Information Portals and Learning Communities: An analysis of the
Portal GPA’s interaction and communication processes
Cristina Jasbinschek Haguenauer Marcus Vinicius Mussi Francisco Cordeiro Filho
Laboratório de Pesquisa em Tecnologias da Informação e da Comunicação Escola de Comunicação - Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
www.latec.ufrj.br – e-mail: contato@latec.ufrj.br
Abstract
This paper reports a research developed in the Information and Communication Technologies Research Laboratory of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro - LATEC/UFRJ (www.latec.ufrj.br) about the performance of the Joomla tool to create information portals, analyzed from the experience of creation of the Environmental Liability Management - Portal – “Portal GPA”.
Keywords: information portals, virtual communities, information and communication technology.
Introduction
This research is part of a larger project, developed by the team of the Research Laboratory for Information and Communication Technologies - LATEC / UFRJ, since 2001. It has already resulted in several papers already published (Haguenauer 2007,
2008, 2009), and Information Portals developed (http://www.latec.ufrj.br/portaisdeinformacao.htm).
The Portal GPA was build to support the learning and practice community formed by professionals in service (graduated or technician professionals), involved with the theme Environmental Liability Management and geographically spread all over the country.
The aim of this research is the identification of potentialities and limitations, for the creation of information portals, based on Joomla’s Plattform. In order to reach this aim we formulated the following questions: (1) what are the main difficulties in deployment and implementation of the portal?; (2) what are the potentialities and limitations of the communication and interaction tools provided by the Joomla platform?
To lead this research it was used the Research-Action methodology, which is defined by Thiollent (1997) as: "A kind of social research with empirical base that is designed and held in close association with an action or the resolution of a collective problem and in which researchers and representative participants of the situation or problem are involved in a cooperative or participatory ay” (Thiollent, 1997).
Information Portals
Portal means ‘Gateway’. In this sense an electronic Portal becomes a ‘Gateway’ to information, communities, enterprises, organisations, or processes.” (Hyslop e Marketing, 2005:2-3.
Portals can be classified according to their use’s context, or according its function. According the context of use portals care classified by Dias (2001) as public and corporate. According to Dias, the public portals, also called Internet portals, web or consumers, are intended to attract the largest number of users in general, while the corporate portal has the purpose of making and provide information in a specific context of business.
Murray conceptualizes information portal as the one capable of organizing large collections of content, connecting people to information (Murray, cited by Dias 2001: 6). In relation to its function, Murray classifies portals into four types: information portals themselves, the collaborative portals (which provide specific tools for cooperative processing, coordinating information from different sources, specialized portals that connect people according interests and experience, and knowledge portals that compile all the characteristics of the above.
"Information portals are Web 2.0 products, developed from specialized platforms , the Content Management Systems (CMS) capable of aggregating communities of users interested on particular subjects or activities. (Haguenauer et al, 2008:4. Translated by the authors)
Virtual Learning Communities
Howard Rheingold (1994) defines virtual communities as "social aggregates encountered in the network, when the actors in a debate lead in enough number and feeling to form webs of personal relationships in the cyberspace. Rheingold (1994:18).
Still according to Rheingold (1994), for such communities remain alive is necessary that its members carry out exchanges. The study of these exchange relationships is what leads to the understanding of how the communication of people is being influenced by new technologies.
Vilches (2003) defines virtual communities as closed networks, sufficient, self-regulated and governed by the interdependence of interests and affinities. (Vilches 2003: 52).
While the Rheingold’s proposal focuses on elements as quantity and feelings necessary to explain virtual communities, Vilches minds on perceiving the
relationships of users of such communities to define them. However, in bothconcepts one can perceive the feeling of belonging to the group and a project in common. According to Lévy (2001), when browsing the Internet there are two assumptions: first, he called the "hunting", the User searches for specific information and wants to find them as quickly as possible, while the second, which he calls "harvesting", the User is vaguely interested in one subject, and thus may take other paths, going from site to site,from link to link, "reaping" what he needs.
