After selecting the latest version of Drupal at that time, I spent considerable time on getting familiar with the default setting of the application. I found that Drupal has many built in features and somehow a complicated ACP. Also, I went over different supportive websites that offer extra themes, modules and other solutions. Drupal offers different forms of social networking. It has forums, blogs, pages, books and stories.

I focused on the forum and thought about a suitable subject. At the end, I decided to design a forum for CGU housing students. I felt it is a clear and a good idea for the project and for the resident’s community.

Instead of adapting different themes in the beginning, I preferred to keep the default theme and customize it in order to avoid any incompatibilities and get the most out of the available modules and services. Then, after building the forum and making backup, it will be safer to play with the themes. I have learned this strategy from my previous experience with WordPress, MediaWiki and PHPBB3.

The next step was to find a backup model. I installed the Backup & Migrate module and tested it. It is now scheduled to do backup every 24 hours and keep the latest two backups files. Also, I thought it is important to protect the website from spam and hackers. So, I installed Akismet and Mollom modules.

I created a container and different forums which I believe the most important to begin with for a new housing like: Wireless-Telephone-Cable, Lost & Found, Events, Housing Announcements, Items for Sale and Suggestions. Then I added dummy users and controlled their permissions to be authenticated users. I tested their roles and added contents.

Through the ACP, I controlled the needed permissions for each module and made sure that I have full admin privileges and suitable access for the authenticated users and anonymous ones. For example, a registered user has been given an authority to create a forum topic and posts and cannot delete contents; an anonymous user can use “Tell a Friend” service” in order to help making the forum more popular.

I have added many modules that support both the administrator job and the user’s side, either registered or anonymous. Some important additions include a customized search, web statistics, chat room, weather info, relationships maker, FAQs, job posting, tell a friend, media support and more.

My final project is Elgg, which is also our claremont conversation's choice. First of all, it's really a comprehensive social software. It has built in blogs, groups, friends, file management, pages and a lot of plugins, which is also great. Then, it's really easy to install and configurate. The process of install is very much like other softwares we used in the class. You have a database script, then you ftp the pages to the server. It went pretty smooth so far.

I had a little trouble configuring elgg at first. I tried to follow the tutorials. Then I found it's for developers. Creating directories and files, copying scripts and stuff like that. I had a lot of trouble too make it work because I'm not really a php programmer and it's the first time I really use aspect oriented software. But then I found all the stuff I want to create is already built it. All you have to do is to go to Administration->Tool Administration and enable them, like blogs, pages etc. But it's a good experience to appreciate aspect oriented architecture anyway. I can see it's really powerful.

Then I have to choose a theme, because the original theme really don't look that good. My choice is Black Tech. After my green light for wordpress and carribean blue for phpbb, I think it might be time to try something dark:) And installing theme is really simple too. In elgg, theme is implemented as plugins. So download a theme, ftp it to server, enable it in Tool Administration. You are done. 

As I said in my previous posts I choose dokuwiki because I felt wikis have the best platforms for knowledge management. Downloading and installation of dokuwiki was kind of straight with no "hiccups". I then read some of the manuals online to have a good understanding of the various interfaces and environments. Afterwards, I started adding contents to my wiki. I also changed the template (skin) and the logo.

In dokuwiki, there are two ways of installing plugins. First, by just copying the link of the plungin’s web page into the manage plugin tab then downloading and installation of the plugin is done automatically. The other method is the usual technique of downloading it and transferring the file into the appropriate folder on the server. I installed a variety of plugins.

Youtube- This plugin is just like other youtube plugins we have installed on other tools. It creates a link and embeds a YouTube movie in a Wiki page. User can embed movies just input the movie ID with simple syntax.

Contact- This plugin creates a form in dokuwiki to enable users contact the administrator or author. You can insert more than one email addresses as recipients.

Color- This plugin enables you to have texts in different colors in dokuwiki with simple tags and texts in between them.

