Agora - Revision history

Absentminded at 08:06, 6 April 2011

2011-04-06T08:06:15Z

69.121.14.195 at 06:12, 8 December 2008

2008-12-08T06:12:11Z

69.121.14.195 at 06:11, 8 December 2008

2008-12-08T06:11:19Z

69.121.14.195 at 06:10, 8 December 2008

2008-12-08T06:10:38Z

128.59.182.171 at 21:07, 22 September 2008

2008-09-22T21:07:01Z

Absentminded at 04:49, 30 March 2007

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Absentminded at 04:45, 30 March 2007

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Absentminded at 04:14, 30 March 2007

2007-03-30T04:14:29Z

Absentminded: New page: '''Agora''' is the name given to a project proposed by student members of the University Senate. Read about it below in chronological order. CUIT has announced that it plans to roll th...

2007-03-30T04:14:05Z

New page: '''Agora''' is the name given to a project proposed by student members of the University Senate. Read about it below in chronological order. CUIT has announced that it plans to roll th...

New page

'''Agora''' is the name given to a project proposed by student members of the [[University Senate]]. Read about it below in chronological order. CUIT has announced that it plans to roll the Agora project into it's developement of [[Sakai]] as a replacement for [[Courseworks]].

<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
Agora 
In response to a University-wide concern about the decentralized nature of
the scholarly community, the Student Affairs Committee (SAC) developed the Agora
proposal: an online gathering place for Columbia University faculty, students,
and alumni to freely exchange ideas across all academic disciplines. The SAC, in
partnership with the Online and the Libraries & AcIS

committees, will continue to develop a proposal that would provide a free
online-forum to engage in transdisciplinary
matching of scholars. 
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/stu-ann.htm">2003-2004
University Senate Student Affairs Committee Report</a></div> 
<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
4. The “Agora” Project 
The Committee heard presentations on the initiative to set up a project enabling members of the Columbia
community (students and faulty and researchers) to indicate their research
interests and network with others who shared those interests. (This project was
also the subject of a presentation at the full Senate meeting in March.) The
Committee’s support for this initiative was sought by its sponsors. Committee
members asked a number of questions about the value and implications of this
project, and resolved to discuss the matter, without the need for any further
presentation, at an early meeting in Fall 2004. 
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/libfin.htm">2003-2004
University Senate Libraries and AcIS Committee Report</a></div> 
<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">

--Report from Student Affairs on the
Agora Project, and other issues: Student caucus co-chair Nathan Walker (Stu.
Obs., TC)  said the caucus would report on its Agora project,
as well as on on two other resolutions that the caucus had passed in a meeting
just before the plenary. 
Joined by other student senators at the podium and
projecting slides onto the screen from his laptop computer, Mr. Walker said the
Agora project was a yearlong student initiative to use the University’s online
resources to seek a transdisciplinary integration of knowledge available at
Columbia. The name of the project derives from the Greek word agora,
or gathering place. 
Sen. Coilin Parsons (Stu., GSAS/Hum) added that Agora would
be an online forum bringing together people from all over the University in new
ways. The only such forums now, aside from the University Senate, are institutes
with scholars from different Columbia schools. But institutes rely on already
established relationships among scholars. Agora will encourage new  relationships.
The group decided that in order to make Agora a comfortable, productive space,
it will remain within the boundaries of the Columbia community, and will not
include other scholars or alumni. 
Sen. Parsons said the Agora initiative would be part of a
plan to create a web portal with a unified log-in page, based on people’s log-in
and password. This would provide access to the online tools people are already
using, including e-mail, libraries, course works, student services, a university
calendar, the center for career education, and Agora. 
Sen. Parsons showed a slide with a basic scholarship
profile of a Columbia person..  The first five details provide
simple information from the University directory, but each person’s profile can
be as deep as he or she wants, including research interests, a curriculum vita,
publications, etc. He said it would also be possible to conduct searches using
these profiles.

