COmanage-Dev Call 15-May-09
*Attending*
Heather Flanagan, Stanford (Chair)
Digant Kasundra, Stanford
Ken Klingenstein, Internet2
Steven Carmody, Brown
RL "Bob" Morgan, U. Washington
Michael Gettes, MIT
Chris Hubing, Penn State
Renee Frost, Internet2
George Brett, Internet2
Steve Olshansky, Internet2
Emily Eisbruch, Internet2 (scribe)
*New Action Items*
[AI] Ken will work on COmanage scripting.
[AI] (Digant and SteveO) will put together a demo video.
[AI] (SteveO and George) will ask Internet2 Technical Services Group staff about defining requirements for a "production ready" version of COmanage.
[AI] (SteveO) will discuss using a COmanage VM with the Attribute Workshop Program Committee.
[AI] (Digant) will register the Sympa bug in the COmanage JIRA for our reference, and follow up with Sympa developers/maintainers.
[AI] (Digant) will verify that Confluence is working with COmanage.
[AI] (Digant) will incorporate the user dashboard that Steven designed into COmanage.
*Carry Over Action Items*
[AI] (Ken) will send an outline to Steven, Tom and Digant as a basis for talking to NSF about collaboration with HUBzero.
[AI] (Ken) will draft an email to interested parties who could be helpful in COmanage testing.
[AI] (Steven and Jim) will flesh out the existing developer domestication guidelines in the wiki.
[AI] (Ken) will ask his contact at the Norwegian Federation about Foodle.
[AI] (Bob) will provide to the list background on user stories.
[AI] (Ken) will talk with Lois about Fluid involvement in improving the COmanage GUI, scheduling it for later in the year.
[AI] (Chris) will contact Atlassian and try to obtain a timetable for Jira domestication. (Ken) will provide some wording for this communication with Atlassian.
[AI] (Bob) will send links to the group on the invitation problem.
[AI] (Ken) will send a note to his contact at OOI to explore their level interest (after the COmanage alpha is ready).
[AI] (Ken) will ping Frank Siebenlist from Argonne National Laboratory, who is interested in COmanage.
Discussion
COmanage Pathshttps://spaces.at.internet2.edu/display/COmanage/COmanage+Paths
Ken reviewed the COmanage paths he and Heather developed:
- Framework
- Appliance
- Service
Minimalist Appliance
In order to get COmanage out the door, the appliance should be minimalist in terms of complexity and supported applications.
It will be assumed that an IT person helps to install the appliance. The collabmin is involved in adding groups and adding people to groups, but is not responsible for installation. While this reduces the immediate audience for the appliance to those who have an IT support vehicle, this approach is needed to expedite the release.
The group agreed with this approach.
Ken: What is there in COmanage between the LDAP store and the GUI?
Digant: It's pretty light. There is an installer base that sets up LDAP store that sets up groups. Then Ldappc takes Grouper groups and puts them into LDAP. Then there is the invite system.
Current Status of COmanage Alpha
There are issues in integrating Sympa that stem from apparent bugs in the Sympa software itself, unrelated to COmanage. Digant will submit the bug in the Sympa bugtracker and work with the Sympa developers/maintainers to resolve.https://bugs.internet2.edu/jira/secure/IssueNavigator.jspa?reset=true&mode=hide&pid=10040https://sourcesup.cru.fr/tracker/?atid=167&group_id=23&func=browse
Chris is working to resolve a Confluence issue.https://bugs.internet2.edu/jira/browse/CMG-94
Dashboard
Digant plans to incorporate a user dashboard that Steven had suggested to make the COmanage environment more attractive for the user. This is a minor project, and it is distinct from the collabmin interface, which is not being changed at this time.
Scripting
Ken: scripting about the sequence of participants in the COmanage experience could be helpful.
Possible scripts:
1. VO talks to sysadmin about installing COmanage
2. What collabmins do
3. What end users do
- go to individual apps
- go to dashboard and then to individual apps.
[AI] Ken will work on COmanage scripting.
Integrating Bedework
Steven noted that Gary Schwartz from RPI did a session demonstrating Shib-enabled Bedework at SMM. If Bedework was integrated into the COmanage appliance, then users could maintain a collaboration project calendar there. Digant commented that we hoped to have Bedework domesticated in COmanage before too long, though not for the Alpha version currently being worked on.
Caveats for Minimalist Appliance COmanage Alpha version
- It's an Alpha.
- Subsequent versions of COmanage will likely not be backwardly compatible with the Alpha, although there are usually means to migrate data within the respective apps, if so desired.
Alpha to Beta Compatibility Issues
In general, upgrade from the Alpha to future versions of COmanage is an uncertain path, and depends to some degree on Confluence, Sympa and Drupal.
Chris says upgrading Confluence information - both data and access/permissions from an alpha to a Beta version of COmanage -- should be feasible. Confluence has the ability to export the data and also the "controls" (access / ownership / permission information for wiki spaces and pages).
However, the database of groups will be unlikely to have graceful upgrade from COmanage Alpha to Beta.
Digant: It's best to say COmanage Alpha will not be upgradable to Beta, and will require a complete reinstall.
Michael noted that smoothness or difficulty of upgrade would also depend on capability of IT person involved.
Ken's Report from CSG
UC-Berkeley CIO and AMSAC member Shel Waggener gave people pointers to the UCB report " Campus Collaborative Tools Strategy Development."http://collab.berkeley.edu/projects/cctsd/
SURFnet would be a good choice to focus on deploying COmanage as a service, and discussions are underway with them toward that end.
COmanage Demo
Michael noted that we need an effective vehicle for demonstrating both the COmanage collabmin and normal interface. The demo versions in the Amazon cloud are somewhat difficult to use for less technical audiences. It was noted that there are issues with the Federation Page.
Possibly it's most appropriate to develop videos in order to demo COmanage.
[AI] (Digant and SteveO) will put together a demo video.
Internet2 and/or EDUCAUSE use of COmanage
At what point will Internet2 or Educause be able to run COmanage? What would we have to do to get COmanage positioned for such consideration?
George stated that Internet2 would like to use COmanage to manage the spaces wiki and other projects. Mike LaHaye has stated his desire to use COmanage as soon as there is a production-ready version.
It's important that the development team understands what production-ready means in this context so there is a firm target to work towards.
[AI] (SteveO and George) will ask Internet2 Technical Services Group staff about defining requirements for a "production ready" version of COmanage.
There was a suggestion to use COmanage as a toolkit for the upcoming Attribute workshop Sept. 28-29 in DC.
[AI] (SteveO) will discuss using a COmanage VM with the Attribute Workshop Program Committee.
Staffing and Support
Q: What level of support will there be for the Alpha?
A: That's where the users mailing list comes in. We also hope to put together FAQs.
Digant's time to devote to COmanage, given other Stanford projects, is 8-10 hours per week.
Q: Given the current economic situation, do we think there are any CS undergrads unable to find work for the summer who we might be able to plug in to the project?
A: Perhaps...
It's important for Ken to keep in mind the plan to do a rewrite to COmanage after the Alpha.
Next COmanage call is Friday May 29, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, 11:00 p.m. PDT