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JA-SIG Newsletter - January 2008
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1 Welcome
1.1 Editor's Message
2 Call for Volunteers
2.1 Volunteers Wanted for uPortal Panel Presentation
3 JA-SIG Project Updates
3.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
3.1.1 CAS Server
3.1.2 CAS Clients
3.1.3 Upcoming JA-SIG Conference
3.2 uPortal
3.2.1 uPortal 3.0.0-M5 Released
4 Community News and Events
4.1 JA-SIG Named Top 100 Information Content Companies
4.2 Unicon Adds Ten New uPortal Projects at Universities & Colleges in Q3/Q4 of 2007
4.3 JA-SIG Spring Conference 2008 - Higher Education Solutions: The Community Source Way
5 Other Events and Activities
5.1 EclipseCon 2008 (March 17-20, 2008)
5.2 SunGard Summit 2008: Performance Matters (April 13-16, 2008)
5.3 2008 JavaOne Conference (May 6-9, 2008)
5.4 portal 2008: measurement & assessment (June 3-6, 2008)
5.5 EDUCAUSE 2008 (October 28-31, 2008)
6 From the Blogosphere
6.1 Site, site, everywhere a site ...
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1 Welcome
1.1 Editor's Message
Welcome to the January 2008 issue of the JA-SIG Newsletter.
The start of a new year is always a great time to consider fresh, or even just different, approaches to the tasks at hand. In relation to the newsletter, I am certainly interested in trying out some rich-text formats to augment the text-only edition, and in investigating the use of podcasting to complement our text-based content. I'd appreciate your thoughts on either point.
The current issue includes a call to participate on a panel at the upcoming "Portals 2008" conference, some exciting updates to CAS and uPortal, and some "in the news" items on uPortal. We have also listed some upcoming events, and rounded out the content with some interesting blog sites.
As always, feel free to send your comments or content to newsletter at ja-sig dot org.
Mark Rogers (University of Manitoba), Editor, JA-SIG Newsletter
2 Call for Volunteers
2.1 Volunteers Wanted for uPortal Panel Presentation
Are you planning to attend the Gettysburg College "Portals 2008" conference, June 3 - June 6? I was there last year and found the content to be very stimulating. Topics ranged across the board from portal selection, to planning, to implementation. A variety of technical and non-technical attendees presented on a wide range of subjects focusing on a number of portal products. This year's project site is located at https://biz.gettysburg.edu/it/portal08/index.cfm .
There is typically a lot of interest in uPortal at the conferences, and my introductory presentations were well-received. I'd like to follow up this June by moderating a panel of three or four speakers who can talk about their experiences implementing uPortal at their own institutions. The format would be ten minutes of prepared speech by each panelist, followed by questions, with lots of audience interaction.
Which brings me to this request for volunteers. If you would like to join me on the panel, please email me off-list with a small paragraph of background information. I will select from the responses based on the variety of experiences represented, e.g., we implemented it ourselves, we relied heavily on a vendor, we are a large institution, a small one, etc.
The deadline for proposals is the end of this month, so, if you are interested, please let me hear from you soon.
Thanks!
Jonathan Markow
3 Project Updates
3.1 Central Authentication Service (CAS)
3.1.1 CAS Server
The CAS team continues to work on the upcoming CAS 3.1.2 release. It will include bug fixes and improvements of various components including the Google Apps support. New features will include an auditing and statistics component based on the open-source Inspektr package developed by Rutgers University, as well as support for delegating authentication to another CAS server. The team is targetting an RC for the end of the month/beginning of February.
3.1.2 CAS Clients
The mod_auth_cas team continues to release updates offering enhancements and bug fixes. Its quickly becoming the Apache-module of choice of CAS deployers. The CAS Client for Java team is currently working with the Soulwing client team to merge our efforts to reduce maintenance and confusion as well as put out more quality releases.
