Volume 2003, Issue 8
April 15, 2003
Tracking the Progress
of Portals and
Web-Based Services
Kenneth C. Green, The Campus Computing Project
4772 Walnut Street, Suite 206
◆
Boulder, Colorado 80301-2538
◆ www.educause.edu/ecar/
Research Bulletin
Center for Applied Research
EDUCAUSE
Overview
In the campus community as elsewhere, technology accelerates both the potential for
innovation as well as the pace of innovation. Some new technologies (such as wireless
networks) move quickly across the campus community. Others, because of cost, scope,
and complexity (and also, perhaps, because of organizational politics and personnel
issues) take longer to define, develop, and deploy.
How, then, should we assess the arrival and progress of Web portals and Web-based
services in the campus community? Without question, the deployment of portals and
Web-based services (such as online and portal-based registration, fee payment, library
resources, course content, and related campus services) is a complex and demanding
information technology initiative. The implementation process involves a large number of
institutional participants and campus offices, including administrative services, student
services, information technology, academic departments, and the library, among others.
Some observers characterize the process as one that involves a dozen or more campus
offices, hundreds of people, and thousands of requirements. Portal development (or
deployment, if the portal technology is purchased from a commercial firm) also requires
campus officials to share both a vision for the portal as well as data and resources that
will populate the portal.
By many accounts, the first campus portal services were offered by commercial firms.1
Most cite the Campus Pipeline press release at the 1998 CAUSE Conference in Seattle
as the first formal announcement of institutional portal services specifically developed for
higher education. The years following that announcement have been filled with much
discussion