The JA-SIG Clearinghouse – We’re making progress! JA-SIG Miami December, 2003 Patty Gertz

The Clearinghouse Vision The JA-SIG Clearinghouse will be a site that provides community resources to all the members of the JA-SIG. These resources may include: Announcements Forums Channels Document repositories Code repositories Anything else you can dream up!

Why is this clearinghouse different from all other clearinghouses? Built by us for us Open architected It’s open source – no proprietary, licensed software Allows us a place to show off our own stuff Enhances our feeling of community And… It has a very cool developers’ group

Important Features Aligns with the goals of the JA-SIG Demonstrates Open Architectures, Open Source Builds Community, increases peer review and collaboration Nurtures communication of best practices Promotes our collective work Clearinghouse is built on uPortal framework (currently 2.1.2) Accommodates all types of content Allow for variations in institutional rules for sharing

What’s so different from the old one? Includes portal framework functionality Roles defined using Groups and Permissions – as you have more authorization you get more tabs Search capabilities using Lucene Provides best practices and documentation guides to how to package and contribute Metadata layer captured during contribution

The Tabs JA-SIG Home uPortal Channels InformationApplications Services Community Home: JA-SIG web site, announcements Information: Bookmarks, Search, Statistics uPortal Channels: All channels, reflects everything currently in CVS, labeled for version, status, fee designation. Applications: Java apps we can share, with status and demos when available Services: Web Services we can share Community: Institutional references, legal constraints Management: The administrative tab, where utilities will go as we build them. Management

Roles Roles defined and implemented using Groups and Permissions 1) Guest – View/Search public information (documents, discussions, etc.) 2) JA-SIG Member (registered) – Above, plus read only access to contributed applications, channels, web services 3) Contributing User – Above, plus contribute software (applications, channels, web services, documents) 4) Institutional User – Above, plus change institutional policy and information 5) Systems User – Above, plus modify/manage Clearinghouse portal

Lucene Search Open Source – no licensing Can index and search against multiple formats Can index and search against documents residing in multiple sites (spider).

Where are we headed?  Sun Grant will give us a server, operating system and maintenance  Automated registration  Develop and show off our own stuff – we will take every opportunity to showcase our members’ code, even if it means redundant functionality. - news will be delivered through Columbia’s or CalPoly’s announcements - content will be delivered through CUCMS - Cornell’s work with WebDAV for document management  More sort capabilities, based on captured metadata  Migration of all usable existing clearinghouse code, as well as the channel tree in CVS  Administrative/Management utilities, both personal mgt and clearinghouse mgt  A showcase for open source that extends beyond uPortal

The future continues with extensibility  Web services  User feedback, rankings  Long term sustainability model, both for hardware/software, new development, and administration  A critical tool for the Higher Ed community, and a vehicle for kinship  A focal point for any information of interest to the JA-SIG community  Shift to use of CVS for code, the clearinghouse for distribution

Outstanding Issues  Production hardware access – development team has access privileges, everyone else through the web application  Policy Issues –Who is SuperUser (portal Administrator)? –What are the rules for membership in the JA-SIG –Who gets to post announcements? Post code? Pull code?  Authentication across a wide higher ed community, using a method such as Shibboleth  Content Management configuration issues  Merging of JA-SIG website, uPortal website and clearinghouse website?  Timeline – Migration of old by April; Beta testing in May; Switch to new clearinghouse by June conference.

What makes the Clearinghouse valuable? A great vehicle for communication – For java developers –Vet ideas, concepts. Share code – can it get you halfway there? –If we’re smarter about writing it, can we use it intact? –Web services that you host for others?  For uPortal shops –Lots more channels than you can write alone. Solutions for the integration problems you have.  For the Higher Ed community –A place for their deliverables, white papers, standards, best practices.

How do we continue making progress? Feedback – You tell us what’s needed. Management tools to help the different JA-SIG constituencies. Utilities to help administer the clearinghouse itself. Additional functionality, such as sorting off of meaningful metadata. Content, content, content. Contact: Patty Gertz, Princeton University

Thanks to the Development Team  Core Team: –Steve Barrett, Cornell –Pete Boysen, Iowa State –David Castro, Azuma Pacific –Josh Kent, Middle Tennessee State –Paul Lynn, Princeton –Alex Vigdor, Columbia

Demo