3.1.3 Upcoming JA-SIG Conference
If anyone is interested in presenting on CAS or Identity Management at the upcoming JA-SIG conference, please contact Scott Battaglia. We're always looking for great CAS/IdM content. The conference is also a great place to meet your peers who also are in IdM and compare notes and experiences.
Contributed by:
Scott Battaglia (Rutgers University), Lead Developer, JA-SIG Central Authentication Service
3.2 uPortal
3.2.1 uPortal 3.0.0-M5 Released
JA-SIG is proud to announce the release of uPortal 3.0.0 Milestone 5. This is the first release in the uPortal 3.0.0 line based on the core uPortal codebase. The release includes a switch to Maven 2 for the build management system, a unified Spring configuration, Pluto 1.1 for portlet rendering and the Cernunnos based import/export tools.
Full release notes are available at http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/UPC/3.0.0+Milestone+5
along with a uPortal 3.0 release overview http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/UPC/3.0
Binary and quick start distributions are not being created for this release, however it can be checked out using Subversion: 'svn checkout https://www.ja-sig.org/svn/up2/tags/rel-3-0-0-M5/ uPortal_3.0.0-M5'. Documentation regarding the project structure and build system are linked from the uPortal 3.0 release overview and from the uPortal 3 Development documentation http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/UPC/uPortal+3+Development+Documentation
This is a very complete and stable milestone release and I would encourage everyone to check it out and try building and deploying it. Please feel free to ask any questions and provide any feedback on the code base. Over the next few weeks the remaining known issues will be completed and additional features, such as integration of the Fluid reorderer and a new theme, will be reviewed for availability and if possible added before the release candidate.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to the development both directly and in-directly. Having this developer community available for both code and design insight has been invaluable.
Eric Dalquist (University of Wisconsin - Madison), uPortal 3.0.0 Release Engineer
4 Community News and Events
4.1 JA-SIG Named Top 100 Information Content Companies
"eContent Magazine named JA-SIG as one of the Top 100 in the seventh annual list of companies "that matter most in the digital content industry." Each year in the December issue eContent magazine selects the top companies in 12 categories from classification and taxonomy to social media with a heavy emphasis on content creation, delivery, management, and services and search technologies.
This year the eight intranet and portal companies included BEA Systems Inc., IBM Corporation, Intranet DASHBOARD, JA-SIG, Liferay, Inc., Microsoft Corporation (for SharePoint), Oracle, and Viegnette Corporation. JA-SIG was unique—no employees—and serves a specific vertical—education.
OCLC was also included in the list for its library information services."
You can find the 2007 EContent 100 List at: http://www.econtentmag.com/Articles/ArticleReader.aspx?ArticleID=40187
4.2 Unicon Adds Ten New uPortal Projects at Universities & Colleges in Q3/Q4 of 2007
Unicon, Inc., the leading provider of open source enterprise portals, applications, and professional services for academic institutions, today announced that it has added ten new colleges and universities as uPortal customers during the second half of 2007.
See the full release at: http://www.unicon.net/node/901
or at: http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS191668+08-Jan-2008+BW20080108
4.3 JA-SIG Spring Conference 2008 - Higher Education Solutions: The Community Source Way
April 27-30, 2008
Crowne Plaza Hotel, St. Paul, MN, USA
"The JA-SIG Spring 2008 Conference will be held at the end of April this year, a change in schedule for us. We have extended invitations to our many colleagues in higher education community source to share in the event, and we're excited to present a first-time, jointly planned conference.
The program is being planned jointly by representatives from DSpace, Fedora, Fluid, Internet2, Kuali, JA-SIG, and Sakai.
It's an unprecedented opportunity to meet and learn from each other. We're hoping to see you there!
Registration Information and the Call for Proposals will be coming soon. Check back later for more information."
Source: JA-SIG Spring Conference 2008 Web Site - http://www.ja-sig.org/conferences/08spring/index.html
5 Other Events and Activities
5.1 EclipseCon 2008 (March 17-20, 2008)
Place: Santa Clara, California
"EclipseCon is the premier technical and user conference focusing on the power of the Eclipse platform. From implementers to users, and everyone in between, if you are using, building, or considering Eclipse, EclipseCon is the conference you need to attend."