However, Lévy says, "even if we can’t obtain the information we’re looking for directly in the Internet, wemay be able to locate people or organizations that can help us find it. (Lévy2001:70).
Among the various virtual communities that arise, for example, in discussion forums, relationship sites and information portals, we find them focused on online learning. Through their communication and information devices (forums, websites, etc.), virtual communities of learning become enviroment that provide collective and collaborative learning.
"The multiple and incessant changes that occur in any virtual community are reflected in uncounted and diverse learning for its members [...] Three possibilities, however, are important on communities where there are educational purposes: Interaction, cooperation and collaboration on-line. (Kenski 2004:109)
Content Management Systems (CMS)
The Content Management Systems (CMS) or Content Management Systems (CMS) are software used for the construction and management of Information Portals. These platforms can be proprietary (paid) or based on free software.
The CMS used to manage the collection, organization and publication of information using tools that do not require knowledge of programming code, facilitating thus, their
handling. Haguenauer, et al (2008) call attention to the adoption of criteria on the production of content:
"The challenges associated with producing and publishing content on web require the use of a set of factors,methodologies and strategies that transcend the simple sphere of software (CMS), such as information architecture, the adequacy of language to the target audience, the creation of viable strategies for interaction in terms of technological and financial. "(Haguenauer et al 2008:3).
On the defining of the information architecture of the portal one should include facility for the user to find information so he doesn’t get lost into the portal and don’t give up his search. On the organization of the contents of portal, one must care the importance of the issue for the target audience.
Batista (2008) highlights the importance of the organization of the content on websites:
"A critical factor for the success of any website is the quality of information available on it (...). Its content should be precise, updated, intuitive, and well organized to be used by thetarget audience."(Batista, 2008)
About the web browsing, one must create portals where the user can navigate in an intuitive way, without getting lost, without interruptions and always finding ways to return. About the design of the interface elements one should care the ease of understanding, by the User, of the adopted codes and signals. The simpler the sign is, the faster the understanding of the user and less effort expended by him.
Traditionally, the development of information portals demands a diverse and experienced professionals team such as designers, programmers, systems analysts and security experts on the web, beyond the authors andcontent editors.
The CMS based on platforms facilitates the process of creation of information portals, eliminating the concern with tasks such as programming, security and upgrade versions making the process accessible to a team less costly and less specialized.
Joomla
Joomla is a free software and a content management platform on web. For Being a free software, Jommla not only reduces costs with development and maintenance team, but also has the contribution of a surprising amount of people around the world, dedicated to its improvement. In addition to Joomla there are other CMS, equally popular, such as Plone, PhpNuke, Xoops, TYPO3, Drupal and Mambo, among others.
If, on the one hand, adopting the Joomla as CMS for the project of a portal, (virgula?) you have advantages as low cost, ease on use and security, on the other hand, limitations are found in the format of presentation of the content, on thequantity and on the design of interactive tools, and various bugs that are still waiting for solutions from the development community.
Content management in Joomla can be done in two ways: by main page (front end) or from the area of administration (back end). On first way, more simple and direct, but limited, authorized users create and edit content from the login on the main page (Figure 1). The second way of management, more complete, is made through the administrative area (Figure 2).
Figure 1: Content editing menu accessed through the main page.
Figure 2: Content edition menu accessed through the administration area.
The news edit menu allows the diagramming of texts from very familiar functionalities to common users, similar to functionalities found in common text editors such as Microsoft Word, for example.
The menu for content editing, accessed by the administration section, allows to manage advanced functions, such as the creation of categories of information, the creation of new menus or even new sections in the existing menus, the definition of the articles that figure on the homepage, in addition to the allocation of different profiles to the portal users (Figure 3), such as Registered, Author, Writer, Editor, Manager, Administrator, Super Administrator.
Figure 3: Groups of portal users .
Each group of users has a specific permission to access and control functions of the portal. The groups are divided into two categories: Website Public,which includes the profiles: registered, author, editor and publisher, who have access only through the front end and have distinct and growing authorities about the content; and the Administration Public, consisting of manager, administrator and super-administrator, who have access not only to the front end, but also to the back end, andhave distinct licenses, and growing on the functions of the portal. The hierarchy of access is from the registered user, which has less authorityover the content, restricted access to the content, printing and sending of comments about specific news, and send contributions by e-mail to the super administrator, who controls all functions of the portal, and assign roles tousers.
