HUBzero Modifications and Implementation

Constellation E: Monday, October 31, 11:15AM – 12:00PM

The HUBzero (http://hubzero.org) framework is an open-source software package originally developed under NSF funding at Purdue University for the nanohub.org implementation. The HUBzero version is presently deployed at 25 sites, including large-scale scientific projects such as the NEES Network for Earthquake Engineering Simulation and digital library projects such as Bamboo and Ethics CORE (Collaborative Online Resource Environment). This presentation will discuss modifications made at the University of Illinois to utilize the software as a platform for the Ethics CORE Digital Library (http://nationalethicscenter.org), part of a 5-year, $5 million NSF project to create an online resource center that develops, compiles, and maintains resources related to ethics in science, mathematics, and engineering. The project is charged with gathering existing information, generating new knowledge, and creating interactive tools that will help scientists and engineers incorporate ethical issues and reasoning into their pedagogy and research.

Project-specific modifications to the software include incorporation with several other open-source technologies, including the Moodle course management system, the eXtensible Text Framework (XTF) digital collections software, and homegrown search & discovery tools. The Illinois team has also integrated a comprehensive research literature search component, which provides users with access to the published literature available through Elsevier’s Scopus database and through several heterogeneous institutional ethics collections. Much of this process has involved the re-purposing of legacy .NET scripts to act as API’s to communicate with HUBzero’s LAMP framework.

In addition to hosting a digital collection of ethics publications and learning objects, Ethics CORE provides the capability of distributing material in several different contexts. Users are able to write blogs, collaboratively edit documents for publication, and collaboratively review material submitted to the site. The project will host an electronic journal and an interactive encyclopedia. This presentation will discuss the challenges of developing tools for scholars, students & professionals who engage in various aspects of scholarly publishing (collaborative authorship, editing, and peer review) within a single digital library platform.

Session Leader

William Mischo (University of Illinois)