Subject Portals Project SPP Features

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Subject Portals Project (SPP)Features
Functionality
Richard Young University of Birmingham,
UK r.young_at_bham.ac.uk Malcolm Moffat EEVL,
Heriot Watt University, UK m.moffat_at_hw.ac.uk Mich
ael Fraser Humbul Humanities Hub, Oxford
University, UK mike.fraser_at_computing-services.oxfo
rd.ac.uk Francisco Pinto Humbul Humanities Hub,
Oxford University, UK francisco.pinto_at_computing-se
rvices.oxford.ac.uk
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Session Aims

• Introduce SPP Funders, Partners Rationale
• Describe the Project and Portal Framework
• Outline SPP research into what users want from
  subject portals
• Highlight Key Portal Features picked out by end
  users
• Portal access scenarios and the issues relating
  to authenticating remote users to remote resources

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Session Structure

• Part 1 - SPP Background
• Funders - JISC
• Partners - RDN Hubs
• Rational - UK Information Environment
• Portals Defined
• Project Details - Aims, Activities, Demonstration

• Part 2 - Portal Functionality - What do users
  want?
• Portal Features Questionnaire Survey
• Consultancy Groups

• Part 3 - Authenticating remote users to remote
  resources
• What is an Access Management System (AMS)?
• Portal Access Scenarios
• SPP AMS Scope, Mechanisms Implementation

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Part 1 Funders - JISC

• Joint Information Systems Committee
• Run by post-16 education funding bodies
• Promote and disseminate best practice on use of
  ICT in Higher and Further Education
• Serving gt600 UK institutions

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Project Partners
Partners - RDNC, Humbul, Biome, EEVL, Sosig -
also ILRT, UKOLN
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Project Rationale

• Current UK HE Information Environment
• Lots of disparate information services
• Each with its own user interface
• Many interfaces to learn, search, and to keep up
  to date with
• JISC 5 Year Strategy for the Information
  Environment
• Clear need to enhance discovery of and access to
  content
• Concept to provide seamless discovery across
  multiple content providers

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Current Service Architecture
Content (local or remote)
Web
Web
Web
Web
Authentication
Authorisation
End-user
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JISC Information Environment
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Portals Defined

• Definition
• Technically, a portal is a network service that
  brings together content from diverse distributed
  resources using technologies such as cross
  searching, harvesting, and alerting, and collates
  this into an aggregated form for presentation to
  the user, usually via a website. (JISC)
• Typical Features
• Single Point of Access (one stop shop)
• Resources brought together from gt1 source
• Personalisation (one size does not fit all)
• Broad array of resources and services
• Sense of community Many more.!
• Portal Types
• Subject Portals, Data Type Portals, User
  Community Portals, Institutional Portals..

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Project Details
SPP is a two year collaborative project (August
01-03) to develop a portal framework and allow
RDN hubs to present an enhanced, subject based,
portal view of relevant content from within the
JISC collections

• Aims
• Better delivery of electronic collections
• Central aspect cross searching of databases
• Also investigate additional services
• Current Activities
• Portal Framework
• Cross Searching/authentication/account
  management/alerting/newsfeeds etc.
• Also scoping of additional services

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Portal Framework

• Framework
• Jetspeed - Apache open source java portal
  framework
• Portlets
• Standards
• Z39.50, XML, RSS

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Portal Demo
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Part 2 Portal Functionality

• Summary
• Central part SPP - Database Cross searching
• SPP also investigating other Additional
  Services
• SPP will work hard to understand what
  Additional/Community services will be useful to
  users and how to integrate these services into
  portal developments

• Why?
• Because users may want more than one stop
  authenticated access to research materials (Cross
  Search)
• Could be One stop access to News, Events, Jobs
  Announcements, Discussion Forums, Funding Sources
  etc, etc.

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What do our users want?

• Investigated Using
• 1. Portal Features Questionnaire Survey
• 2. Portal Consultancy Groups

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What do our users want?

• 1. Portal Features Questionnaire Survey
• 40 wild ideas. Pilot quantitative
  questionnaire tested on 30 participants at LTSN
  event
• Best 20 ideas taken forward as SPP web survey
  with gt800 participants

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Additional Portal Services?
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Additional Portal Services?
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Questionnaire Survey

• Survey
• Web based questionnaire March/April 2002
• Respondents Ranked 22 features as
  poor/average/good
• Option to suggest alternative features

• General Details
• 813 completed questionnaires -

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Survey Results
Top 4 Ideas across all subject areas

• 1. E-Journal Search engine
• e.g. http//www.eevl.ac.uk/eese/
• 2. Web Based Learning Materials Catalogue
• e.g. http//searchlt.engineering.ac.uk/
• 3. Events/Conference database
• e.g. http//www.eventonline.org/
• 4. Aggregated News Service
• e.g. http//www.linux.org.uk/cgi-bin/portaloo

• Minor variations across subject areas user
  categories
• Few suggestions for alternative features

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What do our users want?

