Forward Look for Information Environment Shared Services and Other JISC Middleware Activities

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Forward Look for Information Environment Shared
Services and Other JISC Middleware Activities
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Shared Services within the JISC IE Architecture
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Shared Services the JISC Information Environment

• A component of the Information Environment
• Provides a common infrastructure for other
  elements of the environment
• Needs to be put in a broader context, to
  interrelate the technology aspects of learning,
  teaching and research
• Common middleware scheme underway for the widest
  possible range of institutional activities

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The JISC Shared Service Middleware Team

• All shared services and middleware development
  now handled by a single team
• Programme Director Alan Robiette
• Programme Managers
• Nicole Harris (Semantic Grids Autonomic
  Computing)
• Helen Hockx (Shared Service, Service Providers)
  
• David Salmon (Authentication, Authorisation
  Accounting)

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Proposed Shared Services

• Services proposed by IE Shared Services Plan
• - A collection description service
• - A service description service
• - One or more resolver services
• - An institutional profiling service
• - A metadata registry
• - One or more user preferences services
• - Thesauri and terminology services
• - Ratings and annotations services
• - One or more terms and conditions services
• - Authentication and authorisation services

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Work Undertaken

• Collection description service description
  (IESR, CD Focus)
• Resolver (BALSA)
• Metadata registry (IESR, MEG Metadata Registry)
• Thesauri terminology (HILT II, geoXwalk)
• Authentication authorisation (Athens, AAA
  programme)

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Unexplored Areas

• Institutional profiling
• Terms conditions
• - Have common characteristics and could
  possibly be combined
• - Needs scoping to define functionality, in
  conjunction with the portals programme
• - Place 2 studies to scope future services, and
  to report on current future development of
  digital rights management

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Unexplored Areas

• User preferences
• - Spans multiple IE content services
• - As extension of authentications
  authorisation services?
• - Implementation within JISC- managed or
  institutional portals?
• Ratings and annotations
• - Logically involve user data
• - Hard to position to best advantage in a
  national infrastructure?

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Links with JCLT Architectures Work

• JCLT is investigating the technical architectures
  for e-learning applications
• Open standard-based modular approach to ensure
  inter-operability continuity
• Converges with generic campus middleware
  requirements
• Re-examine the middleware/shared services plan
  across the full range of JISC development
  programmes to design common middleware platforms
  and services.

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Links with e-science Plans

• National e-Science programme to develop robust
  sustainable middleware platform for UK e-Science
  activities
• Areas of common interests for collaboration, e.g.
  access management
• Discussion in progress for JISC to be involved as
  a partner in the e-Science middleware initiative

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Summary and Conclusion

• Continue with the development of the IE
  architecture shared services programme
• Selectively fund studies and pilots which in due
  course will lead to productions services
• Place the JISC IE in a wider context and develop
  a common middleware scheme