1 finding collaborators worldwide james werle, univ. of washington, jwerle@u.washington.edu jennifer...

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Finding Collaborators Worldwide

James Werle, Univ. of Washington, jwerle@u.washington.edu

Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN, jmacdoug@isc.upenn.edu

Tim Boundy, JANET, Tim.Boundy@ja.net

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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

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MyK20 of the Past

• Create personal profile

• Submit project description

• Search for projects and people

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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

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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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Muse Architecture

Internet2 Server

database - mySQL CMS - drupal

National MyK20

MAGPI Regional

Your SEGPs regional site

Australia Regional …

Simplified Muse Architecture

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Technical Support from Internet2

• Website Hosting

• Wiki environment (for national development team)

• Flexible server support and configuration

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National siteRegional site

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National site

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National siteGo here now to create new user profile/acct. and search for others.

Live Demo - People

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National site

Go here now to create, edit, search projects

Live Demo - Projects

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National site

“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

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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

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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

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FAQs - Do I have to have my own regional site?

• Nope!

• Muse Global K20 site is available for everyone

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FAQs - Who else are you talking to about this?

• CILC

• TERENA

• education.au

• AARNet

• JANET

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JANET CollaborateTim Boundy

Project Manager, JANET Collaborate

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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 jwerle@u.washington.edu

Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI/UPENN jmacdoug@isc.upenn.edu

Tim Boundy, JANET

Tim.Boundy@ja.net