Global Plant Sciences Initiative Website Update

The GPSI website is slated to go live in January of 2009. We at CTLT have just finished developing a new, slightly modified design of the site and wanted to share a screen shot.

I'm still not sure what the final url will be, but the current, password protected address is https://teamsite.oue.wsu.edu/gpsi.

GPSI Update

I had someone comment on another blog entry (Global Plant Sciences Initiative - Paying the Bills) and ask whether the GPSI site is up. The answer to that is yes and no. The site is near completion, but it will not go public for sometime, at least that is the impression I get. Nevertheless the site design is near complete and since it is still locked down from public view I decided to present a screen shot to show what has been accomplished so far.







The next few steps for the project are to get additional feedback from the stakeholders involved, make any needed changes, conduct a workshop on using the site, begin uploading content and and then permission the site for public view and participation.

From what I gather this seems to be scheduled for Spring of 09, but it could be sooner. Yet, that is not up to me. Anyway, it has been a fun project and continues to be!

GPSI Site

So after some wrestling with various approaches to building the GPSI site with SharePoint it was decided that we would go with the Collaboration Site approach. Though the workflow features are much weaker than with the Publishing Site application provided in SharePoint, there seems to be greater flexibility in design. For me, what was perhaps most important for this particular group was the ease for me in abstracting the complexity of SharePoint from the GPSI site users.

In the case of a Publishing Site there seems to be a great deal of power, but with that power comes greater complexity and therefore greater responsibility, which would mean more work for me in fixing screw ups, or in writing extensive how-tos. Ugh!

Anyway, I think we can accomplish what we are attempting to do here without the Publishing Site application. However, it is clear that no matter what, I'm gonna have to role up the sleeves and get into the CLR and start playing around with some IronPyton.

And though the site is not public the url is/will be: https://teamsite.oue.wsu.edu/gpsi

Global Plant Sciences Initiative - Paying the Bills

While many grad students get stuck with crappy jobs of servitude in order to obtain their PhD, I get to have fun. Even though I’m an Environmental and Natural Resource Sciences PhD student my special and apparently much sought after skills in CMS development has afforded me the opportunity to break out of the mold and do something other than push loads of paper work. Instead I will be the lead developer for the new Global Plant Sciences Initiative web site that will serve as the front face for the GPSI and act as a collaborative space for experts in plant sciences, biotech, biofuel, ag sciences and other disciplines from around the world.

What is this, you ask! Well, the GPSI is a project aimed at bringing all of these disciplines together in order to identify socially, economically and environmentally friendly solutions to energy and food production around the world. It will also serve as a space for graduate students to add to existing knowledge and contribute to the research and global conversation regarding this very important issue.

My part in this grand scheme will be to build the site, provide add-on tools to the base SharePoint package, develop the site architecture including the underling ontologies for linking knowledge with people, projects and institutions. Once this is complete I will be maintaining the site, training staff and graduate students on effective means for utilizing the site.

The site shell will be up by Monday afternoon as I’m working on the prototype throughout the weekend. I'll post the new URL once I have something worth showing

Collaborators in this project include:
WSU – (which include the depts….)

• Molecular Plant Sciences


• School of Economic Sciences


• Civil and Environmental Engineering


• Plant Pathology


• Horticulture


• Mathematics


• Crops and Soil Sciences


• Institute of Biological Chemistry


• School of Biological Sciences


• Center for Teaching Learning and Technology

Also, the USDA and the University of Washington

On the Framework Merry-Go-Round

So I have been actively working with drupal for the past several months, trying to get it up and running for an NGO in India. The experience has been fairly smooth and I have even gotten the hang of developing and extending modules for the system. Just a couple of weeks ago following some self-assessment on working with drupal I began considering it as framework for developing a pattern based knowledge management system.

That was of course until two interesting conversations took place. The first conversation was with Yishay who pointed me to the Google Appengine project. He already knew I was a fan of python and django so he brought this up as an alternative to working with drupal.

In all honesty (as I have said in previous posts) I would rather develop with a language like python and framework such as django. Now with the added integration with Appengine it seemed as a an interesting direction to take.

