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• project description

• needs

• interviews
• personas
• use cases
• scenarios

• functionality

• tool survey
• search tool survey
• requirements

• architecture

• bird's eye view
• interaction diagrams
• database

• prototype

• future development

• project report

ACE | Tool Survey

As part of assessing what users might want/need and what is already out there, we performed a survey of the landscape of tools for academic collaboration. Many of these tools had portions of what we plan to provide with ACE, some had good ideas for future phases, and some provided nice bells and whistles which we found to be irrelevant to what we were trying to achieve with ACE.

refworks & refshare

RefWorks Overview:

RefWorks is aWeb-based bibliography and database manager that allows users to create personal databases of references by importing them from text files or online databases (using Import filters). One can automatically format a paper and a bibliography using these references. Search is supported by automatically created indexes for author, descriptor, and periodical, making it easy to search by highlighting a term.

Features/Functionality:

• Save references to a folder or personal database
• Export from within the tool you are using (available from ABC CLIO, BioMed Central, BioOne, CSA, Engineering Village 2, EBSCOhost, NISC, Project Muse, OCLC, OVID, ProQuest, Scopus, SFX, H.W. Wilson, Congressional Quarterly
• Import from .txt file or from online resources
• Add refs and define style (APA, MLA, Chicago)
• Manage refs
• Create folders
• Put refs in folders using "put in folder" dropdown (populated with folders, from results page, or from refWorks DB.
• Sort Refs (select refs to sort from "view" or from folders)
• Globally edit refs
• View refs (various views and styles (incl. MLA, APA, Chicago, one line cite, standard cite, full view)
• Format bibliography
• Edit or create new output style
• Write-N-Cite Paper & Bibliography
• Create in-text citations
• Use MS Word (not sure if can use others)
• Create bibliography from citations
• One Line Cite/View
• View citation (from ‘all references,’ a folder, or search results)
• Drag/drop or copy/paste a citation from a view to paper
• Quick and Advanced Search
  • Quick:
    • Searches all fields
    • All search terms are OR’d together with Boolean ORs.
  • Advanced
    • Search a specific field (author, title, publication date, etc.)
    • Results are displayed alphabetically by author
    • Can use Boolean operators to connect terms
    • Search all references or specific folders

RefShare Overview:

RefShare is an add-on module for RefWorks, which allows users to share research information. It enhances collaborative research by providing a way to share references, folders, or databases with other researchers. To use RefShare, a subscribing institution makes available a central customizable Web page where users can post their RefWorks databases or folders. These resources are then easily accessible from the Web site or they can be shared via email.

Features/Functionality:

• Define access to your folders/databases (restrict access to the users you define)
• Search, download, print, export, and contact the original author by email
• Post course readings on a central Web page
• Create and share databases and folders with a group of any size
• Publish an internal database
• Accessibility from anywhere (Web-based application)

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

RefWorks is a proprietary,Web-based application ($100/year, 30-day trial. All upgrades are included in the subscription price. (Upgrades are loaded on the RefWorks server.) RefShare is also proprietary and is available as an add-on module.

Summary:

RefWorks and RefShare encompass much of the functionality ACE envisions including basic and advanced search; importing and exporting references (from files or results pages) and building reference lists; the ability to create folders and store reference lists there; group management; resource sharing, and information sharing via email). Considered together, RefWorks and RefShare provide a significant amount of what we seek to provide with ACE. They do not provide the level of search capability we seek to implement, but provide a robust set of features to manage and share information objects.

academici

Overview:

Academici is a tool for collaborative research. It is proprietary and has two different levels of membership available: free, and a premium membership (5,95 EUR/month). Academici encourages networking between researchers, professionals, and students and community building. It keeps track of connections and assists in various ways with building a community around each user.

Features available with the free membership:

• Search functions
• Basic search (by first name, last name, city)
• Power search = not available
• Contact management
• Cannot send messages to other members
• Number of possible contacts = unlimited
• Event management
• Number of participants (max = 10)
• Cannot export guest list
• Can only have 1 public event/month
• Monthly fee = free

Features available with the premium membership:

• Search functions
• Basic search (by first name, last name, city, Industry, organizations, positions, postcode, state/province, country, companies (current/former), universities, interests, knowledge
• Power search: search for members who have viewed your profile, members whose profile you have viewed, members, who have clicked on your company home page, members who have viewed your About me page, colleagues or former colleagues, fellow alumni, contacts of your contacts, birthdays of contacts, etc.
• Contact management = yes
• Number of possible contacts = unlimited
• Event management
• Unlimited
• Can export guest list
• Can have up to 10 public events/month

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Academici is proprietary and is a hosted service. It can be used for free with a more limited feature set (see feature description with free membership section above), or by subscribing to the fee-based service (see feature description above for paid membership).

