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JA-SIG Newsletter - February 2008
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1 Welcome
1.1 Editor's Message
1.2 JA-SIG Membership
1.3 Web Site Improvements
2 JA-SIG Project Updates
2.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
2.1.1 CAS Server
2.1.2 CAS Client for Java
2.1.3 Pre-Conference Seminar: Implementing CAS
2.2 uPortal
2.2.1 Progressing Toward uPortal 3.0
2.2.2 Portlets
2.2.3 Update Your "Deployed uPortal"
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It has been another busy month in JA-SIG "Community Source" development with a new release of the CAS Server and the progress toward a General Availability release of uPortal 3, not to mention the exciting activity on portal content generally and portlets in particular. Congratulations to all involved in those projects.
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As always, feel free to send your comments or content to newsletter at jasig dot org.
Enjoy!
Mark Mark Rogers (University of Manitoba), Editor, JA-SIG Newsletter
1.2
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JA-SIG
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Membership
We would like to thank the following organizations for their ongoing commitment to our program:
Institutional Members:
BCcampus, Boston University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dalhousie University, Duke University, Indiana University, Johns Hopkins University, Juniata College, Memorial University of Newfoundland, New York University, Northern Arizona University, Princeton University, Queens University, Rutgers University, Rider University, Sabanci University, San Joaquin Delta College, Simon Fraser University, University of Alaska-Fairbanks, University of British Columbia, University of California-Irvine, University of Delaware, University of Edinburgh, University of Guelph, University of Hawaii, University of Hull, University of Illinois, University of Kansas, University of Kansas Medical Center, University of Manitoba, University of Michigan, University of Rennes 1, University of the West of England, University of Winnipeg, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Valenciennes, Virginia Tech, Yale University, York University
Commercial Affiliates:
SunGard Higher Education, Sun Microsystems, Unicon, Inc.
For further information on our membership program, visit http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/JA-SIG+Membership
Jonathan Markow, Executive Director
1.3 Web Site Improvements
JA-SIG is about to begin an effort to improve its websites. This initiative will be coordinated by webmaster John Fereira and will be tracked on the jasig-webpresence email list and wiki space. We plan to take incremental steps, beginning with some reorganization and editing to make basic information more current and accessible, especially to newcomers. A more comprehensive redesign will then follow.
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If you've got some ideas you would like to share, we're hoping to hear from you soon!
Thanks,
Jonathan Markow
2 Project Updates
2.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
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Finally, it includes a new Hard Timeout Expiration Policy, an updated Spring Configuration mechanism (and modularized Spring configuration files) as well as a utilizing a production-ready auditing/statistics tool/API (Inspektr).
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Please note that as this is a major release you should take a look at the major new features (the updated Spring Configuration mechanism and the Inspektr auditing tool) and see how/if it changes your deploymentlook at the major new features (the updated Spring Configuration mechanism and the Inspektr auditing tool) and see how/if it changes your deployment.
2.1.2 CAS Client for Java
We've put out a very minor release of the CAS Client for Java 3.1.1. It fixes an issue with the test cases and makes the map in Assertion mutable. If you're not having any problems with 3.1 then there isn't a rush to upgrade.
2.1.
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We've put out a very minor release of the CAS Client for Java 3.1.1. It fixes an issue with the test cases and makes the map in Assertion mutable. If you're not having any problems with 3.1 then there isn't a rush to upgrade.
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3 Pre-Conference Seminar: Implementing CAS
Adam Rybicki (Deactivated) (Unicon, Inc) will be doing a pre-conference seminar (Sunday, April 27, 2008, 8:30AM-12:00PM) entitled "Implementing CAS: From Download to Deployment". He will guide the audience through the entire CAS process, from downloading the source, customizing and deploying it, to CAS-enabling applications. Further details are available on JA-SIG's Conference Program web page.
Thanks,
ScottS (Rutgers University), Lead Developer, JA-SIG Central Authentication Service
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If you are not yet listed and have an implementation, including a prototype or a packaged implementation like SunGard Luminus Luminis or Unicon Academus, you are highly encouraged to add your own entry."
Source: This is a rebroadcast of an earlier Newsletter request from the JA-SIG uPortal Board Liaison
Contributors:
Andrew Petro (Unicon, Inc.), uPortal Release Engineer
Eric Dalquist (University of Wisconsin - Madison), uPortal Release Engineer
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2008 JA-SIG Spring Program Committee
Aaron Godert, Cornell University, JA-SIG Board and Conference Co-Chair
Jonathan Markow, JA-SIG Executive Director, Conference Co-Chair
Susan Bramhall SusanBramhall, Yale University, uPortal Liaison
Daniel Davis, Chief Architect, Fedora Commons
John Fereira, Cornell University, Web Master
Jim Helwig, University of Wisconsin, Madison, JA-SIG Board
Valerie Hollister, DSpace Liaison
Susan Inouye, University of Hawaii, Member
Michele Kimpton, DSpace Executive Director
Michael Korcuska, Sakai Executive Director
Phil McKown, Indiana University, Kuali Liason
Matt Smith, University of Connecticut, CAS Liaison
Ann West, Internet2 Liaison
Paul Zablosky, University of British Columbia, Fluid Liaison
Jennifer Cummings, CONCENTRA Management Services
Debbie Smith, CONCENTRA Management Services
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I'm looking forward to working with everyone that week and hope you can make plans to be there and participate!