Strangely, the next day at work I was given the green light to begin diving head first into this django/appengine phenomena. We have been actively using SharePoint for most of our projects. Whereas myself I have bucked the system from the get go, instead opting to use google apps and/or building my own as needed.

Well, it seems that my efforts did not go unrecognized and with the help of a few collegues it seems that the google route was partially embraced even if it was just from the standpoint of conducting an investigation of what we might be able to do.

Personally, I would love to develop solely with django and python at work, and well it looks like I get my wish. So for this summer I get to spend all of my time getting acquainted with appengine and see what it can do. Where does this leave me with drupal and my knowledge management system? Well, it leaves with wrapping up my current project for JESA and most likely focusing on using the django framework as the foundation for developing the components needed for my system.

I feel like I have been on a merry-go-round, but considering the options, this summer's work and fellow colleagues giving me the space to become relatively proficient with this system it seems like a given that I will try and use this framework to produce my software.

I'm actually pretty excited about the prospect, as it seems like I'm in a perfect position to take advantage of the django/appengine integration. I'm a huge python fan and it is the language I'm most proficient with. I know django, having built a couple of blog and wiki apps (one day I will move this blog to the one I built), and well appengine uses BigTable and that looks to be an interesting adventure. So taking that together with what I want to do with the application I'm building it seems like a great tool set.

So, thanks Yishay, thanks Gary and definitely thanks to Jamie and Theron for pushing a multi-paradigm software shop at CTLT.

Current Project: Knowledge Mapping, Ontologies and Visualization

With some downtime between academic semesters I'm working on a couple of cool things for CTLT. First off, we are in the process of identifying business cases for modeling SharePoint into a service more conducive for student, faculty and staff e-Portfolios. The work is a bit mundane, but getting an opportunity to identify the various pieces we need to make SharePoint work for us and thereby potentially influence the face of SharePoint as it enters into the academic world is pretty interesting.

The other project is one that I have initiated with some very enthusiastic encouragement from Jayme and Theron at CTLT. Though they have certain things they want that are a bit different than I want, it is glaringly obvious that there is so much overlap between our interests that we have to be working together.

Essentially, I'm building a prototype knowledge mapping application that can let users map the knowledge components of their SharePoint mySites. The prototype should also enable multiple users to collaboratively map their own shared knowledge in a real-time environment and save that map for further reflection, refinement and comment. Along with mapping knowledge pieces, users can add semantic relationships between knowledge that will result in a community built ontology.

Along with this basic application Jayme is very keen on being able to show how learning objectives and outcomes change over time, and it would be interesting to see if this can be automated using SharePoint's web-services to query document and list libraries and then output changes visually based upon some, yet to be determined criteria.

Though, we are still trying to define some of these things, I think by getting the basic mapping application functioning over the holidays we can come back next semester and begin defining more specifically what we want to do and then start extending and enriching the application.

Oh BTW, for the prototype I'm using PHP and SVG. Once I get it working to a level where it isn't to embarrassing to show my sloppy coding skills, I'll post a link for users to test it out and play around.

Tech Stack for CI (Revised)

In doing further research on available technology options for the visual learning in time and space application at CTLT, I have been considering a move away from Python and Django. Though I love the ease of working with these tools, I'm very interested in using flex to provide the UI and display of learning data.

So it seems that Flex provides an open SDK for PHP developers and not Python. Though a django developer has submitted a bridge for working with Flex, it still seems immature and I need to learn this fast rather than fighting with a system still in development.

With that said, I'm thinking PHP5 + Propel ORM + Flex, and since I will be using PHP I can't help but write a bridge to Drupal. Of course the application will need to integrate nicely with SharePoint as this is going to be the primary test case for using this custom app. However, I'm not using .NET and I'm not willing to write a custom web-part for this as the application must be available to CMS apps outside of the SharePoint MS paradigm.

So it will live as a standalone application in which others can build modules to extend and integrate into their own learning platforms. Plus, this way the application can be utilized for linking into the L.V. Patterns.

