University Experts
http://experts.sjsu.edu
HigherEdWebDev 2006
October 22-25, 2006
Rochester, New York
Track: TPR9
Harish V. Chakravarthy
Interim Lead & Web Applications Developer
Web Services Unit
harishvc@sjsu.edu
Session
Layout
 Background
 About us
 IT infrastructure
 Relaunch of Univ. Experts


 Lessons learned
 Objectives
 Solutions
 Architecture
 Roll out
 Usage status
Future road map
Q&A
Before we
get started:
 First time at HighEdWebDev Conference
 First time to Rochester
I am thrilled to be here!
 Feel free to ask me any questions during the
presentation
 Feel free to let me know, if you can’t
understand what I am talking about
 Slides will be available online!
Background: About us
Background: 
About us
http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices

Formed in Fall 2002

Web site redesign project
ORG chart

Office of the President
 Office of the Provost


Academic Technology
 Web Services Unit
Services we provide



Maintain University main Web site (www.sjsu.edu)
Maintain content for top level pages
Maintain the Content Management System


Maintain and configure search engine
Develop & Maintain web applications for University needs


Web space
and more …
 Create subsites for Site Masters
 News, Events, Form Handler, Syndication Feed, web survey and more…
We are responsible for the overall web presence of San
Jose State University
Background:
About us

http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices

Staff

University Web Master


Web Applications Developer (me)
Content Editor/Programmer

Position open since Mar/2006


New position
Staff hired in May/2006
Web Infrastructure

Servers

Set up

Web Servers

Database

Languages

Version Control

4 Sun Solaris, 1 Windows



Production
Stage
Development

Apache, Tomcat

MySQL

JSP, Perl, XML, XSLT

CVS
We are work with numerous open source
applications
Background:
About us

http://www.sjsu.edu/webservices
We serve




Academic Units and Departments
Faculty
Staff
Students



Current
Prospective
Alumni
We serve the entire campus


Units we work very closely with

University Computing & Telecommunications (UCATS)

CMS Team (my.sjsu.edu)

University Communications & Marketing



Servers in a cold room
Ensure 24X7 uptime (power supply)
Monitor network

Query tables for information


Approve content for top level pages
University Logo and Seal usage guidelines
Web Oversight Committee (Formed in Spring 2006)



16 member team
University wide representation
University Web Policy (Ist project)

Currently debated in the Academic Senate
Background: IT Infrastructure
(related to this session)
Background:
IT
Infrastructure
 Campus IT Infrastructure
 Decentralized
 Numerous authoritative sources of information
We have more than one login and password to
access various services offered.
Background:
IT
Infrastructure
Faculty & Staff Directory
http://www.sjsu.edu/directory/
Authoritative Source
 Phone number
 Email address
 FAX number
 Location
Building
Floor
Extended Zip
 Department
Background:
IT
Infrastructure
Faculty Affairs
http://fa.sjsu.edu/
 Authoritative Source for faculty
 Education: Terminal Degree
 Licenses & Certificates
 Job Classification
Background:
IT
Infrastructure
Bursar’s Office
http://www.sjsu.edu/bursar/
Authoritative Source
 Tower ID Photo
Background: IT
Infrastructure
Human Resources
http://www.sjsu.edu/hr/
 Authoritative Source
 Name
First
Preferred first name
Middle
Last
Prefix
Suffix
 Working Title
 Employed faculty & staff
 Not Phone Directory!
Background: University Experts
(Version 1.0)
Background:
University
Experts





Maintained by Univ. Marketing and Communications
Information was manually updated by staff
Static pages with no search and proper navigation
Primary key was not Tower ID
Sometime information was out of date
 There was no easy way to know!
There was a need for a better system!
Background:
University
Experts
 One earlier attempt
 Developed some time before 2003
 A standalone web application
 One more login and password
 Not user friendly to input or view
 Not a committee approach
Unsuccessful in achieving its objective
Relaunch of University Experts
(Version 2.0)
Project
Objectives:
Lessons
Learned
Put a committee together
Automate as much as possible
Pull data from authoritative sources
Empower experts
 To update their “own” information
 Ability to opt-in and opt-out
Initiative
Launched:
Fall 2004
Project Team














Rhea Williamson, Associate Dean, Graduate Studies and Research
Mary Jo Gorney-Moreno, AVP, Academic Technology
Jeff Gordon, Director, Business Development, SJSU Foundation
Joan Merdinger and Angee McGhee, Faculty Affairs
Nancy Stake, Media Relations Officer, University Advancement
Paul Nozicka, University Webmaster
Harish Chakravarthy, Web App. Developer, Web Services
Rigo Vargas, Enrollment/Academic Services-IT
Danielle Moon, MLK, Jr. Library Special Projects
Sara Willis, Sponsored Programs Office, SJSU Foundation
Beth Lemke, Content Editor, Univ. Marketing & Communications
Bethany Shifflet, Faculty, Kinesiology
Andrew Wood & Christina Sabee, Faculty, Communications Studies
Carrie Medders, CMS Project Support
16 member team!
Project
Objectives
 Increase Awareness of SJSU Experts
 Foster Collaborative Opportunities
 Leverage Investments/Resources
 Capture information in a standard format
 Identify top categories



