WIDE Creates SWAP

by Douglas Walls — posted at 2007-12-05 12:00 AM last modified 2007-12-05 11:28 AM

SWAP is a new digital product developed in 2007 by the WIDE Research Center at Michigan State University. SWAP stands for Social Writing Application Platform. SWAP is a set of modular web services, based on social networking principles, that can be combined in various configurations to assist a wide variety of users, including teachers and students. A working version of SWAP is currently available at http://tne.wide.msu.edu.

SWAP's core functions include:

a fully relational object database that stores user-contributed content
a user profile system that enables social networking
a folksonomic (tagging) system that facilitates user-generated organizational categories and metadata
faceted browsing and recommender functions that allow users' activities, interests, ratings etc. to influence what they see
file management functions (upload, sort, full-text search)
content management functions (collaborative authoring/wiki, versioning,
role-based permissions and workflows
mapping (via Googlemaps API)
feeds (RSS)
mail and messaging (e.g. SMS)
custom document markup

Each of the functional aspects of SWAP has been built to be as portable as possible, but also to be compatible with other aspects so that these can be combined in various ways as needed to help groups who need to write together. The result: small social writing applications that help to fill gaps in an existing toolset, augment a pre-existing tool or site, etc.

SWAP components currently power several different sites/services, including the LRE, Grassroots (a community mapping service), and the WIDE Content Management System (e.g., www.wide.msu.edu; rhetoric.msu.edu).

Category(s): wide research center

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