The following response to my enquiry concerning the definition of 'portal'
is forwarded to the list at the author's request. The most important point
Chris makes is, perhaps, in his last sentence:

Neil Handley, Curator
British Optical Association Museum (and guardian of the APERTURE
'Gateway'!!!)
The College of Optometrists
42 Craven Street, London. WC2N 5NG
Tel: 020 7839 6000. Fax: 020 7839 6800.
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web: http://www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum

Dear Neil,

Your email to the MCG list has been forwarded onto me as you may be
interested in some of the work JISC is doing in the portals area.

As you can see from my signature, my main responsibility is the development
of portals and associated strategy and thinking for JISC.  In other words,
considering the role of portals within Higher and Further Education.
Information on the work in this area can be found at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=programme_portals, including details of
the projects currently being funded.  The work is based around three ways
users may wish to access information: subject-based, data-type based, and
user community based (not on the list of projects as yet but due to start in
the spring).

The page above addresses your initial question to some degree, but please
also see the Portals FAQ that has been developed to address such issues at
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=ie_portalsfaq.  Within JISC's
development strategy, a portal is an interactive and proactive discovery
tool that allows access to a number of distinct information sources through
a common interface.  This is more the 'thick' type of portal that is
described in the FAQ, an example of which is HEIRPORT at
http://www.ads.ahds.ac.uk/heirport/ and run by the organisers of the Opening
Doors event.  A list of links such as you maintain would be of the 'thin'
type.
The primary difference is that from your site users would then go out to the
external sites/resources they need; in a 'thick' portal, the user sends out
a search and the information is brought to them from the external
sites/resources.

These distinctions affect the terminology applied to sites.  I would only
use the 'portal' label where there is some level of pro-active interaction
and use the term 'gateway' for a list of links; it is certainly the case
that each has their value and role.  Your resource is akin to the service
provided by the hubs of the Resource Discovery Network
(http://www.rdn.ac.uk) which use the term 'gateway' and also 'catalogue' to
indicate the collection of links they maintain.  In a sense, a portal could
be seen as an extended gateway.

I hope this information answers your questions, but please get in touch if
you would like to discuss this further.  In regards of the conference being
organised (which I am not involved in), I suspect a portal will be as I have
indicated above, but it is certainly worth clarifying so that the Museums
sector can reach a common understanding on this.

Regards,

Chris

PS. Please forward this to the MCG list if it fails to appear there.  I have
copied it there but am not sure if non-members can post and it may bounce.

****************************************************************************
Chris Awre
Programme Manager, Portals
JISC

3rd Floor, Strand Bridge House
138-142, The Strand
London WC2R 1HH
Tel: 020 7848 2820
email: [log in to unmask]
****************************************************************************

> | -----Original Message-----
> | From: Museums Computer Group [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of
Neil Handley
> | Sent: 20 February 2003 10:26
> | To: [log in to unmask]
> | Subject: Re: 'Opening Doors' - conference announcement
> |
> |
> | Would anyone define for me what a 'portal' actually is. When is a
> | portal just a links page? I cite as an example my own 'portal'
> | called APERTURE because it is an opening onto the web for those
> | seeking sites on historic spectacles and optical devices.
> | http://www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum/aperture Ideally
> | this would be policed by some special sort of software such as
> | ROADS, as used by the National Maritime Museum but we are too small
> | an organisation to do that and the site is small enough for me to
> | check each link manually on a regular
> | basis.
> |
> | Am I in error to call this page a portal? Would a sophisticated
> | portal actually achieve anything better than the current page?
> |
> | Neil Handley, Curator
> | British Optical Association Museum
> | The College of Optometrists
> | 42 Craven Street, London. WC2N 5NG
> | Tel: 020 7839 6000. Fax: 020 7839 6800.
> | E-mail: [log in to unmask]
> | Web: http://www.college-optometrists.org/college/museum



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