Space Concepts

What is a space?

A space is a Web micro-site with one or more owners who can manage the content, presentation, and distribution with an easy-to-use interface. Spaces usually combine multiple ways to create or collaborate on content such as blogs, forums, wikis, file-sharing, video sharing, and so on. They may also provide ways to distribute the content via Web feeds such as Atom, or RSS.

Much more than a home page, a space allows the owners to communicate and connect with others. Each space is a potential community of its own: a following around an expert, a community of interest around a topic, a software project community, a user group community, and so on, based upon the wishes of its members.

Spaces can be implemented in a variety of ways. In developerWorks, each space is dynamically displayed through WebSphere Portal Server, with a number of portlets that contain different types of information.

What is new about this?

developerWorks is providing a framework that enables users to create their own communities and integrate multiple collaboration and social networking tools into each one. Each community is put in the charge of its owners who can decide what content and what social networking tools they would like their community to use. Rather than focus on individual tools, we are looking at the holistic picture of enabling and growing communities. In our view, we are providing a way to encourage new communities and new leaders of such communities. We then support them with the tools that they need to connect, learn, and share with other members of the community. These new communities can embrace members from any combination of our worldwide population of over 5 million developers, who may share their views and interests. In addition, this new framework allows you to start with a single place for your community before your members divert to different forms of interaction and collaboration. Thus, on the same page, you can present information from many content and social networking tools: blogs, forums, articles, wikis, Web feeds, etc.

How does this relate to social networking?

This framework allows community leaders to add the particular social networking tools they want to use. developerWorks already provides a range of such tools including blogs, forums, wikis, chatrooms, exchange, and Web feeds. We recognize that communities evolve in many different ways and have many different models for how they operate. We therefore want to put these choices in the hands of the community and its own leadership. The leadership of each space can thus choose according to how it thinks its community will interact and can change or evolve its community toolset as appropriate to the community's ongoing needs. In addition to having diverse social networking tools, you can even pick and choose smaller units of information within these tools (e.g., a single blog entry rather than the entire blog), as well as export the information to your space in the form of Web feeds so that other users, communities, and Web sites can benefit. We treat each space as its own potential community, all within the overall developerWorks community. Each space can start small, gain membership over time, and grow into a sizeable community.

What are the features and functions of developerWorks spaces?

The features for developerWorks spaces will be spread across several releases. In the first release, we offer community leaders the ability to create and maintain topic-focused spaces (called "community topics"). A space can be owned by two or more registered developerWorks members, who collaboratively maintain the content and layout of the space. They decide on the content they would like to include, and, using a variety of portlets, present this information in a layout of their choosing. They can aggregate content from any combination of sources: developerWorks, IBM, or the Web. Additionally, they can create content in blogs, forums, wikis, and more. Each social networking tool is presented inside a portlet that can be placed or moved around the layout of a space. A space owner can edit the space from any Web browser. To start, they drag and drop portlets from a palette onto the page itself. They can then edit the contents of each portlet.

What are the differences between developerWorks spaces and developerWorks zones?

The purpose of developerWorks spaces and that of our zones is slightly different. Our zones are managed by our staff; they have well-defined processes for how content is created and managed, content marketing and promotion processes, well-defined site navigation, and most significantly, the official backing of IBM. Since our spaces can be created by any mix of members, who may or may not be from IBM, they are not the same as our zones. A space is a more generic concept that allows content integration as well as distributed ownership and guidance. To enable this distributed ownership, we provide easy-to-use tools to create and maintain spaces which do not require specific technical skills beyond using a Web browser. We envision our spaces growing beyond the scenario of topics into other community models, based on each community's needs and supported by more tools that enable these communities to gather and interact.

What can users do now that they could not before?

The biggest benefit to users is the ability to create their own communities and share with our worldwide membership. This comes in the form of intuitive and easy-to-use tools that do not require technical knowledge and are supported by our own staff.

Who can create a space on developerWorks?

At this preview stage (April 2007), we are carefully scaling our system because of the large number of permutations for what members can put into spaces and the new ideas and processes it will involve. With that in mind, we are at this time open to creating new spaces around technology topics managed by groups of users. Each group can apply for a space through our Web site. We are looking for areas that will grow into successful community topics, and therefore recommend that groups put thought and purpose behind their ideas before filling out an application. The initial list of community topics that we released in mid-April is below. We have not yet determined if or when anyone will be able to create a space instantaneously.

