Finding Collaborators
Worldwide
James Werle, Univ. of Washington, [email protected]
Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN, [email protected]
Tim Boundy, JANET, [email protected]
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Defining the Need
• 87 advanced networks worldwide, over 50k
Internet2 connected institutions in the US
alone
• YET - few know how to find collaborators
• Solution to date => email NREN
directors/contacts to find out connectivity
status
• How to find collaborating partners has been
the “Holy Grail” of applications success
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K20 MUSE
James Werle
Jennifer Oxenford
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Muse Goals
• Connect people with similar interests
around advanced networking applications
• Encourage collaboration
• Facilitate resource sharing and discovery
• Better introduce new communities to
advanced networking community and
applications
4
MyK20 of the Past
• Create personal
profile
• Submit project
description
• Search for
projects and
people
5
MyK20 Limitations
• Rapid data obsolescence
• People needed to find myK20
• National in scope - no regional
customization available
• No real-time communication and limited
collaboration functionality
6
Ideology of Muse
• User community driven content
• Incorporating best of web 2.0 and social
networking ideas (flickr, digg, youtube,
myspace, delicious, etc.)
• Radical trust of users (a la wikipedia)
• Wisdom of the crowd
• Tagging - user defined folksonomies to
describe content
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Functionality of Muse
• Regional sites sharing and displaying
content from same database
• Regional sites/users determine what is
shared to other regions
• Create, manage, share personal profiles
and projects
• Post news items and events
• Search for projects, people
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Functionality of Muse (con’t)
•
•
•
•
Tag and comment content
Create and maintain colleagues or “friends”
Leave messages for friends
Use Google API mash-up to geographically
display information
• Real time chat with friends (phase II)
• “Push” content via RSS feeds, email, etc.
• Create/upload/share resources (.ppt, urls,
podcasts, bookmarks, whatever!)
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Need for regional tools
• MAGPI member community wanted
regional database
• Did not want to compete with national
Myk20
• Need for robust interoperability between
regional and national tools
• Realized potential for other regional
communities (states, countries,
disciplines, whatever!)
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Simplified Muse Architecture
Internet2 Server
database mySQL
Muse Architecture
National
MyK20
MAGPI
Regional
CMS - drupal
Your
SEGPs
regional site
Australia
Regional
…
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Technical Support from
Internet2
• Website Hosting
• Wiki environment (for national
development team)
• Flexible server support and
configuration
12
Regional site
National site
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National site
14
Live Demo - People
Go here now to create new user profile/acct. and search
for others.
National site
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Live Demo - Projects
Go here now to create, edit, search projects
National site
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“Get Started” Guides
• Discipline-specific introductions to advanced networking
teaching and learning applications
–
–
–
–
–
–
4-year colleges
2-year colleges
Public libraries
K-12 schools
Museums
Zoos, Aquaria, Science Centers
National site
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Developing Muse
•
•
•
•
Distributed team - UW and UPenn
Student programmers = staff turnover
Documentation challenges
Extremely limited funding
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What’s Next?
• More Bug Testing / Evaluation
• Beta-Launch (Late-October)
• Marketing the service to other potential
user groups
• Implement Phase 2 features based on
user feedback
21
How do you get involved?
• Create an account and help us beta-test
• Adopt Muse as a social utility for your
community?
• Tell us about your organization’s social
networking efforts!
• http://k20dev.internet2.edu/drupal
22
FAQs - Do I have to have my
own regional site?
• Nope!
• Muse Global K20 site is available for
everyone
23
FAQs - Who else are you
talking to about this?
•
•
•
•
•
CILC
TERENA
education.au
AARNet
JANET
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JANET Collaborate
Tim Boundy
Project Manager, JANET
Collaborate
25
Challenges Moving
Forward/Panel Discussion
• Integration of with similar online
community efforts internationally
Authentication
• Multi-linguality
• Data protection/privacy
• Identity confidence/verification
• Effective marketing to practitioners
• Social networking site overload!!
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Q&A - Thank You
Contact Us:
James Werle, Univ. of Washington
[email protected]
Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN
[email protected]
Tim Boundy, JANET
[email protected]
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