Portals: the buzzword of 1999 Suzana Lisanti CWIS Facilitator Massachusetts institute of Technology Common Solutions Group, October 1999

Portals What are they? –Mega-portal (AOL, Yahoo, Netscape) –Enterprise portals –Special-interest portals (vortal) Benefits Risks

“Our” enterprise portal

“Your” enterprise portal Audience self-selects by type

Search engine mega-portal Add Disney and Infoseek and you get Infosqueak more than bookmarks

Mega-portal: MSN

“My” portal Usually enabled by cookie technology To change layout I was told to use MS Explorer!

Knowledge management

Benefits of “my” portal Daily content in one location Easier login (goal) Navigational value – Time saved not having to type favorite urls, search terms E-commerce linkage may facilitate workflow the model has changed from being the reference librarian on the internet toinformation management, or being an interactive work center

Semantic confusion - new services as “portal” Typical lists –Academic Services –Course Resources: syllabi, access to teacher’s online office hours, eConferencing, discussion forums and student/teacher homepages –Campus auctions, event calendars, student communities, and post/find it tools (rideshare, roommates, tutors, etc). –Research Center –Career Center –Web Shopping (discounts on Travel, Computers, Books, Clothing, Music, Events )

A successful portal Recognizes the user Displays dynamic content Facilitates Workflow –single login to disparate services –moves the customer through business processes Has customizable views and tools Is clear about its scope

Relationships Build community or balkanize? –my.mit, my.sloan, my.physics –Peoplesoft uses “roles” concept Cognitive maps –internal vs external, marketing/service –referrals require a common language The new AOL Search service blends matching content from within AOL and from across the web into one results screen. The external version that will be accessible via the web won't list content only available to AOL members.

“Our” UCLA

My UCLA: overlap?

Personalized information

Our green

StudentU.com

Course Site (blackboard.com)

E-commerce “Keep out e-commerce” is a red herring The devil is in the details - manage the contracts Guidelines for linking, sponsorship, and ads Barnes & nobles runs some college bookstores Sherlock, in OS8, searches Internet from HD extended to do online shopping if you search for moon landing, you’ll also get apollo- related merchandise from ebay and amazon

Define “acceptable” ads Logo “postage stamps” from

Affiliates guidelines Search boxes that pay

Privacy Whose customer? –A school, department, or university? Privacy policies –can we trust 3rd party companies as data guardians Portable profiles, possibly customer-managed? Yahoo has a universal shopping basket

Full disclosure Require full disclosure Hidden deals for placement on search results Browsers act like search engines –internet key words, destinations On what basis does a link show up

Someday Portals will seem really “flat” What’s coming is more interaction with the human being on the other side of the screen

the next phase

A real person behind the screen

The tool shot over the net

Build, buy, or barter? Pressure to develop a portal without a pragmatic web strategy Define clear goals Acceptable authentication & security needs to be in place

I/T management risks Increased complexity in security, privacy, administration, and service Expensive to integrate legacy apps Expensive to manage vendors