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[ba-ohs-talk] Open Knowledge Initiative


http://web.mit.edu/oki/index.html
Chunks from various pages at the site
"The Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) addresses a critical need in higher 
education: meaningful, coherent, modular, easy-to-use internet-based 
environments, for assembling, delivering and accessing educational resources.
OKI is building a scalable, sustainable open-source reference system for 
internet-enabled education. MIT, Stanford and its collaborators have been 
working to define the parameters of an architecture whose components 
address key educational management functions. These solutions will have 
implications and potential benefits far beyond Cambridge or Palo Alto. By 
addressing the needs of a more diverse range of schools, OKI seeks to drive 
collaboration and spark an open-source developer community to build a 
sustainable support model. The generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon 
Foundation provides start-up funds for an initial two-year period.
The Open Knowledge Initiative will identify, design, and package a set of 
web-enabled learning components to serve the widest range of educational 
environments. Our solutions will enhance and streamline the development, 
delivery, and sustainability of interesting and advanced knowledge 
components in the future. Our efforts will include strategies for engaging 
the educational community to inform the design of the product and support 
its ongoing development and use. A key characteristic of the project will 
be its adherence to the open-source approach for software development."    (01)

"OKI does not intend to compete in the marketplace. We believe that the 
market for learning management systems will only thrive and progress in 
positive ways with a rich array of players and alternatives. OKI is 
specifying an architecture that will fit into the space occupied by a 
number of "competitors." But the marketplace knows too well that the 
current LMS vendors and customers have not had the resources or the leisure 
to think through a long-lived, extensible architecture. The funding from 
the Mellon foundation, as well as the resources offered up by its 
collaborator institutions, allows OKI the opportunity to design and offer 
to the community an example of such an extensible system.
We want the primary product of the Open Knowledge Initiative to be not 
merely an architectural specification. We are building a functional example 
of such a system, with a proof-of-concept implementation. A number of the 
collaborating institutions, including MIT and Stanford, are looking to OKI 
to provide short-term and long-term solutions for their own campuses. 
Initially, these institutions expect to use systems based on the reference 
implementation, but eventually we look to industry to support systems that 
comply with the API definitions and core architectural philosophy of OKI. "    (02)

Among the activities within this project are the JASIG Portal 
http://www.ja-sig.org I have mentioned here earlier. And, 
http://www.adlnet.org/Scorm/scorm_index.cfm
"What is the SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model)?
·       A reference model that defines a Web-based learning "content model"
·       A set of interrelated technical specifications designed to meet the 
Department of Defense's high level "-ilities"
·       A process to knit together disparate groups and interests
·       A bridge from general emerging technologies to commercial 
implementations
·       An evolving document to collect all the "bits and pieces" in one 
place "    (03)

BTW: "ADLnet" in adlnet.org stands for "Advanced Distributed Learning 
Network".  http://www.adlnet.org/index.html is a good entry to this site.    (04)

Meanwhile, it strikes me that the Open Knowledge Initiative run at MIT and 
several other "mainframe" institutions might have a goldmine of ideas for 
OHS/DKR thinking.    (05)

Jack    (06)