Open Knowledge Initiative Educause Focus Group

1. Open Knowledge InitiativeEducause Focus Group Geoff Collier and Robby Robson, EduworksEducause 2002, Atlanta

2. Today’s Agenda • Introductions • The Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) • The challenge • OKI architecture and API’s • Open source implementations • OKI community • Benefits for higher education • Focus Group Feedback • Hold questions / comments until after presentation

3. The Challenge • Learning management is an enterprise system • Integration and stability • One size does not fit all • Application of global standards • Learning technology from other industries

4. What is OKI? • Architecture • Application Programming Interfaces (API’s) • Open source implementations • Community

5. OKI Architecture • Defines points of interoperability between components of a learning technology environment • Defines interoperability behavior at those points • Allows incremental adoption of the architecture • Technology independence

6. Application Programming Interfaces • API's define how components of a learning technology environment communicate with: • Other learning technology components • Other campus systems • Common infrastructure services • OKI API's are: • Described abstractly and written in Java • Royalty free • Stable – license prohibits modification • Supported by reference implementations and documentation

8. Open Source Implementations • OKI Partners are providing: • Examples of API Implementation • Examples of Education Components • Royalty free examples can be used in: • Development projects • Vendor products • Not a “free LMS” project

9. MIT Stanford University Projects University of Michigan Tufts University University of Cambridge Indiana University

10. OKI Community • OKI founding partners and core collaborators • Working closely with IMS and ADL / SCORM • OKI Developers Network • Begins October 2002 • Online developer forum • Access to OKI experts • Technical documentation access • Developer workshops - February 3-4, 2003 in Cambridge, MA

11. OKI Benefits • Defines how to integrate learning technology into enterprise infrastructure • Provides stability when learning or infrastructure components change • Provides a stable environment for innovation and sharing between developers and researchers • Supports heterogeneity of learning applications • Creates a common interoperability architecture for higher education developers and for commercial product vendors

12. OKI Status • Partners • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (lead) • Stanford University, Dartmouth College, North Carolina State University, University of Michigan, Indiana University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of Washington, University of Cambridge • Current State • Common Service API's v0.9 available • Educational Service API's being defined • Reference implementations and reference code available • Developers Network introduced

13. Architecture and API’s "We intended to enable an open source community that supported innovation and sharing of components and tools within the University. The evolution of OKI in parallel with our work was a remarkably valuable development for us. We were designing a new framework and a set of interoperability API's, and here came a group committed to the same vision, but planning to define a set of API's that are common across all of higher education." Joseph Hardin The University of Michigan, OKI Partner Institution

14. Focus Group Feedback Communication: • Is the OKI message clear? • What material would help you present OKI to others in your organization? OKI: • Where do you see the value of OKI? • What should OKI do next? Do differently?

15. Contact • Geoff Collier – gcollier@eduworks.com • OKI web site - http://web.mit.edu/oki • Email OKI at - oki-info@mit.edu Thank you, and please be our guest at the OKI reception on Wednesday night! 5:30 to 7:00 Atlanta Marriot Marquis Champagne Room