A basis system used to create the Go-Lab Portal is the Web 2.0 platform Graasp developed by EPFL. Graasp serves simultaneously for networking and discussion, activity management, storage, aggregation and contextualisation of resources. Graasp contains four types of constructs: Actors representing real people who can create collaboration spaces and add resources to them, Activities which are actions to reach specific objectives, Assets representing resources that can be e.g. text files, RSS feeds, wikis, videos or audio files, as well as Applications that are widgets or gadgets that can be executed within the collaboration spaces.

The user interface of Graasp mainly consists of two parts: the focal and the contextual part. The focal part shows the entity that is currently selected by the user. It can be a human (actor), an activity (space), an asset or an application (tool). The contextual part consists of the four columns of items, each of which represents one type of entities (actors, assets, activity spaces, tools) linked to the focal entity. Within a given space, users can post, share, and link learning resources and tools, constructing personalized learning process. Spaces allow learners to organize learning activities, aggregate data and resources, and collaborate with each other.

Graasp offers contextualized and personalized recommendation of people, resources, and tools. It helps learners to find suitable people to collaborate with and trustworthy resources to learn from, which sustains self-directed learning activities in open learning environments. With help of a bookmarklet, Graasp allows learners to import resources and people from other social platforms, such as a video from YouTube, a slidecast from SlideShare, a book description from Amazon, etc. This feature provides a convenient way for learners to grab, aggregate, and organize different learning resources, which facilitates constructing their personal learning environments.