Sen. Noah Raizman (Stu., HS) gave an example of a search in
Agora, combining two research interests, which provided a half-dozen profiles on
the screen. Another approach would be to invite people with similar interests to
join a new project. Someone interested in, say, HIV research, could link to
professors throughout the University, or students who have traveled in countries
with the AIDS epidemic, and create a page where these people can come together,
with a message board, opportunities for chats, links to other sites, a calendar
function, and a capability to conduct polls of people in the project. 
Sen. Bulliet, speaking as a member of Alumni Affairs, said
excluding alumni would be a disservice to them but also to current students, who
may be alumni by the time they have mastered Agora. 
Mr. Walker said the reason the population to be served in
the proposal was limited was that the data source for the project was the
Columbia University directory. He added that his committee would take this point
seriously. 
Sen. David Bayer (Fac.,
Barnard) cited two design concerns, based on a previous experience at Barnard.
One was about pitfalls of unified log-in and a single portal. 
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/minutes/03-04/SenMins032604.htm">Minutes,
University Senate Meeting March 2004</a></div> 
<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
--Student Affairs: Nathan
Walker (Stu. Obs., TC), co-chair of the studentcaucus, summarized issues from
the last Senate session that the group is still pursuing:
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style>Agora Project: Last year students proposed a
technological solution to Columbia’s “disconnect,” an online space to
connect Columbia scholars based on their broad academic interests, and to
provide a trans-disciplinary model for new scholarship. Committees now
working on Agora will prepare a stakeholders’ document to the Provost, with
a budget, and hope to start developing the project at the end of October.</li>

</ul>
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/minutes/04-05/septmins.htm">Minutes,
University Senate Meeting September 2004</a></div> 
<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
Agora 
The Agora Project, led by Noah Raizman and Nathan
Walker, is an online collaborative space and networking tool designed to foster
collaboration between scholars in the <st1:city><st1:place>
Columbia community. ‘Agora’ was conceived and elaborated by members
of the Student Affairs Committee last year and has been making great progress
towards moving from the theoretical realm to the practical. Since the April 2004
presentation to the Senate, which met with great enthusiasm, the SAC worked with
several members of the information technology division of the University as well
as with the Committee for Online Learning and Digital Media to develop a
proposal for allocation of resources. The proposal is now awaiting approval by
the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University. 
            The Agora would create an unified web interface
for students, integrating CourseWorks, Cubmail, SSOL, bulletin boards and a
customizable university calendar using the open-source Sakai
platform currently in development by a consortium of Universities, including Columbia.
The centerpiece of Agora is a scholar-matching and a project creation module,
allowing any student to create a collaborative space centered on a specific
intellectual interest and post links to resources, integrate events into the
calendar, and communicate with others who share the same interest. The goals of
Agora are to foster collaboration with scholars in different schools of the
University and overcome the insularity and fragmentation of individual schools
or degree programs. With the Provost's support, we hope to develop a working
model in the next academic year. 
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/studentar0505.htm">2004-2005
University Senate Student Affairs Committee Report</a></div> 

<div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
Agora 
The committee vetted the student initiative for a research
portal and worked to bring DKV and AIS together to help in its development. The proposal is currently under consideration by the provost’s office.
 
-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm">2004-2005
University Senate Online Learning and Digital Initiatives Committee Report</a></div>

← Older revision		Revision as of 08:06, 6 April 2011
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	'''Agora''' was an online scholarly community proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the ~~2008~~-~~2009~~ school year, over ~~five~~ years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.	+	'''Agora''' was an online scholarly community proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2010-2011 school year, over seven years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.

	Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.		Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:12, 8 December 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	'''Agora''' was am online scholarly community proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, over five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.	+	'''Agora''' was an online scholarly community proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, over five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.

	Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.		Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.

← Older revision		Revision as of 06:11, 8 December 2008
Line 1:		Line 1:
−	'''Agora''' was a online scholarly community ~~project~~ proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, over five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.	+	'''Agora''' was am online scholarly community proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, over five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.

	Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.		Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Agora''' is a project that was proposed by student members of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.
+'''Agora''' was a online scholarly community project proposed by Student Affairs Caucus of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, over five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.
-Agora is a prime example of how Columbia is always way behind with leveraging technology.
+Agora is a prime example of Columbia's chronic failure to leverage existing technologies in a timely fashion.
 ==Legislative history==
 Below is a chronological history of Agora based on publicly available Senate reports and minutes.
-−
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
 Agora<br>
@@ Line 46: / Line 47: @@
 Sen. David Bayer (Fac., Barnard) cited two design concerns, based on a previous experience at Barnard. One was about pitfalls of unified log-in and a single portal.<br>
 -["http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/minutes/03-04/SenMins032604.htm Minutes of University Senate Meeting March 2004]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
@@ Line 68: / Line 71: @@
 -[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm 2004-2005 University Senate Online Learning and Digital Initiatives Committee Report]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-'''Agora''' is the name given to a project proposed by student members of the [[University Senate]]. Read about it below in chronological order. CUIT has announced that it plans to roll the Agora project into it's developement of [[Sakai]] as a replacement for [[Courseworks]].
+'''Agora''' is a project that was proposed by student members of the [[University Senate]] in 2003-2004. After two years of discussion and study, the project was effectively killed off by [[Provost]] [[Alan Brinkley]] who said the proposed features would be included in [[Sakai]], a replacement for [[Courseworks]]. As of the 2008-2009 school year, five years after Agora's proposal, Sakai is still in development.
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
 Agora<br>
@@ Line 11: / Line 13: @@
 and alumni to freely exchange ideas across all academic disciplines. The SAC, in
 partnership with the Online and the Libraries & AcIS committees, will continue to develop a proposal that would provide a free online-forum to engage in transdisciplinary matching of scholars.<br>
--[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/stu-ann.htm 2003-2004
+-[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/stu-ann.htm 2003-2004 University Senate Student Affairs Committee Report]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
 . The “Agora” Project<br>
 The Committee heard presentations on the initiative to set up a project enabling members of the Columbia community (students and faulty and researchers) to indicate their research interests and network with others who shared those interests. (This project was also the subject of a presentation at the full Senate meeting in March.) The Committee’s support for this initiative was sought by its sponsors. Committee members asked a number of questions about the value and implications of this project, and resolved to discuss the matter, without the need for any further presentation, at an early meeting in Fall 2004.<br>
--[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/libfin.htm 2003-2004
+-[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/03-04/libfin.htm 2003-2004 University Senate Libraries and AcIS Committee Report]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
@@ Line 45: / Line 45: @@
 Sen. David Bayer (Fac., Barnard) cited two design concerns, based on a previous experience at Barnard. One was about pitfalls of unified log-in and a single portal.<br>
--["http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/minutes/03-04/SenMins032604.htm Minutes,
+-["http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/minutes/03-04/SenMins032604.htm Minutes of University Senate Meeting March 2004]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
@@ Line 61: / Line 60: @@
 The Agora would create an unified web interface for students, integrating CourseWorks, Cubmail, SSOL, bulletin boards and a customizable university calendar using the open-source Sakai
 platform currently in development by a consortium of Universities, including Columbia. The centerpiece of Agora is a scholar-matching and a project creation module, allowing any student to create a collaborative space centered on a specific intellectual interest and post links to resources, integrate events into the calendar, and communicate with others who share the same interest. The goals of Agora are to foster collaboration with scholars in different schools of the University and overcome the insularity and fragmentation of individual schools or degree programs. With the Provost's support, we hope to develop a working model in the next academic year.<br>
--[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/studentar0505.htm 2004-2005
+-[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/studentar0505.htm 2004-2005 University Senate Student Affairs Committee Report]</div><br>
 <div style="border: 1px solid #C0C0C0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px; padding-bottom: 5px">
@@ Line 68: / Line 66: @@
 The committee vetted the student initiative for a research portal and worked to bring DKV and AIS together to help in its development. The proposal is currently under consideration by the provost’s office.
--[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm 2004-2005
+-[http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm 2004-2005 University Senate Online Learning and Digital Initiatives Committee Report]</div><br>

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:14, 30 March 2007
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	-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm">2004-2005		-<a href="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/senate/annual_reports/04-05/onlineann05.htm">2004-2005
	University Senate Online Learning and Digital Initiatives Committee Report</a></p></div>		University Senate Online Learning and Digital Initiatives Committee Report</a></p></div>
		+
		+	[[Category:Websites]]