Introduction to Portals Web Portals Gateways to Information

Introduction to Portals Web Portals: Gateways to Information February 2, 2001

What is a Portal Anyway? “A Web site or service that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as e-mail, forums, search engines, and on-line shopping malls. The first Web portals were online services, such as AOL, that provided access to the Web, but by now most of the traditional search engines have transformed themselves into Web portals to attract and keep a larger audience. ” - ZDWEBOPEDIA. z Generally fall into two categories : y Horizontal, also called HEPs (Horizontal Enterprize Portals) and megaportals. General sites that attempt to provide on a single web page all the services any user might need - Examples: My. Yahoo, Excite y Vertical, also called VEPs (Vertical Enterprize Portals) or Vortals. Delivers organization-specific information in a user-centric way. Examples: My. Library (from NCSU), pets. com z Other terms in use include ERP (Enterprize Resource Portals), EIP (Enterprize Information Portal), Affinity Portal, Corporate Portal, Knowledge Management Portal, IT Portal, Niche Portal, Industry Portal, B 2 B Portal. . .

Common Components of Portal Space z. Gateways to Web Access, i. e. well-defined “places to start” z. A “hub” from which users can locate all the web content they commonly need at a general level (Horizontal) or organizational/interest level (Vertical) z. Usually support some level of personalization and/or customization z. A portal is “user-centric”, while a homepage is “owner-centric”

Horizontal Portals Up Close: My. Yahoo

Horizontal Portals Up Close: My. Yahoo (what it can’t do)

Vertical Portals Up Close: My. Association How do we both ensure and leverage our credibility is one of the key issues facing academic libraries

Vertical Portals Up Close: My. Association

Portal Technologies: at a web page near you

The Achilles’ Heel of Portals: does Yahoo’s disadvantage work to the library’s favour?

Portals & Libraries: the building blocks for a social machine? z Some web pundits envision a “social machine” based on web technologies to allow citizens to fully participate in society z Portals offer a network “desktop” that can follow users everywhere z Voting is already taking place on the Internet for various organization activities, e. g. electing board representatives z Libraries have a historical and important role to play in allowing the broadest spectrum of society to take advantage of all forms of communication

Tools for Building a Portal Commercial Actuate, Blackboard, Epicentric, Perspecta, Plumtree, Lotus Notes/Domino, e. LPHIN Library System i. Bistro (from SIRSI) Open Source Jet. Speed (from Apache), My. Library, Zope Key Question: Where will the content of the portal be created?

Library Examples: My. Library from NCSU

Library Examples: i. Bistro

Library Examples: Open Online

Library Examples: Michigan Electronic Library

Library Examples: Tele. Education NB

Where to go for more information on Portals z http: //www. zdnet. com/pcmag/features/webportals/intro. html - PC Magazine’s Introduction to Portals z http: //www. traffick. com/ - The “Guide to Portals” z http: //www. cren. net/know/techtalk/events/portals. html CREN Tech. Talk on Portals z http: //hegel. lib. ncsu. edu/development/mylibrary/ My. Library site z http: //www. zope. org/ - Search for “portal”, there is a “Portal Toolkit” and information on applying it to specific organizations, including schools