April 18
In our April 17 meeting we discussed the drag and drop admin menu. Resources and units are draggable. You can embed a resource in units in this way. Developing software is an infinitely complex process that always leaves countless options for improvement. The DLP combines drag and drop functionality with expandable menues that are talking to databases.
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Management interface
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
In today's meeting we delineated waht was achieved over the past weeks and what can be done until the end of April. The management interface progressed. We decided not to implement the associative search
feature until the rest of the core functionality is done. At this point then we'll be able to input and involve a first group of test users/producers.
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User Type
here is a description of different user types and privileges for discussion. this is a
priority to resolve as it affects the datamodel, class definitions and
interface.
browser:
- anonymous
- no login
- no workspace, favorites
- access to all viewable content
- no contribution, editing privileges
researcher:
- requires automatic registration (no approval required)
- same access to content as browser
- login to access favorites, profile, add content to favorites
contributor:
- researcher that has been accepted to this level (who accepts them?)
- login to access all workspace functionality
- can create new project,unit,resource
- can manage own content (ie: edit, make viewable, lock, delete)
- can attach any resource to own units, any unit to own projects
- can associate/unassociate contributors with project/unit
- QUESTIONS:
1) to who does a contributor allow edit privileges to their content -
should this be any existing researcher or contributor?
2) if researchers, do they have the ability to associate/unassociate
resources->units, unit->project?
3) if researchers, can they add resources?
4) are all contributors associated with given content the same, or
does the original creator have special status - ie: only they can add/
remove contributors to their content and set privileges?
administrator:
- login to access all workspace functionality
- all lower level management (ie do anything) done via phpmyadmin
interface
- one or more administrators allowed
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Research on Distributed Education
Andrew Feenberg
I am a professor in the School of Communication of Simon Fraser University. I have written several books on philosophy of technology and have studied the Internet and online education. If you want to know more about me, please visit my web page. There's a lot on it about my writings and my photographic art.
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prioritized list of dlp templates to work on:
* list
search results: title(link), description
sections for projects, units, resources
* create/modify project
form: title,description,content,view(checkbox),lock(checkbox)
form: add/delete collaborators (for primary only)
add/delete/order units (add custom title, description)
javascript: validation feedback
* create/modify unit
form: title,description,content,view(checkbox),lock(checkbox)
add/delete/order resources (add custom description)
javascript: validation feedback
* contribute resource
form: title,description,content,view(checkbox)
form: upload file
javascript: validation feedback
* subject
form: title,description,related subjects(multiple) w/ relationship
type (pulldown)
javascript: validation feedback
* login
form: email,password,submit
links: forgot password
messages: email/password not valid,etc
javascript: validation feedback
* profile
form: givenname,surname,email,password,lang
(pulldown),url,description,status(pulldown-admin only),submit
admin mode for additional functionality
javascript: validation feedback
* info
template to handle static content
content from text only files
php script parses line breaks to apply css tags (?)
make it easy for site maintainers to add/translate background content IDEA: instead of above use a project with units for all this content (less work for us and more regular interface)
* home
welcome blurb
hilight content
form: search
* my collection (develop existing design further)
- need to go over this area more in a meeting
questions remaining:
- how does admin/primary project collaborator find user? (javascript type hinting or search?)
- for admin do we need listings of subject, user, project, unit, resource or should we just use phpmyadmin for detailed data managment?
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Meeting Jan 23
Tuesday 10:30-12:00, Jan 24/06
w/ Tom,Chris,Thom
1) server
- trebor questions hosting server at ub
- thom says etc still on track to have server which can host dlp
- will use kirk as development server until etc one comes online
2) icons for project/unit?
- one allowed per project
- filename is project id
- updateable
- resized to globally set max dimensions
3) with tagging becoming so big should we forget about controlled
vocabulary?
- don't think about this, we need control for professional purposes
(Thom)
4) urls of pages? clean or standard?
- url should reflect navigation history - eg: if unit is viewed thru
project then project id is in url, if viewed thru search then just
unit id
- look at wordpress url redirect method
- go with basic for now - eg:
http://sharewidely.buffalo.edu/dlp.php?
project=123&unit=534&resource=37869546
5) resource interface: download/view inline? size,format?
- new page show new page with links when clicking on resource title
- no new window, no embedded
6) new interfaces: login, home, info, search result
- send priority list of new interfaces for chris to work on
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Meeting Nov 15
Today we discussed the need for a robot crawler page so that all public pages in the SW end up in Google searches etc. We also talked about Dublin Core standards. Which out of the 13 core Dublin core standards do we not we not yet address in the database? This becomes important for XML exchanges with other project databases.
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Protocols for online collaboration
1. Start small.
Start working with the tool in a core groups of 10- 15.
2. Pick an urgent problem.
A collaborative tool needs to be build based on a real need, an urgency.
3. Start with relevant, high quality material.
The online collaborative environment will not be very enticing if it starts out empty. No one wants to be the first to post a message, add a resource or a document. The quality of these first entries sets the tone and an expectation for posts to come. It creates an identity of the online space. The quality of initial contributions matter a great deal.
4. Keep contributors informed.
After a few initial interactions with the collaborative system, it is not unusual for contributors to drift away. One antidote is to give contributors an update on what's happening in the development of the tool.
5. Emphasize the benefits.
It's natural for contributors to resist getting involved. Facilitators of the tool need to talk about the advantages of using the tool in workshops and face-to-face meetings.
6. Praise the experts.
Verbal praise, the thrill of making a contribution, working in a productive group and having your ideas appreciated contribute to the success of online collaboration. Rather than getting tense with contributors who don't participate in the collaborative environment, emphasize thoughtful contributions.
7. Allow controversy.
Allow controversial debates to brew in collaborative areas— this will foster substantial conversations. Disagreement gets people most engaged in online discussions.
8. Let the users rule.
If you put a collaborative tool into place you have to trust your contributors to take the system and mold it to their style and culture.
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Name for our tool!
The past two meetings led us to a name of the new media incarnation of the software tool DLP:
Share Widely. We bought sharewidely.org and .net. We discussed a limit to the upload size (~25 MB) and will point for larger uploads to archive.org. Chris designed good html templates and now we are waiting on Tom's progress.
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Workshop Excerpt October 20
