Architecture

Configuration management - Multiple versions of all content can be maintained, and you can 'roll back' to a previous version of content at any point, with appropriate permissions.

Distributed administration - Administration responsibilities can be allocated to multiple users under a robust authorization system. The features available to support these responsibilities are rich and easily learned.

Extendability - Basic features of this site are easily tailored and extendable through a modular interface and full access and modification rights to the underlying source code.

Extensible content types - Content in this site (generically called 'nodes') takes many forms, including personal blogs, calendars, collaborative books, database elements, email forms, issue tracking databases, individual stories, polling features, projects, and web links. These features can be further expanded due to the site architecture, which supports extensible node types to include things like tasks, processes, and other content enrichment types that can further support the mission of this site.

On-line help - A robust on-line help facility is provided to help users use the various functions. Additionally, a set of Frequently Asked Questions is available (and extensible) to provide ongoing guidance as new questions arise.

Scalability - The technology on this site has demonstrated the capability to handle up to 50,000 users on a single CPU. The architecture also supports multi-CPU operations, with load-balanced front ends, and high performance back ends, should the need arise. At the other end of the scale, the capability also operates in a low-cost, shared hosting environment. An active community is available to evaluate and suggest approaches to such high-demand sites.

Searching - All content fully indexed and searchable at all times.

Site theming - All content is retained in a central database, rather than as HTML directly. As a result, the presentation format of the site can be changed without changing the content itself. The ability to change themes is granted by the systems administrator, and is done by editing your user account.

Taxonomy - Objects on this site are categorized according to a rich taxonomy which allows for multiple vocabularies, hierarchical decomposition of terms, definitions, 'see also' references, and weighting. This taxonomy plays a fundamental role in organizing information, tracking status, classifying knowledge, and coordinating action.

Communications Interfaces

Email notifications - Users can set up notifications so that they receive email when content on the site changes, when issues or problems are submitted for their project, or when other information which they may need to take action on occurs.

Email submittal - Users can submit content remotely through email. This allows content to be created off-line, and submitted when access to the site is once again available.

Syndication - The content of this site are syndicated for inclusion into other sites via RSS.

Content Acquisition and Management

Content interactive input methods - Content can be entered in plain text, a Java-based WYSIWYG editor, pasted in from RTF (MS Word), or when authorized, entered directly as HTML (with tailorable filters for security reasons). Optionally, users which want access to the rich formatting capabilities of HTML, but do not have detailed understanding of that syntax, can utilize a Wiki-like formatting that can be learned in 5 minutes. The specific options available to users at any point in time always provide linked help to aid the user in selecting the best options for a given situation.

Remote content submittal via blogging tools - Content can be submitted from remote 'blogging' tools, or via blogging sites. This allows content to be easily initiated and linked to this site while reading content from other sites.

Evolutionary Development

Feature list - A site-wide list of features is maintained with links to supporting material.

Revision system - Revision tracking for content can be enabled, so that multiple versions of content is maintained. When necessary, current content can be 'rolled back' to a previous version.

Tracking changes - Users can request that they be notified by email when new content is entered into the system. Optionally, users can also request a listing of either their own submittals, or the most recent submittals.

Planned Enhancements

Content collection from remote syndicators - Ability to aggregate and extract terms for categorization for information syndicated by other sources (RSS, news feeds, etc).

File access - Files can be uploaded or downloaded from the site, though this feature is currently disabled for general users.

File and graphics upload support - The ability to upload files and graphics images for inclusion in postings

Forums - A series of threaded discussion forums to allow general interaction and dialog on topics of interest to the community.

Glossary - A built-in phrase lookup for standardized definitions of terms and key phrases used on this site. All content on the site is evaluated for uses of these terms, and when found, the terms are highlighted with special underlining, indicating that the definition is available as hover-over text when the cursor is positioned to the highlighted phrase. In this way, a consistent usage of standardized terminology is reinforced.