Countdown- With this plugin you can insert a countdown into your page where it will display the number of days until or since the text that you include.

Doodle- This plugin can help your team to schedule meetings or making other decisions in a team. I used it to create a scenario of which antivirus users use.

Permissioninfo- This plugin shows which groups exist, what their namespace and page permissions are and which users are in which groups. Additionally, it shows the namespace and page permissions for each user - derived from the groups the user is in.

Logstats- This plugin provides logging and statistics on views and visitors of your wiki. It stores the username, ip address, page visited and other information. It stores this file in root/dokuwiki/data/access.log.

Tag Plugin- the Tag Plugin lets you assign category tags to wiki pages. It will display a list of links to the tag pages in the tag namespace specified in the configuration.

Cloud Plugin- This is a very simple plugin that shows a cloud of the most frequently used words in your wiki. This plugin can also make a tag cloud (tag plugin must be installed).

Wikistatistics- A plugin that shows users and the number of editing done.

I added spice to my wiki, by using it as a blog. This functionality can be useful in scenarios where you want individuals to comment on a topic. By creating a heading as a topic (first comment) and then other comment comes below it as sub-headings. I really enjoyed working on dokuwiki, I was tempted to continue installing plugins and creating different pages but I had to stop.  In sum, dokuwiki was relative easy, and I think it’s a great tool for knowledge management.

I'm using Joomla for my final project as a Knowledge Management Solution.  Joomla is a OpenSource Content Management System that employs LAMP (Linux Apache MySQL and PHP).  I've customized Joomla to be a web portal for Health Information Technology.  Knowledge management and portals go hand in hand.  In a typical organization, some 75% of internal knowledge is trapped in one's email and desktop computers. Good information is everywhere and nowhere near.  A portal helps consolidate fand share that information within an organization.

How have I made Joomla the best KM solution possible? 

-I've formatted the menus to make information on the site easier to find.  I've sorted articles and media by appropriate catagory to help categorize the information better.

-Users have different permissions.  I've created a test account called "johntest".  This account has limited access compared to my other account which is the administrator.  For example, the test account cannot vote in the poll I created and it cannot upload files/links like my administrator account (I've also created Admin accounts for Dr. Olfman and Sonya who also have this access).  This comes in handy because you'll want a portal solution with many different access levels to accomodate for many different levels of employees in an organization. 

-Joomla already has 24 extensions including Search (the built in search extension works very well) and Polls already installed (this is Joomla 1.5.8 so all the basic extensions that have worked well are now part of the base installation).    Here is the rundown of the extensions that I installed that work great:

JoomlaPack-this one is the most vital since it is a backup extension that creates backups on my desktop. 

Allvideos-this is a media extension that allows for internal videos (on server) and external ones (like youtube)

Google Calendar-this shows a link to my google calendar that I put in the menu that links to a full calendar page.  I also have a small mini calendar that displays on the right margin.

Here are the multitude of extensions that I tried to install that I had problems with:

Custom Tag Cloud - a tag cloud extension

JEvents - a calendar extension I tried before I got the Google Calendar one to work

RokIntenseDebate, yvComments, and EasyComments - 3 comment systems that I tried to install, each of them having their own issues.

One interesting thing in Joomla is that it uses both a Module and Component System.  The difference is that modules can appear on any page and are usually very simple. Components load as their own page and can be quite complex.

-Joomla can share files easily through documentation: documents can easily be emailed, sent to pdf, and printed.  With different permissions, Joomla can be used to easily administer knowledge shared with users/administrators.-I've changed the logo to show that it is the HIT portal.  I've changed the style but am using one of the default styles.  What I've learned with other social technologies is that sometimes extensions do not work well with 3rd party developed styles so it is sometimes best to use one of the defaults.  I've also customized even the advertisements and created a poll.

