<grumble>Or is it a user preference to make it a one-way interaction?</grumble>
A bit of introduction: the major project I’m working on at Georgia Tech is a campus portal. I’ll try to blog more about the subject of portals at another time, but for now, portal software aims to give each member of the campus a personalized view of the resources of the campus: a student might see their class schedule and grade information, a faculty member might be able to update a class calendar, staff members might have a view of their own, alumni another .. you get the idea.
Sounds a lot like myUW.washington.edu . . . . you can do almost anything, from registration to paying for classes and checking your degree status there. Even look up price and availability of your textbooks . . . very handy.
It even offers webmail (WebPINE, natch), weather, and the usual portal stuff. It would be nice to see updated parking info, but that’s a pervasive Seattle problem. For all the talk of Seattle’s traffic, it’s largely due to not having enough parking: if everyone could find a space, the congestion would be gone. Here’s more information on how it works.