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

2. 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 Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

3. 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) –SparkMeetings (Adobe Connect Pilot) Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

4. 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 Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

5. 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. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

6. 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 Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

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

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

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

10. How is Spark being used? Some Interesting Recent Use Cases Wikis: Workflow and social networking for citizen scholars.Workflow and social networking for citizen scholars Blogs: Anthropology of MediaAnthropology of Media MediaMarkup: Feedback on patient examinations.Feedback on patient examinations. SparkMaps: Mapping Tufts conservation medicine projects.Mapping Tufts conservation medicine projects. Podcasts: Podcasting biology lectures.Podcasting biology lectures. Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

11. What is under the hood? Evolution of our systems infrastructure –Started small, using VMWare for 3 dev systems and 3 prod systems (wikis, blogs, spark) –Expanded incrementally, adding dev and prod VMs for new services as needed –Using central resources whenever viable (network storage, authentication) Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

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

13. 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 Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

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

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

16. 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 Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

17. 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? Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration

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

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

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

21. Any Questions? Contact: David Grogan (david.grogan@tufts.edu)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? Spark: Web 2.0 Tools for Communication and Collaboration