External Speaker
Contact for news media
Collaborative researcher
 Provide accurate information
 Retain the SJSU look and feel
 Keyword searchable
 Easy to navigate
 Standards compliant
“One stop shop” to find experts
Possible
Solutions:
Plan A
 Write a new web app. from scratch
Pros:
 Develop inhouse
 We already have the infrastructure
 Save time
 Less coordination with rest of campus
Cons:
 One more login and password!
 One more standalone application!
Possible
Solutions:
Plan B
 Use MySJSU, PeopleSoft Portal (my.sjsu.edu)
Pros:
 Currently in use
 University has vested interest
 In built modules available to capture

similar information
No need for additional login and password
Cons:
 In built modules will require customization
 May require approval from Chancellor’s Office
 Will require coordination with the CMS team & other teams on
campus
 Long process
Possible
Solutions:
Plan A
or
Plan B
We decided on Plan B!
(A road less traveled)
Using
MySJSU:
Customize
modules
 Identify modules to capture information
 Education-Degrees
 Courses-Teaching Experience
 Research-Scholarly Activity
 Professional-Service Activity
 Licenses-Certificates
 Publications-Presentations
 Customize
 Text changes
 Remove fields
 Add fields
 Easy to Copy & Paste
 Accept Home page URL
 Accept to existing URL’s
 Courses
 Publication
Using  Faculty Info
MySJSU:
 Display Tower Image
New
 Yes
 No (Default)
module

Select 3 categories

Expertise Summary

Experts should select any one of the 3
categories to be found inside university experts
 External Speaker
 News Media Contact
 Collaborative Researcher
 Keyword field for search
 Provide a way to out-out if desired
We went through 13 iterations!
(Fall 2004 - Summer 2005)
Using  Identify Authoritative Sources
MySJSU:  Query for a list active experts
Pull information for active experts from various
Architecture  authoritative
sources




 Various databases across campus
Map information gathered using Tower ID as the
primary key
Map Tower ID to unique random key (public display)
Generate SQL inserts
Update local database
DBTrainman
(a command line driven program written in JAVA)
Putting all this together & making it work …
Active
Experts
vis CMS
Education
(Terminal
Degree from
Faculty
Affairs)
CMS DB
my.sjsu.edu
Towercard
Photo from
Bursar’s
Office
Faculty Initiated
pages
• Courses
• Research
• Publications
Graduate Studies &
Research/Foundation
Office of Public
Affairs
Funding alerts and Keywords
database
News Media Contact
database
…
DBTrainman
(The BRAIN)
Experts DB
UCATS DB
www.sjsu.edu/directory
http://experts.sjsu.edu
Univ. 
Experts:
Roll out 

Step I (early Fall 2005)
 Identify beta testers
 Request feedback & make required changes
Step II (Beta Launch, November 2005)
 Communicate via campus mail and email
 Request experts to check accuracy of information
 Raise awareness
 Request experts to fill out their information
Step III (Full Service Public Launch, January 2006)
 SJSU Press Release
 Point all references to Univ. Experts
http://experts.sjsu.edu
Univ.
Experts:
Project
Update
# Experts




Contact for News Media
Collaborative Researcher
External Speaker
Tower Images
Feb/01/2006
329
38
47
19
Oct/20/2006
362
76
91
45
change
10%
100%
94%
137%
# Records







Active Experts
Education
Licenses & Certificates
Research & Scholarly Activities
Courses & Teaching Expertise
Professional & Service Activity
Publications & Presentations
2016
2120
19
363
196
258
264
1743
2366
21
386
375
305
334
-14%
12%
1.6%
6.3%
91.32%
18.21%
26.5%
Univ. 
Experts:
Future
Roadmap

Increase awareness
 Offer hands-on lab session
 Memo from Office of the Provost
 Meet with Department Chairs and College Deans
 Visibility on website and other forms of communication
 Students newspaper
Technical Improvements
 UI Improvements
 Import publication from University Library
 Integrate data with other web applications
http://experts.sjsu.edu/
Beta Site Demo
www.sjsu.edu/cats/2003/showcase/
Additional Slides
DBTrainman:
Code:
Output
Generating a Vector of active IDs ...
Generated a Vector of existing Mapping ID
Checking for complete ID Mapping ...
Insert into sjsu_id_map values (531281767,"55AESWE34");
Generating ID Map ...
Generating DeptID Map ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact sql ...
rows processed:1748
Generating sjsu_experts_info header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_info sql ...
rows processed:479 (392)
CR/ES/NM:76 91 362
Generating sjsu_experts_education header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_education sql ...
rows processed:6568 (2366)
…
Generating Images ...
rows processed:45
Generating sjsu_experts_contact_from_ucats header ...
Generating sjsu_experts_contact_from ucats sql ...
rows processed:6160 (1770)
…
Statistics for today ...
Oct/23/2006
1748
392
2366
21
386
375
305
334
45
76
91
362
DBTrainman:
Code:
Images
DBTrainman:
Code:
Query
Phonebook
Service
Oriented
Architecture