toggled annotation (straight to clip section)
  • HTML / rich text editor for annotations (and descriptions? Of clips / cliplists / projects)
  • Annotations should be readable by screen readers

Interface issues

  • Stages need to be more intuitive – need detail / prompt of where to go next
  • User needs to get feedback when they have made a change completed an action
  • Add drag / nudge / slider controls for in and out points
  • Be able to include transitions
  • Be able to include slides for titles and rights etc.
  • Be able to cite clips
  • Have title screen options for clips and Cliplists have slides for citations?
  • Feedback? – See the comments discussions above
  • User feedback – e.g. the video had been added to project resources
  • User feedback – save clip – confirmations
  • If one of the clips in the cliplist needs a login the user / consumer should be alerted to this at the start or before (padlock symbol? – with number to represent the number of locked clips)
  • Transitions between clips – authors should have a choice of options
  • Simplicity is key
  • Ability to drag and drop annotations would be great
  • Have a bookmark / Clipper / button plugin in the browser
  • Jquery – adding media on a bookmaked page to the Clipper resources / project
  • Allow user to upload slides and display them next to the video – possible integration with slideshare? Etc.
  • Should leave transition choices to end-user?
    • Is this something Final Cut Pro could help, in terms of approach?
  • Can you reorder the clips?
  • You might also want to include icons for locally hosted items – so that the playlist creator knows what can or cannot be seen by others (who likely won’t be able to access a file on a local machine or local network).
  • General comment –Web based service is a real advantage. Not many options, nothing to download, that is important. Capitalise on that… At the moment it looks more complex than it is. Has to not just be simple, but also look simple and user friendly.
  • I was wondering about nudging start and stop points…with ability to set time manually by typing
  • I think you will need real usability testing to watch people using the tool, rather than asking them… And that will highlight where there is any misunderstanding. When I chose a video for a collection. How do I do anything creative with those clips… To merge or play all etc…
  • Maybe you’d edit down elsewhere… Something to do with the content I have.
  • From a users point of view you need confirmations on screen to highlight things have been created, saved, etc. For creating a clip, start and end, I didn’t get any visual confirmation. Need that to make it clear.
  • It would be helpful to have maybe a pop up, or information symbol to remind you to cut off the clip. Thinking about the likely users here. Would be useful to have reminders.
  • That issue of annotations also raises the issue of what the playback experience is. And how annotations etc. are part of that…

Access Control and Security and Rights

  • Non public videos and clips etc. need to be protected – use Single Sign On (SSO) to set and determine access control / permissions / tracking
  • Multiple copyrights compliant requirements / options
  • On adding content:
    • Form for who owns copyrights
    • Form for permissions / licence
    • Editable field for disclaimers
  • Coping with / representing different rights holders (sometimes in the same institution)
  • What happens if you have a clip on a password protected Vimeo, etc.
    • But you would want students to be able to login, perhaps
  • All the moving image content on our site is only licensed for one site… Would this sit on the organisations site? Where is it going?
  • What if you have a video that specifies only the servers/IPs that can be used – which you can do on Vimeo – how would that work with Vimeo?
  • Can you display rights information here – they should be available in metadata with video and/or APIs and are really important to indicate that.
  • US vs. UK copyright, particularly thinking about Fair Use content which might be legally acceptable in the US, but not in the UK.
    • Related to usage in a way that level of usage, and so that issue would be a great problem to have though!
  • A slide for the beginning or the end with credits etc. generated in the system would be useful. Would help with rights information.

