WebCraft Textbook -- be a part of building it this week.

The Connexions blog describes the web development textbook we are building on Connexions during the Mozilla Drumbeat festival this week. Folks on this mailing list would be excellent authors of chapters and sections for the book. Join us. -- Read more here -- http://blog.cnx.org/2010/11/webcraft-101-introduction-to-web.html

Connexions App for Android Released

The Connexions team is launching an Android application for the Connexions website. I developed the application as a side project to my regular job as the Connexions development manager.

Since this is the first version of my first app, it could use a few more features. I'll be adding them in the near future. However, I believe in not waiting until software has every feature completed before releasing it. I'd rather get some feedback so I can include requested features as I add the planned ones.

The App has the following functionality:

• Search Connexions using Google Site Search and view Modules and Collections found in the search results.
  
• View the list of Lenses from Connexions, view the content of a Lens and view the Module or Collection that is part of a Lens
• Save a search, Lens, Module or Collection to a list of Favorites that is stored locally on the phone. It is not the same list of Favorites you might have on the Connexions site. There is no login required. You can select a favorite from the Favorites tab and view it.
  

The application was built using existing feeds and URLs from Connexions. I used Google Site Search because it is a feature our users have asked for in the past. It will allow you to search for items which our current search on Connexions does not allow such as searching for lenses and in the Connexions help files. The Lenses and Lens ATOM feeds provide the data for the listings. The content is displayed as it currently is on Connexions. We hope to have a more mobile friendly version in the near future.

I would like to thank Max (the Connexions designer) and all of the beta testers for their help. The app is free and can be downloaded from Connexions. It is also in the Android Market. The application help file gives a good overview. Source code for the app is released under an LGPL license like all of our other code so it is free and open source. You can browse the code from our SVN repository.

The app was tested on an Archos 32, Droid X, Droid, enTourage eDGe and a Haipad M701 using Android versions 1.6 to 2.2. I hope it will be used by students as a quick way to access our content on the go. I'll keep improving it since developing it was a lot of fun. If you try out the app, let me know what you think at techsupport@cnx.org.

Sprint with Us

Calling all developers. Come join us at the Plone Conference in Bristol, UK, October 25th to the 31st. Connexions and Connexions Consortium board member, Upfront Systems, will be running a sprint at the upcoming Plone conference. The topic is "Migrating Rhaptos to Plone 4" and should be interesting to all Rhaptos and Connexions developers, those wanting to learn about Rhaptos/Connexions development, and to Plone developers interested in migration to Plone 4.

If you miss us in Bristol, join us at the Connexions Conference, February 9th, and stay for a sprint on February 10th. We plan to have sprints regularly to help grow the developer community around Connexions and Rhaptos.

And, look for us in May at the Plone East Symposium at Pennsylvania State University. Sprints are May 20th and 21st, 2011.

Rhaptos Answers Revealed

So, you've installed Rhaptos or you are thinking about giving the new Enterprise Rhaptos 1.5 a try and you have questions. Well, we have some answers in our Buildout FAQ. We solve mysteries such as...

• Where is the source code for Rhaptos?
• What are the Debian dependencies for Buildout?
• How do I delete a user?
• How to improve the performance of Rhaptos?

This is just a sampling of the content of the FAQ and we are updating it regularly. If you run into a Rhaptos question or problem, check the Buildout FAQ. If the FAQ does not have the answer you need, consult the Rhaptos Developer mailing list.

Enterprise Rhaptos 1.5 Released

We are proud to announce the release of Enterprise Rhaptos 1.5. There are several new features.

• Express Edit - If there is a published collection or module that you would like to edit from your Personal Workspace or a shared Workgroup, you can now quickly check out a copy directly from the content page itself.
• Enhanced Google Analytics - Google Analytics tracking was added to all download links.
• EPUB - Module and Collections can be downloaded as EPUB ebook files.
• Offline HTML - a zip file containing all information about a module or collection along with an HTML version that can be viewed offline. This is created as part of the EPUB generation.
• SWORD Interface - Modules can be created by sending a POST request to a URL along with a zip file containing a Word document and optional mets.xml metadata file.
• Updated Help files covering new features.

