Shared infrastructure for knowledge portals
10 questions about the Content eXchange Platform
How can we develop and manage the technical infrastructure behind knowledge portals more efficiently? The Content eXchange Platform (CXP) pilot is one possible answer. Why is this pilot important, and how can you prepare your institution for its own knowledge or content portal?
1. What is the Content eXchange Platform?
The Content eXchange Platform provides the technology behind knowledge and content portals. For example, it collects knowledge products from trusted source systems in a central location and enriches them through services such as indexing, cataloguing and evaluation.
SURF and Npuls portals such as Publinova and the XR knowledge base use the CXP, but the platform will soon, subject to members’ approval, also offer individual institutions the opportunity to build their own portals within certain parameters.
2. What are the benefits of the CXP for my institution?
With the CXP, your institution retains better visibility, control and oversight of its portals, whilst each portal can still serve its own purpose, for example as a showcase or marketing tool.
In the future, it should also become easier to set up temporary portals, for example for lecturers collaborating on a specific programme. At present, such websites sometimes end up in limbo once the programme is over, or a multitude of separate websites spring up within a single institution.
As an institution, you also do not need to hire your own web developer; you can make use of the CXP’s existing technical building blocks.
3. What prompted the development of the CXP?
We noticed that there were many portals which, to a large extent, required the same functionalities. Think of search functions, creating previews and adding reviews. Each portal had its own technical infrastructure, which meant the wheel was often being reinvented. That is, of course, inefficient.
With the CXP pilot, we’re investigating how we can create a technical infrastructure on which all these portals can be built. As well as delivering cost savings and greater efficiency, this also gives us the opportunity to further develop the portals collaboratively. In this way, multiple portals benefit from a single investment.
4. How is the sharing of material organised within the CXP?
Material only needs to be uploaded once. Institutions can then choose under what conditions and with which labels the content is shared, and with which portals. For example, a researcher can publish their work simultaneously on their own institution’s portal and on Publinova.
5. Does the CXP also make use of other SURF services?
We look as far as possible at which functionalities are already available within SURF, so that we do not have to develop them from scratch. The basic principle is: develop one functionality and then use it in multiple places.
For the storage of knowledge products, for example, we use SURFsharekit. For matters such as authentication and authorisation, we also integrate with existing systems such as eduID.
The CXP therefore does not replace these services, but connects them and supplements them where necessary. In this way, we also prevent the same functionality from being redeveloped in different places within SURF.
In terms of architecture, HOSA and MOSA form the basis of the platform.
6. What does the CXP mean for collaboration between institutions?
Above all, it makes sharing knowledge and content easier. Building your own portal becomes easier, but you can also share your material more easily and quickly with existing portals.
7. How does the CXP contribute to our autonomy?
By jointly investing in this technology, we are less dependent on external suppliers. This allows us to retain greater control over the sharing of knowledge.
8. How do I prepare my institution for its own knowledge portal based on the CXP?
First, consider what you, as an institution, want to achieve with a portal. The educational aspect really must be the starting point. What do you want to share, with whom and for what purpose? How do you want users to be able to search through the content on offer? In short: what do you want to make visible? Involve your library and, where relevant, content creation teams in this process.
You can get support with this process. The experts from the Npuls adoption team will be happy to help you identify objectives and contribute ideas on processes. This way, you ensure that the portal genuinely contributes to your teaching, is well received by users and continues to function effectively.
9. How does the technical implementation of the CXP work?
The first step is to integrate the systems containing the knowledge products, such as a repository, digital learning environment or video platform. These systems must comply with the national and international standards used by the CXP.
This enables the platform to retrieve the knowledge products and associated metadata, index them and pass them on to the portal.
In addition, we determine which microservices and generic front-end components the portal requires, for example for searching, filtering, previews or statistics. As these components are already available within the CXP, the institution does not need to have a completely new technical infrastructure developed in-house.
10. When will the CXP be available as a service?
If the members agree, we aim to officially launch the CXP as a service in the course of 2028.