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Spark Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

David Grogan Manager, Curricular Technology Group UIT Academic Technology • Tufts University. Spark Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration. What is Spark? What do we hope it will be? How is it used? What’s under the hood? What’s next? Questions.

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Spark Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

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  1. David Grogan Manager, Curricular Technology Group UIT Academic Technology • Tufts University Spark Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration • What is Spark? • What do we hope it will be? • How is it used? • What’s under the hood? • What’s next? • Questions

  2. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark? • An extensible suite of highly flexible, web-based tools for communication and collaboration that support teaching, learning, research, and other co-curricular activities. • A little history … APT Grants

  3. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark? • Freely available to entire community. • Tool set currently includes: • Wikis (Confluence) • Blogs (MovableType) • Podcast Publisher (homegrown) • Forums (JForum) • Maps (Google Maps/homegrown) • Media Annotator (homegrown) • Coming Fall ‘09: SparkMeeting

  4. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark? • Launched in August 2006. • Continues to grow in features and use. • Won a Campus Technology Innovators Award in 2007. • Core project team includes: • Project manager • Lead developer • Interactive media designer • All sharing support roles

  5. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark? • Baseline features of the commercial/opensource products we use: • Must allow for LDAP integration. • Must allow for customization of interface. • Must have robust API. • Must have access to source code and database.

  6. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark? • Common features across tools as implemented in Spark: • Single sign on using Tufts LDAP directory. • Easy one-click creation of new items. • Tufts directory integrated for setting individual permissions. • World, Tufts-wide, and private permissioning. • Tagging

  7. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is Spark?

  8. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What do we hope Spark will be? A Tufts-based localized network of people and ideas. (getting there slowly)

  9. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used?

  10. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Wikis • As of 6/13/08 • 688 Wikis • 9787 Pages • 3945 Users • 19.31 gigs of attachments.

  11. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Wikis Rate of New Wiki Creation

  12. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Wikis Wiki Page Edits

  13. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Wikis # of Unique Users Making Edits

  14. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Blogs • As of 6/13/08 • 352 Blogs • 3568 Entries • 2061 Authors

  15. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Blogs # of new blogs

  16. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Blogs # of new entries

  17. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Blogs # of new authors

  18. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Podcasts • As of 6/13/08 • 53 Channels • 226 Episodes • 47 Authors

  19. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? Podcasts # of new channels and episodes

  20. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration How is Spark being used? • Forums use is negligible. • Maps and MediaMarkups are new tools with little data as yet.

  21. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Evolution of our systems infrastructure • We started small, using VMWare for 3 development systems and 3 production systems (wikis, blogs, spark) • We expanded incrementally, adding development and production VMs for new services (forums, pod/vodcasts, maps, media-markup) as needed • We've used central resources whenever viable (network storage, authentication) • We've upgraded cautiously (creating just-in-time staging clones for upgrades) with end-user involvement and careful consideration of tradeoffs

  22. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Virtualization is one of our keys to staying agile, keeping costs low, and maximizing scalability within our constraints.

  23. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Next generation infrastructure: • Greater utilization of central resources • Better support for dev-test-staging-production workflow and automation • Explore opportunities for improvements in performance, load balancing, availability, change management using advanced VMWare functionality

  24. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Typical Tool Development Effort: • 5 Pages, 3500 Lines of Code

  25. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Development Approach • 1.5 Programmers, Designer, Manager, Sys. Admin Support. • 2 Calendar Months • Dev server, Test server • JSP, Tomcat, MySQL, YUI, JIRA, SVN, etc. • Secret release

  26. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Development Challenge: Always Something New! • MediaMarkup uses Adobe Flex • SparkMaps uses Google Map API. • Always incorporating JavaScript libraries. • Drag and drop, Ajax tables, etc. • Impacts: Schedule, Plan, Design, Staff

  27. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What is under the hood? • Future Directions • Ajax is good • For the user and the code. • Focus on reducing LOC for tools. • Shared Java database layer. • Shared JSP files. • Stick with existing technology suite. • Automated testing?

  28. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What’s difficult? • Supporting people beyond the basics. • Finding ways to market the site to students. • Competition from freely available 3rd party sites (e.g. Google, Wordpress etc.)

  29. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What’s Next for Spark? • A new user interface. • Bring activity to the front. • Start connecting people and content. • Better communication and outreach.

  30. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration What’s Next for Spark?

  31. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration Any Questions? • Contact: David Grogan (david.grogan@tufts.edu) • Some of my own • What are you doing with these tools? • How have you been successful in marketing tools to your students? • How have you been successful in scaling support?

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