1. Using Sakai for Research Collaboration Charles Severance University of Michigan Sakai Project, NEESGrid Project, OGCE Project www.dr-chuck.com csev@umich.edu

2. Outline Collaborative Software Historical Context The Sakai Project

3. NEESGrid Sakai Open Grid Computing Collaboration Happens As individuals, we are parts of many groups and have many roles in those groups PI Lead Dev PI Board Member Tech Lead DBA Architect Developer

4. Sakai WLAP OGCE uPortal Architecture Tools Board Release 1.0 Sakai @ UMHierarchy Dec MTG Next Grant Support Database Next Ver JSR-168 FusionGrid NEESGrid Data Model Data Repo Minnesota Texas Version 3Post Oct. UM Issues Chuck’s Context Map 06/04

5. Sakai Architecture Tools Board Release 1.0 Sakai @ UMHierarchy Dec MTG WLAP Next Grant Support Database uPortal JSR-168 OGCE Support Next Ver FusionGrid NEESGrid Data Model Data Repo Minnesota Texas Version 3Post Oct. UM Issues Chuck’s Context Map 09/04 OGCE WLAP NEESGrid OGCE PortalMurimoto Kaga Project Mgt New Hire JSF-Spring Educause JISC / UK SAMIgo Asian Char. DocumentationOKI Liason

6. Another View

8. Maintaining the Map Read E-Mail and move to proper folders Copy attachments into folders Searching for information Maintaining calendars

9. Imagine Software That could create a new “context” in a few clicks –Enroll/invite others to the context as necessary in a few more clicks Context capabilities –E-Mail list (automatically extracts attachments and places them in folders which appear on your desktop) –Schedule (you can either see a “federated” schedule across all contexts or look at one context) –Persistent browser-based chat - quite useful during meetings when the Polycom or audio bridge messes up :) –Resource area where anyone can upload files which appear on everyone’s desktop at the same time (WebDAV) –Threaded discussion area for the context Problem: There are literally hundreds of solutions to portions of this problem.

10. More Software A single place to see new activity in your “contexts” These contexts are stored on backed-up production servers rather than your desktop for many years A search across your contexts - that would be really cool The ability to customize each context in terms of look, feel, and capabilities The ability to build unique domain specific tools and interfaces to extend the mechanism using Portlets, Servlets, or Applets

11. A 10-Year Collaborative Mission @ UM 19981991 - 19971999200020012002200320042005 SPARC Science of Collaboratories Sakai Worktools (Notes Based) Coursetools (Notes Based) CTools CHEF OGCE Grid Portal NEESGrid CTNG

12. SPARC 2/2001 600 users 800 data sources

13. CourseTools Over 42,000 users at the end of 2003, to be retired Fall 2005

14. WorkTools Over 9000 users (2000 active) at the end of 2003. Migrating to Sakai as of 08/2004.

15. Digital libraries & documents groups-to- information groups-to- facilities people-to-people Communication, Collaboration Services Distributed, media-rich information technology Remote instruments http://www.scienceofcollaboratories.org/ Science of Collaboratories NSF Funded ITR

16. CHEF 1.0 Fall 2001: CHEF Development begins –Generalized extensible framework for building collaboratories –“Best-of” CourseTools, SPARC, WorkTools Integrate across current UM projects and adopt relevant standards Funded internally at UM as replacement for CourseTools All JAVA - Open Source –Jakarta Jetspeed Portal –Jakarta Tomcat Servlet Container –Jakarta Turbine Service Container Build community of developers through workshops and outreach

17. Not “just” a portal Portals are a framework to deploy tools (aka rectangles) and focus on how the user wants to arrange their own “rectangles” While CHEF technically is a portal, the goal is for the tools to work together closely and seem to really be parts of a larger “tool” CHEF has a lot of features, (services, presence, notification, etc..) which bridge the gap between portal and application framework

18. CHEF Applications CourseTools Next Generation WorkTools Next Generation NEESGrid NSF National Middleware Grid Portal

19. CourseTools Next Generation Over 5000 users at the end of 2003 http://coursetools.ummu.umich.edu/ Converted to Sakai 1.0 08/2004.

