1 No More Paper, No More Stamps: Targeted myWSU Communications Jack Alilunas, Lavon Frazier May 17, 2004 Copyright Jack Alilunas, Lavon Frazier This work is the intellectual property of the authors. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the authors. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the authors.

2 Overview of WSU Research university 22,000+ students Four campuses Multiple learning centers Distance education program

3 Pullman Tri-Cities Vancouver Spokane ~EDP~ WSU Campus Locations

4 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements Notices Demo Technical Overview Lessons Learned Future Plans

5 Presentation Outline Business Problem

6 Better means of communication!

7 Business Requirements communicate information to specified audiences enable faculty to communicate with students in their classes officially notify individuals of status, etc. Needed mechanism to:

8 More Requirements easier to maintain than mailing lists more secure than able to assure & track delivery less costly than USPS more timely delivery than USPS or campus mail Needed electronic communication mechanism that was:

9 Opportunity WSU was developing the myWSU web portal as part of our “seamless, integrated, intuitive information environment” vision.

10 Solution Targeted Notices Facility in myWSU

11 Targeted Notices Facility Uses target recipient groups In secured portal web space Delivery based on WSU network-id Electronic, not paper and stamps Available for immediate delivery

12 Target Groups Automatically populated class enrollments Self-service opt-in/out campus, role, colleges, VPs Administrator managed President’s Cabinet Ad-hoc data warehouse query

13 Sender Authorizations Automatically authorized teaching assignments Administrator authorized for standard recipient groups for own area Default authorization for individuals

14 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements

15 e-Correspondence Policy Electronic correspondence shall be one of the authorized means of communication from Washington State University to students, faculty, staff, and other constituents.

16 Appropriate Security All University electronic correspondence that contain individually identifiable confidential or operational information must be sent via secure mechanisms that ensure message authenticity, confidentiality and integrity.

17 Appropriate Use University electronic correspondence may be used only to meet academic instruction, research, public service, and administrative needs of the University.

18 Sender Responsibility Note: to avoid the perception of myWSU notices as spam, it is essential for you to consider the needs of your audience, and that the targeting and frequency of your notices reflect such consideration. In help text:

19 Recipient Responsibility Just as they are responsible for any printed correspondence that is delivered by non-electronic means, faculty, staff and students are responsible for all information sent to them via University provided electronic correspondence delivery mechanisms. The University expects that all University business related electronic correspondence would be received and read in a timely fashion.

20 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements Notices Demo

21 Notice Recipient Functions Notices alert New notices list Notices in-box and viewer Campus announcements Subscriptions alert Subscriptions list Manage subscriptions

22 Notice Sender Functions Create notices –five targeting methods –four styles –four handling options Manage notices –search and display –delivery statistics –add new recipients –change effective dates –stop delivery

23 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements Notices Demo Technical Overview

24 The Developers’ Challenge learn and apply many new concepts and technologies, all at the same time, to produce a quality portal-based notices system on schedule In concert with other portal project team members:

25 New Concepts & Technologies Object Oriented Programming (Java) Oracle JDeveloper IDE Oracle servlet development framework (J2EE, MVC, OC4J, BC4J) Oracle portal & portlet design & administration Oracle Internet Directory (LDAP)

26 Our Experience “Here’s a 747. Fly it.” “We’re living our own Lewis & Clark expedition and we don’t know how many mountain ranges are between us and the ocean.” “Every path is its own trek.” “There’s some weird stuff going on!”

27 Legacy Systems Interface Legacy Systems Legacy: MVS, Natural, Adabas Portal: Linux, Oracle class sections enrollments Legacy DB (Adabas) Portal Trans. (Adabas) Notices DB (Oracle) Synch Process SQL Attunity Connect recipient groups

28 Legacy Systems Interface RONet Legacy: Windows Server 2003 RONet DB (SQL Server) Portal Trans. (Adabas) Notices DB (Oracle) Synch Process OID (LDAP) portal authorizations notice authorizations instructors, academic support staff SQL Attunity Connect Attunity Connect SQL Portal: Linux, Oracle

29 Batch Notice Feeds Any environment Portal: Linux, Oracle Any DB Any Batch Process Oracle XML DB Notice Creation XML, FTP Notices DB (Oracle) notices recipients Notice delivery via myWSU

30 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements Notices Demo Technical Overview Lessons Learned

31 Lessons Learned There are no silver bullets The likelihood of failure of a project increases as the square of the number of unproven techniques products people involved Gordon Glasgow was right:

32 Lessons Learned Everything will be accomplished … in its own good time Very few shortcuts to experience Working with a mega-corporation across many layers of constantly evolving technologies is a challenge

33 Lessons Learned Working with complex technologies We’re on the edge of Oracle’s core technologies SSL, SSO, foreign DBs, configuration, personalization Plan on two very intense years Don’t worry, be happy

34 Presentation Outline Business Problem Policy Statements Notices Demo Technical Overview Lessons Learned Future Plans

35 Enhancements in Progress More management functions view delivery status list recipients change dates stop delivery Html wizards for notice body Fully automated batch feed

36 Future Enhancements Distributed group administration Ability to save a notice Ability to reply to a notice Automated records retention Purge and archive functions Accessibility issues

37 For Further Information...