Summary:

Academici seems like a great tool for networking. It is very similar to a computer matching/dating service. If one is looking to build a community of researchers, professionals, or students, this is a very useful tool. While it allows one to create a profile, manage contacts, and build one's contact list, it does not offer any functionality for research (individual or collaborative), beyond meeting other researchers and finding out about conferences.

For the purposes of our project, it does not offer anything in the way of open source code nor does it have functionality that applicable to what we envision for ACE.

skype

Overview:

Skype is a program for making free calls. Skype is a free program that one can download and install and then use to make free calls over the Internet.

Features/Functionality:

• Make calls to or receive calls from another Skype user
• Make calls to or receive calls from traditional phones
• It also offers voicemail.

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Skype is a proprietary application that can be freely downloaded for use on anyone's computer.

Summary:

Skype is a great application for voice over IP (voip), but is not applicable to what we will provide with ACE.

MyLibrary

Overview:

MyLibrary is a user-driven, customizable interface to collections of Internet resources -- a portal. Primarily designed for libraries, MyLibrary's purpose is to reduce information overload by allowing users to select as little or as much information as they desire for their personal pages. This application allows a user to describe and organize sets of information resources in a database application. The resources can be links to licensed databases, descriptions of physical items, or links to HTML pages. MyLibrary provides means to run reports against the database. The application is concerned with data regarding electronic resources from the end-user's point of view; it does not manage license agreements, concurrent users, and doesn't trouble shoot specific resources. Electronic resources tools are expected to export their data into a readable format and then it can be imported into MyLibrary for use, display, and syndication. (http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary)

MyLibrary uses a combination of user-defined facets and terms to catalog resources. There is no limit to the number of facets and terms that can be defined and they can be applied to an unlimited amount of resources. Additionally, pseudo hierarchic facets can be defined using MyLibrary syntax (punctuation between facets). For example, facets for person, event, and place could be created. (http://dewey.library.nd.edu/mylibrary)

MyLibrary is designed to allow a user to catalog each resource with a title, description, location, and any number of facet/term combinations.

Information can be pulled in from a library catalog or via aWeb-based administrative interface.

Features/Functionality:

• Import MARC data from your library catalog after converting it to RDF/XML.
• Include any type of resource (analog or digital) into your Web pages.
• Organize your resources by subjects, formats, reference tool types, genres, audiences, geographic regions, etc. All you have to do is define a set of facets and terms used to describe your holdings. If you can think of a facet and a number of terms to be associated with it, then you can describe your resources in that manner.
• Allow any resource to have multiple locations (call numbers, URLs, etc.).
• Provide a free-text as well as sophisticated search interface including a Google-like Did You Mean? service by exporting MyLibrary content to an indexer (swish-e).
• Use an HTML form to maintain the data.

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

The source is freely available from CVS. MyLibrary is built using perl modules and scripts.

Summary:

The Perl modules offer easy implementation and the resources are stored in a relational database. This may be useful as a base for importing, exporting, and storing resources (objects). Additionally, the capability to use facets and terms to describe resources might be useful to expert users (graduate students and/or faculty, and may be useful for viewing IMLS/ECAI project resources). MyLibrary's support for managing objects is robust, but the search is less than we envision.

Studentvision

Overview:

StudentVision is a hosted application for students, which provides a place and tools for students to manage their course content; manage their personal calendar; take notes, share files, and course info; perform integrated online Web research; and collect and organize Web content for offline use.

