Request: GCC Wiki/Blog implementation request

Date:  April 26, 2006

Requestors:  John Kakritz; Karen Schwalm 

Current wiki location:  http://140.198.47.22:8080*   * http://wiki.gc.maricopa.edu:8080

Goal: To support collaborative creation of materials for technical documentation, communication, user support and instruction.    Many people see the potential of wikis; it makes sense to channel these efforts into a single, college-supported wiki application (Confluence) rather than having people developing in different applications hosted elsewhere.  A similar single blog application ([WordPress]) would support the use of blogs for both instruction and faculty support. 

Rationale:  The network re-design project is in need of a centralized location to work out design specifics and document the structure of the new network design.  Already the design specifics of the Active Directorey, Imaging and Workstation groups are located on the wiki.  Additional documentation is linked from other locations.  The Active Directory group has change control on the wiki.  Several faculty members and departments are also in need of a collaborative space.  Consolidating these activities in college-supported applications means that we can leverage our learning, support each other in our development, provide access and authentication through already-existing college services (Palette and MEMO accounts), tie into already-established messaging systems, and provide reliable backups through college processes.   Hosting  instructional activities and IT documentation on hosted servers is dangerous because we cannot guarantee security, privacy and reliability.  If not supported by the college, these uses might be spread across a variety of external systems. 

Customers:  The Network Redesign Project can build and maintain project documentation in such an environment.  The support person for the Student Help Desk would like to consolidate help files in a single wiki application.  This application will serve multiple users and uses.  One faculty member is already creating a wiki for use in his Spanish course; it may be developed further by students and other faculty in his department.  Another faculty member wants to create a store of technical tip sheets for her composition course. Several faculty want to build documentation for the [FacultyConnectionCenter].  A number of faculty have requested blog software to support group communication in courses.  These different uses could be supported by the same environments and tools.   Campus users working in the same environments could also help each other, even across employee groups.

Expected useful life: 3-5 years depending upon the ability to upgrade the software as new versions appear. 

Server OS:  Windows 2003 server or Linux

Supporting server applications:  *PHP 4.2 or greater
[MySQl] 4.1 or greater
The mod_rewrite Apache module

Backup/data retention period:  Daily backups; data should retained as long as the projects are being used.  Currently the database is being backed up daily, but there is no backup in place for the system.

Capacity requirements:  Because we have never created documentation or instructional materials in this environment, use and database size are unpredictable.  Currently the database backup is just under 3mb.

Performance requirements: 1gP4 or higher (2*2.4g Xeon recommended) 256 MB ram (512 recommended).  Concurrent use is probably low by comparison with other campus systems.

Availability requirements:  Reliability and availability is important, especially if this application is to be used for documentation of mission-critical college applications, help desk support, and instruction. 

Expected time frame for startup:  Immediately, the Network Redesign Project is underway, under time pressures and currently has no functional shared/collaborative space.  The faculty member developing materials for his Spanish course needs this application for student use for Summer I (May 30, 2006).  Other uses could be phased in over the next two months.  Student help desk, [FacultyConnectionCenter] and other instructional uses must be available for the beginning of Fall semester, 2006. 

Required change control to preserve system integrity:  A relatively well-designed structure and organization of spaces will be important to provide a framework to grow into.  Also, careful planning of account name formatting now will provide for easy integration with LDAP authentication later on.  Confluence, like other wikis, has built-in change control of documents. 

Security requirements/concerns:

Responsible person(s):  John Kakritz - system development; Karen Schwalm: administration, training and user support