iSites is a customized HBS application that enables users to create dynamic, customized web sites for collaborating with colleagues. Including features such as file sharing, discussions, announcements, and resource links, HBS users have created 2,000 iSites since the tool's introduction in 2001.
iSites offer easy access control, letting the site author build user groups from individual names or preset lists (such as all faculty for a particular course). The application also offers sophisticated file-sharing features, such as file checkout, which blocks access to a file during editing, and versioning, which automatically tracks and stores previous copies of a document.
As with any other web site, iSites let users include custom headers, graphics, photos, text, pull-down menus, and other basic HTML features. Anyone at HBS can create an iSite quickly and easily, without the time and expense of custom development. And since iSites are web-based, users can access project files from anywhere in the world without using file transfer protocol (FTP) programs.
It is easy to create an iSite with little or no training, thanks to its web-based wizard. From this wizard, an iSite owner can choose from a wide variety of modular content ('buckets'), such as an image panel, text panel, file sharing, or links and resources. Some of the modular 'buckets' are viewable inserts of other HBS applications, such as HBS Classifieds, which is a posting area for sale/swap of items within the HBS community, HBS Discussion Boards, or a Working Knowledge summary.
For those who want create web sites that are restricted to a specific group of users, an HTML 'bucket' within iSites enables an author to build and then post a web site with specific access controls.
The HBS iSites is a highly flexible, but easy to use community creator. This code was the precursor for iSite code used by Harvard University in http://icommons.harvard.edu.
