The OUCS Portal Project OUCS Portal Implementation Group

The OUCS Portal Project OUCS Portal Implementation Group 29 April 2003

Portal hypertension (The Cleveland Clinic) Essentials of a portal • Provides a framework for – Retrieving, aggregating (and integrating) information • From distributed remote services – Presenting information according to user preferences “Building portals is not about creating content. It is less about developing functionality than it is about building a coherent presentation of existing content and applications tailored to specific users. ”

Claude Monet Le Portail (Effet de Matin). 1894 Essentials of an institutional portal • Portal providing an integrated view (“pocket guide”) of a university’s information resources – For students, teachers, researchers, academic-support, alumni… – From information exposed by departments, colleges, academic services, VLE, student/staff records, external resources

And what a portal is not • Not – Content creation/management system – Replacement for existing processes • A portal is only as good as its content. • The content is only as good as the processes to create/manage it • Developing a portal may result in changing processes but it is not an aim.

Information sources in Oxford Student

Information sources in Oxford Staff

Information sources in Oxford Everyone

Aims of the OUCS PIG • To gain more experience of portals, Web Services and associated standards • To investigate streamlining existing services and offering a user-centric view of OUCS+ information • To encourage the migration of OUCS internal office processes to the digital information age • Disseminate our and others experiences to the University

Project Plan • Establishing a hardware and software base – Development/demonstrator environments • Service definition – Consultation and catalogue of services • Service standards – How to expose content for channels • Layout and delivery design – Developing XSLT styesheets etc • Access management – Integrating authentication/authorization • OUCS internal office – Audit of information flow

Service definitions National survey said: Our survey* said: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Search your favourite resources 2. Library administration 3. Access/update teaching materials 4. Personal information 5. Digital resources alerts 6. Email access 7. Handbook 8. Deadline alerts 9. Access/update reading lists 10. Campus news OUCS news of all kinds Alerts/Access to Weblearn Access to WING My Ox. LIP/OLIS Themes/channels by college/dept. 6. Events aggregator 7. Job vacancies 8. Bookmarks 9. Classified adverts 10. Weather * Survey based on small number of interviews combined with usefulness and feasibility

u. Portal • Open Source portal framework • Developed by JA-SIG HE institutions (with help from Mellon) • Co-ordinates output of content from channels • Implemented as Java servlets; XML/XSLT

Edris Eckhardt Portal to Immortality Joining it all up Personalised portal interface XSLT Authentication Authorization Data Channels Metadata Services Data RSS SOAP XHTML … VLE, OXAM, Herald, OUCSweb, Admin, OLIS, OXLIP, etc People Courses News OUCS Data Library Data Athens

Eugène Atget Old Courtyard, rue Quincampoix Progress to date • Assembled a PIG from across OUCS – (Lou Burnard (chair), Sebastian Rahtz (secretary), Matthew Dovey, Francisco Pinto, Chris Cooper, Peter Robinson, Bruce Shakespeare, Stephen Quinney) • Defined a potential list of services for integration • Parallel investigation of authentication services • Installed u. Portal and enrolled in u. Portal training • Commenced configuring a demonstrator • Organised a series of portal talks

http: //charlotte. oucs. ox. ac. uk: 8080/u. Portal Demo Screenshots in case the demo fails

u. Portal and Weblearn • FAQ: what is the proper relationship? – Weblearn = VLE = place where learning takes place – Portal = framework = channel for alerting; access; based on common AMS – VLE might offer portal-like functions • E. g. what is the relationship between the VLE and Library resources? • Avoid locking content into blackboxes – Does the VLE/Portal/Records System support Open Standards?

Charles Marville Cathedral de Reims, figures du Grand Portal Timetable • • Feb 2003: planning March 2003: basic templates & RSS April 2003: integration of LDAP May 2003: development of selected Web Services • June 2003: demonstrator launched

Fragment: Man in a Portal 4 th-6 th century How you can help • Are you an information provider? – Consider supporting RSS newsfeeds or other XML standards - talk to us about your services • Are you a likely portal user? – Consider expressing an interest in evaluation or consultation - we want to know your needs • Are you a technical developer? – Consider assisting with channel development

A different type of portal