What is a wiki? A wiki is a type of collaborative web-based resource which enables users to work together to create and edit content associated with a particular topic or interest area, using any web browser.
Included in this document you will find:
- Instructions for accessing spaces.internet2.edu
- How to be added to a particular wiki "group" in order to be able to create or edit content in a particular wiki space
- How to setup a "watch" to receive e-mails when a wiki space of interest has been updated. This eliminates the need to check it regularly just to see if anything is new.
- Where to go for more information about the functionality and capabilities of the Internet2 Wiki platform.
- Go to: https://spaces.internet2.edu/
- Click on the "Log In" link on the top right of the page.
- You will be redirected to the WAYF (Where are You From). Select your institution from the "US Higher Education" (or other federation, see below for details) list and continue on to log in.
NOTE: even if your institution is listed in the WAYF, that is not a guarantee that you can use it to access the wiki since some institutions do not release the required attribute - EPPN). If you don't succeed at logging in this is the likely cause, and you will need to obtain and use a ProtectNetwork identity.
If your institution is not listed, or if you are unable to login to the wiki using your institutional login, you can sign up with InCommon partner ProtectNetwork https://www.protectnetwork.org/pnidm/registration.html for a UserID, and then select ProtectNetwork from the WAYF list.
- Once you've logged in, you will be sent back to spaces.internet2.edu BUT you will **not yet** have access to the protected space!
- Send your user name (which might look like email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org) to spaces-admin AT internet2 DOT edu along with your name and the specific wiki space you are requesting access to. DO NOT SEND YOUR PASSWORD. NO ONE WILL EVER ASK YOU FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
You MUST add a valid e-mail address to your user profile as soon as you login for the first time. See below for details on how to set or confirm this. Please also add your real name.
- If you are uncertain about your user name you can find it by looking at the top right of the page ("Welcome [username]") or by clicking on the Preferences link at the top right of the page under the search bar.
You will then be added to the access group. Note: this can take
two business days but usually won't. You will be notified by return e-mail when you are setup.
Internet2 currently operates two wiki platforms to support collaborative projects. Most of the individual wikis (aka "spaces"), each of which is devoted to a particular project or topic, require that a user be logged in to the system in order to create or edit content. In some cases a user must be logged in to be able to view the content.
wiki.internet2.edu is the host for a number of individual wiki spaces and operates in the traditional manner – each individual user requires an account with a username and password to edit or create content.
Instead of requiring users to create and maintain yet another username and password for access, spaces.internet2.edu utilizes the Shibboleth software system developed by the Internet2 Middleware Initiative to enable users:
- to login to their existing Single Sign-On (SSO) accounts at his/her home institution if it is a participant in the InCommon Federation, or one of the supported international federations (Austria - ACOnet, France - CRU, Spain - RedIRIS, Sweden - SWAMID, Switzerland - SWITCH, or UK Access Management Federation
for Education and Research), then seamlessly access spaces.internet2.edu, or
- to login to the freely available ProtectNetwork identity provider service, and use that identity to then authenticate to spaces.internet2.edu. ProtectNetwork is a Shibboleth-enabled identity provider that lets anyone easily obtain an ID.
- The current list of InCommon participants can be found at http://www.incommonfederation.org/participants.cfm
A free ProtectNetwork UserID can be setup at the following link. While this may seem to be yet another username and password to remember, it will hopefully be the last one you will need. This wiki is the first of what will likely be a variety of inter-institutional collaboration tools coming, which you will be able to access using either your home institution's SSO login (if it is a member of the InCommon Federation) or your ProtectNetwor identity. ProtectNetwork has been configured to release the appropriate attribute (EPPN) required to access spaces.internet2.edu.
As noted above, most of the individual project wiki spaces are anonymously viewable and thus they do not require users to login in order to view the content they contain. Some spaces however do require users to be logged in to view them, and generally they all require users to be logged in to create or edit content.
NOTE: This is a very low security (Level of Assurance - LoA) user identity, since it requires only a valid email address to confirm.
- To login if you are associated with an institution is running the Shibboleth system and which IS a participant in the InCommon Federation:
NOTE: not all InCommon Federation Participants are running the Shibboleth system in production yet, so if you are in doubt or have questions please check with your central IT office.
Visit https://spaces.internet2.edu/ (NOTE: this is https, not http) and click on the "Log In" link on the top right of the page. If you have already logged in to your institution’s Single Sign-On (SSO) you are now automatically logged into spaces.internet2.edu and you can continue doing what you are authorized to do as a logged in user.
Or if you have not yet logged in at your home institution, when you click on the "Log In" link on the top right of the page your browser will be redirected to the a website known as a "WAYF" (Where Are You From?) which will ask you which institution you are using to authenticate. Pick your institution from the "US Higher Education" (aka InCommon Federation) list. Your web browser will then be redirected back to your home institution’s login page. After you have entered your username and password there your browser will automatically return to spaces.internet2.edu and you will be logged in. Note that your password never leaves your institution, which is a primary benefit of the Shibboleth software system being utilized.