Problems I've faced:

Joomla is built more for the common user then the highly technical user.  So when installing a new extension, it is super simple.  No ftp'ing, no going into code.  The upside?  It's easy.  The downside?  If it DOESN'T work, it is very hard to troubleshoot since if you can't go into the code, the only alternative is to uninstall it and try it again.  There is not much control.  I've especially had a problem installing the tag cloud extension.  Another downside is that it is not highly customizeable.  Another thing is changing templates is not so easy.  Changing the background image should be fairly simple.  But since editing code is not commonly done, there is little support to do this sort of customization.  Support is also an issue as I have been having problems finding forums that have the answers to the problems that I've been facing installing extensions.

Conclusion:

Joomla is a great open-source KM solution for those who are interested in bringing a portal to an organization.  It is very flexible and can be a very robust application with many modules.  I think the base install for version 1.5 is very stable and can work great as is (since it has many extensions built in).  As for installing additional extensions, some were very easy and useful (JoomlaPack and AllVideos) while others I had more difficulty with due to the lack of support found online. 

When implemented properly, Joomla can be used to help users CREATE information to be shared that can grow the knowledge base.

I have done four mashup on popfly. At first, it was a bit confused to me how to create mashup. However, because I use only the provided blocks, sometimes it cannot provide functionalities I really want. So, the choices to create mashup are quite limited for me.

Here are descriptions for my mashups

1.       Substring : create substring from a word entered and user can define starting point and length of these substring

2.       Weekly Horoscope : show weekly horoscope by a star sign input by user

3.       Friend from facebook : show my facebook friend by taking the input number as how many friends you want to see then you can click the each personal link further to see details

4.       Picasa photo: show the pictures from one of my picasa album

I posted it on my index page..

TWiki Setup

I created the topic “Knowledge Base for Business Development” and then populated it with subtopics. While customizing the sidebar to provide a direct link to this topic I discovered that there a several layers to TWiki access. There is the TWiki Web which has a webhome page and then there is the Main Web which also has a webhome page. I started building my topics through the TWiki Web before discovering the Main Web. I'm afraid that I will need to attempt to relocate my topic thread to the Main Web because the standard sidebar links use the Main Web.

I recreated the topics in the Main Web by copying and pasting from TWiki Web. Then while researching how to delete the topics from TWiki Web I discovered information on how to create a web. I decided to create a KnowledgeManagement Web and move the topics over to that web. Moving the topics turned out to be a process that needed to be done for each subtopic level. Whereas the topic level that I was moving would change its links to the new KnowledgeManagement Web any active subtopic links remained directed to the prior web. I completed the task but found that the topics that still existed in TWiki Web could not be deleted; each attempt to open the page for this task resulted in an error message. I finally resolved how to eliminate the prior instances of pages that I moved to the KnowledgeManagement Web.

Here is the base reference manual: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiDocumentation

Wiki Access

I created a BusinessDevelopmentGroup with administrator privileges, originally in the Main Web and then moved to KnowledgeManagement Web.

Time Zone

Wiki is set for GMT and lacks the means to modify this setting without resorting to problematic code changes. The creator acknowledges the importance of this issue for users who need a local time but there has been no standard change implemented.

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Support/TimeZone

Project Management

I simulated a link to project management software under the topic 'OB Hospitalists'. I have not been able to configure TWiki to open the software. I can attach the project management file but the application fails to open. This error has occurred directly on my laptop as well when I try to open the project file through windows directory. The application file is a batch file that stalls when I try to open it through association with a file but successfully opens the software when I click it directly. I may have not had a completely install of the project software as it has not otherwise created a shortcut executable file to open the program. There are several project management plugins available on Twiki:

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/ProjectPlannerPlugin

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EnhancedXpTrackerPlugin

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/XpTrackerPlugin

These plugins lack Gant capability but are well-designed for project team collaboration.

Discussion Forum

There are some addons with discussion forum capability. This is a potentially useful function for participant dialogue.

