iLabs User Support Policy

iLabs User Support Policy

iLabs is a collaborative endeavor of a community of people interested in inquiry pedagogy and philosophy that was begun in 1995. It is a publicly available web-based suite of software tools that is provided free of cost to all users. iLabs consist of different “bricks” that together form an interactive website. iLabs are created by filling out a simple web form that includes checking off which bricks or tools you want to include in your website.

iLabs development is carried out by an ever-changing and growing group of participants, whose members include university researchers, students, community activists, and educators representing a variety of settings and grade levels. Development work is supported through volunteer work, in-kind institutional commitments, and grant funds. Primary support is provided by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Advanced Materials for the Purification of Water with Systems (CAMPWS). Organizations we have partnered with include Etnography of the University (EOTU), Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS), Graduate Teaching Fellows in K-12 Education Program (GK-12), Life on the Prairie (UI), SisterNet, Puerto Rican Cultural Center.

Around 1000 individuals and groups use iLabs on their own to support their activities. Users play a big role as co-developers of the software. We refer to this process as “design through use” or “design and evaluation as participative inquiry.”

The following general support is provided free of charge to all iLab users:

Online documentation, which is undergoing continuous development;
E-mail help by writing to inquiry@help.uiuc.edu, typically answered within 24 hours;
Weekly IP_Tech meetings that are open to all and can be attended via a voice conference call or video conferencing. For information about time and place of the meetings please contact Muzhgan Nazarova at nazarova@alexia.lis.uiuc
iLab staff may be available for an initial consultation meeting, time and resources permitting.

Customized support is provided to users at cost-plus (35%), if specific modifications, new features, workshops, training sessions, etc., are required. We encourage people who think they will use the technology in a way that require customized support to consult with us in advance, so that we can help prepare budget descriptions and estimates, and allocate resources in advance.

iLabs are being developed on an Open Source model. We are in the process of completing the work necessary to register iLabs with SourceForge - the world's largest Open Source software development web site, providing free hosting to tens of thousands of projects.