The GPA Portal
The portal of Environmental Liability Management (Portal GPA), available at http://www.latec.ufrj.br/gestaoambiental (Figure 4), aims to provide support to the knowledge community made up of professionals involved with the theme,as much as complement the learning process initiated on training courses in the area of Environment, developed by LATEC / UFRJ, in partnership with the Polytechnic School of UFRJ.
According to Lohmann and Machado (2008):
"The main page of a website should be considered as its 'visiting card'. It’s function of this section calls the attention of the surfer to the point of making him to want to visit the sections of the portal and return to visit him other times. "(Lohmann and Machado, 2008:7).
On the horizontal menu, at the top of the homepage, are the sections whose contents are static, that is, fixed: Presentation, About Us, Contact Us, Editorial, Newsletter, and a search toolcontained in the section Search (Figure 5).
Figure 4: Homepage of the GPA portal: http://www.latec. ufrj.br/gestaoambiental.
Figure 5: Menu of static contents.
In the presentation are contained information about the program of training in Environmental Liabilities Management and its various actions (courses, Virtual Learning Environment, contact and registration form, in the section About us presents the LATEC / UFRJ, responsible for the portal; at Contact Us are available the telephone and e-mail for those who wish additional information about the Training Program, in the Editorial section is presented the journal Environmental Liability Management, the team responsible for the journal and the rules for submission of articles, in the Newsletter section the visitor can make his registration and receive a regular electronic newsletter, containing the latest news portal, and in the Search section is possible to access asearch tool within the portal.
The Main Menu displays the sections of dynamic content, that is, those updated periodically, creating growing database. The sections available in the Main Menu are: Home, News, GPA journal, Publications, Virtual Library, Legislation, Courses, Glossary, Websites and Questions (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Main Menu.
The Main Menu button gives access to the home page of the portal, which contains the highlight content, defined by the management team of the portal; in the section News are available relevant news related to the theme of the portal; in the section Journal GPA are available articles produced by experts in the field of Liabilities Management; the Publications section provides information on books and journals available for purchase or subscription, the Virtual Library section brings selected and available articles for download on the Internet; the Legislation section brings resolutions, rules and provisions related to the theme of the portal; the Courses sectionpresents information about the courses offered about the Training Programin Management of Environmental Liabilities, the Glossary section presents the meaning of technical terms; the Websites section provides links to websites recommended; the FAQ section brings a compilation of questionssent by users of the portal.
The bottom of the portal brings a list with the latest news published on the portal and with the latest news read (Figure 7), to guide the reader quickly to the news of the
Figure 7: List with the latest and most read news.
Portal Team
The deployment team of the portal with the participation of a system analyst is responsible for tasks of creating and administering of the database, updates of versions and system security. At this stage, was also needed the participation of a Designer, capable of performing the necessary adjustments to the formatting and adaptation of the lay out of the platform.
In the implementation phase of the portal was involved the team of content production, which was a coordinator (or editor), a researcher of Internet content and a producer of content (interviews). The services of the Systems Analyst were also required during the implementation of the portal, making the maintenance of the database (backup, security and updates). The role of the designer at that stage was just punctual to make adjustments and adaptations to lay out, after the updates of the versions of the system (about once every 6 months). The diagramming of the news is made by the authors themselves.
Analysis of Communication and Interaction Tools
The Joomla platform and the design adopted enable, together, two ways of interactions: one with the content and another with the portal team. Some examples
of different possibilities of interaction with the content are the Latest News device, the Most Read device and the Polls device. Some examples of opportunities interaction between staff and users are: the FAQ section, where the user is encouraged to submit questions by e-mail, the Contact Us section, whichprovides phone and e-mail of the team and Newsletter section, where the team sends, periodically, a summary of the main news of the portal.
