Internet Scout Report seeks beta testers

[David Sleasman]

The Internet Scout Project is seeking beta testers for its Portal Toolkit
Project.

The Scout Portal Toolkit (SPT) is a software package, developed under a
grant from the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, that is designed to allow groups with limited
technical
expertise or resources to make their collection of discipline-specific
resource metadata
available on the web. 

The Scout Portal Toolkit allows organizations that want to share the
collection of knowledge
and resources they have assembled via the World Wide Web to do so without
making a
substantial investment in technical resources or expertise. The three
facets of the Toolkit that
work together to achieve this goal are the Portal Interface, the
Intelligent Metadata Tool, and 
the Portal Toolkit packaging itself. 

More information on the SPT can be found here
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/research/SPT/index.html


What's Required to Be a Beta Tester?

Beta testers for the Scout Portal Toolkit need to have the following: 

Access to a Linux web server running Apache with PHP 4.x and MySQL 3.23
support (preferably running RedHat Linux) 
Access to a database server running MySQL 3.23 or later (the database
server and web server can be the same machine) 
A staff member (or consultant) with some experience using Linux or Unix 


Also recommended, but not required: 

An existing collection of resource metadata in tab- or comma-delimited
(CSV) form (to initially populate the portal database) 
A staff member (or consultant) with HTML authoring experience (to customize
the look of the portal) 


Beta test participants should be willing to spend time installing and using
an unpolished
version of a software package in exchange for early access and greater
input into the
functionality and design of that software. 

More information can be found here
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/research/SPT/beta.html


How Do I Apply to Become a Beta Tester?

If you think your group might want to participate in the beta test of the
Scout Portal Tookit, or if you just have questions about the 
SPT or the beta test program, please contact David Sleasman through e-mail
(sleasman at cs.wisc.edu) or via telephone at 608-263-2674.