Re: Sakai Fedora Tool

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On 4/19/06 11:51 AM, Beth Kirschner wrote:
>     Do you want to export _all_ content from Sakai (e.g. chats,  
> schedules, assignments, ...), or simply the content in Resources?  

Two parts of an answer to your question.  The first part is that we're
not thinking of "export" -- more like "supplant".  The line of reasoning
is like this:  learning objects, assignments, chat records, etc. are all
digital objects (if we define a "digital object" to mean zero or more
datastreams with associated descriptive metadata).  Those digital
objects can be used in more than one context -- for instance:

* an article published through a peer-review electronic interface
using the same underlying Fedora repository is visible as a
resource to Sakai users

* a dataset added to a community's institutional repository
interface using the same underlying Fedora repository is visible
as a resource to Sakai users

* a paper submitted as part of an assignment can be used as part
of an ePortfolio (one outside of a Sakai-embedded OSP, of course)

This line of reasoning also helps answer the second part, which is any
digital object that could be repurposed we want to put directly into the
Fedora repository.  (See "On the Need for a General Purpose Digital
Object Repository" http://dltj.org/2006/01/general-purpose-repository/
for a more in-depth discussion.)

> We've been working on a proof-of-principle sakai-fedora-tool. that  
> allows users to browse, search and edit a Fedora Repository from  
> within Sakai. The authentication/authorization between Sakai and  
> Fedora would be shared, as described in the "Fedora Authorization  
> with XACML Policy Enforcement" (which references OhioLINK's  
> Shibboleth servlet filter in http://www.fedora.info/download/2.1/ 
> userdocs/server/security/AuthorizationXACML.htm#ATTR3).

That is one of the key points of friction...n-tier "delegated" access
management with Shibboleth.  It is expected to be addressed in version
2.2 of Shib.

> I wasn't thinking of using Shibboleth, but using the Sakai user
> directory in place of the Tomcat-user attributes that Fedora uses by
> default.

I think there would still need to be another login step, for although
the user database itself can be shared the authentication realms are
quite different.  (That is where an n-tier Shibboleth will come in very
handy...)

>     The sakai-fedora-tool is not well documented at this point, but  
> the idea is to support a flexible data model (targeted for eResearch)  
> defined by using XML Schema Files. I've attached a screenshot. Feel  
> free to contact me offline if you want to talk about this some more.  
> This might be an alternative that is feasible in your proposed  
> timeframe.

I'd very much like to see your team's work.  Perhaps we could arrange a
conference call or a video conference off-list?


Peter
- --
Peter Murray                       http://www.pandc.org/peter/work/
Assistant Director, Multimedia Systems  tel:+1-614-728-3600;ext=338
OhioLINK: the Ohio Library and Information Network   Columbus, Ohio
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