Source: EclipseCon 2008 Web Site - http://www.eclipsecon.org/2008/
5.2 SunGard Summit 2008: Performance Matters (April 13-16, 2008)
Place: Anaheim, California
"At your institution, performance matters in a myriad of ways. It matters to the student whose life is changed forever by a single idea. It matters to the faculty member whose contributions enrich our understanding of the world around us. And it matters to the communities that depend on innovation and leadership to grow and thrive.
We invite you to participate in a journey of learning and discovery to explore the many ways that performance matters to your institution—and to you. Join your colleagues, industry thought leaders, and SunGard Higher Education solution experts at SunGard Summit 2008 in Anaheim, California from April 13-16. Whether you are using technology to build stronger relationships with your constituents, applying Web 2.0 to your campus communications strategies, or delivering the data your executives need for better decision making, at SunGard Summit you'll discover new ways of thinking, learn from a network of your peers, and become the resource your institution needs to achieve its mission and goals."
Source: Sungard Summit 2008 Web Site - http://www.sungardsummit.com/summit2008/
5.3 2008 JavaOne Conference (May 6-9, 2008)
Place: The Moscone Center, San Francisco, CA
"Attracting over 15,000 developers and leaders in the developer community - from industry leaders, to experienced developers to developers starting out - this conference is one that brings together some of the industry's best and brightest.
The JavaOne conference is your opportunity to reach this specialized community by educating and sharing your experience and expertise with the developer community."
Source: 2008 JavaOne Conference Web Site - http://java.sun.com/javaone/sf/index.jsp
5.4 portal 2008: measurement & assessment (June 3-6, 2008)
Place: Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
"portal2008: measurement & assessment is June 3-6, 2008 at Gettysburg College. The theme is about determining how to gauge the effectiveness of a portal as well as how to determine the success of a portal project."
For more information, see https://biz.gettysburg.edu/it/portal08/index.cfm
5.5 EDUCAUSE 2008 (October 28-31, 2008)
"Mark your calendar for the premier information technology event in higher education, EDUCAUSE 2008, October 28-31 in Orlando, Florida. The program 'Interaction, Ideas, Inspiration' will include preconference seminars; track and poster sessions; small group meetings; and corporate exhibits, presentations, and workshops. ... "
Source: EDUCAUSE 2008 Web Site - http://www.educause.edu/e08
6 From the Blogosphere
6.1 Site, site, everywhere a site ...
(With apologies to the Five Man Electrical Band ...)
I am actually not protesting the existence of these sites. Indeed, I am tending more and more to include the word "blog" in my google searches because I know that the answer (to whatever question I may be asking) can be found in someone's blog. Here is just a small sampling of blogs referencing JA-SIG projects.
http://www.unicon.net/blogs (uPortal/Open Source and more!) http://fluidproject.org/blog/ (Fluid/User Experience) http://weblogs.java.net/blog/gsporar/archive/2006/02/uportal_develop_1.html (NetBeans/uPortal) http://update.estrategy.ubc.ca/2007/08/28/qa-with-kent-fong-the-new-myubc (uPortal) http://www.weblogs.uhi.ac.uk/sm00ay/?p=219 (uPortal/How-To) http://www.windley.com/archives/2007/06/cas_simple_authentication.shtml (CAS/OpenID) http://blog.case.edu/bmb12/2006/11/simple_cas_for_django (CAS/Python) http://blogs.ja-sig.org/jjmarkow (JA-SIG)
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JA-SIG Newsletter - January 2008
Archives available in the JA-SIG wiki at: http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/display/JSG/Newsletter
If your institution or company has items of interest to the JA-SIG membership, please submit them via email to newsletter at ja-sig dot org.
The next JA-SIG Newsletter will be published on or about February 15th, 2008. Articles for that edition of the newsletter should be submitted no later than Thursday, February 14th, 2008.
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