faq #1 for the coast guard portal

December 2008

WHAT IS CG PORTAL? CG Portal is the much-anticipated web infrastructure and collaboration suite for the Coast Guard. CG Portal will act as the single point-of-entry for both internal and external customers. Unlike CG Central (our internal site) and www.uscg.mil (our Internet pres-ence), CG Portal is a suite of applications working together to provide a feature-rich en-vironment. At its core lie four key products: IBM Lotus Quickr, IBM Sametime, Fat-Wire, and IBM WebSphere Portal. Quickr is the collaboration tool, Sametime is the in-ternal chat client, FatWire is the content management system tool, and WebSphere Portal is the “wrapper” (it’s what gives our site its branding).

WHAT DOES CG PORTAL DO? CG Portal is a web-based tool set that provides users the ability to manage web content, collaborate with colleagues in real-time, discuss content in real-time, and leverage key Web 2.0 technologies to improve business communications. For content management, CG Portal uses software called FatWire. FatWire, in essence, allows our static web con-tent from the World Wide Web and CG Central to display in a standardized format while keeping a common look and feel. For collaboration, we have IBM Quickr. Quickr will assume the role of the old CG Central Microsites. Quickr is defined as a team-collaboration software that allows users to access and interact with the people, informa-tion and project materials needed to get the work done. In other words, it’s a high-end communication tool. The new Portal also leverages Web 2.0 technology in the form of blogs (or web logs) and wikis. Blogs can be used to allow teams a free-narrative forum to discuss topics of interest while wikis are collaborative-based web pages that can be modified by any authorized user to create a long-term knowledge repository.

WHY SHOULD I USE PORTAL? WHAT'S IN IT FOR ME? You should use CG Portal for three reasons. First, Portal integrates some of the best in Web 2.0 technologies (like blogs). Web 2.0 is defined as the paradigm shift in the way the Internet is used. Instead of static content, the Internet is considered a worldwide col-laboration network used to interact and communicate. The results facilitate creativity and information sharing. Incorporating these tools within the Coast Guard should also facili-tate creativity and information sharing. Second, if, at the end of first quarter 2009, you attempt to browse CG Central you will get a 404-error message (also known as the noto-rious "file not found" error). Browsing to www.uscg.mil mil take you to CG Portal. Fi-nally, the Commandant says so. As far as “what’s in it for me?” we’d offer that the benefits are substantial. Leveraging these Web 2.0 technologies will enhance stakeholder and customer interaction and better

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137 THE NUMBER OF BLADE SERVERS USED

TO SUPPORT CG PORTAL

5 THE NUMBER OF ENVIRONMENTS (DEVELOPMENT, TEST, CODE TEST,

STAGE, PRODUCTION)

6 THE NUMBER OF TERABYTES OF

STORAGE SPACE

1,300 THE NUMBER OF MICROSITES THAT NEED TO BE MOVED TO PORTAL

13,000 THE NUMBER OF CG CENTRAL

CONTENT ITEMS THAT THE OSC WILL MANUALLY PLACE WITHIN PORTAL

800 THE NUMBER OF WEBSITES THAT NEED

TO BE CREATED

5 THE SIZE OF THE MIGRATION TEAM

CG PORTAL

By the Numbers

What is Web 2.0? Web 2.0 refers to a large set of ideas and techniques behind many new web sites and services which encourage user interaction, com-munication, and collaboration.

This is the first in a series of frequently asked questions (FAQ) aimed towards orienting the Coast Guard family towards the new Coast Guard Portal (CG Portal). We expect to have additional FAQs shortly. Suggestions or comments for additional FAQ questions should be e-mailed to [email protected].

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Number 1

communications. The results may even yield innovation and cost savings. You never know!