Using SharePoint Web Services

In furthering the conceptualization of this Visual Learning application, I was first struck by the possible approaches to querying the needed data. While I am predominately visual and think in terms of how things might look when complete, I recognize that getting data out of SharePoint might be a bit more difficult task than in some other cases.

However, there is much discussion on the use of SharePoint's web services. Some focus specifically on aggregating content from other places to create mash-ups, while others do note the possible importance of getting data out of SharePoint.

So over the next couple of days I'm going to be looking into the process of accessing the SharePoint web services feature and see how well it works. To do this I think I'm going to attempt a script using the python and ZSI library, or PHP and the nuSOAP model.

Either way, it is my hope that the technology will stand alone, outside of SharePoint and yet still be able to work well with the various MySites WSU has. If it works with the MySites then I don't see why it wouldn't work with plone or drupal. One thing that might be an issue is the need to allow for an XML-RPC approach as both Plone and Drupal utilize rpc.

However, more in connection with patterns is the need of this application to be able query the Liberating Voices! patterns. If I can get the query and parsing bit of the application then Yishay maybe able to extend his Mind mapping application to enable through the web mapping. Both pieces together could prove to be a very cool and very powerful solution for visual knowledge representation.

CTLT: Visual Representation of e-Learning

Following a meeting last week it became obviously clear that a few of us at CTLT are very interested in supporting an application that allows users to visually represent learning and information in a more interesting, and perhaps useful way. This is as opposed to the generic lists and document libraries currently available in SharePoint.

The idea behind the application is the construction of multi-faceted views that could produce visually connected components of information associated with a students learning process and outcomes. For instance, we might want to showcase the transition in associated assumptions over a period of time as linked to a primary goal or concern represented by the student at the outset of their recorded learning process. The point behind this part of the application would therefore be driven to represent this data in a time-line format, perhaps centering around the core value of the student.

Another possible outcome of the application would be to produce a cognitive map representing the various pieces of interconnected data relevant to the student’s project. This could be accomplished through identifying the connections between user-defined tags and the associations these tags imply to student information. Again, the output could be a visual concept or mind-map as defined by the student. If using a concept map, perhaps the student would need to be able to amend the visual map in order to add explicit semantic relationships between the various components.

Overall, the project is very intriguing as it has the potential for usage outside of the SharePoint application framework. However, more directly it is something that could represent a very novel approach to representing the types of trans-disciplinary and longitudinal learning that CTLT is trying to capture and promote. It also has direct relevance to some of my work with patterns as the application could serve as a foundation for usage with the visual representation of patterns and for the construction of semantic pattern maps.

Can't Help It - Interesting Article (But perhaps un-informed)

So the Editorial Board at WSU's Daily Evergreen published an interesting editorial piece on the failure of MySite.

While I think there are definitely criticisms to be made, I think the writers missed the real issue, or at least most of it.
First, let's see where I agree:

1. Cost! Yes, MySite is expensive and I think there are other technologies such as Plone, Alfresco and others that could do what we want at a fraction of the cost.


2. Simplicity: MySite is complicated compared to the other technologies mentioned in the article. However, so are the technologies, I mentioned above. And yet they aren’t as simple as apps such as FaceBook or Google products like Blogger. That is because a CMS is more than just a blog.


3. What is MySite for? I think most people are unsure and perhaps that is because of the misconceptions of what it is. Perhaps the name makes everyone think MySpace or FaceBook. I think the complexity of what it is and the inability to express what it is, makes for problematic adoption.


4. The notion of providing more public web-space is great. I think both could serve a very useful purpose. However, WSU already provides free public web space for students! I would suggest more disk-space and dynamic scripting support, like PHP, support for Ruby on Rails and Django, and of course a back-end option with MySQL or even SQLite.

Ok, where I find the article a bit misguided.

My General Response:
To equate MySite to MySpace or FaceBook is misrepresenting what each application does. MySite is more than a social networking site. It is a student's own implementation of an Enterprise-Level content management system (CMS). The kind of thing many people are being forced to adopt in the work place. Using MySpace or FaceBook usually gets you the evil stare from your boss, not the "Wow, he/she is being productive!"

