It's all about community!

This conference promises an unprecedented opportunity to network with individuals from a wide variety of community source projects. This wiki can be used as a networking springboard. The projects involved include: uPortal, CAS, Fluid, Kuali, Internet 2, Sakai, Fedora and DSpace.

Socialize, Blog, Tag, PodCast JA-SIG Spring '08 - Keeping in touch

As well as maintaining a blog for the conference: Higher Education Solutions, the committee has set up a social networking site for conferees at http://ja-sigspring08.crowdvine.com/.

The conference committee would like to strongly encourage conference participants to record and share their experiences online by blogging, podcasting, photo sharing. Check back here for more information as it becomes available.

Please use jasigstpaul08 for tagging.

Ad Hoc Birds of a feather Sessions

The program is packed with excellent looking presentations but there is also space for a limited number of ad hoc BoF sessions. There will be a way for you to organize a BoF at the conference.

Monday Evening Poster Sessions

It's not too late to submit a presentation! We still have space available for additional poster session presentations on Monday night. These spaces are available on a first come, first served basis. For more information as well as a list of posters scheduled so far, see the poster session page. Poster presentations are a great way to share your ideas with interested colleagues in a more intimate and interactive setting. Submit your idea today!

Wednesday Afternoon BarCamp

In addition to the half day seminars on Wednesday afternoon, we will offer our third JA-SIG BarCamp. A BarCamp is the kind of unstructured gathering defined by Wikipedia, which was so successful as the framework for the Rutgers Unconference. This is your opportunity to work together with other attendees and share information on any topic at all. There will be a white board throughout the conference to gather ideas. Learn more and see topic suggestions here.

Wednesday Afternoon uCamp

The uCamp is a "User Experience Camp". This one is developed by the Fluid folks as a way to introduce usability principles to multiple projects. A uCamp generally has an agenda, with a list of presentations, tutorials, and exercises for the participants. See the uCamp page to help us with planning the uCamp agenda, material, and activities.

Help out by facilitating a session

Facilitating a session is easy. You basically introduce the speaker and keep track of the time. It is a great opportunity to volunteer at the conference, make more connections and see you favorite sessions. When the program has been set, we will post a link to a facilitator sign up page here

Get out and have fun

We will be compiling a list of things to do in St. Paul here. Check it out and add your favorite attraction if it is not listed.

Presentation Materials

Materials for presentations, panels, seminars, and BOFs can be found here: St. Paul 2008 Spring Conference Presentation Materials

Participating Projects

Want to learn more about the projects participating in the conference? Visit their websites through these links:

• uPortal Website WikiSpace
• CAS Website WikiSpace
• Fluid Website WikiSpace
• Kuali Rice Website WikiSpace
• Kuali Student Website
• Internet2 Website
• Shibboleth Website
• Sakai Website WikiSpace
• Fedora Website WikiSpace
• DSpace Website WikiSpace

