Lightweight Portals using Free

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Lightweight Portalsusing Free Open Source
Software

• Clif Kussmaul
• Associate Professor of CS

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Who are we why are we here?

• Who am I?
• Who are you?
• institution type size
• role IT, library, faculty, other
• portal experience
• FOSS experience

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Overview (60 min total)

• Challenges
• Strategies Tactics
• FOSS Examples
• Mixing Matching
• More Discussion

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Goal Easy access to information

• internal vs. external
• static vs. dynamic
• centralized vs. distributed
• explicit vs. implicit
• data, information, knowledge, wisdom?

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Challenges lots of them!

• Requirements
• Technology
• Resources
• User Expectations

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Requirements

• How much do we bite off at once?
• email, calendaring, etc.
• learning management system
• library, registrar, academic support
• policies procedures (Student Life, HR)
• discussion forums, etc.
• more specialized content

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Portal has different meanings ( implications)
for different people.
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Portal has different meanings ( implications)
for different people.
customization
initial ease of use
continual status Business OS, FaceBook
periodic update MSN, Yahoo, NetVibes
episodic task Amazon, Google
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Technology

• Key functions often provided by different tools
  organizational units.
• IT, admissions, development, library, registrar
• One portal/platform may not be feasible.
• due to history, politics, even technology
• Many platforms tools to consider.
• Options skills change continually.

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Resources

• Do more more with less less ?create
  something from nothing.
• Focus on what matters to whom?
• Enhance ease of use to whom?
• Distribute the effort to whom?

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User Expectations

• The Past
• separate interfaces
• separate searches
• homemade is fine

• The Future
• unified interface
• federated search
• Amazon Google are the baseline

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Possible strategies?

• Do nothing. Too Cold!
• Hope that the problem goes away.
• Hope that a killer app appears.
• Commit to major project. Too Hot!
• Find executive sponsorship.
• Finish before the target changes.
• Find a happy balance. Just Right?

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Tactic Test fast, fail fast, adjust fast.

• 80 of benefit for 20 of cost.
• Deploy validate in limited contexts.
• IT, Library, wiki
• High-level champion buy-in less critical.
• industry examples

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Stealth Portals Succeeding despite deans,
faculty, students, IT, etc
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Tactic Dont reinvent the wheel.

• Beg for available (commercial) systems
  experienced consultants.
• Borrow from existing systems.
• on campus groupware, LMS,
• off campus FaceBook, GMail,
• Steal (via FOSS) from other institutions.

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FOSS Examples

• Content Management System
• Learning Management System
• Wiki

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Content Management System(e.g. Drupal, Joomla)

• separates content (text, images, data)from
  layout (colors, fonts, menus)
• many content types features
• add-on modules for added functionality
• LDAP, MARC, Millennium, Z39.50
• examples (Drupal)
• academic sites, libraries, patent database,
  e-commerce

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Learning Management System(e.g. Moodle, Sakai)

• content management for learning / courses
• courses contain activities resources
• add-on modules for added functionality
• examples (Moodle)
• courses meta courses
• committees, organizations
• sites, portals

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Wikis

• collaborative editing
• easy to learn / easy to use
• version control (who did what, when)
• add-on modules for added functionality
• examples (MediaWiki, MoinMoin, TWiki)
• not just for WikiPedia!!!
• institution, community, department

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Many tradeoffs to consider.

• general vs. specialized
• simple vs. powerful (for whom?)
• FOSS vs. expensive supported
• stable vs. cutting edge
• How best to mix match?

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MODEL 0 BASE
Function
User Interface
Resource
Platforms
ILS related systems III Millennium, Arial,
(ILL, reserves, serials) WorldCat, Serial
Solutions
Service


Search
static HTML
Data
databases other resources MDID
Outreach
38
MODEL 1 CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM more
consistent user interface ? some specialized
functionality fewer tools to integrate -
complex too to learn manage
Function
User Interface
Resource
Platforms
ILS related systems III Millennium, Arial,
(ILL, reserves, serials) WorldCat, Serial
Solutions
Service


Search
Data
databases other resources MDID
static HTML or CMS
Outreach
CMS misc info Drupal, Sharepoint,
TWiki scholarly repository research guide
39
MODEL 2 TOOLS best of breed functionality -
less consistent user interface - more
tools/vendors to manage
Function
User Interface
Resource
Platforms
ILS related systems III Millennium, Arial,
(ILL, reserves, serials) WorldCat, Serial
Solutions
Service


Search
OPAC Koha, vufind
Data
databases other resources MDID
static HTML
scholarly repository DSpace
Outreach
research guide libdata, SubjectsPlus
40
MODEL 3 INTEGRATED best of breed
functionality - more tools/vendors to manage
more consistent user interface - more tools to
integrate
Function
User Interface
Resource
Platforms
ILS related systems III Millennium, Arial,
(ILL, reserves, serials) WorldCat, Serial
Solutions
Service


Search
OPAC Koha, vufind
Data
databases other resources MDID
CMS
scholarly repository DSpace
Outreach
research guide libdata, SubjectsPlus
CMS misc info Drupal, Sharepoint, TWiki
41
Comparing Models
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Conclusions Discussion
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Presentation Description

