I’m going to write a short series about some of the up-and-coming features and functionality we’re looking at on the 2collab roadmap. With each post I will try to give a little background on our thinking and give a taste of what to expect.
One note, the priority and sequence of our developments will to a large extent be determined by user feedback. Feedback we’ll get by either by actual usage of 2collab, by people sending in emails to our feedback@2collab.com email, user tests, and by reactions on this blog!
So, what is integration? By integration we mean 3 things:
1. Integration with other Elsevier applications – such as ScienceDirect, Scopus, Engineering Village, The Lancet and Cell Press. So for example, on ScienceDirect we would like to display the comments, ratings and tags posted by 2collab users for relevant articles.
2. Integration with existing and overlapping applications – in this case, being able to import and export bookmarks from social bookmarking sites, web browsers and reference managers. Obvious benefit being interoperability and easy transfer of bookmarks and also turning the bookmarks compiled by a group into a reference list for inclusion in an academic manuscript, for example.
3. Integration by enabling other applications and developers to work with 2collab – in this case creating and releasing an API (Application Programming Interface). An API is a method by which a web application supports requests from other applications – so, this is what allows mash-ups to occur, customisation of a tool by its users (e.g. Firefox add-ons) as well as use by more ‘commercial’ developers. For 2collab we want this to further open up the platform to customisation, to allow any website to place an “add to 2Collab” button on their pages, and allow our more technically orientated users to create interesting mash-ups or add-ons that provide value to researchers.
Coming next, pt 2: personal profile
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