And while there are cheaper applications that can do many of the same things as MySite (Plone, Alfresco, Drupal), the fact remains, these are all CMS applications with a related paradigm. This related paradigm is utilized in nearly every organization that is adopting CMS technologies to deliver and manage content within their organization. This is across the board, regardless if you are in the for-profit or non-profit sector.

Now, for some direct responses -

The Evergreen:

"It’s difficult to place MySite in a distinct subgroup of functionality, as it does so many things but falls flat on its face when it comes to implementation. While MySite does have some of the same features as Facebook or MySpace, it’s limited to those with WSU Network IDs or Friend IDs only. Perhaps that sounded like a good privacy or security initiative when it was first proposed, but there’s no benefit to having a “walled garden” system restricted to WSU."

Response:
Funny, MySpace and Facebook both require passwords for use! In a sense you have to be a part of their club in order to benefit from the service. In reality there is no difference, NetworkID/Friend ID, MySpace User ID, ummm unless I missed something. Also, your MySite doesn't have to be walled; mine is completely open to anonymous users (see here), nothing is private. The only problem is right now you can't leave comments, but that is only because I haven't added a message board.

Also, I can aggregate all my other social-net sites into MySite and create a mash-up of my relevant content. So I can place a web-part viewer in my MySite that brings in content from MySpace and FaceBook. I had a MySpace page in my MySite, but removed it as I don't go there as much. Now, I just have some RSS for my blog, but if I wanted I could embed my blog and all inside a MySite.

The Evergreen:

"There are other services out there that students already use to perform the tasks that MySite is designed to handle. Not only are they better in many cases than MySite’s offerings, but they’re familiar and thus easier for students to use. For educational purposes, services like Blackboard and WebCT – which are used by colleges all over the country – seem to be working fine."

Response:
Again, I agree with the issue of simplicity, but again you will NEVER USE BLACKBOARD in the real-world. Also, the easy of Blackboard makes easy candidate for assimilation. We could port the Blackboard model into MySite.

Conclusion:
While some frustration is warranted, I think the frustration is misplaced and perhaps there is a solution to find before we go claiming a technology didn’t work when we have just learned about its potential. That’s like saying, “Damn, PHP what the hell is this? It is too complicated! Why not just stick with HTML?”

I think what is really needed is focused training on how to utilize the MySite/SharePoint technology. It seems by judging from the article that even the authors do not know what is available through the technology, or how to do what they may want.

In fact, I think this is WSU’s fault totally. For instance, you can find numerous end-user training sessions on Plone, Drupal, Alfresco and even SharePoint going on around the world at any given time. Why? Because it is complicated and there is a learning curve before someone can become a power-user. Unfortunately, WSU has not had any sort of Boot-Camp to get people educated. There seems to be more talk about what the system is capable of, but little on how you can harness that capability.

To do List:

Feeling a bit overwhelmed so I figured I put up a to-do list:

Immediate -
1. Finish ICLS proposal (Today!)
2. Revise Original proposal between the Public Sphere, CTLT and the LKL
3. Finish Stats Exam - Do the research and run tests.
4. Write Paper #2 on Duwamish River Clean-up.
5. Keep Working on inserting content for Decon-Hotz

Next:
6. Keep Working on ePortfolio.
7. Create Subsite for Interactive Class Project (Technology for Conflict Negotiation)
8. Finalize and upload content for JESA site.
9. Begin Designing CMS for JESA (Plone, Drupal or Django)
10. Fix the new Public Sphere Project home-page.
11. Write Proposal for "Designing for the 21st Century: Using Web 2.0 Technologies (and Social Networking Tools) for Social Action."
12. Get ready for "Visual Reasoning Work-Shop", my topic is visualizing patterns for problem-solving.


Ongoing:
13. Keep up with my Django education.
14. Continue Design Scheme for Plone-Based CMS written on top of Django.
15. Concept Mapping and Document Centered Chat app with Django/Ajax.

Ouch, this list actually makes it sound worse!