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/TWikiDotNetForumAppAddOn

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/DiscussionForumAddOn

Brainstorming

I loaded an image of a mindmap for 'HealthCarePartners' but was not able to create a link that opened the associated software FreeMind.

Users

1. registered fake users in the TWiki Main web
2. created KmGroup in the TWiki Main web
3. populated KmGroup with fake users
4. created BusinessDevelopmentGroup in KnowledgeManagement web and connected KmGroup to BusinessDevelopmentGroup

In going through this exercise I first created the user names in KnowledgeManagement web but their wiki names had no presence in my Twiki. I next registered each user and TWiki defaulted to register users in the Main web. After registering the users and creating the Group connections I was able to find the different instances of users and the user group relationships using a Backlinks search function that is available through the “More topic actions” option that is in the bar below a saved topic. This ability to search throughout my TWiki universe is a useful content management function in that it enables me to avoid creating redundant, fragmented or conflicting information.

I created a final fake user with real capabilities called BradManson with password bmkm1. With Brad I was able to confirm that the CommentPlugin worked.

Forms

I wanted to create forms to facilitate information input by participants. I discovered that forms can be linked to other content which then enables consistent data, e.g., using the same nomenclature for physician specialty. I then proceeded to struggle for more than ten hours before resolving a failure of the form to pickup up the selection from another table. The solution had to do with a faulty set up of the other table; I neglected to format the table header so that it could be identified. I discovered this error while experimenting with the EditTable plugin: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Plugins/EditTablePlugin

I figured out how to create new topics that are automatically populated with a designated form using code from:

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/TWikiTemplates#TemplateTopics

I have created new topics as user 'admin' and as user 'BradManson'.

I created a search that returns all topics that contain a specified primary form. I then formatted the search to extract content from fields in the form of each topic to populate a summary table: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/FormattedSearch#Table_showing_form_field_values. Table formatting included specifying headers and setting a default order for the table. Search parameters helped me to set up results: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki/VarSEARCH

Now the forms are functioning and along the way I also learned to set up tables with multiple lines that also link to other tables in the same way as the form. My ability to do this with tables as compared to forms came from code in a TWiki support post: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Support/GenerateOptionsListFromOptionsForm?raw=on

Now that I know how to use the search function to dynamically add content I may also take advantage of another support topic that discussed using lists of variables: http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Support/HowToStoreSearchResultsInAVariable

TO DO ITEMS

Plugins

1. Plugin installation is achieved by going to TWiki Configuration – Extensions – and then clicking “Install” for a desired extension in the alphabetical list. A script is then initiated that unpacks a .tgz file and then installs it to the point of complete functionality. This list is not a very effective way to explore available extensions but that is possible by otherwise searching the Twiki.org site.
2. CommentPlugin - Allows users to quickly post comments to a page without an edit/preview/save cycle. This improves an existing function so the click selection is to “Upgrade”. This upgrade reported an error but the function appears as enabled in my plugin list.
3. Tested CommentPlugin with a fake user.
4. Enhanced sidebar navigation.
5. TagMePlugin – This one has great features for personal tagging as well as group tagging. Each page can add tags from a set list, create tags, see the popularity of existing tags for the page, link to a tag cloud and then search from that tag cloud.

Version control

• While experimenting I produced a result that I did not like. I selected “More Topics” for the page and then forced the prior version to override the undesirable version. The result was creating a new version. My functionality apparently does not provide for role back to a prior version.

Relaunch of Twiki.org project. The TWiki community is going through some growing pains and management recently announced a commitment concerning future direction:

http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/RelaunchTWikiOrgProject

Here are my mashups:
1. The facebook search machups: I have to request the security key from my facebook account to make the mashups worked. I put the input function for the users to fill the number in order to show the friends of my facebook. I just registered the facebook so you might be able to put less than 8 haha.

