D1.2: An Information structure to provide categories and subcategories relevant for FIDIS

FIDIS Communication Infrastructure THE INTERNAL WEB PORTAL

The Internal Web Portal

The main platform to provide efficient communication within the FIDIS NoE is a comprehensive internal web-based portal. The following functional areas are already implemented for being part of this system: 

1. Communication within the FIDIS NoE: The main platform to provide efficient communication within the FIDIS NoE is a comprehensive internal web-based portal supported by several mailing lists for FIDIS teams and roles.

2. Self administration of FIDIS members: With the help of the portal, FIDIS members can edit their contact information and define their memberships to different FIDIS teams, such as certain jointly executed research activities.

3. Document management: The cooperative editing of papers and publications is another core functionality of the Internal Internet Portal. The portal will provide the needed functionality to cover a coordinated and cooperative editing process.

4. Content management for external internet portal: To manage the content and the information visible at the FIDIS external internet portal, the internal portal will provide administrative functions that allow FIDIS members to edit the information displayed at the external portal.

The portal stores and provides all information necessary to coordinate and integrate the common activities. While the portal is more or less waiting for FIDIS members to access information, the mailing list actively inform FIDIS members and keep them up to date. 

With the help of the portal and mailing lists, workflow management for auditing papers and ideas will be implemented. The cooperative conducting of research within a JA is mainly realised by cooperatively discussing and evaluating ideas and papers. 

The leading idea about the portal implementation is to ensure distributed responsibility for the content management. Only that approach guarantees, that content is current and up-to-date. For that reason, a content management system is the underlying infrastructure to provide the needed flexibility. Each NoE researcher will be able to directly edit content within a specific and self-contained area of the FIDIS portal.  

General Structure

The internal portal of the FIDIS communication infrastructure is a secured area (password protected), only allowing registered users to access these pages. Furthermore, the access to the different parts of the internal portal is protected by a user/user-group scheme, only allowing users of certain groups to enter their specific areas of the website. Figure 6 shows the start-page after logging into the portal. Here, the latest news of the FIDIS NoE are available to the users. 

Figure 6: The Starting-Page of the internal FIDIS Portal.

The structure of the website can be divided in the following main-parts: 

1. Workpackages  

2. Community 

3. Network Organisation 

4. Documentation 

Mailing Lists and Responsibilities

Apart from the internal website and the information available there, the communication within the NoE is supported by several mailing lists for FIDIS teams and roles. Currently the following mailing lists are available: 

1. fidis@fidis.net – Mailing list for all FIDIS members

2. ja-board@fidis.net – Mailing list for the JA-Board

3. fidiscoord@fidis.net - Mailing list for the FIDIS co-ordinators

4. wpXX@fidis.net – Mailing lists for the different Workpackages

5. phd@fidis.net – Mailing list for the PhD student activities (e.g. workshops, etc.)

6. wp-admins@fidis.net – Mailing list for the Workpackage administrators.

While the development and the general maintenance of the infrastructure is managed centralised by WP1, we had to learn that split responsibilities were needed to maintain the individual Workpackage sections. Every individual Workpackage operates differently in its usage of the offered tools, how research tasks are organised, and what information has to be filled into the Workpackage sections. By keeping the maintenance and the editing centralised, the workload and the mean reaction time would have been considerably higher. 

Based on this notion, a decision was made to announce a so called “Workpackage administrators” for every working group within the research network. Meeting the structure of FIDIS project best, these people are trained on the TYPO3 system and its usage. However, this also means that the underlying processes (e.g. adding content, style-guides, etc.) have to be documented more rigid. Without doing this, it would have been difficult to have a common look and feel or a common way of structuring information. Therefore, in a future development step, we will introduce the internal TYPO3 workflow management system, which will be available in an upcoming release of this software package.

Workpackages

As presented in Figure 7, a typical Workpackage consists of different working tools, enabling researchers to share their ideas and thought in a collaborative working environment. The main focus for the development was to integrate all features in one workspace, allowing even inexperienced people to use the system. While the technical aspects are handled by the WP-Admin or WP1, the content and the structuring of the information is handled by each individual Workpackage. The offered tools should help to facilitate the information exchange and the research done inside a Workpackage. 

Figure 7: Typical Configuration of a Workpackage Section.

1. Startpage – This is the entry-point, where general information of the Workpackage is presented. This can include e.g. a schedule for the deliverables, a general description of the Workpackage and its work, etc.

2. Web-forum – A web-based discussion forum system, allowing its users to organize their ideas in terms of categories, conferences, threads, and posts. Moreover, the posted messages are sent via email, when a user subscribes to the forum-system (see Figure 8).

Figure 8: Web-Forum – Overview of the existing Discussion Conferences and a single Message posted on the System.

