UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal...

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UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University of British Columbia

Transcript of UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal...

Page 1: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications

Presented to

McGill University Portal Executive Committee

October 24, 2003

Ted Dodds, CIO, University of British Columbia

Page 2: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

eResearcheLearning

People

eCommunity

eBusiness Connectivity

Sustaining Operations

The Framework

Page 3: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal at UBC

Very early adopter

– Partly defensive to “free” portal vendors of the day– uPortal has outlasted initial competition

Collaborative development

– Contracted with IBS in early 2000– Development and (Java) skills transfer– Rebuild application development capacity in ITServices– Regular multi-institution developers meetings ongoing

Page 4: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal at UBC

“myUBC” in production September 2000

– uPortal “0.9” – Main channels: web-mail, SIS, calendar– Adoption targeted at incoming cohort (~5,000)– Use grew rapidly to 34,000 users, primarily students

First mover benefits

– UBC was early contributor to JA-SIG clearinghouse– Continue to contribute– Also seek to leverage contributions of others– Upgraded to uPortal 2.0 rather recently

Page 5: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal International Adoption

Adoption continues to increase

– Based on informal survey– More than doubled in past year– 50% outside USA

Multilingual support

– French, Japanese, Swedish– US-based interest in Spanish– Both framework and channels

Mellon Foundation funding

– US$750,000 over 3 years

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Page 6: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal Current and Future

InfoWorld Nov 7/2003

– Nominated for Top 100 software products

Development plans for 3.0

– JSR 168 enabled (standard portlets)– WSRP Remote Portlet Consumer (remote producer)– Delivery date TBA, possible mid-2004

JSR 168 “portlets”

– Pluggable user interface components that provide a presentation layer to Information Systems

Page 7: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal and the “Portal Business”Turning from portal software to

– Adapters and connectors– Implementation expertise and services

Portal frameworks becoming standard/commodity

– Applications becoming focus, hence JSR 168

Risk of implementation failure

– Primary cause: lack of content (“empty” portal)– Gartner: 20% is shelfware– Meta: 30% failure rate (better than IT average!)

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Source: Jim Farmer’s report on Enterprise Portals Conference, Chicago, Sept. 30/2003

Page 8: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

uPortal and the “Portal Business”uPortal continues to compete favourably

– User base, technology, open standards– SAKAI would augment uPortal’s position in Higher Ed.

Open Source can complement commercial

– Luminous product based on uPortal– Unicon (formerly IBS) continued engagement and

commitment– Open really means open

Page 9: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

SAKAI Project

Five member consortium

– Michigan– MIT– Indiana– uPortal– OKI

Purpose

– “Code mobility” through open source– Overcome technical and timing challenges– Portal and CMS – Fall 2004– Existing IP integrated – Fall 2005

Page 10: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

Related Open Source Projects

SAKAI institutions offer extensive code base

– Institutional level commitment to open source– Belief that sharing provides greater value than

individual attempts to commercialize local innovation

Appications sampler

– Course management (CHEF, Michigan)– Content management (CUCMS, Columbia)– Workflow (EDEN, Indiana)– Personal information (Chandler, OSAF)– Portal (uPortal, JA-SIG)– Identity management (CAS, Yale)

Page 11: UBC’s e-Strategy: uPortal and Open Source Applications Presented to McGill University Portal Executive Committee October 24, 2003 Ted Dodds, CIO, University.

Institutional Collaboration

SAKAI Model

– More examples of collaboration in US than Canada– Networking a possible exception– UBC and UCB

Actively discussing joint projects

Canadian Collaboration

– McGill and UBC appear to have similar vision– Focusing on end-user (productivity, effectiveness,

service)– Opportunity to explore common needs and

collaboration possibilities