Penn State Intercom......November 29, 2001

Penn State's Portal gives
its users control of the Web

By Tysen Kendig
and Doug Stanfield
Public Information/University Relations

These days, virtually every antique store, karate studio or psychic adviser has a Web site. But Penn State is now offering students -- and soon, faculty and staff -- a new tool to filter some of the clutter of today's World Wide Web and focus on bringing all the Penn State information they want and need to their desktop.

The new Penn State student portal (http://portal.psu.edu/) empowers users -- currently anyone with a Penn State access account -- to personalize and customize their Web content and display, letting them pick and choose the information that's most important to them. This portal project is the first of many steps aimed at enabling Web users to control an often bewildering volume of information.

"The portal allows us to address a fundamental challenge of the Web at Penn State," said Jim Leous, team leader for the portal project and manager of Unix systems and technical solutions of advanced information technologies at the Center for Academic Computing. "There is simply no way for one Web site design to fit everyone's needs. There is too much information to make that a practical consideration, and each individual has specific needs and goals that no Web developer can entirely anticipate. We now have technology good enough to allow us, for the first time, to empower people, to essentially just get out of their way."

The portal project complements the University's traditional home page -- http://www.psu.edu/ -- which will evolve into a "front door" primarily for external audiences. The home page will remain a place for prospective students, their parents and others to learn about the University, access services, search for people or departments, or gather information.

In fact, the core functions of the overall existing Web site will change little, giving the general public, and government, business and industry many ways to interact and work with the institution.

The real difference will be for the enrolled student. Through the portal, each user selects the kind of information he or she wishes to see upon visiting the site while filtering out other information options. Also in the works are plans to integrate the portal with eLion, the students' online academic resource.

Among the comprehensive and still-growing menu options are academic news and information; career planning links; weather; technology sites; calendars; Web e-mail; the Daily Collegian; facts about Penn State; Web camera views; and links to frequently used services. Built into the design is the ability to easily add or subtract these information "channels" at will.

The portal infrastructure allows users to log into a personalized Web viewer from any PC, Unix machine or Mac, anywhere in the world and retrieve the same lineup of personal content they selected for themselves. No special software is required other than a standard Web browser.

"The portal stands the ordinary Web application on its head," said Leous. We've designed a program where the end user can easily personalize his or her view of information. Rather than the 'old school' where the Web designer knows best, the 'new school' says the end user can determine how he or she wants that information presented.

"We believe the portal allows the World Wide Web at Penn State to become a self-service information application."

The team of University engineers and programmers hopes to see thousands of regular student users by the spring semester. Although plans are under way for a faculty- and staff-oriented portal, anyone with a valid Penn State access account can currently use the student portal, provide feedback and suggestions and join the ranks of portal content providers.

Comments and questions can be directed to portal-feedback@psu.edu.

Attention content providers

The portal project wants you and your site content as a new channel. With some very simple recoding of your Web site, you can make your content available as a special channel in the portal. Go to http://www.psu.edu/portalproject to obtain help for new users and information on how to get a channel started.

Back