2. The second one is the shopping search. This mashups use the shopping.msn.com to search for the required products you want to view. I put 2 inputs for this mashups. The first one is the name of the products and another one is the number of the shown results.

3. The third one is quite complicated but looks cool haha. It's the chat search mashups. I put the twitter , timing, Chat bubbles, and user input for this mashups. The Chat bubble is the main function to show the chat you want to search. The timer will refresh the page for the search result according to your input (I put 5 seconds).  The twitter will show the latest post of the chat in popfly account. So, when the twitter is showing the messages using the chat bubbles, the timer will refresh the page every 5 seconds. I try to put the different input from user input but it still shows some other messages unrelated to the input though. Well, for your information, I think the timer and chat bubble can be applied to other functions as you wish.  

I put all mashups to my index page at watchn.lorneolfman.com    Please scroll down until you see the white background section.

Puzzle mashup. The puzzle mashup using Flickr required me to change the sharing rules for one of my Flickr galleries.

Carousel mashup. This mashup included an image scraper that took thumbnail images from a Mammoth Mountain page. This only links to thumbnail size images so the image quality is not good.

I was distracted making my flickr slide puzzle mashup during class discussion of creating a web page so I needed to take some time with this one. The puzzle mashup did not appear when I clicked the Mashup button in the Insert box even though I had marked that mashup to share. I went back to the edit window for the puzzle mashup and click the share button that looks like a present, copied that code and then succeeded when I pasted it. I then used that same code but inserted the other url's to create my web page mashup of KEEPtoolkit, Wordpress blog and puzzle mashup.

I placed the Mammoth Lakes, CA puzzle mashup and Mammoth Mountain carousel in the web page:

http://www.popfly.com/users/349661/MyMammothImagePage.

I also created the second webpage: http://www.popfly.com/users/349661/mywordpresspage .

I am uncertain as to why the KEEPtoolkit links open a separate page while the links in the Wordpress blog navigate within the Popfly mashup. I decided to also mashup my individual project from KEEP and found that to fit the width I had to drag the left side of the image to widen the view to the right.

I haven't figured out how to change the name of a mashup after creating and saving.

The email invitation to mywordpresspage was inconvenient because I had to strip the names from all the email addresses before they could be read.

The mashup concept was very unclear for me prior to this class, and I still find it challenging to define. The mashup of images and programming to manipulate those images is clear enough. I also understand that bringing together web sources to one web page is a mashup, hence mywordpresspage is a mashup of other sources. Where things get a little less clear for me is when I consider a web page that includes access to various sources. For example, the Mammoth Mountain page http://www.mammothmountain.com/MyMammoth/?section=weather provides access to weather data, web cams, video, image galleries, etc. all on one page. This page is also customizable in that I can change to location or remove various components. On one level I want to say that it is just a well designed web page but then the interactive experience and presence of information, as compared to simple links to information, may be what distinguishes it as a mashup.

In addition the a personal web page, I created 5 mashups.

Events:

This mashup shows the upcoming events in a city entered by the user.

Bar graph:

Creates bar graph based on the values submitted by the user.

Stock chart:

Shadows stock chart for any company. The user should enter the company symbol.

World Photos;

 By entering a location name, the user can see photos from that place on a map.

Photos:

Simply searches and shows photos for any desired item entered by the user.

I selected three mashups and included them in my index page http://alhelaf.lorneolfman.com/index.html

   This is the first experience for me with mashups in general. Before I use Popfly, I had a different idea about building mashups. I thought the process is very complicated and needs more effort to get permission from the needed sources. I found Popfly easy to use in general. It offers a visual design method where a simple mashup can be built in seconds. However, I get confused about the required parameters when trying to combine three or more blocks. Also, the direction of the links between blocks took me several trials because I follow what I believe is the logic in transferring data. Another problem I faced is that the results of any executed mashup cannot be refreshed.I tried more complicated mashups, other than the five above, but I could not resolve the errors. I believe that Popfly needs more powerful sources to be included.