using OpenSocial plugins to customize Profiles and VIVO RNS.

1. Clinical and Translational
Science Institute / CTSI
at the University of California, San Francisco
OpenSocial in Practice – Easy
Customization Benefits Everyone
Brian Turner and Eric Meeks
VIVO14 August 7, 2014

2. UCSF Profiles Experience
• Launch 2009
• OS launch in 2011
– Profiles integration
– VIVO integration
• 83,000 visits in June or 2,700 visits/day avg
• Rich in user-added content
– 34% have narrative, photo or research interests
– 52% have weblinks

3. What is OpenSocial?
• User perspective
– Embedded gadgets
– See full list at ORNG.info
• Technology
– Javascript and HTML wrapped in an XML file
– Collection of technology standards
• JSON, iFrames, OAuth
• Standards for data persistance
• VIVO Linked Open Data data model -> ORNG

4. How OpenSocial Works in RNS
• VIVO and Profiles have OpenSocial built in
– Optional part of current releases
– Active development isn’t required, initial
configuration is involved
– Gadgets easily shared/modified
– Institution-specific gadgets require programming in
HTML and Javascript

5. OpenSocial In Situ
• UCSF
• Baylor University
• Wake Forrest
• USC
• UCSD

6. Institutional Benefits of OS Additions
• Easy way to show institution-specific info
without altering the RNS code or ontologies
• Display valuable and visually appealing “grey
literature” from commercial media sites in the
RNS.
– YouTube videos, tweets,
– RNS looks better, making the institution look better
– Researchers are more engaged when they control
content

7. Institutional Benefits, continued
• OpenSocial plugins can facilitate active
collaboration by connecting to external tools
– Doodle polls, Chatter, or Dropbox
• Tools to highlight or utilize RNS data
– MyList exports contact info, publications (coming
soon)
– Cross-institutional collaborators
• Each OpenSocial plugin release creates an
opportunity for researcher engagement

8. Benefits to Researchers
• More complete portfolio - More page views
–UCSF Profiles shows a correlation between
profile views and the amount of content
• Especially advantageous to junior researchers
• Gray media shows traction where
publications/citations might not exist yet
–Video, tweets, presentations show motivation
and engagement

9. Benefits to Users
• It just looks better! (longer page views)
• See a more complete picture of the researcher
• Find the up-and-comers
– User-added content indicates ambition
– Less established researchers may be more
interested in finding collaborators
• More ways to connect to researchers
– Twitter, Groupware, Doodle, etc.

10. Thanks!
•http://profiles.ucsf.edu/brian.turner
•http://profiles.ucsf.edu/eric.meeks