NOTE: if this is the first time that someone from your institution has tried to use the spaces.internet2.edu wiki, you may have to tell the administrator of your institution’s Shibboleth system to do this:
|Set the Attribute Release Policy to release the following attribute to https://spaces.internet2.edu/shibboleth:
He or she may also choose to release the following to populate user profiles:
- To login if you are associated with an institution which IS NOT a participant in the InCommon Federation:
Visit https://spaces.internet2.edu/ (NOTE: this is https, not http) and click on the "Log In" link on the top right of the page. If you have already logged in to ProtectNetwork you are now automatically logged into spaces.internet2.edu and you can continue doing what you are authorized to do as a logged in user.
Or if you have not yet logged in ProtectNetwork, when you click on the "Log In" link on the top right of the page your browser will be redirected to the a website known as a "WAYF" (Where Are You From?) which will ask you which institution you are using to authenticate. Pick "ProtectNetwork" from the "US Higher Education" (aka InCommon Federation) list. Your browser will then be redirected back to ProtectNetwork’s login page. After you have entered your ProtectNetwork username and password there your browser will automatically return to spaces.internet2.edu and you will be logged in. Note that your password never leaves the ProtectNetwork site, which is a primary benefit of the Shibboleth software system being utilized.
- After logging in to spaces.internet2.edu for the first time by either (a) or (b) above, you will be associated with the wiki, which will identify you with a wiki User Name. The User Name will be listed at the top of the page, and on your Preferences page.
- You MUST have a valid e-mail address in your profile. See below for details on how to set or confirm this.
4. How to be added to a particular wiki "group" in order to be able to create or edit content in a particular wiki space
In order to be added to the wiki group which will enable you to have the appropriate access to the specific wiki space you are interested in, AFTER YOU HAVE LOGGED IN TO spaces.internet2.edu AT LEAST ONCE AND ARE THUS ASSOCIATED WITH THE WIKI, please e-mail
- your wiki User Name (which might look like email@example.com or firstname.lastname@example.org)
- the name of the specific wiki space(s) to which you are requesting access,
to spaces-admin AT internet2 DOT edu, who will add you to the appropriate group and send you back an e-mail confirmation. This normally happens very promptly, ordinarily within one business day if not much sooner, but it may in some cases take up to two business days.
DO NOT SEND YOUR PASSWORD. NO ONE WILL EVER ASK FOR YOUR PASSWORD.
Once you receive confirmation that you have access, the wiki spaces you have access to will be listed on the main page (aka "Dashboard") when you visit https://spaces.internet2.edu/ .
This process may seem like a lot of overhead, but it takes much longer to read about than to actually do, and after doing this initial setup, you should be able to use the wiki without needing to go through separate authentication or authorization steps, beyond what you need to stay authenticated with your Identity Provider.
5. How to setup a "watch" to receive e-mails when a wiki space of interest has been updated. This eliminates the need to check it regularly just to see if anything is new.
Of course you are able and welcome to visit the wiki as often as you care to. If you would prefer to be alerted when content has changed on a particular wiki space, you can use the "watch" function of the wiki to have update notifications e-mailed to you.
When you are logged in to spaces.internet2.edu, you will see the following links at the top right of the page:
Welcome email@example.com | History | Preferences | Log Out
- Click on the "Preferences" link which will take you to a page where you can set a wide variety of personal preferences.
- Click on the [Edit Profile] blue tab on the top left
and you will see a page where you can set your e-mail preferences, among other things.
You MUST have a valid e-mail address in your profile, regardless of whether you are setting watches. You can set or confirm this here.
- by clicking on "Email" under the "Preferences" heading on the left. The options here include:
To start watching a space
- Subscribe to daily updates
The daily updates email contains a summary of all changes made to spaces you can see.
- Notify on my actions
By default, you are not sent an email when you add or change content. Check this option if this is not the case.
- Email format
Sets whether to receive all emails from Confluence in HTML or text format.
To stop watching a space,
- Click on the "Browse Space" link for the space.
- Go to the "Advanced" tab. In the left panel, click on "Start watching this space". This link will be replaced with a new link to "Stop watching this space".
You can also stop watching a space via the Watches tab under user profile settings.
You also have the option of configuring a customizable RSS feed, you will find the "Feed Builder" link at the bottom of the main dashboard page, and instructions at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONF20/Using+the+RSS+Feed+Builder
- Click on the "Browse Space" link for the space.
- Go to the "Advanced" tab. In the left panel, click on "Stop watching this space". This link will be replaced with a new link to "Start watching this space".
6. Where to go for more information about the functionality and capabilities of the Internet2 Wiki platform.
We are using wiki software called Confluence. This is a very mature, full-featured commercial offering with a considerable user community and various public support resources available. The complete user guide is online at http://confluence.atlassian.com/display/CONF20/Confluence+2.0+Home.
If you encounter problems or have questions specific to the Internet2 Confluence platform, and you cannot find the answer in the online documentation, please send e-mail to <spaces-admin AT internet2 DOT edu>