The Joomla platform offers some additional features of interaction as Article Rating, Name of Authors, Date and Time of Creation, Date and Time of Modification, PDF, Print and E-mail of the Author (figure 8). These devices were not selected in the design of the GPA portal, because it was estimated that the gain in terms of interactivity would not be significant, given the visual pollution that would cause and
because the extra work that would lead to the production team of the portal.
Figure 8: Functionalities of the platform not used on the design ofportal.
In our evaluation, some functionalities of the platform do not apply to the profile of the
portal, such as the date of publication and modification of subjects. These functionalities would be most useful in a portal centred on updates and news, as a daily or weekly newspaper, for example, than a portal of content library type, which becomes more valuable as its content collection is increasing.
About the PDF and print icons, we decided to make them available only in cases of technical articles and interviews produced by the team, this way they enhance the content produced by the portal staff.
Final Considerations
Returning to the research questions presented earlier in this article, you can have a clearer and wide comprehension of the achievements in this phase of the research:
What are the main difficulties in deployment andimplementation of the portal? The Joomla platform is easy to deploy and administrate and does not require a very large team, or super specialized. However, this feature can suggest an erroneous conclusion that free software does not involve costs. The costs with the maintenance of the platform, with systems analyst and designer, are constant and significant, especially for a research team as the LATEC / UFRJ, for example, that depends on government resources or partnershipswith companies to develop research.
At the same time, the Joomla platform has important limiting features, in relation to the tools available and the existence of bugs in the operation of the system, which depend on the will of the communitydevelopers of the platform to be solved.
About the production of content, the platform has proved to be very flexible and accessible to a variety of profiles of collaborators, because of its easy handling and understanding. However, an expectation that has not been reached yet is the creation of strategies to promote involvement of the users of the community on the production of content for the portal. This device would make the portalmore attractive and appropriate to the target audience, as well as cause significantly lower costs of producing content.
What are the strengths and limitations of communication and interaction tools provided by Joomla platform?
A preliminary analysis of the final configuration of the portal framework points to a failure and a deficiency of the channels of communication with the community users. Currently, our team is committed to identifying more attractive alternatives for interactivity, such as the incorporation of plugins of discussion forums. However, based on observation of behaviour of the user of community of the portal itself and other similar portals, we believe that the most effective strategies do not depend on tools of the platform, but on the establishment of complementary interaction strategies, based for example on the creation of highlights news or on the Newsletter tool, in order to mobilize the community of users to send their contributions to the portal.
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Authors:
Cristina Jasbinschek Haguenauer
Graduate in Civil Engineering from the State University of Rio de Janeiro (1985), Master in Civil Engineering from the Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (1988) and Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (1997). Associate Professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, working in teaching, research and consultancy in the field of Information and Communication Technologies, with focus on Distance Education, Professional Training, Continued Education, Hypermedia, Games, Virtual Learning Environments, Information Portals and Virtual Reality.
Marcus Vinícius Freitas Mussi
Full degree Literature, Linguistic and Languages (Portuguese) from the State University of Bahia (UNEB), and full degree Literature, Linguistic and Languages (English) from Veiga de Almeida University (UVA). He has specialization degree in English by the Integrated Faculties of Jacarepaguá-RJ (FIJ). He has experience on teaching at primary, secondary, pre-university course, University, language course; administrative and pedagogical coordination in language courses, and translation. Currently, teacher at State University of Bahia, associate researcher at The Information and The Communication Technologies Research Laboratory from Communication School / UFRJ (LATEC), and attending – as scholarship - degree of Applied Linguistics Master at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Francisco Cordeiro Filho
Ph.D. in Brazilian Education from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro UFRJ (1992), Master in Education from UFRJ (1983), graduate in Physics from UFRJ (1967). Associate Professor from UFRJ. Coordinates the group of Environmental Education and Science Teaching (GEA / UFRJ) and The Information and Communication Technologies Research Laboratory (LATEC / UFRJ). He develops researches which involves teacher training, Pedagogical Theories and Practices, and Theories and Methods of Science Teaching and Environmental Education.