20. Worktools Next Generation New Work Tools Sites were created in CHEF-Based WTNG as of 12/2003. Converted to use Sakai 1.0 as of 08/2004.

21. NEESGrid - The Equipment Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation NSF Funded. CHEF-Based Research Collaboration. NCSA, ANL, USC/ISI, UM, USC, Berkeley, MSU

22. CHEF-Based NEESGrid Software

23. NMI / OGCE www.ogce.org NSF National Middleware Initiative Indiana, UTexas, ANL, UM, NCSA

24. What we learned in 10 years. Portal technology is a good idea - forces component approach - functionality does not “smear” Portals are not just aggregators of independent information - but can be an application framework Many (but not all) tools can be used for both teaching and learning and research collaboration Separating functionality into lightweight GUI components and pluggable services with strong and well-specified APIs allows significant reusability GUI elements program to abstract service interfaces - not databases, file systems, LDAP, etc. - this allows great flexibility.

25. While we were building collaboratories… The Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) at MIT was developing APIs for learning management systems - involving many universities (UM, Indiana, Stanford, and MIT were strong participants) Indiana, Stanford, MIT all developed learning management system Java Community Process (JCP) produced JSR-168 - The “unified” portal standard API Oasis developed the Web Services for Remote Portals (WSRP) standard The open-source uPortal portal project had quietly moved into the #1 open source portal (#4 including commercial vendors)

26. Jan 04 July 04May 05 Michigan CHEF Framework CourseTools WorkTools Indiana Navigo Assessment Eden Workflow Oncourse MIT Stellar Stanford CourseWork Assessment OKI OSIDs uPortal SAKAI 1.0 Release Tool Portability Profile Framework Services-based Portal Refined OSIDs & implementations SAKAI Tools Complete CMS WorkTools Assessment SAKAI 2.0 Release Tool Portability Profile Framework Services-based Portal SAKAI Tools Complete CMS Assessment Workflow Research Tools Authoring Tools Primary SAKAI Activity Architecting for JSR-168 Portlets, Refactoring “best of” features for tools Conforming tools to Tool Portability Profile Primary SAKAI Activity Refining SAKAI Framework, Tuning and conforming additional tools Intensive community building/training Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution… Dec 05 Activity: Maintenance & Transition from a project to a community So we got together and drew an über collaboration picture…

28. Sakai Core Members Core Universities –Indiana –Michigan –MIT –Stanford Projects –Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) –uPortal - JaSIG Funding ($6.8M - 2 Years) –Mellon Foundation –Hewlett Foundation –Partners Program –Core member match Sakai Educational Partners Program - 43 universities have paid 10K/year for three years to join partners program KYOU / sakai Boundary, Situation

29. Sakai Concepts It is neither research nor teaching, it is all “collaboration” - many common tools –Teaching: Courses, tools, drop-boxes –Research: Putting the user interface on the Grid and Virtual Organizations Teaching and Learning Collaborative Research Collaboration and Learning Environment

30. What we agreed to build… A Collaborative Learning Environment –Open Source –Uses OKI (Open Knowledge APIs) –Uses uPortal as its portal framework Similar to –Blackboard –WebCT And all four core institutions would deploy the commonly developed software

31. Collaboration and Learning Environment Learning management systems are really just a form of collaboration –Freshman Calculus –Chess Club –Group of 5 faculty members working on curriculum –Fifteen earthquake engineering experimental sites performing collaborative research and experimental activities.

