Scout Portal Toolkit 1.0 Release!

[David Sleasman]

Internet Scout Project is pleased to announce
the 1.0 release of the Scout Portal Toolkit
(SPT)!

This open source software package, funded by
the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, allows groups
or organizations to develop a portal online
without making a big investment in technical
resources or expertise. This release marks the
first post-beta release of SPT.

Interested users and current beta testing
organizations are strongly encouraged to offer
feedback by taking a brief (12 questions) survey.
This survey will help us gather information to
refine SPT in future releases and evaluate our
work to date. The survey can be found at

http://www.zoomerang.com/survey.zgi?AQCFEBSRABAHA8YT38NW3520

The SPT 1.0.0 package features include:

-Shipped with a MySQL database with
  Dublin Core compliant metadata default
  fields;
-Cross-Field Searching (Advanced Search);
-Metadata field editor, which allows portal
  administrators the ability to add, delete,
  or disable a variety of metadata fields;
-Resource comments by Users;
-Intelligent User Agents;
-Resource Quality Ratings by Users;
-Suggested Resource Referrals (Recommender
  System);
-Accessible to users with disabilities;
-Support for RSS channel export and the Open
  Archives Initiative (OAI)Protocol for
  Metadata Harvesting 2.0;
-Discussion forum options;

For more information on SPT and its features, to
explore a demo installation, or to download the
software go to

http://scout.cs.wisc.edu/research/SPT/

Specific comments, question and bug reports can be
sent to SPTSupport at scout.wisc.edu .

Also, the November issue of D-LIB Magazine has an
article on the SPT software. Discussed are the key
features and functionality. The article may be
found at

http://www.dlib.org/dlib/november02/almasy/11almasy.html


The development team looks forward to hearing your
feedback!

Thanks,
-- 
David J. Sleasman
Metadata and Cataloging Services Coordinator
Internet Scout Project
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Phone: 608-263-2674
http://scout.cs.wisc.edu