Features/Functionality:

• Courses
• View courses on a dashboard (organize them by folders or terms)
• Organize courses in folders (create folders for terms, semesters, projects, etc. and track courses from within them)
• Automatically download courses (A student can download courses from the dashboard view. The courses are downloaded from the Studentvision server and show up in the student’s application)
• Create courses (create course outlines and start tracking and managing coursework, calendaring, and content)
• Add course activities (define and create course activities and calendar will be automatically updated)
• Track syllabus (copy/paste content from course Web pages, other documents or manually add content to syllabus)
• Enter assignments (Cut and paste assignment details or drag and drop files into the attachment area. Calendar and grade book are automatically updated when an assignment is entered.)
• Track grades (The grade book is automatically updated when assignments are entered. Students can keep track of their grades and class averages.)
• Build course resources (Right click on any page displayed in Internet Explorer's web browser and select Save to StudentVision?... option. Save the web page or URL link directly into the student’s course folder for later reference, or they can send it to a friend. Drag and drop files from Windows Explorer or desktop into the Resources area.)
• Take notes (Allows use of keyboard input, mouse, or pen (if using on Tablet PC) to create documents. Paste content into the StudentVision? note editor from other documents. Images can be drug and dropped from web pages directly into notes.)
• Manage instructors (Choose and add instructors to course activities.)
• Drag-and-drop academic content (Any kind of files can be dropped int the Assignments attachment area, and the Resources section.)
  • Calendar
    • Self-updating (adds assignment and course activities automatically
    • Track course schedule (tracks all course-related activities, including assignments and due dates.)
    • Reminders (provided by calendar and reminder section on the home page)
    • Manage personal and recurring appointments
    • Send schedule to mobile device
  • Notes
    • Input from keyboard, mouse and pen
    • Capture screen shots and clipboard content, and edit them
    • Drag and drop images and/or cut and paste content from other documents and Web pages.
    • Share notes with friends by right-clicking on any item in the course resource section
    • Import images or text
    • Export the notes
    • Insert pre-defined objects
    • Auto generate document name
  • Research
    • Search Internet or limit to education-related Websites
    • Save links or save complete Web pages for offline viewing (can view Web pages in tabular form)
    • Organize and store Web-based search results into course and general folders
    • E-mail saved resources to others

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

StudentVision is a free but proprietary, hosted service.

Summary:

This is a hosted application that is free and targeted toward students. Student information is stored on a JustStudents, Inc. server and they simply register for a login id and download a client application. The product is proprietary, so the code base is not available.

The ability to limit searches or to search the Internet is useful, and the saving of links or resources is something ACE seeks to implement. The organization of resources and the ability to email them to others are also functions ACE will provide. Calendaring, managing courses, and note taking are useful, but beyond what we seek to provide in the initial phase of ACE.

citeulike

Overview:

CiteULike is a free service that allows academics to share, store, and organize the academic papers they are reading. When you see a paper on the Web that interests you, you can click one button and have it added to your personal library. CiteULike automatically extracts the citation details, so there's no need to type them in. (http://www.CiteULike.org) The application isWeb-based.

Features/Functionality:

• Links to papers stored (papers themselves remain in the archives in which they reside).
• The system currently supports: AIP Scitation, Amazon, American Geophysical Union, American Meteorological Society, Anthrosource, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) portal, BMJ, Blackwell Synergy, CiteSeer?, HighWire?, IEEE Xplore, IngentaConnect?, IoP? Electronic Journals, JSTOR, MathSciNet?, MetaPress?, NASA Astrophysics Data System, Nature, PLoS? Biology, PubMed?, PubMed? Central, Science, ScienceDirect?, SpringerLink?, Usenix, Wiley InterScience?, arXiv.org e-Print archive (other things can be posted, but the citation details must be entered manually)
• Export a library to either BibTeX? or Endnote to include it in a bibliography

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

The source code is freely available and can be checked out from CVS. (http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/CiteULike/). CiteULike is built using Perl, Python, Ruby, Tcl, and uses aWeb-based interface.

Summary:

CiteULike has some great features such as being able to save links to resources, tag them, and share them. It might be useful to have a look at the source code.

connotea

Overview:

Connotea is a free, online reference management tool targeted to academics and clinicians. It allows users to save links to resources on the Web and access them from anywhere, or direct others to them. Users can add articles to their libraries using the Connotea add form or using bookmarklets. Connotea can save a URL or a Digital Object Identifier (DOI). When links to resources are bookmarked (saved) they are available to every user (including visitors), but they can be marked as private so they and the associated tags are only visible to the individual. User's libraries are linked together by using common tags or bookmarks. Users can assign any and as many tags as they want to each resource link. Tags can be single terms or phrases. These tags are then used to classify and organize a user's library of documents. (This is an alternative to using folders.) Anyone can search all libraries, their own library, perform a Google search, as well as a few other types of searches. (http://www.Connotea.org/)

