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Kyler Laird
http://directory.purdue.edu/
The Purdue University Computing Center (PUCC) has developed a wonderful new online system for maintaining basic information about all Purdue faculty, staff and students. It's called "the X.500 server," "Mail-Hub" or "PH" depending on who is talking about it.
Information in this systems database can be retrieved and often even changed online by individual users using one of several interfaces. Some of the data is maintained by Personnel (for faculty and staff) and the Registrar (for students).
By building tools around this system, we are freed from maintaining data about people in several places. For example, for a class roster, an instructor needs only to maintain a list of qualified names (the unique keys that specify individuals). Using that list, a roster including names, phone numbers, URLs, and e-mail addresses can be generated using information maintained by the user and the University. Course-specific information, such as seat numbers and group names, can be keyed to this same qualified name so that more extensive lists can be generated.
All of the tools built on this system rely on the central data being correct. Fortunately, since all of the tools use the same set of data, only a single update should ever be needed. This is a big advantage for maintaining information about students who are constantly changing physical and electronic addresses.
In order to make maintaining this information easier, we have developed a Web interface (URL above) for viewing and modifying it. We are also working on a collection of simple tools to make using the data easier.
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