Sakai 3 Groups Home Page

This is the Confluence space for collaborating on Groups functionality in Sakai 3

Introduction

We propose that, in accordance with the model of "Projects" described in the new Sakai Development Process that emerged out of the last Board retreat, the integration of expanded User and Group Management functionality with the K2 and 3akai code bases constitutes such a project.

The services and functionality to incorporate, create and manage different kinds of user groups in Sakai has not been, up until now, designed and built in a comprehensive, systemic fashion. Services have been awkwardly bolted on top of one another; complementary tools with important unique capabilities also overlap in functionality, failing to play well together; the very meaning of a "group" is inconsistent and unpredictable across Sakai. With the introduction of social networking as a key concept in Sakai 3.0, the problem of rationalizing the federation and management of multiple kinds of groups has become even more complex.

Problem Statement

Project Objectives

In brief, this project aims to deliver a coherent, yet flexible user and group membership management UX across a broad range of organizational possibilities both within and outside the site context:

institutionally defined and provisioned groups, including course rosters, cohorts etc.
non-institutionally defined groups via Open Social integration
user defined, non-provisioned Sakai groups
combinations of the above

Key Deliverables

UI for creating and adding groups and sub-groups
UI for adding, deleting and moving group memberships
UI for associating groups with sites
UI for finding groups
AuthZ to support appropriate levels of access to end user administrative functions
Any required mechanisms for bringing in external users and groups
Supporting system configuration options
Relevant UX Design Patterns for reusable chunks of UI regarding groups (i.e. searching (for groups, for people), selecting people...)

Design Goals

Quick access & group creation AND more complex group creation need to be supported
Group-centric rather than tool-centric
Feedback to users about what's happening all along the way
Easy/intuitive to use
Roles need to map to real world/how work gets done
Allow single person to have several roles across contexts
Don't make users leave their working context to create groups
Consistency across the application where it makes sense
Don't require users to understand roles (system roles)

Key assumptions

K2 and the 3akai UX are the foundations of the 3.0 release and the new work will build on the existing requirements and services they provide.
Groups can be defined and exist outside of the site context
User and Group data are available to Sakai via services provided by external enterprise systems. Sakai will consume that data to support native functionality when necessary, but will also expose external system functionality as widgets when possible. Sakai should aim to minimize duplication of SIS or enterprise identity management services and applications.
Requirements will be shared and coordinated with the Kuali Student project

Risks and dependencies

Sakai 2.X has the notion of group and section "awareness" within tools. While the primary focus of this project is the delivery of administrative user and group management capabilities, the aggregation and representation of groups will continue to be required in other Sakai functional areas, e.g., grading, assignments. The UX for managing users and group memberships would ideally proceed in parallel with these other as yet undefined projects so that its design and development is informed by their requirements.
Issues raised by this project may need to both inform and shape certain areas of K2 , e.g., user metadata and permissions, especially those associated with groups. The impact of the JCR hierarchy is an area for exploration.
The necessary technical and functional alignment outlined in the points above suggests a fairly wide degree of community and project coordination that may be in tension with making timely progress.