You can apply for a new community topic space .

What topics will have their own spaces?

We are starting with an initial set of spaces on the following topics:

Ajax
XForms
Mashups
IDS Cheetah
Virtualization
Linux Security
Software testing
Game development
Top PHP Resources
IBM Web innovation
Accelerate Development
Software as a Service
SOA development and best practices

You can reach each of these spaces through the index at: http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/spaces

Who will edit the Spaces?

Each space has its own set of editors and owners from the registered membership on developerWorks. Members can join together to create a space. With our preview release, this is a petition process to developerWorks, since we would like to help the initial ones grow successfully. The members who create the space can be the editors, or they can elect others to be the editors, based on how they view their group. These editors share the responsibility of defining the layout and the social networking tools they will use, and determining how to keep the content relevant and current. As the community topic grows, the editors can decide if they need to change roles, add members, or even change tools. Some of the spaces created initially in this first release are managed by developerWorks' own staff and are recognized as official developerWorks-sponsored spaces.

You can apply for a new community topic space .

Can anyone edit the Spaces?

Each space can only be edited by the specified members recognized as editors. These represent the leadership or catalysts for the space and they decide how the space is governed. Other members who visit these spaces do not have edit access to the contents. To them, the space appears as a portal to different content types relevant to the space's topic. Some of these allow others to participate through social networking tools such as forums and wikis. However, users cannot change what the tools are, or edit the layout of the portlets or their content.

Do I have to be an IBM employee to have a space on developerWorks?

No, any combination of registered developerWorks members can apply for a space. Registration for membership is free; visit ibm.com/developerworks and look at the top right corner for a link to register. During the preview stage, we will carefully select which spaces we can support.

What type of social networking applications will developerWorks spaces provide?

The list of portlets (see below) indicates the different social networking applications that are provided with this release of spaces. Each of these content service applications are already available through developerWorks. Even when integrated with a space, you will still be able reach them through a direct URL. We will continue to add social networking features and tools in future releases.

What is a portlet?

A portlet is a container of information that can be presented on a Web page as a single unit. It is typically seen as a box of information. Portlets are typically preprogrammed to a particular function or contain a specific set of information. In developerWorks spaces, we have many different types of portlets each designed to present a specific type of content, or present it in a specific format.

What portlets are available in developerWorks Spaces?

For our initial release we will provide the following portlets:

Forums
Blogs
Wikis
Podcasts
Top story
Lists
Technical briefings
Technical library
RSS aggregator
developerWorks custom feeds

The list of portlets in developerWorks spaces will be periodically updated as new features are added.

What is a Web feed?

A Web feed allows you to package content from a Web site and distribute it over the Internet, such that it can be embedded or incorporated into other sites. The feed may be static or, more typically, dynamically updated from its source. This allows each person to syndicate his or her content. For example, you can add the feed from a news site to your space so that you can have a constantly updated list of news stories. In developerWorks spaces, the space owner can add any text Web feed from the Web as another portlet on the space.

Where can I ask further questions about developerWorks spaces?

Ask any questions about developerWorks spaces at our developerWorks discussion forum. If you're new to developerWorks, check out our new to developerWorks page.

Managing your developerWorks space

How do you manage a space?

Each space has at least one administrator, who can also be considered the owner of the space, or the key point of contact for the developerWorks team. In addition, each space can have multiple editors who can define, change, and manage the content in the space. The administrator can add or remove editors from the space. Essentially, they work as a group to manage and keep the content in their space relevant. The administrator or editor can see the Edit view of the space where they can add, remove, or move portlets around, and define the content in each portlet. When they are done editing the space, they can publish it, whereupon the public can see the updated space.

What is expected of me if I agree to own a space?

We ask that editors check their space at least weekly (to make sure that content is relevant and getting updated), that they sign up for a minimum six-month time period, and that they select a topic that will be of interest to the development community. Ideally, editors will also create their own content through a blog or wiki. See the spaces editor guidelines for more information.

Are there any terms and conditions that I need to be aware of for managing a space?

The terms and conditions for developerWorks spaces are available on our site.

Are the guidelines that can help me in creating a space?

We do provide some guidelines for creating community topics and services on the site.

How frequently must I update items?

Most of the portlets update themselves through RSS feeds, so no manual updates are required for those (although we do request that you check your page weekly to make sure content is getting updated and that it's appropriate). There is also a Top story portlet that we encourage you to use since it is the only portlet (in Release 1) that allows for graphics. This portlet is static, and we encourage you to update it weekly if possible.

