Publishing Technology at Online Information 2008
Monday, December 01, 2008
Further to John's post about IngentaConnect mobile, if you want to find out more or see a demo of this trial service drop by the Publishing Technology stand (620) at Online Information 2008, 2-4 December. It is also an opportunity to find out more about our other services, including pub2web and Connect Compilations, which have been recently featured in this blog.
Labels: "publishing technology", connect compilations, ingentaconnect, mobile, pub2web
posted by Rose Robinson at 8:58 PM
| 0 comments
Ingentaconnect goes mobile.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Even in these leaner times the focus of technology is often bigger, better, faster more, but sometimes small is beautiful, and in the case of mobile internet, jolly convenient too. That’s why I’m pleased to say that ingentaconnect is making preparations to go mobile.We’ve been putting together a proof of concept to see how connect would look on a mobile device, and explore the benefits it could bring. What we learn here on connect will be rolled into our high end publishing platform - pub2web.
It’s been a fascinating experience with a steep learning curve. I suddenly realise that conventional browser compatibility woes are nothing compared to the differences in the way mobile platforms render their content. The variations are as fascinating as they are frustrating: countless screen sizes and resolutions, CSS may not be understood, or just partially understood, javascript? maybe, if the wind is in the right direction. Of course mobile doesn’t just mean phones, it includes PDAs too, including those running windows CE, replete with the ‘niggles’ of IE5 and 6.
As it happened we didn’t need to wade too deeply into the intricacies of handset compatibility, we drew upon the expertise of Momac, specialists in mobile publishing. Their platform, GoMedia, is capable of tailoring content to just about any mobile device you care to connect with. Take a look at the screen shot, or rather device shot, to see connect mobile in action.
Oh, and while I’m here, I’d like to take this opportunity to ask for some audience participation: if you use connect, or similar sites, and can think of a mobile feature that you’d like to see, I’d love to hear! Just pop your idea in the comments field or mail us.
Labels: "publishing technology", gomedia, handset, ingentaconnect, mobile, momac, pub2web
posted by John Clapham at 9:27 PM
| 0 comments
Connect Compilations - a little glimpse of the future
Monday, October 06, 2008
Connect compilations will be introduced into ingentaconnect during the next couple of weeks, its features represent a delicious sample of the technical offering Publishing Technology is cooking up.
Connect Compilations enable publishers to assemble 'virtual' publications from their existing content on connect. Compilations are given titles, descriptions, links and logos such that they look similar to conventional publications. They may be organised in familiar serial and monograph formats. At ingentaconnect Compilations may be purchased and subscribed to in the same way as other publications. Crucially the publisher has control over the Compilation, it is available to amend and augment whenever they please.
From an end user perspective Connect Compilations will be quietly integrated into the search and browse facilities on connect. For publishers the changes are more marked, a whole set of administration tools have been introduced.
To provide powerful administration tools we've increased our adoption of client side plugins (based on Jquery) and paradigms like AJAX. Both have been on the list of 'must have' technical buzz words for a some time, but we've taken care only to employ them where there is tangible benefit. Most significant is the introduction of semantic technologies; an RDF triple store for data, SPARQL to query it, Jena and our own framework to represent data to the application.
One may well ask what immediate benefit does semantic technology bring, beyond exciting programmers and web luminaries? The first benefit we'll see on ingentaconnect is tighter integration, both inside the site and with the wider web. RDF enables us to make assertions about resources (like articles, authors and references) without imposing constraints on the assertions made, or how they will be used. Crucially we can use the assertions to draw conclusions, or inferences, to fill in gaps, and really 'understand' the data. All of this is achieved with little redundancy or repetition. The factors combine to produce a store on which services to cater for varying requirements and perspectives can readily be built.
The benefits I've mentioned thus far could of course be realised with a relational database, but we're laying our new foundations at present, and more will grow out them.
In down to earth speak, all this means ingentaconnect, and close relation pub2web, will increasingly provide accurate linking, interesting ways to splice together content and, as Connect Compilations demonstrates, put control into the hands of online Publishers.
Connect Compilations enable publishers to assemble 'virtual' publications from their existing content on connect. Compilations are given titles, descriptions, links and logos such that they look similar to conventional publications. They may be organised in familiar serial and monograph formats. At ingentaconnect Compilations may be purchased and subscribed to in the same way as other publications. Crucially the publisher has control over the Compilation, it is available to amend and augment whenever they please.
From an end user perspective Connect Compilations will be quietly integrated into the search and browse facilities on connect. For publishers the changes are more marked, a whole set of administration tools have been introduced.
To provide powerful administration tools we've increased our adoption of client side plugins (based on Jquery) and paradigms like AJAX. Both have been on the list of 'must have' technical buzz words for a some time, but we've taken care only to employ them where there is tangible benefit. Most significant is the introduction of semantic technologies; an RDF triple store for data, SPARQL to query it, Jena and our own framework to represent data to the application.
One may well ask what immediate benefit does semantic technology bring, beyond exciting programmers and web luminaries? The first benefit we'll see on ingentaconnect is tighter integration, both inside the site and with the wider web. RDF enables us to make assertions about resources (like articles, authors and references) without imposing constraints on the assertions made, or how they will be used. Crucially we can use the assertions to draw conclusions, or inferences, to fill in gaps, and really 'understand' the data. All of this is achieved with little redundancy or repetition. The factors combine to produce a store on which services to cater for varying requirements and perspectives can readily be built.
The benefits I've mentioned thus far could of course be realised with a relational database, but we're laying our new foundations at present, and more will grow out them.
In down to earth speak, all this means ingentaconnect, and close relation pub2web, will increasingly provide accurate linking, interesting ways to splice together content and, as Connect Compilations demonstrates, put control into the hands of online Publishers.
Labels: connect compilations, ingentaconnect, pub2web, publishing, publishing technology, semantic, technology
posted by John Clapham at 8:55 AM
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The 4+1 Architecture
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
In an earlier post on the Scrum development process, I outlined why I felt a lightweight agile process was a good choice for the IngentaConnect engineering team. This set me thinking that the way we express our architecture is similarly minimal, with many of the same desirable features, such as ease of adoption and consideration of needs outside the engineering team. However, while Scrum is very much in the public eye and receives ample press, the architectural model we use, Kruchten's 4+1 View, doesn't seem to have had its fair share of the limelight.
The 4+1 view was designed by Philippe Kruchten, and like Scrum one of its guiding principles was to address the needs not just of one specific group, in this case software architects, but all the people with a vested interest in the work. Krutchen describes these folk as stakeholders. These are the developers who will write software, the integrators who will manage servers, the project managers and the product clients. The concepts in 4+1 aren't all new, but they are a unique blend. The UML offers a smorgasbord of diagrams and documents to express an architecture, Krutchen's model distils the multiple representations into just four core models, or views, reinforced by a suite of worked examples or user scenarios.
The logical view is concerned with user features, services and functional requirements. The view illustrates key concepts, or abstractions; these become the software building blocks that will be needed to deliver features.
The development view, is focused on implementation, and the organization of the software. This includes grouping of code into easily managed units, determining functional layers and the interfaces between them.
The physical view illustrates where software components are actually deployed (in simple terms which machines they run on) and considers communications between software services. It is intended for system engineers and integrators, and is likely to present a number of variations tailored to different needs, for example test systems and production systems.
The process view takes abstractions from the logical view and considers how they will behave when executed, including issues like synchronisation and concurrency. This is achieved by breaking each process into tasks whose interactions may be more readily examined.
I've mentioned the four views, what about the +1? The plus one element is a set of user scenarios, or use cases. Although as vital as the views, they are denoted by '+1' because the model is already complete without them, there should be no new architectural information contained therein. The plus one element does however play a crucial role. It illustrates and communicates the architecture, concrete examples reinforce the modelling concepts in the views, and for those not familiar with modelling diagrams they provide an idea of what the architecture can achieve. User scenarios also serve to test and verify the model; working through a realistic set of interactions can expose new concepts, and generate confidence in those already identified.
So that’s 4+1 in a (rather small) nutshell, but what does is it bring to Ingenta’s technical products such as pub2web? The value of software architecture has parallels to the value of building architecture. It provides a vision of what is being built, defining boundaries, layout and interactions. The product shape is described even though the nuts and bolts aren’t. Despite this, the architecture provides enough detail to drive component design and implementation. The discipline of 4+1 ensures that non functional requirements such as scalability and fault tolerance are considered from the outset. In short; good architecture answers questions the architects did and, crucially didn’t, expect to be asked.
The 4+1 view was designed by Philippe Kruchten, and like Scrum one of its guiding principles was to address the needs not just of one specific group, in this case software architects, but all the people with a vested interest in the work. Krutchen describes these folk as stakeholders. These are the developers who will write software, the integrators who will manage servers, the project managers and the product clients. The concepts in 4+1 aren't all new, but they are a unique blend. The UML offers a smorgasbord of diagrams and documents to express an architecture, Krutchen's model distils the multiple representations into just four core models, or views, reinforced by a suite of worked examples or user scenarios.
The logical view is concerned with user features, services and functional requirements. The view illustrates key concepts, or abstractions; these become the software building blocks that will be needed to deliver features.
The development view, is focused on implementation, and the organization of the software. This includes grouping of code into easily managed units, determining functional layers and the interfaces between them.
The physical view illustrates where software components are actually deployed (in simple terms which machines they run on) and considers communications between software services. It is intended for system engineers and integrators, and is likely to present a number of variations tailored to different needs, for example test systems and production systems.
The process view takes abstractions from the logical view and considers how they will behave when executed, including issues like synchronisation and concurrency. This is achieved by breaking each process into tasks whose interactions may be more readily examined.
I've mentioned the four views, what about the +1? The plus one element is a set of user scenarios, or use cases. Although as vital as the views, they are denoted by '+1' because the model is already complete without them, there should be no new architectural information contained therein. The plus one element does however play a crucial role. It illustrates and communicates the architecture, concrete examples reinforce the modelling concepts in the views, and for those not familiar with modelling diagrams they provide an idea of what the architecture can achieve. User scenarios also serve to test and verify the model; working through a realistic set of interactions can expose new concepts, and generate confidence in those already identified.
So that’s 4+1 in a (rather small) nutshell, but what does is it bring to Ingenta’s technical products such as pub2web? The value of software architecture has parallels to the value of building architecture. It provides a vision of what is being built, defining boundaries, layout and interactions. The product shape is described even though the nuts and bolts aren’t. Despite this, the architecture provides enough detail to drive component design and implementation. The discipline of 4+1 ensures that non functional requirements such as scalability and fault tolerance are considered from the outset. In short; good architecture answers questions the architects did and, crucially didn’t, expect to be asked.
Labels: 4+1, architecture, ingenta, ingentaconnect, pub2web, publishing technology, software
posted by John Clapham at 2:01 PM
| 0 comments
Once more unto the Scrum....
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
The engineers behind ingenta connect are about to launch into the second iteration of the development which will deliver Connect Compilations. Connect Compilations give publishers the ability to create "virtual" online journals containing articles from any of their publications on ingentaconnect.
Connect Compilations are being developed using an agile development methodology called Scrum. Scrum is a relatively new to us, and so I wanted to share our experiences with it. Prior to the adoption of Scrum we used the best parts of XP and agile methodologies, but did not tie them together formally with an off the shelf process.
What is agile?
Agile development methods are distinguished from other methodologies by a number of traits, but unusually for the software business the name 'agile' is quite expressive. The freeDictionary defines agile thus:
“Characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement; nimble.”
The lightness and nimble parts of the definition are crucial. Agile methodologies aim to provide development teams a way to react to, or even embrace, change in a rapid but controlled fashion. In other words they need to remain nimble, such that when a change occurs development does not just stop. This is achieved by a tight cycle of software releases, customer review, and revision. This cycle is termed an iteration.
Lightness is another desirable attribute of an agile process: lightness referring to the weight, or effort, needed to adopt and use a process. I wouldn’t recommend this, but if you were to print out the scrum process and rational unified process documentation and put the piles of paper side by side, you’d get a another perspective on agile’s lightness. In general engineers just want to get stuck into the technical elements of a project, and the business would rather they were doing just that, bringing a rapid return on investment, rather than spending long periods learning and interpreting process.
What is different about scrum?
Scrum uses common agile principles, such as continuous integration, short iterations and close customer liaison. It distinguishes itself through a tight integration of development and project management practice.
Scrum Terminology
Like all good paradigms Scrum is overflowing with jargon and 'in jokes', some of the key terms needed to back the concepts include:
Why is Scrum a good fit?
So why did we choose scrum from the plethora of processes available? For one thing it was close to what we were doing, or had recognised a need to do. It fits well with a rapidly changing business, and a dynamic team structure. Scrum also works well for both the engineering teams – who are able to concentrate on technical aspects - and the business who are able to closely monitor progress.
Why is the second iteration is important?
Entering the second iteration is a crucial milestone, but it was by no means guaranteed that we would reach it; to get this far scrum had to ‘make the grade’. It had to work for engineers and for their managers. The second iteration is also crucial because it represents and evolutionary step, it draws on positive and negative experiences in the first iteration, promoting the former and reducing the later. The first iteration is partly a learning exercise. The second iteration is where we start to see the true value of the process, and in turn that value should be born out when Connect Compilations are released.
Our foray into Scrum has been supported by frequent reference to the book ‘Agile Software Development With Scrum’. I’d recommend it to anyone considering Scrum. Process documentation is generally a dry subject but the authors manage to make it quite readable.
Connect Compilations are being developed using an agile development methodology called Scrum. Scrum is a relatively new to us, and so I wanted to share our experiences with it. Prior to the adoption of Scrum we used the best parts of XP and agile methodologies, but did not tie them together formally with an off the shelf process.
What is agile?
Agile development methods are distinguished from other methodologies by a number of traits, but unusually for the software business the name 'agile' is quite expressive. The freeDictionary defines agile thus:
“Characterized by quickness, lightness, and ease of movement; nimble.”
The lightness and nimble parts of the definition are crucial. Agile methodologies aim to provide development teams a way to react to, or even embrace, change in a rapid but controlled fashion. In other words they need to remain nimble, such that when a change occurs development does not just stop. This is achieved by a tight cycle of software releases, customer review, and revision. This cycle is termed an iteration.
Lightness is another desirable attribute of an agile process: lightness referring to the weight, or effort, needed to adopt and use a process. I wouldn’t recommend this, but if you were to print out the scrum process and rational unified process documentation and put the piles of paper side by side, you’d get a another perspective on agile’s lightness. In general engineers just want to get stuck into the technical elements of a project, and the business would rather they were doing just that, bringing a rapid return on investment, rather than spending long periods learning and interpreting process.
What is different about scrum?
Scrum uses common agile principles, such as continuous integration, short iterations and close customer liaison. It distinguishes itself through a tight integration of development and project management practice.
- Empirical Management – Rather than trying to steer development according to a long-term plan, progress is tracked, observations are taken and adjustments made accordingly.
- Self Organised Teams – Although teams are assembled from a selection of people who are likely to play certain roles (developer, tester, leader, architect and such like) the members are expected to organise themselves, rather like the skunkworks concept.
- Focused Teams – Scrum demands that the development team are allowed to focus on their goals almost exclusively.
- Team Buy In – The development team create the estimates, and agree the goals they can reach in the time given. This fosters commitment to the project’s goals.
- Fixed Time – The time element of the development is fixed. The team aims to deliver against its goals by an agreed date. The date cannot slip, bringing it sharply into focus.
- Prioritised Goals – The team’s goals are listed in a ‘sprint backlog’, the list is prioritised, with an estimated duration associated with each task. There is an overriding goal to create a usable product at the end of each sprint.
Scrum Terminology
Like all good paradigms Scrum is overflowing with jargon and 'in jokes', some of the key terms needed to back the concepts include:
- Scrum Master – The scrum master is responsible for ensuring the team and the clients play by the rules of Scrum. A crucial part of this role is managing demands on the development team such that they can focus exclusively on the sprint goals.
- Sprint – A sprint is the fixed time the team have to achieve their goals. As the name implies it’s a period of intense activity with a clear finish time.
- Sprint Backlog – The prioritised list of goals is termed a backlog, at the start of the project the team can see what they need to achieve in the sprint and how long they have to do so. It is detailed; no task is longer than 14 hours. The backlog is updated daily, so any interested party may accurately track progress.
- Product Backlog - The sprint backlog is derived from a larger master list – the Product Backlog, this is a continually updated list of prioritised work, in our case encompassing the whole of the ingentaconnect site.
Why is Scrum a good fit?
So why did we choose scrum from the plethora of processes available? For one thing it was close to what we were doing, or had recognised a need to do. It fits well with a rapidly changing business, and a dynamic team structure. Scrum also works well for both the engineering teams – who are able to concentrate on technical aspects - and the business who are able to closely monitor progress.
Why is the second iteration is important?
Entering the second iteration is a crucial milestone, but it was by no means guaranteed that we would reach it; to get this far scrum had to ‘make the grade’. It had to work for engineers and for their managers. The second iteration is also crucial because it represents and evolutionary step, it draws on positive and negative experiences in the first iteration, promoting the former and reducing the later. The first iteration is partly a learning exercise. The second iteration is where we start to see the true value of the process, and in turn that value should be born out when Connect Compilations are released.
Our foray into Scrum has been supported by frequent reference to the book ‘Agile Software Development With Scrum’. I’d recommend it to anyone considering Scrum. Process documentation is generally a dry subject but the authors manage to make it quite readable.
Labels: agile, development methodology, ingentaconnect, publishing technology, scrum
posted by John Clapham at 4:23 PM
| 0 comments
Check out our new look!
Thursday, June 12, 2008
IngentaConnect has had a facelift. We've just rolled out a new design that gives the site an altogether cleaner, fresher and more modern look and feel. We've not moved any buttons or changed any of the navigation, so you'll find that everything is where you expect it to be and works just as it previously did.
We hope that you enjoy the new design - if you have any feedback please do let us know.
We hope that you enjoy the new design - if you have any feedback please do let us know.
Labels: ingentaconnect
posted by Kirsty Meddings at 9:14 AM
| 3 comments
BBC Monitoring is go!
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Just a quick post to let you know that we have this week launched the new BBC Monitoring website, bbcmonitoringlibrary.com. Getting to this point has been a truly collaborative effort across all of our parent company's three divisions (Ingenta, PCG and VISTA) so it's an exciting week for us all. The site is a comprehensive resource of open source intelligence relating to global current affairs - its content is gathered from over 3000 old and new media sources in over 150 countries. It's been specifically designed to meet the needs of the academic and institutional markets, to whom we are now offering free trials of its content. So, if you'd like a free trial of a fully searchable digital current affairs resource, please contact bbcmonitoringlibrary@pcgplus.com.
Labels: bbc, bbc monitoring, current affairs, intelligence
posted by Charlie Rapple at 9:53 AM
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