Vision


The next generation of the collaboration platform will do far more than wikis or chat. ISDA wants to use the Clearspace product from Jive software as the base platform for customized collaboration products. The first product to use this platform as its base is Teamspaces, sponsored by the CCS team, for use in a Courseware context. IPS will use this project as a launchpad to understand the Clearspace application not just for this particular implementation, but for use in future products as part of the MAP set of application-platform components.

The IPS mission on the Teamspaces project is to take the baseline Clearspace product and determine that it integrates into the MIT environment with an acceptable level of simplicity. I needs to run in hosting environments that MIT provides to departments, it needs to integrate with user and group data, and work with all our existing authorization and authentication mechanisms. It must be an application that IPS has the skills to assist other developers in implementing.  

Backlog

Revised

  • An internal end user* must provision an MIT identity through standard business channels and administrative applications that are external to the Clearspace UI.
    • Constraint: A Clearspace implementation's* administrative UI for "signing up" should be hidden from end users.
    • Constraint: The project team cannot require Accounts to change to MIT's identity-management business rules or technical implementations of LDAP and Moira.
  • An external end user* must provision an identity through the Touchstone registration process.
    • Constraint: A Clearspace implementation's administrative UI for "signing up" should be hidden from end users.
    • Constraint: The project team cannot require changes to MIT's identity-management business rules or the technical implementations of Touchstone.
  • A space administrator must use Moira to define access controls for a space in a Clearspace implementation.
    • Constraint: A Clearspace implementation's administrative UI for managing or creating groups should be hidden from end users.
    • Constraint: The "groups" for display in a Clearspace implementation are all from Moira.
  • When a Moira access-control list is updated with an added or removed user identity, that change is available to a Clearspace implementation in as soon as the system of record reflects the change.
    • Constraint: That system of record will be Moira, Active Director LDAP or both. "Both" is technically challenging.
    • Constraint: Access-control data cannot be stored locally ("shadowed" or cached).
  • When an external end user creates an account in Touchstone, that change is available to a Clearspace implementation as soon as Touchstone reflects it.
    • Constraint: User data cannot be stored locally ("shadowed" or cached).
  • When an internal end user creates an MIT identity, that identity is available to a Clearspace implementation as soon as the systems of record reflect it.
    • Constraint: User data cannot be stored locally ("shadowed" or cached).
  • The CCS team will receive from DSPS Clearspace installations for the development, test, and production of Teamspaces, set up according to DSPS cookbook for highly-available systems.
    • Constraint: CCS will not receive a system already customized to to be Teamspaces.
  • The CCS team will receive Clearspace installation cleanly integrated with MIT identity management solutions.
    • Constraint: "cleanly" is both a technical, install, and end-user perspective.
  • IPS Application Administrators receive a cleanly installable Clearspace package, reusable and supportable at a scale greater than just the Teampspaces implementation, without re-implementation of identity-management integration.
    • Constraint: IPS must build systems that install and run properly on MIT's hosting services configurations through OIS.
    • Constraint: IPS must be able to install Clearspace under runtime conditions that match overall standards for J2EE application servers.
  • OIS will receive a clean install of the Teamspaces installation that does not require understanding of the platform internals to set up and run.
  • The DSPS team will integrate Clearspace into the MIT environment for hosting services and identity management.
    • Constraint: If additional web-service are required that interface with MIT identity information, notably Touchstone for external users, DSPS can perform this integration. However, DSPS will need to determine the scope of the new services and gain approval of the owners of the given system or record.
  • The CCS team will integrate the Teamspace instance or Clearspace into Stellar.
    • Constraint: Courseware integration is out of scope for DSPS.
  • An end user must be able to use a "private" or "hidden" group list for access control. This means that even when Clearspace does not have access to the whole member list, it should still be able to determine if the authenticated user is in a private group, via a TRUE/FALSE mechanism.
    • Example: A client application sends a user ID and a group and the system returns an enumeration of that group's membership, subject to who the user is and the group's privacy attributes in the system of record (e.g. Moira's 'visible'/hidden' attributes).
    • Example: A client application sends a user ID (presumably the currently authenticated user) and the system returns the groups that user belongs to
    • Example: A client application is able to get all MIT users and their group affiliation, including all non-MIT/guest accounts and all affiliations and statuses.
  • An outside developer will not have to understand the nuances of moira proxies to implement Clearspace. Either the method of integration makes this unnecessary, or the solution is scalable enough the DSPS can support developers in setting this up.

Taxonomy

Clearspace Implementation: Any given installation of the Clearspace platform, implying reuse for projects other than (but including) Teamspaces.

External End User: A person not a part of the MIT  community, not possessing a complete set of MIT identity characteristics.

Implementation Team: A theoretical, technical ISDA customer re-purposing the Clearspace platform.

Internal End User: A member of the MIT community possessing all of the local MIT identity characteristics.

Space Administrator: An end user with the privileges to administer access or configure specific spaces within a Clearspace implementation.

Notes to Self

  • Are space administrators and external users mutually exclusive?
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