Features/Functionality:

• Search
• Search all libraries, by tag, by user, or via Google
• Save resources to a central location (using a Web form or bookmarklet)
• Tag resources with descriptive, user-defined terms or phrases (these are used to organize and classify the collection)
• Discover other resources through browsing other libraries: all or those defined by user or tag
• Mark resource and its tags ‘private’ to hide it from others
• Automatically capture bibliographic information from certain Web sites (Nature.com, PubMed?, PubMed? Central, Science, Supported EPrints repositories, Supported Highwire Press publications, Blackwell Synergy, Wiley Interscience, Amazon, HubMed?, D-Lib Magazine)

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Connotea is open source and freely available for download under the GNU General Public License (GPL) at Sourceforge. http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133040&package_id=146096 It is programmed in Perl and has aWeb-based user interface.

Summary:

This application is similar to CiteULike and offers some key functionality we seek to offer in ACE like being able to save, annotate and share a resource; or add a resource via a Bookmarklet.

sakai

Overview:

A collection of open source tools for the academic community. Sakai is an extensible Java-based enterprise framework for building collaborative teaching and research tools and services. Sakai can be comparable to Black Board and WebCT, but is more comprehensive. Sakai's Service Oriented Architecture embodies a service interface (API) composed of two-layers: presentation code and service code. The complete four-layered architecture consists of browser, presentation code, service code, and persistence. (See presentation for more on the framework,Web services and Web applications, and the Sakai Presentation Service Abstraction (www.sakaiproject.org/presentations/AboutSakai.ppt, slides 29 - 31)

Features/Functionality:

• Collaborative Learning Environment Toolset supports:
  • announcements
  • assignments
  • chatroom
  • threaded discussion
  • drop box
  • email archive
  • gradebook
  • melete content editor
  • message of the day
  • news/RSS
  • preferences
  • presentation capability
  • profile/roster
  • quizes & Tests
  • resources
  • rWiki
  • schedule
  • section management
  • su Tool
  • syllabus
  • twinpeaks
  • web content
  • worksite setup
  webDAV

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Sakai is open source and freely available from version control (Subversion). http://www.Sakaiproject.org/release. Nightly releases. The core technologies used for Sakai include Java, Apache, SSL, mod_jk, WEBISO, virtual hosting, Tomcat 5.5/JBoss, Sakai Spring Hibernate, Java Server Faces, Velocity (legacy), MySQL 4.1 or Oracle 9i/10g.

Summary:

Sakai offers a number of tools for collaboration. Since it is open source and designed as components, it is possible to select the components needed and configure Sakai to an organization's needs. Some of the components may be useful in later phases of ACE when we are more concerned with building more functionality to support collaboration.

bspace (powered by sakai)

Overview:

The UC Berkeley implementation of Sakai includes support for announcements, course documents, discussion board, chat, email, links to Web sites, RSS feeds, Section/Group management, gradebook, online quizzes/surveys, online assignments, automatic roster, drop box, syllabus tool, profile. UC Berkeley plans to transition from supporting three course management systems (Blackboard, WebCT, and CourseWeb) to Sakai.

Excerpted from the bSpace Web site:
The new system will be based on the Sakai framework. Sakai is a community-source effort driven by University of Michigan, MIT, Stanford, Indiana University, and uPortal. UC Berkeley has been a member of the Sakai Educational Partners Program (SEPP) since December 2003 and on the board since June 2004. We have had the opportunity to contribute to and define the tools available in the Sakai framework, and are developing an online grade book tool that allows instructors to display grades to students throughout the semester, as well as calculate and submit final course grades to the Registrar. This tool will be available with future versions of Sakai. (https://bSpace.berkeley.edu/portal)

Features (new):

• easy-to-use interface
• automatic course roster
• notify users of new content via email
• export calendar events as PDF
• create online assignments: allow students to submit text based assignments or upload a file for review
• subscribe to RSS feeds: allows instructors to display syndicated content from other websites
• manage multiple files simultaneously: allows instructors to upload or delete more than one file at a time
• easily move uploaded files into folders
• apply standard formatting to announcement text and course resources (bold, bullets, text color, etc.)
• student drop-box submissions automatically organized in folders
• display web content from within the course site: provide easy access to web resources by adding links to the navigation pane

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

bSpace is powered by Sakai. Sakai is open source and is freely available from version control (Subversion). http://www.Sakaiproject.org/release. Nightly releases. The core technologies used for Sakai include Java, Apache, SSL, mod_jk, WEBISO, virtual hosting, Tomcat 5.5/JBoss, Sakai Spring Hibernate, Java Server Faces, Velocity (legacy), MySQL 4.1 or Oracle 9i/10g.