How much time is required of me to own a developerWorks space?

This varies greatly depending on the ratio of dynamic content to static content on your page and how much the dynamic content is getting updated. It will also vary depending on how much original content you want to create. At the very minimum, plan on devoting an hour a week to your space.

What type of content applications (for example, blogs) will developerWorks spaces provide?

We will initially offer portlets to connect to our blogs, wikis, and forums. Each of these content service applications are already available through developerWorks as separate micro-sites, and even when integrated into a site, they will continue to exist separately as well. The benefit of spaces in relation to this is the ability to aggregate the content from each of these different applications onto a single page.

Can I connect to applications or services outside developerWorks?

Yes. Each of the blog, wiki, or forum portlets allows you to feed in content from a service running outside of developerWorks, and anywhere on the Internet. These services need to provide their content through an Atom or RSS feed to integrate into the respective portlet. Thus, you can have a space with blogs from multiple sites all talking about the main topic of the space, or even a combination of blogs, forums, and wikis.

Can I write my own article or tutorial in my developerWorks space?

You can create content of your own in a wiki or a blog. However, the developerWorks article or tutorial is a specific format reserved for content created through our own editorial process, and is tied to a number of internal tools and processes. Your content can still be available on the Net, just not in the particular format of a developerWorks article or tutorial, as you are used to seeing on our zones.

Can I blog from my developerWorks space?

You can link to your blog entries, but to post into your blog, you need to navigate to the blog and create your entry on the blog application itself. The entry will automatically appear in the blog and in the space once posted.

Can I have a podcast from my developerWorks space?

You can link to a podcast in your space that can be played through the podcast portlet. However, developerWorks currently does not provide a means to upload and store podcasts on our site.

What is the URL for my developerWorks space?

When you first request a space, you should also suggest a URL that you would like to use. We will check to determine if the URL is available and can be supported. Once assigned, you can use the URL. Please note that until you fill it with content and it is published, users may not see anything at that URL for the space.

Layout and Design of your developerWorks space

How many portlets can I put in my space?

You can have as many portlets as you want on the page. You can also have multiple different portlets of the same type. However, as a suggestion, more is not always better.

Can I put two or more different copies of the same portlet in my space?

Yes, you can have as many different instances of each portlet on the page. For example, you can have three different blog portlets, each showing entries from a different blog.

Can I change the number of columns I have in my space?

Yes. Space editors can choose between two- and three-column layouts for their space. The portlets will resize automatically to fill the page width.

Can I resize the portlets?

The portlets dynamically adjust their height to fit their displayed content. Some portlets have expand- & collapse-controls which can increase or reduce their size, respectively. However, you cannot adjust the width of the portlets.

Can my portlets span multiple columns?

No, the portlets are currently limited to the defined width of the columns. They cannot span two or more columns, nor can they be sized somewhere in between.

How do I move a portlet?

Click and drag the portlet by its title to another position within the column or to a different column. A red box should appear as a suggested drop-in position for the portlet. Simply let go of the portlet over the box and it should drop in place.

When do my changes to the space take effect for others?

Changes to your space take effect and can be seen by others only when you click on the Publish button. If you do not click Publish, your changes will be ignored and the layout on the live site will stay as it was before the changes. You can Publish your page as many times as you'd like.

Can I change the colors of my space?

Yes. The Themes provide a predefined collection of color choices you can pick from. Unfortunately, you cannot define a color theme of your own at this time. We will work on expanding the choices and the controls for this element.

Can I change the colors of a single portlet?

The portlets follow the colors of the chosen theme (please see the related question Can I change the colors of my space?). However, you cannot change the color of the individual portlets themselves at this point.

Can I change the fonts and font styles of my space?

Unfortunately, you cannot change the fonts or font styles at this time. Some of the portlets may allow italics, bold, or underlined styles.

Will my space work with non-English languages?

The edit controls for spaces are currently in English, but you can certainly have content within the portlets in other languages. We'd certainly like to see some non-English space sites too! Eventually, we will have full localization to non-English languages for our environment.

Will developerWorks spaces support Accessibility requirements?

Yes, the space itself can be accessed through accessibility-assisted browsers for the visually impaired. However, although the contents in the portlets are still dynamically drawn, the controls are not so.