1. Wiki Workpad – A “WikiWikiWeb” enables documents (e.g. deliverables, general information, etc.) to be written collectively in a simple markup language using a web browser. Because most wikis are web-based, the term "wiki" is usually sufficient. A single page in a wiki is referred to as a “wiki page”, whiles the entire body of the pages, which are usually highly interconnected, is called "the wiki". One of the defining characteristics of wiki technology is the ease with which pages can be created and updated. Figure 9 shows the source-code and the rendered view of a typical wiki-page.

2. Usage of the Wiki: Looking at the requirements for the FCI (cp. chapter ), the wiki system offers the best way to share and cooperatively edit documents using web-based technology. One of the success stories, which can be named in this context, is Wikipedia, a project that intensively uses this technology. Looking at the dissemination plans of the FIDIS NoE, there are plans by some of the Workpackages (e.g. WP2, etc.) to make the wiki public (cp. chapter ).

Figure 9: Wiki-page in editor mode and resulting HTML output (including automatic linking and table of contents).

1. Filemanager – The web-based “filemanager” enables users to manage a local file repository and exchange their files. This works similar to a filemanager available in most operating systems. Most important, it offers the possibility to store files in a private folder, only visible to the users having the specific access permissions (e.g. for a certain Workpackage), while other folders are open to all users.

Community

The community section of the internal website functions as a place for general FIDIS relevant information, such as upcoming and past events, mail archives, or the account information of each individual user (see Figure 10): 

Figure 10: Structure of the Community Section.

1. Events – Within this section, all relevant information about upcoming and past events of the FIDIS NoE are available. Moreover, the portal users can announce their own events, in order to inform other FIDIS researchers in the network (see Figure 11). This can be done by simply filling out an online form that transmits the data into the database of the CMS.

Figure 11: Event Manager – Upcoming Events and Event Submission.

1. Mail Archive – The mail archive of the internal FIDIS portal collects the emails written on the fidis@fidis.net list, organising them into message threads for easier and faster access. This offers the users a centralised point for displaying and searching the message history, even if emails are locally lost.

2. FIDIS Directory – The directory serves as an internal address book, displaying the address information, the portal users entered for their sign-up.

Figure 12: Example of editing User-Information on the internal Website.

1. Manage Your Account – Working hand in hand with the FIDIS directory, this part offers the possibility for users to change and edit their address information, entered at the sign-up (Figure 12). This feature helps to keep all addresses, etc. up-to-date.

2. Web-Forum & Filemanager – These parts are additional links to simplify the access to the forum and file-repository of the internal portal. Here, documents such as deliverables, shared documents, or templates (logos, presentations, word-files, etc.) can be downloaded.

3. Photos – Here, photos of past FIDIS events can be shared and accessed by the internal users. This part of the website is organised as a photo gallery.

Network Organisation

A NoE as a smart and flexible but relatively small FP6 instrument needs lean management and organisation. Therefore, as much of the decisions making, steering and controlling as possible will be done using non formalised and cooperative coordination mechanisms. By encouraging overlapping teams working on JAs, informal coordination can easily take place and information can thus be spread through the whole network.  

In order to support this approach, the internal portal system helps to distribute the information of the “Research Plenary” and the “Joint Activity Board” to all FIDIS members. By doing this, a centralised place for announcing important events and documents is created. 

Documentation

Last but not least, all documentation concerning the “Financial Guidelines” or the general usage of the presented tools is available in the “Help & Docs” section (Figure 13): 

Figure 13: Structure of the Documentation Section.

1. Financial Guidelines – This section especially deals with the financial and accounting issues of FP6 projects. Here, the users of the portal can access all necessary documents, such as the “Financial Guidelines” or the needed forms for the audit.

2. FCI Docs – In section, one can find detailed information about the basic tools of this infrastructure, for example a description of the “Filemanager”, the “Web-Forum”, or the “Wiki Workpad”. Furthermore, information about the used Content Management System (CMS) "TYPO3" and its usage is provided in the "TYPO3 Docs" section. This especially aims toward the administrators of the website and the portal system. Finally, the "Presentation" section gives an interactive introduction of the general concepts of a CMS and its advantages in everyday work.

3. FAQ / How-To – Here, a collection of frequently asked questions (FAQ) and short manuals (How-To) is created, to simplify everyday work with the portal system or the financial guidelines.

4. Filemanager – This section is an additional link, simplifying the access to the file-repository of the internal portal. As described earlier, all documents such as deliverables, shared documents, or templates (logos, presentations, word-files, etc.) can be downloaded here.

5. Helpdesk – A helpdesk is an information and assistance resource that troubleshoots problems with computers and similar products. For the users of the internal website this facility offers an easy way to contact the administrators of the portal for support (Figure 14).

Figure 14: Helpdesk System.