UCamp Update

Fri Nov 16 17:34:07 UTC 2007

We at Georgia Tech are using neither the Profile nor the Account tool,
at least for now.  Our User Directory integration is such that account
information is read from central sources, and not edited within Sakai.

That will likely change, but only when we have done some work on a
custom account tool.  I think most schools probably don't have the
account quagmire we do - with multiple accounts in different roles, a
variety of unique identifiers fragmented across other campus systems,
ranges of email addresses, etc. - and Sakai's assumptions about a
rational identity management infrastructure simply don't apply in our
case, much to my chagrin.

So I think what this urges for what you're considering is the following:

- the design should not assume a simple and rational set of account
fields, but rather keep that area (both in terms of design and code)
well modularized so that pathological institutions like mine can array
their coping mechanisms in an established space without breaking other
things.

- fields should be configurable as an admin action to disable and
obscure those which may be innappropriate as a result of integration
idiosyncrasies.

~Clay

2007/11/16, Allison Bloodworth <abloodworth at berkeley.edu>:
> Hi everyone,
>
> As Barbara mentions below, one of the potential design & development
> projects we are considering for the Sakai Conference uCamp is a
> revamping of the Preferences tool. We are considering merging Account
> & Preferences into a sort of overall Control Panel where all
> preferences and settings are specified. It seems that one of the most
> important features Account provides is the ability for the user to re-
> set their password, which seems very much like another setting. We
> had also considered merging the Profile tool into this control panel,
> or just merging Account & Profile, as they seem related. Account
> seems to specify "what does the system know about me" and Profile
> seems to specify "what would I like the community to know about me."
>
> However, we understand that not all institutions are using the
> Profile tool, and depending on how it is used, it may make sense to
> keep it at a higher level to make it more findable. Additionally,
> there may be technical issues we should consider involved with
> combining so many tools. On the other hand, there are a lot of
> (somewhat confusing) tools in Worksite Setup and it may help users to
> group them a bit more.
>
> We are still not sure that this is the project which will be selected
> for the uCamp, but to help us decide this, and to help us make good
> decisions about how to split these tools up if we do choose this
> project, we'd like to know:
>
> 1) How are institutions using the Account tool?
> 2) How are institutions using the Profile tool?
> 3) Are there any technical or functional issues we should consider
> with merging Account, Profile, and/or Preferences?
>
> Thanks in advance for your feedback!
> Allison
>
> On Nov 15, 2007, at 2:29 PM, Barbara Glover wrote:
>
> > Hi all,
> > Just had a successful planning meeting for the UCamp.  Please sign
> > up if you think you will be attending the UCamp.  We hope to see
> > lots of you there!
> >
> > http://issues.sakaiproject.org/confluence/display/UI/UCamp+-+Newport
> > +Beach%2C+California
> >
> > Lightning Talks
> > At this year's UCamp we are going to try something different.
> > Lightning talks are short presentations (with or without slides)
> > lasting no more than 10 minutes.  They were a great success at the
> > recent JA-Sig Unconference and so we are going to include them in
> > the Sakai UCamp.  If there is a topic you want to share with the
> > group, please sign up on the wiki.  We look forward to hearing some
> > great Lightning Talks.
> >
> > Notes from today's meeting:
> >
> > Topics
> > Several people are thinking of giving workshops at the UCamp
> > including topics on:
> > - Personas
> > - Design Patterns
> > - Accessibility and UX Walk-through
> >
> > Collaboration Topics
> > We are current considering 2 design + developer collaboration
> > project topics:
> > Idea A: Redesign the Preferences in Sakai incorporating some of the
> > work from MoreTabs.
> >
> > Idea B: Marc suggested Improvements to the Membership Tool
> >
> >     * currently needs improvement for managing a lot of sites
> >     * needs improved searchability
> >
> > Next meeting: Monday, November 19th,
> > Possible Times:
> >
> > 11am EST/8am PST
> > 1pm EST/10am PST
> > 2pm EST/11am PST
> > 4pm EST/1pm PST
> > 5pm EST/2pm PST
> > ** If you think you can attend the planning meeting, please send me
> > your time preference hopefully tomorrow (Friday).
> >
> > cheers
> > Barbara
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > fluid-work mailing list
> > fluid-work at fluidproject.org
> > http://fluidproject.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-work
>
> Allison Bloodworth
> Senior User Interaction Designer
> Educational Technology Services
> University of California, Berkeley
> (415) 377-8243
> abloodworth at berkeley.edu
>
>
>
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-- 
Clay Fenlason
Director, Educational Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
(404) 385-6644