Ready for pre-alpha virtualization testers

We are ready for pre-alpha external testing of running Rhaptos on Amazon Web Services. You will need an AWS account. We have tested starting instances from an Ubuntu laptop and from Mac OS X and now we are ready for others to test these initial configurations.

The instructions are here: https://trac.rhaptos.org/trac/rhaptos/wiki/AWSQuickInstall

The following two configurations should work:

1. rhaptos-partial-32 : Rhaptos instance connected to a sample set of data for demos and exploration. It takes about 5 - 10 minutes to build and then another 5-10 minutes for reindexing the sample data set to use the amazon URL your instance is running on.
2. rhaptos-empty-32-dev : A Rhaptos instance that starts with a machine image with system dependencies installed and then builds all the Rhaptos code from a known working release. Takes about 5-10 minutes to start the machine that does the building and then about 20 minutes for the build.
   

Known issues so far: The workgroup links in the left navigation bar have the URL doubled and thus 404. You can hand fix the URL to get to the workgroup. We are looking into this. You will probably find something we didn't.

We are testing the clarity of the instructions, as well as the functionality of the result. We would love to hear feedback on how it goes. Please email cnx@cnx.org with your results and the rhaptos software development list (rhaptos@cnx.rice.edu) (which you have to join first).

Consortium member, Shuttleworth, funds performance improvement specification

Read Mark Horner's blog entry "Connexions Authoring Performance" for the full detail about the specification they funded for improving the performance of authoring on Connexions. Mark is a Shuttleworth fellow and The Shuttleworth Foundation is a Connexions consortium member. They have been using Connexions, developing new features for Connexions, and funding the creation of specifications for new features that may need additional funding to get off the ground

From Mark's blog:

"... the bottom-line is that Upfront Systems have shown that there are massive potential performance improvements (in some cases 5 times faster) for Connexions on the authoring side and analysed what it will take to implement them. I estimate that the total cost of implementing the specification is $7500."

This is exactly the sort of dynamic engagement we hoped would come out of the Connexions Consortium.

You can read the full reports at:

• Analysis of performance (Open Office format)
• Draft specification to develop the fixes to the problems identified. (Open Office format)

Supporting the Life Cycle of Scholarly Work

From research to the classroom

What students are learning today is often the result of cutting edge research in the past, and what advanced students are learning and incorporating is often today's research. So we are making it easier for content to move from publication in open research journals to publication in the Connexion open education repository. We are collaborating with the Public Knowledge Project, makers of OJS (Open Journal System) software, to support exporting content from journals and importing it to Connexions. The two teams are each implementing SWORD (Simple Web Service Offering Repository Deposit) to accomplish the transfer. Connexions SWORD support design is shown on our development site and implementation began in March.

From Connexions to reuse anywhere

We collect all sorts of statistics about use of the Connexions content from Connexions website, but often students and teachers download the content in various formats and use it remotely. Connexions explicitly supports reuse of content inside OR outside the repository. We try to make it easy to use the content in whatever way is most appropriate for educators and learners. But, we still want to know when the content is downloaded. Our current Google Analytics setup doesn't provide that information and so we have updated the code to collect information about content downloads. Testing is underway on the statistics enhancements. As an added benefit, consistent use of analytics across services makes comparisons and research on content usage more accurate.