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Curtin flow - Enterprise Content Management for Curtin

Activities

In the early stages of the flow project the greatest focus was on research - into content management theory and practice, and into particular products, too, in order to get a clearer understanding of the benefits and uses of ECM at Curtin. This stage of the project was followed by a process of asking people about their needs and practices, so that we could define our functional requirements and the strategies we would use to implement ECM. At the same time, a number of other activities and projects have been under way.

Technology trials

So that we can better understand what it would be like to implement and use Information Management software at Curtin, we have explored an enterprise search and categorisation product - MindServer, and an Enterprise Content Management platform called Alfresco. We have also looked at a web search solution incorporating Lucene, Nutch and Carrot2 in the context of web search, and at Softection DAP for document level security.

Consultation and data collection

It's important to talk to the people who work in the university to find out what their needs are with respect to Information Management. flow's consultation strategy incorporated an extensive series of interviews, workshops and contextual enquiry exercises, as well as the 2007 Curtin Information Survey. The findings from these activities and the resulting recommendations for Information Management at Curtin are available in the flow Stakeholder Consultation Report.

To supply structured information about the information management characteristics of each area of the university, staff in management positions have been invited to answer some questions by way of an online project planning survey. Here's what to expect if you're asked to complete a project planning survey.

Curtin Common Vocabulary development

When you're trying to manage information in any large organisation, and trying to make it easy for everyone in the organisation to store and find that information, it's vital that everyone describes things in the same way - using the same language. If you can reach agreement on a common vocabulary for naming the groups and containers into which you put your content, documents or records, others will have a much easier time when they come along later looking for that information - and so will you.

The flow team has been working with staff volunteers from around the university to establish a "Curtin Common Vocabulary". This has entailed a number of workshops facilitated with the help of staff in the Department of Information Studies, as well as an online card-sorting exercise for all staff at the university to participate in. When the process of testing and refinement is over, we should have a common vocabulary that is useful and user-friendly.

Web metadata improvements

All content on Curtin's websites, whether web pages or downloadable documents, should incorporate descriptive information (e.g. author, title, subject). This is known as metadata: it's information about information, and it makes web pages more 'findable'. The flow project has recently implemented improvements to Curtin's web search, but the technology can only go so far. If metadata is not there, or not correct, the best search engine in the world won't necessarily help.

Everyone responsible for websites at Curtin is being requested to review and improve their content - including metadata - in preparation for the 2008 AUQA Audit. To help with this the flow project has developed an easy way for website owners to get reports on the quality of their metadata, and is providing regular metadata improvement workshops as well as one-on-one assistance reviewing and improving metadata quality. Since February we've been tracking the quality of metadata on a sample of Curtin's websites, and during the subsequent months, there has been a significant overall improvement.

If you would like to take advantage of our offer of 1-on-1 assistance to improve your site's metadata, don't hesitate to contact us.

Web search

For a long time, Google’s free ‘Syndicated Public Search’ was used to provide the search function on the Curtin website. This provided little or no control over how frequently indexing took place and we had no way of customising the results interface. People found the search facility unsatisfactory, with searches turning up out of date or irrelevant results. The flow steering committee requested improvements, so the project team identified various options and began to plan a way forward.

We have now implemented a search solution using the open source technologies Lucene, Nutch and Carrot2. Two rounds of focus group testing were held so that we could refine the interface, and after a phased approach we now have a solution that includes clustering, spell checking, and an advanced search option. Further improvements are scheduled for the middle of 2008.

Policy Management System

In late 2007 we began development of a "Policy Database" to help improve the management of Curtin's policy documents. This entailed developing an easy to use, web-based application, using Alfresco, to enable academic and administrative staff to produce policy and related documents in line with a prescribed template; implementing formal workflow around the editing, approval and publication of the resulting documents; and delivery of the documents by means of a redesigned policies website. Other benefits include the reduced duplication and improved integrity and currency of policies.

The policy system is now operational, and planned improvements include the provision of essential reports to both policy owners and policy approvers to encourage the review of policies and track their review status, which will assist with preparations for the second round of AUQA audits. Future enhancements include enabling staff to comment on draft policies via the website, and the provision of a keyword search function on the full text of all policies.

Course Information Repository

One of the objectives of the C2010 project is the development of a Course Information Repository for the creation, revision, review, approval and publishing of unit outlines, course outlines and other related documents. The flow project has been working with C2010 staff to develop this application, beginning with the development of a "Unit Outline Builder" component. This is a system that extracts authoritative unit and course information from existing corporate applications (including, but not limited to, Student One) and enables authorised people to publish approved unit outline documents, in line with defined approval workflows.

Two rounds of focus groups with Unit Coordinators and other staff from teaching areas were held, and the information gathered has been used to develop a prototype application, for piloting during the second half of 2008. We hope to have the system operational across the university by semester one of 2009.

At the same time, the other components of the larger repository system are being scoped, in consultation with stakeholders from around the university, including academics, students, and marketing staff.

 

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