32. Sakai 1.0 Site based collaboration environment –Worksite management –E-Mail Lists –Threaded Discussion –Resources (folders) with WebDav support –Chat –No search yet - difficult to do while enforcing ACL’s :( –Many other tools Production at ctools.umich.edu - August 1 –Merges WorkTools and CourseTools into one offering Small pilot at oncourse.indiana.edu - August 15 Final 1.0 release - October 15 Community Source - Open Source - Plus

33. Sakai Tools Admin: Alias Editor (chef.aliases) Admin: Archive Tool (chef.archive) Admin: Memory / Cache Tool (chef.memory) Admin: On-Line (chef.presence) Admin: Realms Editor (chef.realms) Admin: Sites Editor (chef.sites) Admin: User Editor (chef.users) Announcements (chef.announcements) Assignments (chef.assignment) Chat Room (chef.chat) Discussion (chef.discussion) Discussion (chef.threadeddiscussion) Dissertation Checklist (chef.dissertation) Dissertation Upload (chef.dissertation.upload) Drop Box (chef.dropbox) Email Archive (chef.mailbox) Help (chef.contactSupport) Membership (chef.membership) Message Of The Day (chef.motd) My Profile Editor (chef.singleuser) News (chef.news) Preferences (chef.noti.prefs) Recent Announcements (chef.synoptic.announcement) Recent Chat Messages (chef.synoptic.chat) Recent Discussion Items (chef.synoptic.discussion) Resources (chef.resources) Sample (sakai.module) Schedule (chef.schedule) Site Browser (chef.sitebrowser) Site Info (chef.siteinfo) Web Content (chef.iframe) Worksite Setup (chef.sitesetup) WebDAV

34. Sakai Going Forward Release 1.5 - 4Q04 –Production Pilot at Indiana and Stanford –Improving the look and feel of the software –Many feature enhancements (to satisfy all four schools) –Building new set of Sakai APIs (Java) Based on OKI - Enabling RDF for searching and composition –Convert CHEF deployments to Sakai (OGCE and NEESGrid) starting 1Q05 Release 2.0 - 2Q04 –Fall 2005 full production UM, Indiana, Stanford, and MIT –Expect features and quality rivaling commercial offerings

35. Anticipated Research-Oriented Capabilities Going Forward Other projects will be building modular Sakai extensions NEES Software –Data collection, distribution, and visualization –Data and Metadata repository technology –Asian character set support throughout OCGE Project –Computational Grid Portals

36. NIH RCE Issues Long term development commitments (size of the developer community involved, release schedules, current and forecasted budgets, etc) –20 Developers in the Core –43 Partners Security (security hole reporting and remedy structure, track record) –Standard HTTPS/Browser Cookie based security using either forms-based or single sign-on based security –No significant problems - developer list used for reporting and resolution Total cost of ownership –In the beginning, TCO for Sakai will likely be quite similar to other solutions because of startup cost and people costs - advantage is in the long term where organization maintains control over destiny.

37. Issues Technology standards implemented, compatibility with other standards ability to interface with other portal technologies –WebDav, JSR-168, WSRP, IMS Content Package Scalability –Indiana University will deploy 100,000 user site in January User and permission management (model, robustness, flexibility, administrative staff requirements) –Extreme flexibility in terms of backoffice authentication and authorization requirements. Well defined plug-ins allowing wide range of enterprise information sources (LDAP, Kerberos, Grid…) Staffing requirements (as it directly relates to the support and maintenance of the RCE deployment)

38. Summary Sakai 1.0 is production ready and tested –The plan is that 1.0 is something that could run for years if an organization only needed basic collaboration capability - people still run two -year old CHEF installations and are quite happy - Open Source is very very nice that way. Sakai 2.0 is completely resourced and funded –Extremely rich extensibility capability - building block expansion Sakai looks at collaboration differently - even at the 1.0 release, it is not just a document sharer, wiki, mailing list or any of the other “stove pipe” collaborative tools - it is all of the above and much more. The very essense of Sakai has been wrapping itself around the problems of research collaboration for over 10 years.

39. Questions Thank you for your time… Questions to csev@umich.edu