• 2. Portal Consultancy Groups
• Plan - each hub conduct focus groups on their
  specific audience
• Principle aims -
• I) to ascertain participants own ideas for
  portal services
• II) to gain feedback on top additional services
  identified in questionnaire.
• Engineering Consultancy Groups conducted - Two
  sessions, 17 engineering academics, researchers,
  PhD students
• 5hr sessions covering - Design a portal Exercise,
  Critical Examination of Additional Services
  Ideas, Portal Wish list.

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Participants Own Ideas

• Design a Portal!

Exercise
Scenario You are an Internet concept consultant
hired by a large multinational company to design
the key features and functions of a new
engineering portal that would appeal to the
engineering community consisting of student and
academics. List the main features that you would
like to see. Try to think about your information
needs and ways in which the service could best
satisfy them. Use a flipchart to create a mock
up of the main parts of your site.
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(No Transcript)
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Feedback on our Top ideas

• Aggregated News Service
• Idea To provide a news service which brings
  together news from a range of web based journal
  publications. The concept here is to aggregate
  news from a number of selected publishers and
  provide convenient, reliable access from a single
  site.
• LOOK at this Example Service
• http//www.linux.org.uk/cgi-bin/portaloo

Exercise
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Aggregated News Service
Discussion

• Is this a worthwhile idea?
• What are the positive/negative aspects of this
  idea?
• Are there already good services you use to find
  this kind of information?
• Do you think that this service would be
  considered useful by engineering academics in the
  UK?
• Overall how do you rate this idea?

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Consultancy - Results
Full Results from http//www.eevl.ac.uk/public/A
SP/info/
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Other Portal Priorities Survey

• PORTAL Project - Hull University, JISC funded
• Institutional Portals
• Survey of 38 possible institutional portal
  features
• gt500 Staff Students
• Interviews focus groups 40 staff, 40 students
• Report Stakeholder Requirements of Institutional
  Portals due Start of April 2003
• Preliminary results - Library features rated
  highly!
• http//www.fair-portal.hull.ac.uk/

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Part 3 Authenticating remote users to remote
resources

• Access Management Perspective for SPP
• The Scenarios to Manage
• What is an Access Management System (AMS)
• The Multiple Scopes and Mechanisms
• How to Implement the AM Functionality
• Portal Framework
• AM Plug-in
• AMS Login Modules
• Where We Are

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Portal Access Scenarios

• Single Web Access Point
• Common Functionality to Subject-Specific Inform.
• Resources Collected from Different Datasets
• Manage Local and Remote Users
• Access Local and Remote Resources

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AMS

• Manage the Agreements Previously Established
• Institutions Resource Providers
• Grant Authorisation to Protected Resources
• Ensure Authentication of Users

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AMS Scopes

• Not All SPP Users Are Athens Users
• Users Want Resources Independently of
• Where They Are Placed
• How They Are Protected
• From Local to National (even International) AMSs

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AMS Mechanisms

• What is Secure Today May Not Be Tomorrow
• Advances in Technology Response to Risks
• Security Technology Evolves
• Moving from Username/Passwords to Single Sign-On
  (SSO) and Digital Certificates

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Portal Framework

• Placed between the User and the Resources
• Independent of the Users and Data Storage S/W
• Users Access from Anywhere
• Via Preferred Web Browser
• Seamless Access to Resources

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AM Functionality

• AM Plug-in Integrated in the Portal Framework
• JAAS Login Modules
• Loaded in Run-Time According to the AMS
• Athens National AMS (NAS)
• LDAP/SSL Local AMS (LAS)

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Where We Are

• Approach Proved to be Reasonable
• Flexible to Work with Multiple AMSs
• Develop. of New Login Modules in Few Days
• SPP Aims to Offer all AMSs via SSO
• Athens SSO is Proving Difficult to Integrate
• Athens is Actively Collaborating with SPP
• SPP is Working with X.509 Certificates
• Prepare SPP for the Future JISC AMS

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Further Information

• Subject Portals Project
• http//www.portal.ac.uk/spp/
• SPP Additional Services Research
• http//www.eevl.ac.uk/public/ASP/info/
• Resource Discovery Network
• http//www.rdn.ac.uk/
• JISC
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/
• JISC UK Information Environment
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/dner/development/IEstrategy.
  html
• The Future of Authentication for JISC Services
• http//www.jisc.ac.uk/pub02/ar1/future_auth.html

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Thank You! Questions?