Campus Pipeline Propels Higher Education Open Source Technology.

Business Editors

Educause 2002

SALT LAKE CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 2002

Luminis Doubles JA-SIG's uPortal Adoption; Campus Pipeline Contributes

New Aggregated Layout Manager Feature to Greater Developer Community

One year after announcing a groundbreaking relationship with the leading sponsor of higher education open source software development, the Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG), Campus Pipeline Inc. announces important development contributions and significant usage milestones.

The collaboration brought together Campus Pipeline's proven expertise in platform, portal, integration, content management, and technical support with JA-SIG's uPortal framework, enterprise portal technology that helps colleges and universities better customize, organize, and distribute Web-based content and applications. This combination of open source development with commercial technologies and technical support addresses the market's demand for open systems that are easy to deploy, support, and maintain.

The first commercially available, supported and documented implementation of uPortal, the Campus Pipeline(TM) Luminis(TM) product family adoption has significantly increased the number of institutions using uPortal technology. The Luminis product family is an array of flexible portal, platform, integration, and content management technologies that unify, extend, and manage the digital campus.

Today approximately 15 higher education institutions report live implementations of uPortal. That number is expected to double in October due to the more than 15 institutions deploying the Luminis product family since its June release. Campus Pipeline estimates that more than 30,000 end users are already utilizing uPortal through Luminis product implementations, dramatically increasing the number of end users benefiting from uPortal standards. Furthermore, uPortal's continued adoption is virtually ensured as a result of the nearly 50 institutions that have licensed the Luminis product family.

In addition to propelling the adoption of uPortal, Campus Pipeline has focused a significant amount of development time on the uPortal framework. This has provided an opportunity to contribute new features, performance enhancements, improved usability, and bug fixes to the uPortal effort.

One Campus Pipeline contribution is a new uPortal feature called Aggregated Layout Management (ALM). ALM provides institutions with the ability to control very specific elements of the portal layout, and target these to specific user populations. This provides institutions the ability to push important content and application channels to users while preserving users' ability to customize the portal. For example, an institution could activate channels for class registration, requirements for graduating seniors, or even career center support for juniors, at the appropriate times. Institutions could also provide faculty and staff with specific channels for use during benefit open enrollment periods. Users can then add channels and customize which channels they want to see and in what order. This feature has been added to uPortal by Campus Pipeline and is available now in the Luminis product family.

Working closely with the JA-SIG uPortal development team, features like ALM and other uPortal enhancements will be included in future open source versions of uPortal. Campus Pipeline is sharing designs, code, and experience with JA-SIG to improve portal technology and its use in higher education.

"JA-SIG is extremely pleased with Campus Pipeline's participation in the uPortal project," said Carl Jacobson, JA-SIG co-founder and University of Delaware director of Information Technology. "Everyone benefits from this level of collaboration."

The collaboration furthers the development of open source technology and helps promote uPortal as a technology standard. The uPortal team and Campus Pipeline are now working with library, learning management, financial aid, and other higher education system software suppliers to integrate their products using Luminis technologies and uPortal as the enterprise portal platform.

"Through quality technology and enthusiastic acceptance by our customers, we have benefited greatly from our involvement with JA-SIG," said Andy Cooley, senior vice president of marketing and product management at Campus Pipeline. "We value JA-SIG's collective voice in helping us shape our product offerings now and in the future."

To experience first hand how the Luminis product family is helping institutions achieve their portal goals, speak with representatives from JA-SIG and Campus Pipeline at Educause 2002, booth #1031.

About JA-SIG

The Java in Administration Special Interest Group (JA-SIG) is an independent organization founded to advance academic and administrative computing using Java technology. More than 100 colleges and universities participate in JA-SIG activities. The JA-SIG goals are to communicate best practices, new technologies, and innovative methodologies and projects related to the Java programming language, to increase peer review, collaboration, and group discussion, and broaden the use of Java technology. The uPortal project is funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and by contributions from participating colleges, universities, and higher education information technology firms and agencies.

About Campus Pipeline Inc.

Campus Pipeline Inc. delivers software and services for higher education, helping institutions unify campus data, enterprise applications, and services into a web-centralized "digital campus." Today more than 200 colleges and universities worldwide use Campus Pipeline technologies including the Campus Pipeline(TM) Web Platform, the industry's first and most widely used web platform, and the Campus Pipeline(TM) Luminis(TM) family of portal, platform, content management, and integration products, to build their unique vision of a unified digital campus. For more information, call 888/682-PIPE or visit www.campuspipeline.com.

Campus Pipeline, Luminis, and the Campus Pipeline logo are trademarks of Campus Pipeline Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners.