Clinical and TranslationalScience Institute / CTSIat the University of California, San Francisco

OpenSocial in Practice – Easy Customization Benefits EveryoneBrian Turner and Eric MeeksVIVO14 August 7, 2014

UCSF Profiles Experience

• Launch 2009

• OS launch in 2011– Profiles integration– VIVO integration

• 83,000 visits in June or 2,700 visits/day avg

• Rich in user-added content– 34% have narrative, photo or research interests– 52% have weblinks

What is OpenSocial?

• User perspective– Embedded gadgets– See full list at ORNG.info

• Technology– Javascript and HTML wrapped in an XML file– Collection of technology standards

• JSON, iFrames, OAuth• Standards for data persistance• VIVO Linked Open Data data model -> ORNG

How OpenSocial Works in RNS

• VIVO and Profiles have OpenSocial built in– Optional part of current releases– Active development isn’t required, initial

configuration is involved– Gadgets easily shared/modified – Institution-specific gadgets require programming in

HTML and Javascript

OpenSocial In Situ

• UCSF

• Baylor University

• Wake Forrest

• USC

• UCSD

Institutional Benefits of OS Additions

• Easy way to show institution-specific info without altering the RNS code or ontologies

• Display valuable and visually appealing “grey literature” from commercial media sites in the RNS.– YouTube videos, tweets, – RNS looks better, making the institution look better– Researchers are more engaged when they control

content

Institutional Benefits, continued

• OpenSocial plugins can facilitate active collaboration by connecting to external tools– Doodle polls, Chatter, or Dropbox

• Tools to highlight or utilize RNS data– MyList exports contact info, publications (coming

soon)– Cross-institutional collaborators

• Each OpenSocial plugin release creates an opportunity for researcher engagement

Benefits to Researchers

• More complete portfolio - More page views

–UCSF Profiles shows a correlation between profile views and the amount of content

• Especially advantageous to junior researchers

• Gray media shows traction where publications/citations might not exist yet

–Video, tweets, presentations show motivation and engagement

Benefits to Users

• It just looks better! (longer page views)

• See a more complete picture of the researcher

• Find the up-and-comers – User-added content indicates ambition– Less established researchers may be more

interested in finding collaborators

• More ways to connect to researchers– Twitter, Groupware, Doodle, etc.

Thanks!

• http://profiles.ucsf.edu/brian.turner

• http://profiles.ucsf.edu/eric.meeks