VOA3R Virtual Open Access Agriculture & Aquaculture Repository: sharing scientific and scholarly research related to agriculture, food, and environment

PRESENTER’S NAME & CONTACT DETAILS

User Requirementsfor the VOA3R platform

OBJECTIVESOBJECTIVES

the VOA3R platformwho are the stakeholderswhat are their requirements

identify requirements

validate requirements

document and organise requirements

VOA3R (co-)fundingVOA3R (co-)funding

ICT Policy Support Programme aims atstimulating innovation and competitiveness

through wider uptake and best use of ICT by

citizens,governments and businesses.

The VOA3R platformThe VOA3R platform

Key objectives:Improve the spread of European agriculture

and aquaculture research results by using an innovative approach to sharing

open access research productsa federation approach that integrates

existing open access repositories and scholarly publication management systems

Main innovationSocial portalCommunity-focused integrated service

Key featuresKey features

open access, research and analysishighly specific literature analysisformulate searches in personal fields

facilitate open access publishingpreprint publishing, informal feedback, different forms of peer evaluation and post-

archival assessmentcommunities of practice

ratings, public reviews, suggestionsexperts online identity and reputation

Social searchSocial search

Social search help you discover relevant content from your social circle, a set of peers and contacts.

content from your peers and social contacts is often more relevant to you than content from strangers

Object-Centered socialityObject-Centered sociality

Access, publish, organise, Access, publish, organise, socialise!socialise!

An old story...An old story...

As early as the 1970s!“Surveying the national scientific and

technological potential, including the collection and processing of data management, of the R&D system”. (UNESCO, Paris 1970, 251 p.)

“Study report on the feasibility of a world science information system” (UNISIST, Paris, 1971, 161 p. - Synopses)

1987, 1st Conference on European Research Databases

THE VOATHE VOA33R R STAKEHOLDERS’ STAKEHOLDERS’

USER USER REQUIREMENTSREQUIREMENTS

Requirements analysis main Requirements analysis main activitiesactivities

Eliciting requirements: communicating with stakeholders and usersdetermine what their requirements are.

Analyzing requirements: unclear, incomplete, contradictory

requirementsresolve these issues.Recording requirements: such as natural-language documents, use cases, user stories, process

specifications, etc.Validating & Prioritising requirements

Stakeholder participationStakeholder participation

Requirements analysis is a communication problem Participation is important! Great level of improvement Conversation & Confirmation

… BUT …Having a problem does not uniquely qualify

to solve it: ”It hurts when I go like this...” We need to stop asking users Rather ask them to participate in effect... work together!

Who are the stakeholders?Who are the stakeholders?

ResearchersAcademicsPractitionersStudentsLibrarians, EditorsDecision makersthe Industryand other organisations

but also: the anonymous web surferand certainly: Other systems and services!

Producers

Consumers

External systems

Producers

Consumers

External systems

TASKSTASKS

Identify stakeholdersAnalyse the use of current systems by

different user categoriesUse partners’ experience with existing

systems

and last, but not least...ask the Stakeholders

The producers’ needsThe producers’ needs

Publishing research onlinepre- and post-publish supportpeer-reviewing

→ → model the scholarly processmodel the scholarly processMake research items more accessibleSupport post-publication assessmentFoster post-publication dialogueElectronic CV

The consumers’ needsThe consumers’ needs

Information retrievalopen accessopen limitsheterogeneous contentlocate, search / semantic searchbrowse

Information processinglayers of linksonline reading: annotations, bookmarks,

reading basketauthor’s backround & other relevant resourceinteractivity: comments, annotations, rating

Communities of practiceCommunities of practice

Identity – the bedrock of social architectureProfile & ReputationPresence – the sense of life

RelationshipsContacts & GroupsNorms & Rules

ActivitySharing - “I share because a join a passion and

interest”Conversation & Collaboration

No matter how much software we build, people build the relationships, and they build them out of words first!

Otherwise participation devolves into viewership

Users are humans!Users are humans!

Humans are complex!complex! and the web is dynamic.dynamic.

Many more innovations and patterns of excellence will be defined. Yet human contacthuman contact and interactioninteraction is not newnot new.

From “A Pattern Language”

GROUP DISCUSSIONGROUP DISCUSSION

aim of exercise: to reflect on the user groups and their needs

procedure: 1. a question is posed2. you spend 1 minute thinking about it on your own3. you spend 10 minutes discussing about it with

your group, taking notes altogether [someone should be the note-taker]

4. then each group takes 2-3 minutes to present their ideas

5. in the form of dotmocracy sheets (at least 1!)

DotmocracyDotmocracy

Summing upSumming up

VOA3R platform: the open access philosophy combined withcommunity aspects, explicit modelling of processes and elements

in research work, as a tool to enhance search and filtering of scholarly content.

a work in progress:a 3-yr project, started Jun 2010online questionnaire and survey, Oct-Nov

2010

www.voa3r.euwww.voa3r.eu

Questions for group discussionQuestions for group discussion

* Please include indicative questions according to your user group

– Use the indicative questions from VOA3R-UR-prelim

– Or present the mind-map and extract selected questions for each group to work on

– Or let your groups indicate some questions

Ultimately a successful requirements gathering session boils down to asking the right questions, and documenting the results, ideas, concerns, etc. that arise ....