Knowledge Workers and Portals Jim Farmer Sakai Community Liaison prepared for, but not presented at NCeSS National Centre for e-Social Science 21 June 2005 ● Manchester, UK

Credits The uPortal slides are taken from presentations made by uPortal Chief Architect Peter Kharchenko given 16-17 June 2005 at the Soros Foundation-sponsored ITE 2005 (Information Technologies in Education) International Workshop in Yerevan, Armenia. The concept slides were created by Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, based on Sakai/ uPortal integration discussions, 13-15 June 2005. The WSRP 2.0 slides are based on the WSRP Implementation Roundtable led by Randy Timmons, Sigma Systems Inc., held 11 June 2005 in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Knowledge Worker

Administrative worker The typical [administrative] employee has 16 applications open at the same time. Applications Software Development, June 2005

The multi-tasking user “Generation M,” Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2005

The multi-tasking user “Generation M,” Kaiser Family Foundation, March 2005

Modes of use

Chris Awre, CREE Survey Results and Comments, March 2005 From the CREE survey Use search daily 84.6% plus an additional 14.8% use it weekly; research staff 89.4%. Google was used frequently by 92% of the users as comaped to 34.2% for nationally maintained subject-specific resources; 49.2% for research staff. 97.2% use advanced search facilities; 16.9% always when they search. Chris Awre, CREE Survey Results and Comments, March 2005

The multi-tasking knowledge worker Personal research and collaboration changing between modes depending upon events and the user’s focus of attention Combination of “work” and “personal” layouts Increasing number of “screen hours” per day Relationships between layout and modes and research productivity not yet known

Jon’s view – Future Layouts Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, inc, June 12, 2005

Serving the knowledge worker The user’s layout will include, say, 12-24 applications—portlets and channels—open simultaneously. This will be grouped by “tabs” Every knowledge work will also include personal portlets and channels, especially reference portlets such as search and dictionary and personal portlets such as music The layout will change dynamically based on portlet selection from “bookmarks” Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, inc, June 12, 2005

Portal Defined

Portals as Aggregators

Learning environment and library Ian Dolphin, University of Hull at the Sakai Educational Partners Conference, 10 December 2004

Learning Management System Courses and Projects Tools Activities and Content

The Sakai layout

Jon’s view – Future Layouts Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, inc, June 13, 2005

Jon Allens’s view - Categories Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, inc, June 13, 2005

Jon’s view – Dynamic layout Portlet A - Selection Portlet B – Selected portlet added dynamically to the layout Jon Allen, instructional media + magic, inc, June 13, 2005

WSRP Web Services Remote Portlet

WSRP 2.0 Sakai, Moodle, WebCT, and Blackboard and JA-SIG’s uPortal are developing and testing WSRP with advice from OASIS WSRP Technical Committee Chair Rich Thompson and Apache Software Foundation WSRP4J committer Julie MacNaught, both from IBM Research Center, Yorktown Heights, USA, based on the forthcoming WSRP 2.0 specification. The WSRP 2.0 specification is expected to be approved by OASIS late 2005 or early 2006. WSRP 2.0 is expected to be supported by software suppliers Q1 or Q2 calendar 2006. WSRP Implementation Roundtable, June 11, 2005, Baltimore, Maryland, Sigma Systems inc. June 13, 1005

Moodle Learning System Possible WSRP Moodle WSRP Moodle Producer WSRP Moodle Learning System WSRP Service

The end

Publisher’s Note uPortal is a project of the JA-SIG Collaborative led by Carl Jacobson at the University of Delaware and funded, in part, from the Sakai Project. im+m has contributed to uPortal, and the University of Hull’s CREE project referenced in these presentations. The author is Chairman of the Board of im+m and Sigma Systems Inc., contracted by the University of Michigan as Sakai Community Liaison for the Sakai Educational Partners Program, part-time researcher for the U.S. Department of Education and volunteers as uPortal Project Administrator.

Permissions Sakai and JA-SIG publications are in the public domain and can be freely reproduced. These presentations may contain material reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Users are requested to comply with any copyright restrictions and to appropriately reference any materials that are used in their own works.