JISC

The e-Framework for Education and Research is an international initiative by JISC and Australia’s Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST). This initiative aims to explore the potential benefits of applying a service-oriented approach to the provision of ICT infrastructure for education and research, and where successful, to support its broader adoption by institutions and their suppliers

See the e-Framework overview briefing paper
See the Service Oriented Approach animation

The e-Framework knowledge base

Its main provision is an evolving knowledge base presented as the e-Framework website. This contains information and links to further information on services and their effective use. There is thus technical information about open service standards covering pre-specification prototypes, specifications and standards under development, those being implemented and those in general use. There is also information about the usage of services, the domains and context of their use, the human level tasks and processes being supported, scenarios and case studies of how humans make use of service-based applications to accomplish these and technical information about the ways in which the services were brought together.

See the Domain, Process and Service Models briefing

These two aspects (technical and human) interact and are expected to evolve as it becomes clear which areas benefit most from a service-oriented approach and which less. Also commonalities across tasks will refine the services that support them and the provision of services will enable more flexible implementations that allow new practices and processes to evolve.

How can JISC projects engage with the e-Framework?

Projects are expected to work within the e-Framework by making use of its available information and by contributing to its further development, with the emphasis on the latter in the early stages of the e-Framework development. How this happens will depend on the nature of the project:

• Where projects carry out technical development, this should be done within the service-oriented approach of the e-Framework and, where possible, should expose and consume functionality via Web Services (SOAP or REST). However, other technical approaches are permissible, where appropriate, e.g. where existing standards are already in use (such as Z39.50), or where Web Services do not yet meet performance or functional needs (such as for secure transactions). See the e-Framework & SOA briefing
• Other projects that will not be providing services themselves are encouraged to use web service-enabled tools and applications within their own environment. All projects should be able to contribute to the knowledge base which the e-Framework is developing. This can include domain, practice and process models, scenarios and use cases, and good practice guidelines on the internal and cross-institutional implementation of the technology, as well as information about the service definitions they have used or developed.

What to contribute to the e-Framework?

At the interface between users and services there is emerging a thinner but more flexible and capable technical user environment layer. This is taking two forms: the continued development of portal technology and the so-called rich client platform. Both of these provide a capable plug-in software framework that can take much of the work out of developing the user interface, allowing concentration on the coordinating functionality of the tool or application.

See the Service Oriented Application Integration Layer briefing

The goal is to record both relevant project outputs and outcomes in order to support those seeking to implement a service-oriented approach. By sharing developments and experiences internationally, we hope to be able to do this more effectively and rapidly than if done alone, and by developing and adopting open standards, establish a wider and more open market enabling costs to be reduced.

The e-Framework has several nested levels which can be contributed to and/or used. Where appropriate, all projects will contribute the following to JISC and the e-Framework:

1. Domain maps that reflect consensus-based practices, processes and supporting systems. These will take the form of a functional specification and technical architecture model of the services and components
2. Good Practice and Process Models
3. Scenarios and Use Case Models
4. Applications that integrate the use of services
5. Service Usage Models (SUMs): These integrate a number of services for a particular use. They include a description of the requirement addressed; the collection of service genres or service expressions and other resources used; how the services are coordinated to provide their function
6. Services: where not already recorded in the e-Framework, additional service genres or expressions identified in the course of the projects, or any emergent interoperability specifications that could become part of a service expression, should be contributed

 At what level should your project contribute to the e-Framework

• Projects developing new resources in the above six areas listed should contribute them with references back to their project website. Projects are not expected to contribute to every level, but they should take note and make use of what is in the levels above and below.
• Projects may only be making use of existing resources in these levels, in which case they can contribute Case Studies and/or Scenarios, or identify new areas which should be included. They can do this by providing links to themselves at appropriate points in the e-Framework, e.g. as users of a given Service or Service Usage Model (SUM).