Data management

  • Delete annotations / clips / cliplists
  • Show store input URIs
  • Create Tags / Categories
  • Searchable annotations would be really useful. And find all the relevant annotations and tags. Things like NVivo do that.
  • Clipper is potentially useful for annotating v large files –so should work on a local high speed network
  • Is there a way to separate out audio and video to save to different channels… So that you can strip down to just the audio… Maybe you just want to capture that.
    • Could be done server side but easiest is to just use the player to hide the video
  • What about a web resource becomes available… And disappears… Hyperlinks can disappear and that would be a concern when I come to share it… And when I invest that time. And it’s quite likely… If a web link is dead, it’s a problem.
    • Not about trust, but fragility of web links…
    • I think that notifications (of broken links – by Clipper) would be useful here. But maybe also something that can be cached or kept so there is a capture of that.
    • Check out the work of Herbert von Sompel in relation to overcoming broken links in academic communications – the Hiberlink project
    • Notifications would be really important (to let authors know of a link going down).
  • You are pulling things through from websites elsewhere. If you make your own interview, can you upload it here? Or do you upload elsewhere and pull in URL?
  • My question is a bit different… Maybe how the clip is created… There are so many people who share clips and compilations of video items…
  • The ability to compile / print a cliplist with video stored in the list is a requirement for some people
  • How do you publish this content? Do you share the playlist? Do you need a Clipper account to view it?
  • If it’s research data a lot of this will be sensitive, and have to be within your control and your own students…
  • We do use some cloud-based services for student data though, so there must be some possibility there.
  • Duration of storage – Some for long-term, some quite short.
  • Some funders will have requirements too. But we were also talking about non-public video content… Maybe need two systems with permissions lined up… Asking students to sign in twice can be confusing. Institutional single sign on might be useful – map permissions across. But can the system recognise right to access data.
  • My students have access to very private recordings that have to be secure and have to be retained in that way, and keep it secure.
  • A question really: if it is someone else’s data and shared under CC licence (ND) – do clipper clips count as modifications or not?
    • About how that is presented?
  • Although not the totality of data, it’s usually what supports publications. But open access aspect is certainly important. Clipper could find its way into that kind of environment and could be a good tool to show off some of your research data.

Policy

  • How much do you need to worry about, how much is for institutions to worry about? Like data ownership etc. But you may need to worry about as a platform.
  • And for access you’d want a lot of granularity of who might access these things, might be a large group or public, or might just be you, or just be a small group.
  • Having users fill in a field where they can state what they think the copyright is.
    • A statement of intent / knowledge?
    • Yes, something that allows you to have a comeback if a collections owner comes back…
  • Policy implications wise, there aren’t really any cases that shouldn’t already be covered by institutional policies (?). Licenses, derivative works, etc. should already by covered by institutional policies. Maybe some special cases…
  • Are policies fit for purpose?
    • It is usually awareness not existence of policies (?)
  • Possibly a pop up indicating license and appropriate usage, so you know what you can do. Second aspect, if you can legally modify videos – why not do that on desktop system offline, if not then how can this comply. Only the making of copies that this removes the issue for. Sorry for a super defeatist comment but how does this differ from what else is there?
  • I come at this from two places… Both the way into the lumpy a/v content, interrogate, search it, etc.… And then also this more creative tool where you make something else available on the internet – alarm bells start ringing. For the creative side, why not use iMovie etc.
    • This is a frequent comment – we want to stay away from ‘printing’ video but a Clipper cliplist could be used to create a an EDL (Edit Decision List) that could be imported into an editing tool and used to ‘print’ a Cliplist?
  • It’s not a video editing tool, it’s annotation. So clearly not that…
  • For digital preservation… preserving video is relatively difficult and is an ongoing process. Clips are basically JSON descriptions – easy to preserve.
  • Check out the Dedoose academic tagging tool
  • A very good content tool. But I think being very clear on what this thing is for… And making it really good for these things. Really focusing on the annotations and textual aspects more.

Service Development Implications

  • Embargoes, on metadata, and issues of privacy, access, and license for annotations for the same reasons.
  • What about bandwidth?
    • It depends on the video delivery…
    • It’s not your issue really. It’s for content providers…
  • The system depends on you having a consistent URI for a playable version of a video… That may be an issue depending on how files are held.
  • Cloud providers?
    • Several in the room indicate they are using them…
  • Making (some?) annotations (and metadata?) public will help others find your data.
  • Costs wise it needs to be open source for people to import themselves? And if so, how can you skin it and brand it. And how often does it need maintenance and updates.

Search

  • Searchable tags etc. – perhaps use of hash tags in annotations
  • Tagging etc. and putting things into categories

Sustainability / Support

  • org for support….?
  • Identify things that could make Clipper stand out fro the ‘competitions’
  • Keep it simple
  • Avoid complexity
  • Focus on annotations

Technical

  • Is there documentation for the code so far?
    • Not yet
  • API for Clipper? So others can use the annotations etc.
  • If sensitive data, and videos, then annotations might also want to be private… Rather than being on your server..(raises the possibility of a local version of Clipper – either in the institution or for an individual – integration with MS Azure?)
  • Or could they get a private instance from you?
  • We haven’t talked much about searching capabilities.
  • I think for effective searching you are going to want to have a more complex annotation data structure – so you can do filters, indexing etc. so less computationally taxing and more accurate for users.
  • Does the system log who has created which annotation? So you can track who does what on a research project.