I am really wondering if...

We can ever meets the demands even we as a subset of the university for
collaboration tools without an underlying entensible modular framework/API
like a OS X Dashboard, or google home page plugins. I honestly don't
believe there is a one-size fits all solution. Everyone wants to customize
everything.  Either for look and feel or to cut down on information
overload. Everyone really wants ONE place to go to get all the
information that is important to them.

In a way, what we are looking for is the old interbbs connector system.
circa mid 90s. You could have your own system, you could message people on
another system, be notified if someone posted to a topic you were
interested in on another site. Send private mails to someone on another
system.  You could be anonymous on one system, and have your full profile
information showing on another system. Some systems archive messages and
others don't.

My question is, is there an open standard we can conform to?

SWAP is nice but i am still at the whim of their programming team.


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  Sean O'Malley, Information Technologist
  Michigan State University
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