Summary:

bSpace offers a number of tools for collaboration. Since it is based on Sakai and Sakai is open source and designed as components, it is possible to select the components needed and configure Sakai to an organization's needs. Some of the components may be useful in later phases of ACE when we are more concerned with building more functionality to support collaboration.

firefox scholar & web scrapbook

Firefox Overview:

This is pre-beta application (scheduled for beta release in the summer of 2006) being developed by the Center for History and New Media (CHNM). The application will allow instructors, students, and scholars to organize and cite materials they find online. The application consists of a set of browser extensions that allow researchers to recognize and capture metadata from online objects, sort them, and annotate them from their browser window. The application is open source and extensible. (http://chnm.gmu.edu/tools/firefoxscholar/)

Web Scrapbook Overview:

This application allows researchers to place images, excerpts, Web pages, or local files into an online repository. These can then be annotated, and sorted into folders, which can have comments attached to them. Within these folders, a user can annotate or comment on resources; and can share, copy, or move them.

Web Scrapbook also allows collaboration by allowing a user to define group access to resources, which allows group members to collaboratively build, sort, and annotate a list of shared resources.

Features/Functionality:

• Store images, excerpts, Web pages, or local files in a repository
• Annotate any object stored in the repository
• Sort objects into folders
• Share objects
• Allow others to access, annotate, or sort a list of resources

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

The Web Scrapbook project Web site states the application is open and extensible, but there is no indication where the source code is located, nor is there anything on the project available on Sourceforge.. A contact (Dan Cohen) is listed and can be contacted for more information. Web Scrapbook uses MySQL, PHP, and JavaScript (for Web pages).

Summary:

The tools listed on the CHNM site offer a nice set of functionality that are parallel with our vision for ACE. We could gain much from digging into Web Scrapbook, Firefox Scholar, and possibly some of the other tools on the site.

scholar's box

Overview:

This Interactive University project envisions much of the same functionality as ACE. It allows users to search multiple resources simultaneously and displays the results along with a thumbnail.

Excerpt from the IU Web site:
Early versions of the IU's "Scholar's Box" tool already demonstrate the promise for faculty, students, and the public to create, manipulate, annotate, and share personal collections of digital cultural objects gathered from multiple digital repositories. The IU is building both a Scholar's Box tool as well as an abstraction framework that defines functionality and APIs for other possible implementations. (http://iu.berkeley.edu/IU/SB)

Features/Functionality:

• Allow users to search multiple resources at once
• Save results from searches and build collections of digital objects
• Users can then ‘produce’ various products using one of the available Scholar’s box tools

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

This is an Interactive University project being worked on by Raymond Yee. We have discussed the project with Raymond and may contact him if there is any interest in taking a closer look at the code base. The Scholar's Box was built using Python.

Summary:

The architecture is flexible and allows the tools to be added at anytime. The idea is to also be able to allow search resources to be easily added through APIs. The application exists as a set of prototypes currently, but is a nice foundation from which to base ACE's search capability and display of results. The architecture and other notes posted on the project wiki were helpful during the conceptual stages of defining ACE's architecture. (http://raymondyee.net/wiki/ScholarsBox_2fTechnicalSpecification)

zojam

Overview:

This application provides a way to create a lightweight portal. It is built using Ajax and stores your settings in a cookie on your computer. You can add content such as images, news, or RSS or Atom feeds, to your portal, move it around, resize boxes, etc. (http://www.Zojam.com/portal/)

Features/Functionality:

• Design your own portal
• Receive news or feed content (RSS or Atom)

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Summary:

Zojam is an interesting idea, with an emphasis on customizing an your own portal with all information you want readily available. However, in the initial phases of ACE, we do not forsee focusing on personalization and customization. Rather we are focusing on providing some more basic needs focused around information seeking, information organization, and sharing information.

protopage

Overview:

This is another application to build your own portal. It allows a user (with one click and no registration) to build their own portal, which may include a place to add feeds, add links, bookmarks, photos, email, create and use sticky notes, and add widgets to their page. Everything is very easy to configure and use.