Conference Blog

Higher Education Solutions
Real Presentations Right Here PowerPoint Karaoke was fun - even more so than I expected. The participants were very creative and gave us whole new perspectives on topics from chickens to world peace through single sign on. Now the conference is cooking along with dozens of great talks so far. How will we retain all this terrific information? Well, we won't unless you post your presentation materials on our wiki page St. Paul 2008 Spring Conference Presentation Materials. Please do post them for us all to revisit and recommend.
Are you ready for PowerPoint Karaoke? Remember how much fun it was doing techno-speed dating at last year's JA-SIG? This year you are invited to join your colleagues in a rousing session of PowerPoint Karaoke at our our Sunday evening festivities. Never heard of it? See Boston Globe Article. Be brave and join the fun. Contestants will have the opportunity to entertain their friends with their ability to ad lib by giving a presentation based on slides they have never seen before. A collection of presentations has been selected. Some JA-SIG stalwarts have been drafted - er volunteered. More contestants are MOST welcome. Prizes will be awarded. To volunteer yourself or a friend or contribute your favorite presentation send email to susan dot bramhall at yale dot edu.
Tuesday Evening Dine-Around - Network Anonymously! New to the JA-SIG Conference program this year is the "Tuesday Evening Dine-Around" activity taking place on Tuesday, April 29th, 2008, starting at 6:30 PM in the lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. This activity promises to be a fun way to interact and network with other conference attendees by throwing a dash of upfront anonymity into the mix. The program committee has selected several different restaurants within the vicinity of the hotel. Conference attendees can sign-up to eat dinner at any one of these restaurants using this online form, without knowing who they'll be eating with: https://www.concentra-cms.com/rms/survey/entry.jsp?id=1208456553742 If you sign up, you'll need to come to the Crowne Plaza Hotel lobby at 6:30 PM to be introduced to your dinner group and to be escorted by your restaurant host for a 7 PM reservation. The current choice of restaurants are: Fuji-Ya Japanese food and Sushi, http://www.fujiyasushi.com W. A. Frost & Company Fresh American and Mediterranean, http://www.wafrost.com - will likely require a cab ride. Saint Paul Grill Classic grill cuisine, https://www.saintpaulhotel.com/dining/ Kincaid's Fish, Chop and Steak House, http://www.kincaids.com Pazzaluna Authentic Italian food, https://www.pazzaluna.com Wild Tymes Bar & Grill http://www.wildtymes.net View Larger Map Following the dinner (at approximately at 8:30 PM), all groups in addition to all conference attendees are invited to come together for a post-dinner party that will take place at the Great Waters Brewing Company (http://www.greatwatersbc.com/). Great Waters offers a full selection of finely crafted beers in addition to a mouth-watering menu of deserts. This will be a great venue for bringing all of the communities attending the conference, together. Seating is limited, so hurry and sign up! We hope to see you there!
uCamp – Where Designers and Developers meet User Experience Issues, User-Centred-Design, Designing for the User-Centric Web … Everything is “user centric” these days, presenting a whole new set of challenges to the code-writing developer. What are the techniques, the pitfalls, the gotcha’s and the guidelines? Who are the experts, what are the principles, what is the body of knowledge, and how can they help the developer? All these topics are subject matter for a uCamp – a place where code developers and human interaction designers get together and work together: to learn, to solve problems, and to achieve common understanding. At a uCamp you can learn: How research-based personas can provide a solid and reliable foundation for crafting user interfaces. How well-established design patterns can be employed in local solutions. How to achieve accessibility and usability through standard approaches and techniques. How coders and designers can bring their skills together to produce the finest quality experiences for their users. At a uCamp you can contribute: By giving a lightning talk on the user experience issue that concerns you most. At a uCamp you can participate: In a design exercise that deepens your understanding of the designer’s profession. In a workshop to create a design or solve a problem. If you’re at all concerned with user experience issues – as a developer, an architect, or a manager – come to the uCamp on Wednesday afternoon. Better still, sign up on the wiki to indicate your interest and influence the agenda at the JA-SIG uCamp planning page. See you all there: Wednesday, April 30th, 1:30pm.
Eat, drink ... and see posters! We have nine great poster presentations scheduled for Monday night of the conference. You can find the list complete with abstracts at http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/DAC1. The poster sessions, a first for JA-SIG, promise to be a fun and informative event. Attendees will be able to peruse the displays and interact with presenters while at the same time enjoying beverages and hors d'oeuvres. During these two hours you will be able to become familiar with a wide variety of projects as well as network with your peers. And if you are interested in presenting, it is not too late to schedule your own poster! Visit the introductory poster session page on the conference wiki at http://www.ja-sig.org/wiki/x/1ICi for more information. Or feel free to send me an email at jim.helwig at doit.wisc.edu. See you in St. Paul!

2008 Planning Committee

Questions & Concerns

If you have a question or concern, please share it with the committee by sending an email to spring-08-conference-planning@lists.ja-sig.org.

Planning Committee Members

If you are interested in joining the committee, please send an email to agodert@cornell.edu