Finding Collaborators Worldwide James Werle, Univ. of Washington, jwerle@u.washington.edu Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN, jmacdoug@isc.upenn.edu Tim Boundy, JANET, Tim.Boundy@ja.net

Defining the Need 87 advanced networks worldwide, over 50k Internet2 connected institutions in the US alone YET - few know how to find collaborators Solution to date => email NREN directors/contacts to find out connectivity status How to find collaborating partners has been the “Holy Grail” of applications success Jennifer i.e., Finding Global Collaborators has been a holy grail New initiatives around the world to solve this challenge (K20, Janet, Education.Au, PCATP, CILC, etc) What are common challenges Integrating these tools is the new holy grail

James Werle Jennifer Oxenford K20 MUSE James Werle Jennifer Oxenford

Muse Goals  Connect people with similar interests around advanced networking applications Encourage collaboration Facilitate resource sharing and discovery Better introduce new communities to advanced networking community and applications James

MyK20 of the Past Create personal profile Submit project description Search for projects and people James History of MyK20, limited functionality Discuss what it did About 3 years old, currently has about 75 project descriptions, 1500 personal profiles from around the world.

MyK20 Limitations Rapid data obsolescence People needed to find myK20 National in scope - no regional customization available No real-time communication and limited collaboration functionality James

Ideology of Muse User community driven content Incorporating best of web 2.0 and social networking ideas (flickr, digg, youtube, myspace, delicious, etc.) Radical trust of users (a la wikipedia) Wisdom of the crowd Tagging - user defined folksonomies to describe content Jennifer

Functionality of Muse Regional sites sharing and displaying content from same database Regional sites/users determine what is shared to other regions Create, manage, share personal profiles and projects Post news items and events Search for projects, people Jennifer

Functionality of Muse (con’t) Tag and comment content Create and maintain colleagues or “friends” Leave messages for friends Use Google API mash-up to geographically display information Real time chat with friends (phase II) “Push” content via RSS feeds, email, etc. Create/upload/share resources (.ppt, urls, podcasts, bookmarks, whatever!) Jennifer

Need for regional tools MAGPI member community wanted regional database Did not want to compete with national Myk20 Need for robust interoperability between regional and national tools Realized potential for other regional communities (states, countries, disciplines, whatever!) Jennifer

Simplified Muse Architecture Internet2 Server database - mySQL CMS - drupal Muse Architecture James National MyK20 MAGPI Regional Your SEGPs regional site Australia Regional …

Technical Support from Internet2 Website Hosting Wiki environment (for national development team) Flexible server support and configuration James

Regional site National site James The Muse Reveal

National site Jennifer The MAGPI regional site

Live Demo - People National site Go here now to create new user profile/acct. and search for others. National site Create new user acct. Features/Ideology Behind New Accounts Key Features Region is automatically assigned in the registration process Simplified requirements designed for LCD/ease of use User defined “default view” (i.e. global or regional) User defined self-discolsure of contact info (i.e., global or regional only) Resource sharing (websites, files, etc)

Live Demo - Projects National site Go here now to create, edit, search projects National site Search, create, edit project Features/Ideology Projects Key Features Region is automatically assigned in the registration process Simplified requirements designed for LCD/ease of use User defined “default view” (i.e. global or regional) User defined self-disclosure of contact info (i.e., global or regional only) Resource sharing (websites, files, etc)

“Get Started” Guides National site Discipline-specific introductions to advanced networking teaching and learning applications 4-year colleges 2-year colleges Public libraries K-12 schools Museums Zoos, Aquaria, Science Centers National site GSG’s help the “newbie” to navigate their way around muse and have a more personalized introduction to advanced networking k20 T&L applications.

Point out features of GSG “personalized” tour with a community member - gives a name, face to the guide 2. Specific benefits, implications,project examples and news for that community 3. Tailored stats on number of institutions connected of that particular community 4. Links out to other Muse members in that community and/or projects, tags, news

James Need for organization directory (also a Holy Grail).

Developing Muse Distributed team - UW and UPenn Student programmers = staff turnover Documentation challenges Extremely limited funding James

What’s Next? More Bug Testing / Evaluation Beta-Launch (Late-October) Marketing the service to other potential user groups Implement Phase 2 features based on user feedback James

How do you get involved? Create an account and help us beta-test Adopt Muse as a social utility for your community? Tell us about your organization’s social networking efforts! http://k20dev.internet2.edu/drupal Jennifer

FAQs - Do I have to have my own regional site? Nope! Muse Global K20 site is available for everyone Jennifer

FAQs - Who else are you talking to about this? CILC TERENA education.au AARNet JANET

JANET Collaborate Tim Boundy Project Manager, JANET Collaborate Jennifer Introduce Tim Boundy, Project Manager for JANET Collaborate

Challenges Moving Forward/Panel Discussion Integration of with similar online community efforts internationally Authentication Multi-linguality Data protection/privacy Identity confidence/verification Effective marketing to practitioners Social networking site overload!! All Discussion of challenges, issues for these initiatives by the panel and the audience

Q&A - Thank You Contact Us: James Werle, Univ. of Washington jwerle@u.washington.edu Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN jmacdoug@isc.upenn.edu Tim Boundy, JANET Tim.Boundy@ja.net