Features/Functionality:

• Design your own portal
• Receive feeds
• Use sticky notes
• Add links and/or bookmarks
• Add widgets to the portal

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

This looks to be proprietary, so no source code available as far as I can see. The core technology used for Protopage is Ajax.

Summary:

Protopage, like Zojam, is an interesting idea, with an emphasis on customizing your own portal. It offers more than Zojam in the way of allowing a portal designer to use sticky notes and add widgets. However, as mentioned above, in the initial phases of ACE, we do not forsee focusing on personalization and customization. Rather we are focusing on providing some more basic needs focused around information seeking, information organization, and sharing information.

wowbar (Ben's summer project)

Overview:

Wowbar is a platform supporting Web page annotation and presenting results in a browser sidebar. Annotations (what individuals, communities, organizations, and their software agents have to say about a Web page) are displayed alongside the page arranged/prioritized according to the individual's preferences. WOW-AA is the collection of protocols and conventions by which otherwise uncoordinated parties can make their annotations available to others as a service on the Web. When one finds out about such services, s/he can plug them into her/his Wowbar. (http://www.commerce.net/wiki/Wowbar_notes)

Features/Functionality:

• Each user has preferences which include a source-list (list of annotations) and a mixer which orders the items according to its own notions
• Each user has his/her own Wow-wiki which displays the lists of annotations once they are output by the mixer.
• Annotations are associated and displayed with each Web page they describe

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Wowbar is a proprietary application being developed by Commerce.net. There is no cost information on the project wiki as Wowbar is in the early stages of development.

Summary:

The idea of being able to annotate Web pages and view those annotations when the Web page is displayed is a good one. It is not clear, however, how much control the user has over editing annotations, ordering them, or over saving pages anywhere beyond their own bookmarks.

google base

Overview:

This is a beta Google service that allows a user to add content he or she wishes to have show up in Google by filling out a Web form. Anyone can add an item or batch-add items by filling out the Web form. Google categorizes the information using facets which it defines, or which it allows you to define. There are twelve categories from which to choose when one classifies the content he or she is adding. These categories are based on the most popular facets. Search and browse are integrated and allow a user to search using multiple facets (attributes). An individual can use the query preview to see how many results are available for each attribute. Google Base also uses tags which, when clicked on, essentially perform a keyword search.

Features/Functionality:

• Add your own content to Google
• Personal content is categorized according to the most popular Google categories
• Search/browse using multiple facets
• View number of results available for each category

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

This is a beta Google service and is therefore, proprietary and free for anyone to use.

Summary:

This service is beta, but it raises some interesting ideas with respect to considering how users choose tags for items or projects and how those tags may contribute to ranking results. We have considered how to rank a set of results that come from multiple search tools such as Google, CDL, and Melvyl for example, but found that because systems use different algorithms to rank results that this is a complex problem that will take more time than we have to tackle it.

ning

Overview:

Ning is an application that allows users to create and share social applications. Ning is free to use to create configurable applications that then belong to the user who created them.

Features/Functionality:

• Browse available applications
• Download any application on Ning's code base
• Adapt an application to make it your own

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Ning applications are free and configurable. The core technologies used are HTML and PHP.

Summary:

Ning has some applications that may be cloneable and configurable enough to act as base components such as for bookmarking, but the applications look to be mostly small-scale. The idea of being able to customize and reuse an application is a good one. This is a way to offer reusable tools and application components.

Connexions

Overview:

Connexions is a collaborative environment containing a growing collection of scholarly material and tools that are freely available. Collaborative developing, sharing, and rapid publishing of scholarly works are encouraged. Connexions is grassroots- organized, interdisciplinary, and offers a wide range of courses. Connexions organizes chunks of knowledge into modules, which can be accessed directly or combined as a complete course. As of April 13, 2006, there are 3141 modules and 148 courses. The courses range from music to biodiversity, covering topics such as bioinformatics, the British Parliamentary papers, Fundamentals of Computer Engineering, and World History. Modules and courses are offered in various languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Thai. All the materials are available under the Creative Commons "attribution" license and can therefore be adapted, then submitted under the Creative Commons license. According to the Connexions Web site, there are over one million users from 157 countries using the resources. (htttp://cnx.org)

Tools freely available for download from Connexions include Math fonts, Rhaptos 1.5 requires PostgreSQL (another RDBMS can be used, but no others have been tested), psycopg (Python bindings for PostgreSQL), Zope application-based server (Python based), CVS, pvcvs (Python bindings for CVS), XML (for content), XSLT and DTDs can be used to improve performance.

