WPI.1 description

Available deliverables

DI1.1 - First set of web tools, migrated or newly implemented (T0+2)

DI1.2 - Main release of the web portal, with final release of the User Guide (T0+12)

Objectives
NEWCOM++ starts from a valuable experience and aims at still improving the effectiveness and impact of cooperation tools. It aspires to a more agile and easier cooperation among researchers and tries to establish a more visible interaction with the outside world. The web is one of the main pillars for building and supporting a scientific network like NEWCOM++. Recent developments and approaches (e.g. web 2.0 and semantic web) have proved its role in areas like online cooperation, knowledge management and virtual communities, giving us more instruments for empowering ‘traditional’ web tools, implementing new services, and integrating them together.

The successful experience of NEWCOM and its legacy, with different websites and tools (e.g. the main one at the URL http://www.ismb.it, the Data Base for Knowledge Networking at the URL https://dbkn.ismb.it and the NEWDOCS website) gave important feedbacks and results. In our evolved approach, the websites will be unified under a single web portal, with a seamless integration of the different features, plus the addition of new ones, with a new (more user-centric) fashion.

1st Year activities

The website itself and a first initial set of mailing lists, were planned to be available in a first version since T0+2, and actually they were already available before the contractual date of delivery, and already used right after the kick-off meeting in Bologna, held on January 28-29th , 2008.
On May, we delivered a new version of the documentation published for the first deliverable, with the description of the updates made from January until May:

the structure of the website has changed with more sections,

• new accounts were added to it (on May, 15th 2008 270 accounts are active),
• a special ‘RAS’ cluster section was added,
• changes were made in the users and groups management, in the workflows and in the sharing policies, in order to allow to host with the proper permissions also accounts from the outside of NEWCOM++ that need to access to and work together in the cluster RAS area.
• several new mailing list were added (on May, 15th 2008 42 mailing list are active), together with accounts subscriptions and moderators assignments
• changes were made in the 29 automatic messages associated to all the 42 mailing lists, to allow moderators to manage the subscriptions and removals of users
• the Feedback’s Easymeeting videoconference solution was upgraded to its newest version and we’re creating new accounts and planning new tests with more users

In the period June 2008 – March 2009 several activities for the upgrade and the maintenance of the website, the mailing list and the videoconference section happened, with visible effects on the same tools:

• the structure of the website has changed again, with more sections,
• new features were activated and configured, like collections of documents, or ‘smart folders’, new rules, new sharing policies,
• new accounts were added to it (more than 440 accounts are active now),
• the contents of the website were added and updated by the NoE researchers, according to given sharing and permission policies
• the special ‘RAS’ cluster section was enriched and upgraded,
• new mailing, together with accounts subscriptions and moderators assignments
• RSS feeds from News and Events from the website were made available for users
• the Feedback’s Easymeeting videoconference solution was adopted and used for several work package workshops and for official boards’ virtual meetings, with several test sessions with new users