Eric Dalquist (University of Wisconsin - Madison), uPortal Release Engineer
3.4 Kuali Days
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VI
"Kuali Days VI is coming Tuesday and Wednesday, May 13th and 14th, in Chicago. Schedules, session topics, and details are just about final and will be released (on the conference web site) as soon as available. Reservations for the conference and accommodations will be available on the web site in the near future."
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The Sakai Foundation is pleased to announce that the 2008 Sakai Community Conference will be held in Paris, France. The dates will be Tuesday-Thursday, 1-3 July, with pre- and post-conference sessions and activities on Monday, 30 June and Friday, 4 July. All meetings and conference sessions will be held at the Universite Université Pierre et Marie Curie. The ever popular Sakai technical demonstrations will take place on Wednesday evening, 2 July, at the Marriott hotel nearby."
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4.1 Andrew Petro's Blog
This month ~awp9 Andrew Petro blogs about his recording a brief DLM introduction YouTube video and an overview of the JA-SIG bookmarks JSR-168 portlet. Read it all at http://www.unicon.net/blog/3
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This is the second in a series of interviews with individuals who are active participants in the JA-SIG community. Alain Mayeur, a member of the JA-SIG board of directors, is IT Director at the University of Valenciennes. Alain is a leader and one of the founders of the ESUP-Portail consortium, a group of approximately eighty French institutions collaborating on community source efforts based around uPortal.
Q. Alain, how did you first become involved in ESUP-Portail?
In 2002, the Ministry of Higher Education in France developed a national plan to build a digital workspace offering university students and staff integrated access to services and information. I contributed significantly to the definition of this plan. After this step, a call for projects was proposed by the Ministry to finance production of this type of portal. So we decided, with a group of Universities (the Universities of Valenciennes, Rennes1, Nancy1 and Nancy2, and the ENSEEIHT School of Engineering), to propose a national project using open source software. ESUP-Portail was chosen and development was funded. The third step was to create the community for the deployment of the portal and its application components. Now, more than 80 institutions are involved in the expansion phase and it's a large success for us.
Q. In general, what is the attitude towards open source software in France?
In France, the government promotes the use of free software in administration, but these recommendations take time to be implemented. In our community of higher education, the use of open source software has had an increasingly important role. The university IT directors have understood that the issues are to facilitate adaptability, to reduce the costs and to assure a better evolution for their information systems.
Q. Do you find that French open source projects are any different from those originating in North America or other European countries?
We can see an important evolution in our community with a project like ESUP-Portail. We have a large community, an organization to share development experiences, and all code is open with a GPL license. We try to develop this type of collaboration with several institutions for new applications or projects, and our orientation seems to be similar to open source projects we can find in other countries. For example, a new French project (ORI-OAI) for indexing and archiving digital resources with the facility to realize networks of thematic portals using the OAI (Open Archives Initiative) protocol, can be compared to projects like Dspace or Fedora.
Q. Is there anything unique or special about the ESUP-Portail consortium that makes it different from other community source groups?
The particularity of the consortium is to have developed a portal with important interfaces to the information systems of the university. The consortium assures the distribution of the solution to the French community but also encourages and organizes the development of new applications and their integration in the portal (using our incubator development framework).
Q. From a personal perspective, what has been the most rewarding aspect of your work?
The most rewarding part of this work is to contribute to the creation of a large community at a national level which now shares the same strategy, and to see that the approach we have proposed is now well recognized. A particular pleasure of mine is to participate in different strategic committees for the promotion and the start of new projects which allow the universities to increase the use of information technologies for their various activities.
Q. What would you change about the higher education open source movement to improve it?
An important point to accelerate the use of open source in higher education is to have a great knowledge of projects at the international level and to build projects by capitalizing on already well recognized solutions. It's necessary to have a large community and to assure a coherence and convergence of technology. But of course, this is a main goal of the JA-SIG organization; it's for that reason we are convinced of the importance of participating in and supporting this community.
Q. What new technologies do you think look promising for higher education in the future?
Some important points are to have an increasing integration of services in the portal institutions with high interactivity and intuitive interfaces; allow access to different networks of educational resources; build good documentation within learning platforms; and facilitate the use and access of resources with new mobile devices.
Q. Finally, tell us something about yourself. What is your background? Did you always work in technology? What interests do you have outside of your work?
After four years as a developer and project manager in a research centre for aerospace, I chose to work in higher education, starting in 1983. My function at the University of Valenciennes is IT Director. I have a team of 36 people, and I work on the development and strategy for Information Technology as it is applied to various activities at the institution. Also, for the past several years, I have served as an IT expert for The Ministry of Higher Education and have piloted several national and regional projects. My favorite passion during free time is practicing the Landyacht on the broad beaches of Northern France.
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JA-SIG Newsletter - February 2008
wiki-copy: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Newsletter+-+200802+-+February+2008Archives available in the JA-SIG wiki at: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Newsletter
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The next JA-SIG Newsletter will be published on or about March 17th, 2008. Articles for that edition of the newsletter should be submitted no later than Friday, March 14th, 20072008.
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