Plato Web Infrastructure
Summary of Benefits of use of Plato
- Quick deployment - a web presence for a consortia and its working groups can be created quickly
- Flexibility - a high degree of customization is available and can be simply managed through the web
- Extensible - additional functionality can be rapidly developed if necessary
- Simplicity - no html editing skills are required to establish or manage a site
- Commonality - each site benefits from enhancements developed to meet the requirements of other users
A place on the web where information can be brought together
A simple one page layout makes it easy to see news items, events, emails, action items, documents (in all formats) and other information. This page can serve as your project or consortium's home page with links as appropriate to external URLs.
The following sections highlight the key features of a Plato site. Note that there is total flexibility in which features are used in any one site, and also flexibility in features visible at different access levels.
News Items
- News Item repository allows the publishing of simple HTML-based news items
- Alert option to send an e-mail when a data item is created or modified
Maintaining group calendar
- Event repository provides a central reference area for tracking all types of events
- Multiple documents can be associated with each event
- Repeating events are supported
Managing group actions
- Document repository to store any format of document
- Multiple formats can be stored for each document
- Multiple document versions can be stored behind a single link
- Open-ended set of document categories
Document collaboration
- Document repository to store any format of document
- Multiple formats can be stored for each document
- Multiple document versions can be stored behind a single link
- Open-ended set of document categories
Information that is easily added or updated and available to the right people
Access to information is available at a number of levels, with access to each level controlled through membership of one or more mailing lists. The names of each level can be customized to suit the project needs. A public view and up to three levels of controlled access views are provided. Confirmation of the level you are accessing is displayed in the left navigation panel for controlled access views:
Emails sent to specified mailing lists are automatically made visible in the mail archive section:
Other information can be entered online without the need for an html web page editor, and documents uploaded through your web browser without the need for special upload software (for example ftp client). All information is secured on our web, database, and email servers.
Access Control and Visibility
- Mailing list-based access control model provides multi-level hierarchical access to data
- Data can be made publicly available, or restricted to different classes of membership
- The ability to create, modify, and delete data can be finely controlled
Additional functions include Document Review and Voting
The Open Group's online document review system is integrated to allow authorized users to add comments in context and view all comments with the authors' names. A voting capability provides a mechanism for authorized users to vote, for example, to vote for acceptance or rejection of a proposed amendment to a document.
Administration is easy
Navigation bars, headings, custom pages, and content are under the control of the client's administrator(s). A separate group of administrators can be defined who can access the maintainers links.
The overall look and feel, and the style sheet can be customized on the client's behalf. The system interfaces to The Open Group's email and web access system which in turn links to the membership database and conference/event management system. New facilities developed for clients are available to other clients who make us of the common resources.
Mailing lists
- Simple mailing list administration
- Staff from member companies can manage their own membership of mailing lists
- Full mail archive available online
