Georgia Tech College of Computing
Research Community-Maintained Collaboration Server
Introduction
Welcome to the Georgia Tech College of Computing Research Community-Maintained Collaboration Server, a cooperative initiative between CoC Researchers and the TSO Research Program Support Group. Basically, CoC Researchers manage the collaboration packages software, manage the request line and troubleshoot software problems. TSO Research Program Support makes sure there's decent hardware and OS support, file backups and provide continuity for the Community.
- If you would like to obtain a new instance of a collaboration space (e.g. you need a wiki page), send your request to the appropriate request line (see Table 1 below).
- If you would like to become a new Collaboration Service Manager, read "How To Get Involved" below.
- This server is not a class or course server. Please talk to Mike Luttrell (mluttrell@cc) and the TSO Academics Program Support Group if you are need a class wiki.
Mission
The mission of this initiative is to foster collaboration within our research community. Specifically,
- To provide organized collaborative services to the research community.
- To tap into common collaborative interests within the research community.
- To engage a volunteer community (faculty and students primarily) in the delivery of collaborative services.
- To provide a framework for best practices in collaborative service delivery.
- To provide this framework in a manner vetted with TSO.
- To provide a service support model that ensures a foundation for volunteer contribution and continuity of service.
Service Support Model
The servers were purchased by CoC faculty contributions and a small amount of TSO Research Group funds, so these servers actually belong to the CoC Research Community. Thus, all of the services offered on these systems are supported by the CoC Research Community. For a service to live on these servers, it must be offered to the entire CoC Research Community. Services will live and die by the rule of whether there are people in the community willing to support the service. As shown in the illustration below, the TSO Research Group has committed to a small subset of services. Other groups in the community have committed to support services as well. The TSO Research Group ensures that the hardware and OS are healthy and that the server is getting backed up, etc. In addition, the TSO Research Group monitors the health of offered services and makes sure there is adequate community support, coordinating Service Managers, etc.
Service Status
The table below lists the services that are currently available or in process.
| Application | Description | Service Managers | Request Line |
|---|---|---|---|
| MediaWiki | Wiki with SQL database | Mark Nelson, Steven Voida, David Hilley, Randy Carpenter, Chad Huneycutt | Online Request Form |
| Dokuwiki | Wiki with text file database | Dan Ashbrook | |
| Swiki/Triton (merged) Swiki/Guzdial (merged) Swiki/Kingkong (merged) | Squeak + Wiki = Swiki | Mark Guzdial, Jochen Rick, Blair MacIntyre | swiki-request@cc |
| Swiki/Coweb | Squeak + Wiki = Swiki | Mark Guzdial, Jeff Rick | swiki-request@cc |
| Swiki/AniAniWeb | Squeak + Wiki = Swiki (A personal home page system) | Stephen Voida, Jochen Rick | swiki-request@cc |
| SVN/SVNTrac | Subversion Source Code Control | Randy Carpenter, Chad Huneycutt | svn-requests@cc |
| Bugzilla | Bug Tracking | Jung Soo Kim | |
| DotProject (experimental) | Project Management | Randy Carpenter, Chad Huneycutt | |
| ActiveCollab (experimental) | Project Collaboration | Frank Dellaert | |
| MailMan | Mailing Lists | Randy Carpenter, Chad Huneycutt | lists-requests@cc |
How To Get Involved
There are a couple of great ways to get involved:
- Volunteer to help support an existing service.
- Volunteer to start a new service (find partners first).
- Contact randy@cc if you would like to volunteer.
Collaboration Service Managers commit to offering a service to the CoC Research Community. Responsibilities include:
- Provide a simple web page describing your service, it's mission and how users can request service.
- Monitor and service email request lines (e.g. wiki-request@cc, wiki-bugs@cc).
- Install/Upgrade service software, including security updates.
- Communicate with other Service Managers (e.g. collab-managers@cc) regarding status, updates of your service.
- Follow proper server etiquette. The server is shared by many Service Mangers.
Acknowlegements
Thanks goes to several CoC faculty who contributed funding to make this possible: Tucker Balch, Thad Starner, Ashwin Ram, Gregory Abowd, Blair MacIntyre, and Mark Gudial. Two, very capable servers were purchased through their generous help. In addition, thanks goes to all of the volunteers who have and continue to maintain the services offered herein.