Jim Farmer As presented at the AACRAO Technology Conference July 24, 2006 | Denver, Colorado USA Interoperability: Better service, lower costs now

Georgetown University Preface This presentation was prepared for executives and staff in information technology at colleges and universities. The first part—context—provides data that can facilitate a conversation with academic and business executives, and perhaps provide some insight into economic distortions that have developed in campus IT. The second part—economics of interoperability—demonstrates how the integration of separately architected and developed applications leads to exponential increases in the cost of maintenance. The third part—interoperability—explores different views of interoperability, how current technology can reduce costs and, incidentally, increase services. This leads to strategies for improving interoperability with examples from current practice.

Context: What business are colleges and universities in?

Georgetown University From the IT perspective

Georgetown University Instruction supported?

Georgetown University Responsible for instruction technology?

Georgetown University Staffing instruction technology

Georgetown University Staffing instructional technology

Georgetown University Who pays? Students 52% of the colleges and universities charge a technology fee; 57% of the doctorate universities charge. ($30 to $695 per student reported) All via higher textbook charges (since this funds multimedia, test questions, faculty support, and, in some cases, student access to publisher’s online resources). Estimated $400. Colleges and universities From operating and capital budgets; about $832 per full-time equivalent student for all of IT.

And the available application systems?

Georgetown University Age of enterprise systems

Georgetown University Switching systems?

Georgetown University Outsourcing?

Georgetown University Summary More IT resources are devoted to administration than instruction or research. Almost all institutions have a course management system. Colleges and universities would like to change systems, but don’t. CMS is the least mature, the least expensive, and the most often changed.

The economics of interoperability

Georgetown University Where do IT funds go?

Georgetown University Where the IT dollars go Mårten Mickos, MySQL AB, Open Source Business Conference 2005

Georgetown University Cost relative to average Average

Georgetown University An example: a list of publications The PeopleSoft HR system uses the HR-XML resume standard. The OSP electronic portfolio uses their own format. Faculty use George Mason University’s proposed.bib format. Legal XML citation formats Unique connectors (combinations): C = number of nodes * (number of nodes – 1) 2

Georgetown University The 6 connectors and 12 software nodes. HR-XML OSP.bib LegalXML

Georgetown University Using SOA, 1 connector and 1 software node. HR-XML OSP.bib LegalXML SOAP hub

Georgetown University Identity Management Shibboleth because Web single signon + Federation Use cases Access to journals and electronic documents Outsourced services integrated with local services Financial aid access (Meteor)

Georgetown University Proposed Georgetown projects Shibboleth and JSTOR by professional association (Vivarium) Shibboleth and Blackboard Shibboleth and SunGard Banner IMS Common Cartridge

Georgetown University Who is interested? The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) in the UK, the Department of Education, Science, and Training (DEST) in Australia, SURF in the Netherlands, and New Zealand Ministry of Education. The U.S. Department of Education. The University of British Columbia in Canada (SOA Workshops). See educationcommons.org. JA-SIG (with multiple software products). Sun Microsystems Inc., and Georgetown University “Centre of Excellence, Scholarly Systems,” and other SCEs.

Georgetown University Summary The demand for integration continues to increase based on student demand and faculty and staff productivity—a full range of real-time, Web services. Integration is becoming more complex. Integration is very expensive. And maintenance continues to be expensive throughout the life of the software system.

Interoperability defined

Georgetown University What is interoperability?

Georgetown University Practical interoperability “I plug it in. It works.” From the JA-SIG Winter Conference 2006 Author declines to be cited ___________________________ 1.No programming required to install. 2.Its function is solely dependent upon the interface. 3.Maintenance depends only on the stability of the interface.

Georgetown University The commercial approach Service-oriented architecture Use standard SOAP messaging with standard message content. Use headers and encryption to provide security independent of the message “payload.” Use open standards to define the message content. Components and workflow

Georgetown University Commercial perspective Edward Screven, Oracle Corporation, Open Source Business Conference 2005

Georgetown University Some examples The SAP student system (at the University of Kentucky and Purdue University) The Meteor system (now being extended to campuses, prototyped by the uPortal team using open standards in 2001; production2002) And soon Oracle Fusion systems (using Fusion middleware)

Georgetown University “Standards”

Georgetown University Some specifications PESC for transcript (course data), financial aid, admissions, and test scores. IMS for student learning, content HR-XML for resume and career portfolio U.S. Department of Homeland Security for international student visas and other data

Georgetown University Software frameworks

Georgetown University A commercial framework

Georgetown University The e-Framework, one perspective

Georgetown University An interoperability strategy Base systems selection on open standards and ten-year costs. Replace high maintenance—typically older—systems with component- based, service oriented systems. Where possible, use frameworks to reduce the number of interoperations.

Georgetown University Agile transformation The tools of process re-engineering Systems Oriented Architecture (SOA) using open standards Open standard workflow Business process documentation (UML) Business intelligence applications

Georgetown University Summary The long-term costs of maintenance are much more significant than the cost of implementation. Careful attention to software selection, modification, and maintenance will reduce costs significantly and reduce financial risk. The key specifications have become standards. Homework required

Georgetown University Observations from IT We can do it immediately or we can do it right; but we cannot do it right immediately. We can “hack” a solution over the weekend (but can’t convince you that this will cost a lot in the long run). We never have time (or budget) to “go back” and improve the quality of code or documentation. And now we are paying the price

The end

Georgetown University Primary references James Farmer and Justin E. Tilton, “The Use of Virtual Learning Environment Software in UK Universities ,” im+m, 16 June James Farmer and Justin E. Tilton, “Software Trends in Higher Education: ,” im+m, 25 July James Farmer, “e-Framework: Using technology effectively,” Joint Information Systems Committee, 19 July Ian Dolphin, Jim Farmer, and Robert Sherratt, “Tools and Resources Interoperability for the Virtual Research Environment (VRE),” University of Hull, 13 July Jim Farmer, “Open Source: Risk, Rewards, and Realities,” ACM Computing Services Management Symposium, San Diego, California USA, 10 April Jim Farmer, “Open Source in Higher Education,” Open Source Software: Days of Dialogue, California State University-Monterey Bay, Seaside, California, February 9, 2006.

Georgetown University Credits This presentation is based on materials developed for Georgetown University, the UK Joint Information Systems Committee, and Oxford University. im+m’s Jon Allen provided graphical design and graphics, and suggestions on presentation. Justin Tilton jointly authored the primary references.

Georgetown University Permissions im+m publications and this presentation are available under the Creative Commons license. Information in this presentation was taken from public sources or with permission and can be redistributed. The presentation itself can be reproduced and redistributed provided there are no changes made to the content. Attribution is not required.

Supplementary material

Georgetown University Open source changes business model Larry M. Augustine, Medsphere Systems, Open Source Business Conference 2005