HOW WILL PORTAL MAKE MY JOB BETTER? CG Portal offers the Coast Guard an expanded and integrated set of web-based tools to promote workforce efficiency. Portal seeks to enhance collaboration by providing Quickr, an easy-to-use tool for chatting, discussing, and creating. Portal seeks to improve customer communications by easing web development. FatWire content management allows both novice and experienced web providers to get their messages out cleanly and effectively. Portal also seeks to consolidate two archaic and outdated technologies (CG Central and www.uscg.mil) under one umbrella. Doing so will streamline information delivery to all CG members and ease duplicative efforts. Finally, and more importantly, CG Portal seeks to allow its customers (you) to focus on people instead of technology. We are, after all, not in the business of using technology. We are in the business of help-ing people. Portal will make your job better by making your business processes easier.

DO I NEED MY CAC CARD TO ACCESS THE PORTAL FROM HOME? Yes. The new portal is also an extranet, which means it will be possible for CG personnel who have Common Access Cards (CAC) to log into the intranet portion of the portal from anywhere on the Internet. This is a really useful aspect especially for reservists. Now they won’t have to wait until their drill weekend to get access to information they need. Down the road, the portal will also incorporate the use of username and password au-thentication, so some people who don’t have CAC will be able to get into the system. Auxilarists, dependents, and industry partners will be able to log in and take part in the collaboration areas. Technically speaking, it is just a matter of time before that will be available, the bigger issue is how people will be validated to have accounts and who will keep those accounts up to date and correct. WILL THIS NEW PORTAL NOW ALLOW THE RESERVES OR AUXILIARY TO ACCESS USCG INFORMATION THEY WERE UNABLE TO ACCESS BEFORE? Right off the bat, the Coast Guard Reserve will have access to CG Portal as long as they have their common access card (CAC), a CAC reader, and know their personal identifi-cation number (PIN). The Coast Guard Auxiliary, on the other hand, will be unable to access Portal because they are not issued CAC cards. Because the Auxiliary is a very important part of the Coast Guard family – and they need Coast Guard information, too – the ability to authenticate using a traditional username and password combination will be the next priority (currently estimated for fall of 2009). WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MOVING CONTENT FROM THE OLD SYSTEMS TO THE NEW? CG Central will be migrated first. The OSC Web Team plans on moving the bulk of CG Central material - including current Microsite content - to the new Portal using a semi-automated process. Static content will be bulk copied to FatWire and current Microsite information will be loaded into Quickr. CG Internet content (www.uscg.mil) will be mi-

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NOVEMBER 2007 ALCOAST 536/07 IDENTIFIES CG

PORTAL AS THE NEW WEB TECHNOLOGY FOR THE

COAST GUARD

MARCH 2008 IBM QUICKR, IBM WEBSPHERE, AND

FATWIRE ARE SELECTED AS NEW PORTAL COMPONENTS

OCTOBER 2008 INITIAL SHIPMENT OF 63 BLADE

SERVERS ARRIVE ON THE OSC DATA FLOOR

NOVEMBER 2008 FIRST CLUSTERED ENVIRONMENT IS

CONFIGURED AND TESTED.

NEXT STEPS

MIGRATE AND PLACE CONTENT FOR 800+ CG CENTRAL WEBSITES

CREATE A QUICKR PLACE FOR ALL 1,300 MICROSITES AND MIGRATE

CONTENT

INTEGRATE COAST GUARD BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE (CGBI)

