10-31-2008 Content Authoring Conference Call

Participants: Steve, Noah, Peter, Mathieu, Jim, Nico, John, Michael

1. Entityfication of Sakai Services

Noah: Options may differ depending on the context.
There has to be some sort of communication between the page and the entity.
We need to post a list of those contexts and entities.
Has to be negotiable for every institution.
Has to stay simple enough for users.
John: Who is going to attack the current un-entitificated tools?
Peter: We need to work on a business case: What will an institution will gain from doing this?
Noah: Will have time at the beginning of the year. Estimate: 1 week.
John: We need to get more adoption of the concept from the community. About 5-20% understands it.
Noah: 2 or 3 pages of general info, then dig into the technical part.
How different or similar tools are in terms of entityfication process/potential.
We don't have a list of pitfalls, practices, tips, guidelines, etc.
John: We need a 1-2 minute video to grab the imagination of the community.
Noah: Why would I even care? document. Needs to be Sakai contextualized.
Michael: Noah, Aaron, and Josh are the key players here. Peter and Noah will get something started.

Jim has done some work, not ready to announce yet.
- This environment is meant to test entities.
- RSF tool that uses the Entity Broker.
Debugging/Exploration tool, UX is not an issue here.
Need to gather user needs beforehand.

Michael talked to Barbra Mack at EDUCAUSE. NYU has some money and a team to move the project forward, not official yet.
April would be their target.
Noah: NYU seems to be into the portal aspect.
Michael sat down with Robert Gérin-Lajoie UdeM (Open Syllabus): Agrees that they could implement OSYL with our discussed technology.
GWT mentality in OSYL: Not sure how that would fit in.
UX has to be consistent in Sakai. Adoption of a tool depends on it.