Today has seen some debate around what a portal actually is. There’s a significant level of disharmony between people when they have to explain what a portal should look and feel like to an end user, and at this stage I think that’s quite healthy.
Current expectations are that portals deliver pages of portlets that try to be applications which would normally occupy whole-screen real estate. The worry of most is that portal attempt to get around alt-tab (or F9 if you’re on a superior OS) in switching between applications.
To some degree I feel that this position is a valid worry. Every time I see portal products demonstrated in the field, even by market leaders, the same old UI cram is evident.
There is an answer to this, and it will take some engineering and probably harsh decision making about what to include in a service.
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Paul lives, rides and works in Cardiff, South Wales. His work seems to largely entail fixing things and keeping wheels on. Officially, he is actively engaged and interested in Enterprise Architecture these days, but has a secret past that involved standing around on glaciers collecting meltwater samples, and walking through endless fields of wheat taking radiance measurements. 