Organizing e-Portfolio Contents

Yesterday, I introduced my 14-year-old son to the idea of electronic portfolios. I had already spent the previous day creating my own digital archive (with Google Docs) and website (with Google Sites). I familiarized myself with the way the tools worked as I went along. I also considered some philosophical arguments for the potential of e-portfolios, such as Dr. Barrett's "Balancing the Two Faces of E-Portfolios" and an Educause Quarterly article on a "lifetime personal Web space (LPWS)" (Cohn and Hibbitts, 2004). The latter article by Cohn and Hibbitts raised several questions that I would like to see answered before I become a staunch e-portfolio advocate, specifically:

• "Where is the body of rigorous, research-based evidence that supports the e-portfolio as a pedagogical and presentational tool?" (Or, perhaps more relevantly, what research has been done since their article was published in 2004?) 
• "From a cost-benefit perspective, is it prudent to commit . . . student resources to a time-consuming process . . . ?" (A question I fully expected my pragmatic son would ask me.)
• "Do we know for certain that graduating students who bring electronic portfolios to their job [or college admission] interviews will be more competitive than students who furnish paper-based portfolios?" 

For now, I'm willing to try e-portfolios because the arguments in favor of using them are sufficiently persuasive. My goal in proposing the idea to my son was twofold: to see how he would respond to the arguments in favor of e-portfolios and, assuming he was persuaded, to see what process he would use to create one.