Documentation

• Installing Enterprise Rhaptos
• Upgrading Enterprise Rhaptos
• Express Edit
  
• Enhanced Google Analytics
  
• EPUB:
• Help
• EPUB Guidelines
• EPUB Help
• EPUB FAQ
• Code Documentation
• Sword Interface
  • Sword Help
  • Code Documentation
    

Feedback
If you have a question or think you found a bug, try posting it on the rhaptos developer mailing list.

Introducing Connexions SWORD API

In collaboration with the Public Knowledge Project, makers of the Open Journal System (OJS) software, Connexions has rolled out a new API allowing content in Word format from OJS journals to be imported for republication in Connexions/Rhaptos. The transfer is accomplished via SWORD (Simple Web-service Offering Repository Deposit). See our development site for technical documentation.

From an OJS journal that has been set up to work with Connexions, an author or editor enters their Connexions username and password and is provided a list of their work areas in Connexions. Having selected one of these, the user then chooses the articles in Word format that they want to deposit, and the submitted articles will be imported into the indicated location in Connexions. A new module is created with the title and metadata provided by the journal.

Since the content is likely to have already been published in the journal, features have been added to support that workflow.

• A citation to the original publication is automatically added to the end of each module (this can be removed by the author), if one is provided by the journal.


• A prominent reminder to review the citation, to review the authors/editors, and to preview the module appear in the module editing interface.


• The role management interface includes convenient links to search the repository for names of people found as role-holders in the original publication.


• The Creative Commons license must be agreed to before the content can be published in Connexions/Rhaptos.

While developing this new feature, we also provided a pathway for users of all content in Connexions to upgrade the version of their existing Creative Commons licenses. Content published under older versions of the license now require an agreement to upgrade to the latest version before it can be republished.

Since SWORD is an open standard, The Connexions SWORD API can be used outside OJS also. The API covers new module creation with appropriate metadata and importation and translation of Word documents into CNXML in new modules.

This work was supported by Indiana University as part of the Big Digital Machine project to enhance scholarly workflow for the digital age.

Introducing Nathan Yergler

"Connexions has been working with Creative Commons from the time both organizations were just visions in their founder's eye. The open, yet clear licenses that Creative Commons fostered to allow sharing and reuse are key to Connexions' mission to be a global repository of high-quality, reusable and adaptable textbooks and educational resources. Nathan, Creative Commons CTO, is our trusted guide on issues of standards, interoperability, and discoverability."
Katherine Fletcher Technology Director and Project Manager for Connexions

I'm Chief Technology Officer at Creative Commons (CC). My responsibilities include managing the team that builds the technical infrastructure behind Creative Commons legal tools. I'm also responsible for looking at ways Creative Commons technology can be applied, and how our experience and expertise with linked open data can be leveraged. Open educational resources are a core application of Creative Commons licenses, as they depend upon license interoperability to scale.

I initially became involved with Connexions through my work at CC. Connexions is one of the great exemplars of a community built around open licensing and re-use. The Creative Commons Attribution license that Connexions' contributors offer their work under reduces ambiguity and removes a friction point for reuse and redistribution. Connexions' support for remixing and reusing content is one of the best, which makes it an extremely interesting platform to be involved with. And as a long time Zope developer, I was further drawn in by the use of Zope and Plone.

I see the Technology Committee as a resource for Connexions and Rhaptos developers to use to help think about ways the already successful platform can be further scaled and improved. As a member of the committee, I hope I can provide perspectives on how other communities are using CC licenses, and how Rhaptos can continue to be an exemplar for encouraging sharing, remix, and reuse.

I'm excited about working on ways to improve search and discovery for Open Education Resources; Connexions' lenses are a great initial implementation of a curatorial system that I think will be central to this. I'm also interested in enabling the discovery of derivatives and transformations of OER across the web.