SOFT ROLL QUICKR, SAMETIME, AND WEBSPHERE PORTAL TO PRODUCTION

ALLOW FOUR WEEKS FOR TRAINING, CONTENT VALIDATION, AND TESTING

SECURE CG CENTRAL

REPEAT PROCESS FOR WWW.USCG.MIL

CG PORTAL

Schedule at a Glanse

grated second. For www.uscg.mil, the OSC Web Team will manually move all 800+ web sites to FatWire. Publishing content in FatWire works differently than in either CG Central or www.uscg.mil. In simplest terms, content is first placed in a large bucket and then indi-vidual pieces of content from the bucket are hung on a display page(s) (this is a key step in the prevention of double publishing). After the initial load of content into the Fatwire bucket (containing approximately 13,000 items) the team will "hang" as many of the items as possible. Since the organization of pages and sites in CG Portal will not exactly mimic the structure of either www.uscg.mil or CG Central it will be difficult for anyone other than an item owner to determine the final placement on a page. The Portal team will take on the heavy lift of ensuring that all data is migrated from these two legacy sys-tems but we will rely on content publishers in the field for the placement of some content to ensure success. CG Web content will not be moved by the OSC. Because of the distributive nature of the CG Web, units wishing to have CG Web static content moved to CG Portal will need to move the content themselves. Local business applications will need to remain status quo until the next iteration of CG Portal. SHOULD PEOPLE WANTING NEW WEB SITES WAIT FOR THE PORTAL? OR SHOULD THEY MAKE ARRANGEMENTS UNDER WWW.USCG.MIL OR ON THE CG WEB? There are no plans to deter any unit from using any existing system, in accordance with current policy, until CG Portal goes into production and becomes the authoritative source. If your content is of a time sensitive and/or critical nature, by all means, post. On the other hand, if your information is routine, large, or complicated, we suggest waiting since we cannot guarantee your information will be migrated exactly as posted. One word of caution: if you elect to leverage CG Web for your content, please note that there are no plans on automatically migrating any of that material to Portal anytime soon. This means that any material posted on CG Web will have to be manually recreated - by your unit webmaster - on CG Portal. HOW IS THE PROCESS FOR POSTING CONTENT TO PORTAL DIFFERING FROM POSTING TO CG CENTRAL AND WWW.USCG.MIL? The answer to this question will depend on how familiar you are with both (or either). CG Central uses a template approach to posting content. You fill in the blanks, hit a sub-mit button, and your content appears (oversimplified but accurate). Www.uscg.mil, in contrast, requires that all your web pages be developed in a staging environment using a traditional HTML editor like Microsoft FrontPage. New pages or changes to your exist-ing site are replicated, on the hour, to the Internet-facing servers. Posting within CG Por-tal is a combination of the two. For the novice, posting content is simply a matter of en-tering in your text using a combination of form fields and a rich-text editor. Hitting the submit button will push your data to the public (either internal or external). For the web savvy, content can be manipulated using the source code view of your rich-text editor page. Web content providers will have the ability to post content internally, externally, or in combination. Although convenient, having the ability to post to both locations will re-quire an additional level of governance. Most units wouldn’t want to see the wrong infor-mation get posted in the wrong location! Needless to say, HQ staff will develop and im-plement a policy soon.



What is a wiki? A wiki allows visitors to add, re-move, and edit available content. This ease of interaction and opera-tion makes a wiki an effective tool for collaborative authoring.

What is a blog? Blog is short for weblog. A blog is generally a journal or newsletter which is updated frequently. Blogs are easily updated and may allow comments from readers.

4 0 8 C o a s t G u a r d D r i v e * K e a r n e y s v i l l e , W V * 2 5 4 3 0

OPERATIONS SYSTEMS CENTER

WILL I STILL BE ABLE TO USE MY WEB EDITORS LIKE MICROSOFT FRONT‐PAGE AND DREAMWEAVER? No. Microsoft Frontpage, Dreamweaver, and other third-party web developer applica-tions are no longer necessary. Posting content for either internal or external viewing uses a series of pre-designed templates. While the concept of “templates” appears discourag-ing for the creative types, it is not. Web content developers and content providers will have plenty of flexibility to generate any design or layout they desire. The only exception to this is overall page layout. Keeping with the DHS mandate in terms of branding, all page headers, footers, and side bars will retain a standard look and feel. One word of caution: a poorly designed page remains a poorly designed page whether in Portal or not.

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faq #1 for the coast guard portal

Devices & Hardware