Features/Functionality:

• Supported in the Content Commons area of Connexions:
  • Free content (modules or courses) can be downloaded and modified. The courses can be sorted by course title, course author, or submitting institution.
  • Submit content
• Tools:
  • Connexions content management system is available for free download
  • Guidance for using third party tools with Connexions
  • Access to technical blog created by acting system architect, Ross Reedstrom

Availability/Cost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

All content is freely available and downloadable. The content management system (Rhaptos) Connexions runs on can also be downloaded for free. There is also some support for using third party tools and may be some useful tips and information on the technical blog, although it does not contain interactions between or postings from developers using Rhaptos. Rhaptos is a plone-based content management system. Other core technologies Connexions is built with are Python, XML, and XSLT.

Summary:

Connexions is easy to use and the content is so easily available that course developers and learners should find it very useful and easy to use and contribute. The wide range of knowledge available from this Web site is plenty to choose from and the fact that it is published on Connexions under the Creative Commons "attribute" license allows reuse and modification of the content. It is difficult to see how much collaboration is occurring, and if there is an active community. It seems like a wiki would greatly help build community and fuel adoption of Connexions by other institutions (e.g. having a place where those installing or managing a Rhaptos content management system could discuss challenges, issues, or improvements).

Sofia (Sharing of Free Intellectual Assets)

Overview:

Sofia is an open content initiative. It was launched by Foothill-De Anza Community College in March, 2004 and is supported by a grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The goal of the initiative was to publish exemplary community college-level content that will be freely available over the Web. The long-term goal is to promote initiative, openness, sharing, and collaboration. There are currently eight freely available courses published on the Web site. The publication process consists of six steps: contributions, review process, conversions, publication, and evaluation. Contributions are called for annually, and material appropriate for publication on the project Web site is selected and peer reviewed. Material that has been reviewed and accepted is then repurposed and formatted according to the system template. It is then goes through a quality assurance process and copyright clearance is secured before the content is published to the Sofia site. The content is published under whichever Creative Commons license the contributor(s) chose. A contributor chooses a Creative Commons license specifying whether attribution is required, whether commercial use of the work is allowed, or whether modifications to the work are allowed.

Features/Functionality:

• Publish course
• Use course content (anyone can use the course content)
• Review content (sign up to be a reviewer)

AvailabilityCost/Core Technologies (if Open Source):

Although it is clear how to contribute content or sign up to be a reviewer, no information is listed regarding how to contribute the development of the system or tools. This is an open content initiative intended to use the Sofia system rather than allow others to download the system to use for their own open content initiative. The core technologies Sofia uses are HTML and other multimedia formats.

Summary:

Sofia is based on MIT's OpenCourseWare and its product is something ACE seeks to promote by offering sharing, saving, and annotation of resources, but it does not offer anything directly pertinent to what we are seeking to do with ACE. When comparing Sofia to a resource such as Connexions, it seems less likely to gather as much content as Connexions. While Sofia offers $1000 USD to a course contributor whose course content is accepted (Connexions does not offer any financial incentive for contributing content), the requirements of Sofia contributors seem too extensive for simply submitting course content to a system. To contribute content (assuming it is accepted) to Sofia, contributors are required to do the following:

Provide a URL and access to course materials to be reviewed for publication

• Verify authorship and originality of the course materials submitted
• Choose a creative commons license and specify terms of use
li>Agree to a phone and email interview for a feature story on the development and evolution of the materials and best uses for adopters and learners
• Grant Sofia permission to re-purpose the contributed content for a wider audience
• Grant Sofia permission to reformat content to standard presentation format
• Review and sign off converted course materials prior to publication
• Participate in a phone interview on the evaluation of the project

At the very least the requirements for phone and email interviews could be omitted to reduce the requirements for submitters. Depending on the goals of the project, these requirements may be appropriate, but for building a significant collection of online course content, they are not.