Cloudengine at SEDA 2011

CloudEngine: Creating networks for professional development and research Presentation Cloud: cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5937 Dr Nick Freear (n.d.freear@open.ac.uk) Rebecca Galley (r.galley@open.ac.uk) The Institute of Educational Technology, Open University, UK. #sedaconf16

What who FLOSS?
Free / libre / open-source software
“ Free as in speech, not as in beer”
“ Help thy neighbour”
GNU General Public License; MIT License; BSD License…
Mostly by professional developers, system administrators…
Day job or “spare time” or a mix, cf. Moodle, Redhat
RIP Dennis Ritchie – developer of C, co-dev of UNIX

What?
CloudEngine is an easy way to create a social web site - using 'Clouds' and 'Cloudscapes'
Ideal for events & discussion
CloudEngine is lightweight, fast & fully-featured
It's free & open source software , licensed under the GPL!
CloudEngine powers Cloudworks

Who?
Professor Grainne Conole Academic lead
Dr Juliette Culver Lead Cloudworks Developer
Rebecca Galley Evaluation, support and guidance
Dr Nick Freear Lead CloudEngine Developer, API, Internationalization
Richard Lovelock Direct messaging, admin interface, configuration
Stephen Turvey (Yep Design) Graphic design, Cloudworks and Aurora themes)
Martha Vasiliadou Translation (Greek) funded by the EU via the EUPT3 project

Features
Clouds, Cloudscapes
Direct messaging - NEW
Host & archive events - workshops etc.
Search, tags, user profiles, Cloudstreams
Favourite & follow
Embed video, slides, Twitter ... (oEmbed)
RSS feeds, API
Internationalized – currently English & Greek!
Admin: statistics, moderation
Accessible, extensible, themable

First concepts...

Design methodology ‘ the fluid, empathetic, dynamic, environment-responsive, future-orientated and solution-focused nature of design’. Kelly et al. (2008, p.5) Design-based research approach (DBR)

Object centred rather than person-centred in nature
juhansonin http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/2250554147/ “ The fallacy is to think that social networks are just made up of people. They're not; social networks consist of people who are connected by a shared object.” (Engestrom, 2005) Theoretical frameworks

Theoretical frameworks
Design framework based on sociality
juhansonin http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/2250554147/
The system needs to accommodate both the evolution of practices and the inclusion of newcomers
Individual identity is important so the system needs to support this
People are more likely to use software that resemble their daily routines, language and practices
Bouman et al. (2007)

Launched July 2009
Over 4500 registered users
Over 95,000 unique visitors (1000+ unique visitors/ week)
Core of regular users; active discussions; events…
Cloudworks...

15 min activity: Cloudquest
Cloudquest Cloud: http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5945
1. If you haven't already done so, create a Cloudworks account (you can view anything on the site, but to post comments or add anything you need an account) 2. You may wish to open your search in a new tab or page in your browser so that you can easily navigate back to this cloud 3. If you are new to Cloudworks you might like to take a look at our 'Using Cloudworks Cloudscape'. 4. Explore the site to find answers to the challenge questions Finally... Post answers to the questions on the activity Cloud Review and respond to the answers of others

Discourse-centred online ethnography
Evaluation strategy
“ a combination of systematic observation of online activities and interviews with online actors”.
(Androutsopoulos, 2008, p.1)
Data analysis
Observation
Interviews and surveys
Galley et al. 2011

Recent developments
More embeds: LAMS, Prezi, OU player ( Extends our use of oEmbed http://embed.open.ac.uk)
Search fixes/ usability enhance
HTML5 forms
Direct messaging

Search before…
Search bug
Usability “Very large page to scroll…”
Score/ relevance?

Search after…

HTML5 forms
Browser handles errors – usability, simplicity, consistency
type=email|url .. required, pattern ..
To do: more forms

Messaging

Roadmap
Embeds: CompendiumLD/ SVG…
Plugins: authentication, etc.
Upgrade to CodeIgniter 2
…
Project site – CloudEngine powered!
More internal/ external uses
Community, sustainability

Get involved
CloudEngine is a free and open source project and we very much encourage and appreciate any contributions.
Contribute feedback, publicity
Contribute documentation
Contribute code
Contribute translations
Ideas for integration
Get Cloud Engine…

Support and guidance...

Further reading...
Alevizou, P., Galley, R. and Conole, G., (2011) Collectivity, performance and self-representation: Analysing Cloudworks as a public space for networked learning and reflection in Exploring the Theory, Pedagogy and Practice of Networked Learning. Ed. Dirckinck-Holmfeld, L., Hodgson, V. and McConnell, D. London: Springer
Conole, Grainne (2010). Facilitating new forms of discourse for learning and teaching: harnessing the power of Web 2.0 practices. Open Learning , 25(2), pp. 141–151.
Conole, G. and Culver, J. (2009), The design of Cloudworks: applying social networking practice to foster the exchange of learning and teaching ideas and designs, special issue of CAL09, Computers and Education , doi:10.1016/j.compedu.2009.09.013
Galley, R., Conole, G. and Alevizou, P. (forthcoming) Community Indicators: A framework for observing and supporting community activity on Cloudworks Journal of Interactive Learning Environments

Presentation references
Bouman, W., Hoogenboom, T., Jansen, R., Schoondorp, M., de Bruin, B. and Huizing, A. (2007), The Realm of Sociality: Notes on the Design of Social Software , PrimaVera Working Paper Series, Amsterdam: Universiteit Van Amsterdam, [accessed 7/8/08] http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2176/Readings/bouman.pdf
Engeström, J. (2005). Why some social network services work and others don't - Or: the case for object-centered sociality . Zengestrom Blog, weblog posting, 13th April 2005. [accessed 19/11/09] http://www.zengestrom.com/blog/2005/04/why_some_social.html
Kelly, A. E., Baek, J. Y., Lesh, R. A., & Banna-Ritland, B. (2008). Enabling innovations in education and systematizing their impact. In A. E. Kelly, R. A. Lesh & J. Y. Baek (Eds.), Handbook of design research methods in education: innovations in science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning and teaching (pp. 3-18). New York and London: Routledge.

Thank you
Go to http://getcloudengine.org
Take the Cloudworks virtual field trip http://youtu.be/N0HjlyU8OAU
Discuss http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5100
Twitter @nfreear @Rebeccagalley
Email: cloudworks@open.ac.uk
This presentation is available for download from SlideShare via cloudworks.ac.uk/cloud/view/5937
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