It is rare for Faculties of Arts to join vision, will, and resources to build a custom technology for deployment to such a large number of users.
The vision came from, First: Julie Walchli, the Director of the Arts Co-op Program, who proposed to the Associate Dean and Dean that Arts apply for Teaching and Learning Enhancement Fund grant support to expand and deepen the Faculty's support for students' career awareness and transitions; and Second, Fred Cutler, Director of Arts Instructional Support and IT, who had his own vision of a student-owned eportfolio and had resources and a team to be able to build this technology.
So the success so far is due to a constellation of factors including Dean's Office sponsorship, the availability of central UBC funding, a robust and ambitious learning technology support and IT unit within the Faculty, and an Arts Co-op office that had a vision to expand its presence to become a "Work Integrated Learning and Career Initiatives" office.
Vision from 'below' in the organization must be coupled with resources from above and an organizational structure and culture that can accommodate this kind of innovation.