• Academic institutions, including IT staff, non-IT
  staff, faculty, and students, face daunting
  challenges involving portals and portal-like
  functionality. First, as different academic and
  administrative units evolve and identify
  different needs, portal requirements grow and
  become more diverse, so that a single portal or
  platform may not suffice. Instead, subsets of
  capabilities may be provided by systems designed
  for or managed by other units across campus, such
  as course management, admissions, academic
  support, development, libraries, and student
  government. Second, technology platforms and
  capabilities continue to evolve, while the
  expectations of users (especially students)
  continue to rise, based on their experiences with
  sites and services such as GMail, Google,
  FaceBook, MySpace, Yahoo, and YouTube, whose
  development costs can be amortized over millions
  of users. Third, academic institutions face new
  resource constraints imposed by the weak economy
  and shifting student demographics. Thus,
  institutions may have to defer or curtail plans
  to deploy, enhance, or rebuild traditional campus
  portals and similar systems. This presentation
  proposes two linked strategies to help address
  these challenges.
• First, we should find opportunities to deploy
  portal functionality and validate specific
  platforms in limited contexts. We could call them
  lightweight portals or stealth portals,
  particularly when they are developed (by the IT
  department, or by other units on campus) without
  a top-down institutional mandate. Second, we
  should expand use of Free and Open Source
  Software (FOSS), which refers to software that is
  distributed without charge and with the
  underlying source code, so that anyone can fix
  defects, add enhancements, or otherwise modify
  the software and share their changes with others.
  Successful FOSS projects usually have robust
  implementations, with high cohesion, low
  coupling, effective tests, and documentation,
  since many developers work on them briefly or
  intermittently. FOSS projects often have varied
  user communities, whose members can help
  institutions address unexpected requirements or
  problems. Three types of FOSS can help to provide
  portal functionality content management systems
  (such as Drupal), course management systems (such
  as Moodle), and wikis (such as TWiki). Thus,
  these strategies seek to avoid the costs and
  risks of many disparate, unconnected systems
  evolving independently, and, conversely, of
  deploying a single platform campus-wide.
• First, this presentation will review these
  challenges and strategies, and discuss their
  implications. Second, it will present examples of
  how portal functionality can be provided by a
  variety of FOSS platforms. It will conclude with
  a moderated discussion of these and other
  approaches and future challenges.

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Biographic Information

• Clif Kussmaul is Associate Professor of Computer
  Science at Muhlenberg College, where he teaches
  software engineering and other courses. His
  teaching and professional activity involves a
  variety of open source software, including
  Drupal, MoinMoin, Moodle, and TWiki. Clif is also
  Chief Technology Officer for Elegance
  Technologies, Inc., which develops software
  products and provides software development
  services. His previous positions include Senior
  Member of Technical Staff with NeST Technologies,
  and Assistant Professor of CS at Moravian
  College. He has a PhD in Computer Science from
  the University of California, Davis, master's
  degrees in CS and Electro-acoustic Music from
  Dartmouth College, and bachelor's degrees in
  Engineering and Music from Swarthmore College.
  His professional interests and activities include
  software engineering, entrepreneurship, digital
  signal processing, cognitive neuroscience, and
  music.

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Data
Search
Service
Outreach
Function
User Interface



static HTML
ILS related systems - ILL, reserves,
serials (III Millennium, Arial,
WorldCat,Serial Solutions)
databases other resources (MDID)
Resource
MODEL 0 BASE
47
Outreach
Data
Search
Service
Function
User Interface




static HTML or CMS
CMS misc info, repository, research guide,
etc (Drupal, Sharepoint, TWiki)
ILS related systems - ILL, reserves,
serials (III Millennium, Arial,
WorldCat,Serial Solutions)
databases other resources (MDID)
Resource
MODEL 1 CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM more
consistent user interface ? some specialized
functionality fewer tools to integrate -
complex tool to learn manage
48
Data
Search
Service
Outreach
Function
User Interface






web site (static HTML)
ILS related systems - ILL, reserves,
serials (III Millennium, Arial,
WorldCat,Serial Solutions)
Scholarly Repository (DSpace)
Research Guide (libdata, SubjectsPlus)
databases other resources (MDID)
OPAC (Koha, vufind)
Resource
MODEL 2 TOOLS best of breed functionality -
less consistent user interface - more
tools/vendors to manage
49
Outreach
Data
Search
Service
Function
User Interface






web site
CMS misc info (Drupal, Sharepoint, TWiki)
Scholarly Repository (DSpace)
Research Guide (libdata, SubjectsPlus)
ILS related systems (ILL, reserves,
serials) (III Millennium, Arial,
WorldCat,Serial Solutions)
databases other resources (MDID)
OPAC (Koha, vufind)
Resource
MODEL 3 INTEGRATED best of breed
functionality - more tools/vendors to manage
more consistent user interface - more tools to
integrate
50
Things To Do

• user stories
• native vs. custom vs. federated interface
• local vs. remote (hardware)
• cost/benefit analysis staff/time/
• feasibility without added staff/time/
• implementation timeline
• prioritization of staff needs

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Caveats - INCOMPLETE

• System functions span categories
• search, data, service, outreach
• Systems have multiple interfaces
• e.g. admin, public, custom, federated