Project name

The CERN-Solid collaboration continuity & fine-tuning of the CERN Slides' app

Project description

In the CERN IT/CDA group a lot of work was done in 2020 to understand the Solid project ecosystem. Solid is here to stay and develop tools that give the users sovereignty over their own data. This is why we need to continue this work and extend the Proof of Concept (PoC) to other CERN Open Source applications, involving Authorisation/Authentication and user profiles. Most importantly, we need to bring up our own Solid server to host our pods, to be sure that all Data Protection issues are addressed and we have full control over the storage of our data on the pods. See HERE a policy document that explains this need.

During the same year, we developed a web-based slides' maker, that could become the cross-platform open solution for the community. Some work is still needed to make this application production quality and acceptable by the users. Additional tips or web-based slide makers can be found in the references, including open source projects related to Solid, which can lead to a nice combination of these two efforts.

This project is about pursuing these two objectives in parallel. Namely:

For the CERN-Solid collaboration future:

Based on the conclusions from the successful Proof of Concept (slides, video, transcript, thesis HERE) and the Policy document:

1. Evaluate/complete the results of MSc project https://it-student-projects.web.cern.ch/projects/cern-solid-server-hosting
2. Evaluate/document the pod inspecting tool Penny, as a more functional way to access/update one's pod. Make usability recommendations on Penny for future use. 
3. Design an attractive pod User Interface (UI), compliant with the Solid specifications and reserved fields. Discuss with the CERN-Solid community, in the relevant gitter channels, the relevance of developing a UI in-house.
4. Create pods for all CERN users and the necessary documentation and/or videos to promote their adoption by the CERN community.

For the CERN web-based Slides' app:

1. Process the pending improvements registered in JIRA.
2. Encourage users to use the app and collect feedback.
3. Enhance functionality based on other such tools (see References).

Required skills

React, python, javascript programming. Experience with github, gitlab and OpenShift. Collaboration skills in large international communities. Good presentation and communication skills.

Learning experience

Solid is the future of the Web. The CERN Slides' app, if flawless, will conquer all communities, which like web-based and Open Source Software applications. The CERN community is complex and very interesting to work with. This project can be an asset for a young developer.

Project duration

1 year

Project area

Learning

Contact for further details

Maria Dimou

References

Most links are already in the project description field above.

What follows are some notes until we get funds to hire a student and the project can start:

About Solid everything can be reached via http://solid.cern.ch including the gitter channels.

About Slides everything is in the main project description. The app https://cern.ch/slides, the JIRA tickets and the https://slides-admin.docs.cern.ch guide require CERN login. 
Other attractive Slide making apps to get inspired and complete this development are:
 

1. Commercial http://prezi.com is very much appreciated. We don't want to buy it but it can give us functionality ideas for our development. The student would have to get a free trial and propose to the team enhancements for our app, inspired from this tool.
2. Open source SimplyEdit. Info from Sjoerd van Groning (muze.nl) working with the Personal Data Stores (PDS) Interop project (with Michiel de Jong), involved in Solid and  co-creator of presentation tool SimplyEdit.The code is free and SimplyEdit is opensource. Example:
   http://cern-slides.dev.muze.nl/#simply-edit and View: http://cern-slides.dev.muze.nl
   Edit: http://simply-present.dev.muze.nl/personal-data-stores/#simply-edit and View: http://simply-present.dev.muze.nl/personal-data-stores/ The tool doesn't suit our needs for reasons explained in http://cern-slides.dev.muze.nl/ (basically Authentication and Storage). The repo on Github: https://github.com/SimplyEdit/simplyedit

CERN group

IT-CDA

Status

Cancelled Submitted by Maria Dimou on Wednesday, January 13, 2021 - 13:46.