Caterina Boccato and Serena Pastore National Institute for Astrophysics, Astronomical Observatory of Padova, Vicolo Osservatorio 5, 35122, Padova, ITALY

1. T he Web Information System of the National Institute for Astrophysics www.inaf.it

4. From the First Web Site to the New Information System The old Web site was realized with a minimal effort for what regards the content architecture and the layout design. Problems > the lack of an editorial office Needs > to have urgently a virtual place where INAF staff throughout Italy could find information about what and how the new central administration was operating A precise choice for the new web site: to concentrate all the efforts mainly on the quality and on the amount of the information that would be published on the web

5. Towards the CMS What we would like to have > a Web information system able to ensure an efficient flow of information both from the Head Quarter to the peripheral institutes and vice versa. What we needed > a web-based information system able to disseminate information over the different categories of users (internal staff and external users) together with several tools to promote the external image of the Institute. BUT we have to stress again here the fact that INAF, in this phase of its life, couldn’t sustain the constitution of a big editorial office able to realize and manage such a web information system.

9. Stream of information The first step : to understand and to set out the “stream of information” that is how information is generated and how and when it becomes ready to be published in a web environment The web content architecture which would reflect the organizational structure of the Institute. INAF besides the Presidency, the administrative and the scientific councils, is divided into two big department, i. e. the Research Structures Department and the Research Projects Department, each one of them is divided itself into 2 organizational units and 3 or 4 services. In addition to these there are also 7 Presidency direct collaboration offices.

10. Content architecture We have assigned each web content area to the people responsible for that particular department, office, service or organizational units. Common users, whether belonging to the Institute or not, would never know the organizational structure of the institute and would never search the information following this scheme . This content architecture was made in fact only to apply in the better way the Plone CMS web publishing process because it allows us to give particular permission to a content author only in a the restricted web area in which he/she has the duty to edit his/her information of public interest.

11. The web design and layout But the more usable, and used, browsing tool is the second conceptual menu in which all the information is presented divided into several categories that are much more recognizable by common users. This menu is present in all the web pages of the system, it is written in JavaScript, and we integrated it in the Zope/Plone framework. At this point we had to “translate” this project for the users giving them the possibility of retrieving information in an easy and efficient manner both with a good browsing tool and with other useful services. Therefore, the first phase of defying the web content architecture on the basis of the stream of information, a web design phase followed. The first way a user has to browse the INAF web portal is the just described organizational structure image map menu

13. Customization From a technological point of view Zope/Plone gives the availability of a mechanism that allows the three main content actors (creator, editor and reviewer) to manage information according to their specific role on specific areas, but following a web publishing process that requires the customization of membership, workflow, access and security system of the platform.

14. Anonymous and authenticated users The system distinguishes two kind of user categories that access resources: Anonymous : all users accessing public information; Authenticated : users that effectively interact with the system and are authorized to manage web content. The authenticated user is authorized to access specific resources, or to do specific actions, on the system giving a username and a password, different for each role assigned to that user

17. The workflow The automation of the whole publishing system is realized by a workflow applied to each content that should be published. The workflow controls the logic in content processing through the systems with a sequence of interactions that should take place to complete the publishing task and that involve different people.

19. Contact Caterina Boccato INAF – Image & communication Office Web: www.inaf.it E_mail: [email_address] Tel: +39.049.8293537 Fax: +39.049.8759840 ADRESS INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova vicolo dell'Osservatorio 5 - 35122 Padova ITALY