Groups - Groups provide additional permissions that organize users into subteams, which themselves have access limited to content developed by other team members. (This feature is under evaluation).

Mass import - Content or users can be 'bulk loaded' to rapidly bring on new teams when appropriate

News monitoring - This site can read news feeds from other sites and news sources, search it for particular content by keyword or the occurrence of individual words or phrases, and categorize it by source or content. Triggers for current content can be changed by arrangement with site managers.

Node access origination statistics - Tracking of statistics regarding all node accesses, regardless of whether by a user that was registered or not, including counts of page hits (daily and total), referring URLs, and statistics on originating web browsers, operating systems, and countries.

Polling - The site provides the ability to perform surveys and polls in order to measure a community's collective views regarding a set of issues.

Time and event management - I have lots of plans for supporting aspects of time on the web site. This would include the capturing of basic events (including notifications), calendaring, and even time tracking (to log time spent on various projects). My ultimate goal is to support a 'timeline' for projects that allows assessments of events to be examined to provide a good foundation to determine where time is really being spent in various activities.

Tracking of future enhancements - There are two types of direction established for this web site. The first is the list of planned enhancements listed in this grouping. Of these, the ones that are actively being worked on have links to the specific change request in which work is being performed, so that work can be tracked and users can subscribe for notification when that functionality has been implemented. The second is a set of 'wish list' issues that represent potential future changes that have not yet been implemented, but are under consideration. Providing this list separately allows users to monitor what kinds of changes are being considered, and provide input to that set of things and their relative value.

Security Mechanisms

Access control - Access to selected content is restricted to registered and authorized users. Access to site adminstration features is further restricted to selected trusted individuals. Content access can be limited to selected taxonomies, groups, or users, as appropriate and authorized, and can be granted through designated moderators or community voting.

Control of access to premium content - Provide access control on a node-by-node basis for anonymous users, providing them selectively with the ability to review 'teasers' of content, while still requiring registration in order to gain full access to the material.

Node access counts - Individual node accesses are tracked so that frequent accesses to individual nodes can be monitored and tracked to their originating source.

User-generated content

Commenting system - All content can be enabled to allow threaded comments to be posted against that content by authorized users. In effect, this creates a 'forum' about every topic or posting, and allows dialog about specific content to take place within the context of the content itself.

Content integration - Books are a hierarchy of node content submitted to this site, and evolved and maintained independently of each other. In this way, individual assignments can be made to individuals who work together on a joint collaboration. When complete, a 'printer-friendly' feature can be used to produce an HTML version of the entire document suitable for importing to other word processing programs, when necessary.

Moderation system - Content moderation can be centralized by a single individual, or can be distributed across the community. If it is distributed, individuals can rate each content, and after a sufficient number of ratings have been received, a 'pass' threshold will promote that content for public access. Alternatively, a 'fail' threshold can be established by the administrator which will cause that content to drop off the moderation queue.

User administration - Users access content is authorized through a fine-grained permission system that is associated with modification rights to over 50 attributes of various features of the system. User rights are grouped into permission groups for convenience. Users can log in and gain access to content through a self-authorization process which assures that an accurate email is available for subsequent notifications. Posting is not permitted until registration occurs, and users can be assigned roles which aggregate various permissions for the scenarios that they will interact with the site.

Value Management

Development cost - The cost of development of this platform is limited to the time it takes to select and integrate the various components, and to develop or evangelise new components for future capabilities. As this effort is essentially voluntary and motivated by my own passion and discretionary efforts, for all practical purposes, it is zero. All underlying software is open-source.

Low operational cost - This site has been designed to minimize the cost-per-user for ongoing operation. At present, the total monthly cost for leasing hardware and associated bandwidth is $10/month. While the capacity of this existing infrastructure is currently unknown, it is expected to handle at least thousands of users and page accesses per day, without requiring expansion, while preserving the ability to gracefully evolve to handle larger demand over time (but not instantaneously).

Workflow coordination

Task management - The ability to coordinate actions across team members through email notifications and status updates.