Software Services for Social Network tools implementation

Aleksandar Dimov, PhD

Sofia University

aldi@fmi.uni-sofia.bg

31 October 2008, Sofia TENCompetence open workshop 2

Agenda

Introduction Technologies used Architectural framework for Social Network tools

implementation Overview Tool Social Help System

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Current European trends

Lifelong Learning Should result in competence that are widely recognized

and interoperable Should be adapted to take into account individual and

local characteristics (preferences, needs, language, etc.) Use of ICT/the Internet is key to achieving Lifelong

competence development

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Social Networks

Should support individuals to connect with each other

Learning knowledge management networks Currently provide too little effective support to the

users in their various tasks. Lack of integration of models for competence

development during learning and working and across a lifetime

Lack of individual experts and/or trainers

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Contemporary Software Technologies Trends for reusable software

Objects Components Services

Service Oriented Software Engineering Service – a standard way to reuse some

functionality over internet Technologies Used

Hibernate REST

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REST

An architectural style aimed for distributed systems

Define rules for how different resources should be identified and addressed Defines a common set of operations Use an Universal Resource Identifier (URI) to

locate resources Does not rely on heavy additional meta-

model layer

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What is Hibernate?

Popular Open Source (LGPL) Object/Relational Mapping (ORM) tool

Transparent persistence for POJOs (Plain Old Java Objects)

Make an abstraction over the classical SQL tables

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What is Hibernate?

Benefits Retains natural object model (transparent) Minimizes Code Does not require a container Model is not tied to persistance implementation Metadata controlled persistence Transparent - working with the model, not the data

access technology

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Object/Relational Mapping

JavaObjectint id;String name;String getName()int getId()void setName(String)void setId(int)

SQL Table

id [int] primary key,name [varchar(50)]

Magic Happens Here(O/R Mapper – i.e. Hibernate)

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TenCompetence

TENCompetence integrated project PCM server

The ICT heart of TENCompetence infrastructure Widget server

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Web-Service Architecture

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Toolset objectives

Enrich the users' experience by providing data models which will allow more relevant matches between users to be made.

Provide an integral overview of Competence Development Opportunities available to users.

Develop, test and integrate value-added components such as connection agents,

simulation and game dynamics embedded in online competence development contexts.

network models and management policies that support the community’s capacity for self-organization while preserving the autonomy of individual users.

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Objectives, explained

The system The community

Competence Development Opportunities

The user, himself

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Overview Tool (OVT)

Purpose:• To provide an overview of all the possible

formal and informal competence development programmes available.

Consist of three parts: • Visualization maps• General browsing perspective• Linear browsing perspective

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OVT Screenshots

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Social Help Tool (SHT)

Purpose: To foster self-organizing (peer) communities with the maximum of autonomy and control of users

Provides environment for support of novices and learners

Lowers the overload of individual experts and learners Increase possibilities for collaboration between users

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Flow of program activities

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SHT Screenshots

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Concllusion

Improvements are needed in eLearning and knowledge management systems

Development of new software is crucial to address this issue

Future work User evaluation Improvement of underlying models

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The end

Q & A