The Story of “O”
(as in Open Source)
Phillip Long
MIT
Thursday, May 13th, 2004
longpd@mit.edu
How many open source
developers does it take to change
a light bulb?
• 17 to agree about the license
• 17 to argue about the brain deadedness of the light
bulb architecture
• 17 to argue about a new model that encompasses all
models of illumination & makes it simple to candles,
campfires, pilot lights and skylights with the same
easy to extend mechanism
• 17 to speculate about the secretive industrial
conspiracy that insures that light bulbs will burn out
frequently
• 1 to finally change the light and 16 who decide that
this solution is good enough for the time being
•
Peter Wayner, “Free for all; how linux and the free software movement undercut the high-tech titatns”, NY,
Harper-Collins, 2000
The e-decade
e-commerce
e-publishing
e-business
e-Bay
The o-decade
open
source
systems
standards
open
archives
open
open
access
tools
Meme -
"ideas should freely
spread from one to
another over the globe”
Thomas Jefferson
Liberation Technology1
1John
Unsworth - Chronicle of Higher Education, Jan. 30, 2004
Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Liberation technology is
not anti-business
Commerce across a
continuum of nonexclusive commercial
rights
The Cast
Open Content
Open Standards
Open Systems
Open Tools
Open Access
Open Content
http://ocw.mit.edu/
“OpenCourseWare looks counter-intuitive
in a market-driven world. It goes against
the grain of current material values. But it
really is consistent with what I believe is
the best about MIT. It is innovative. It
expresses our belief in the way education
can be advanced – by constantly widening
access to information and by inspiring
others to participate.”
– Charles M. Vest,
President of MIT
Sept. 2001
Why Is MIT Doing This?
•Furthers MIT’s fundamental mission
•Embraces faculty values
•Teaching
• Sharing best practices with the greater
community
• Contributing to their discipline
•Counters the privatization of knowledge
and champions the movement toward
greater openness
Where We Are
701 Courses
Phase I
Pilot
Courses
Phase III
Steady State
Phase II
Expansion
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
50
500
900
1250
1550
1800
1800
Publication • Design pub process
• Implement technology
strategy
• Develop IP strategy
• Implement dept.
liaison program
•
•
•
•
Evaluation • Develop evaluation
strategy
• Conduct baseline
evaluation
• Implement reporting strategy
• Conduct annual evaluations and focused studies
• Conduct annual evaluations
and studies
•
•
•
•
• Collaborate with consortium
members
Outreach • Partner with Universia
(translation affiliate)
Inventory content and improve quality
Enhance site features and functions
Add video materials
Plot new content capture tactics
Facilitate other opencoursewares
Partner with translation/distribution affiliates
Build awareness
Foster learning communities
Each year:
• Add new courses: ~100
• Revise existing: ~ 275
• Archive old:
~ 100
Publishing 700 Courses
•Site Highlights
•Syllabus
•Course Calendar
•Lecture Notes
•Assignments
•Exams
•Problem/Solution Sets
•Labs and Projects
•Simulations
•Tools and Tutorials
•Video Lectures
Open Content
Open Content
Access Data
Site Traffic Overview
Since
10/1/03*
December
January
February
March
20,604,427
2,680,794
3,311,611
2,884,061
3,025,412
*11,103
9,276
11,624
11,174
10,891
Average Monthly
Visits
*301,719
287,546
360,360
324,058
337,620
First-Time Visits
*174,407
172,536
196,710
174,961
187,348
Monthly Repeat
Visits
*127,312
115,010
163,650
149,097
150,272
Page Views
Average Daily
Visits
* Figures in italics are averages
Open Content
Traffic Volume by
Geography
March 2004
Country
Hits
Country
Hits
1 India
954,167
11 Brazil
340,281
2 Canada
859,782
12 France
334,190
3 China
822,206
13 Spain
318,292
4 U.K.
672,339
14 Indonesia
251,495
5 South Korea
448,975
15 Australia
240,689
6 Japan
421,334
16 Turkey
239,972
7 Germany
402,965
17 Colombia
196,504
8 Vietnam
401,498
18 Singapore
185,495
9 Taiwan
392,701
19 Mexico
165,221
366,484
20 Greece
164,496
10 Italy
Access Data
Open Content
• Self-learners are 52% of visitors
– Average of over 6000 daily visits
– Most likely from North America (60% of North American
visitors)
• Students are 31% of visitors
– 3600 daily visits
• Educators are 13% of the visitors
– 1550 visits per day
– 55% of educators teach at 4-year colleges or the
equivalent
– Almost 49% have less than 5 years teaching experience
• Almost 70% of users have a bachelors degree or higher
Emerging
“opencoursewares”
• Other OCWs are beginning
to appear
• Some using MIT materials,
some using the format, some
using the idea
Open Content
Dual Mission:
Open Content
• Provide free, searchable, coherent access to
all MIT course materials for educators,
students, and individual learners around the
world
• Create an efficient, standards-based model
that other educational institutions may use to
publish their own course materials
Open Standards
Interoperability
Portability
Coordinated effort
end
Open Standards
Dimensions of Interoperability
UI/Application Frameworks
Service Definitions
Data Definitions
Technology Choices
Goals of Interoperability
Data Exchange/Synchronization
Enterprise Integration
Application Portability
Tool/UI Integration
Language Integration
Inter-Enterprise Resource Sharing
Etc…
Open Standards
Open Knowledge Initiative
http://sourceforge.net/projects/okiproject
"an open and extensible architecture that
specifies how the components of an
educational software environment
communicate with each other and with
other enterprise systems."
Open Standards
O.K.I. is:
• Service based architecture specifications
• Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)
• Open source implementations
• Open source exemplar applications
• Educational Development Community
• Funded by Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
CMI, MIT
Open Standards
O.K.I. Solution
• Focus on Service Based architecture
specifications (data/metadata specifications
are “doing fine”)
• Identify software infrastructure services
critical to eLearning applications
• Define interfaces to them. Don’t define how
to implement them!
• Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)
OSIDs…
Open Standards
• Provide Architectural Model for software
interoperability
• Allow for easy mobility of application tools
among enterprise infrastructures
• Provide software developers with common,
yet flexible, specifications for collaboration
• Define boundaries between “user facing”
applications and critical services
(“MiddleWare”)
• Help to “Future Proof” against changing
technologies
Enterprise Applications
Monolithic
Factored
Open Standards
Service Based Architecture
…
org.okip.service.shared.api.Thing things =
myFactory.getSomething();
Application
OSID
Implementation
Infrastructure
if (null != thingss) {
for (int i = 0; things.length != i; i++) {
out.println(things[i]);
System.err.println(types[i]);
}
}…
Example
public class Factory
implements
org.okip.service.Example.api.Factory {
private static final blah blah bhal
private static final yada yada yada
}…
Service
e.g.
authentication
Open Standards
Boundaries
Opportunity: the
OKI license
encourages
derivative works
Code what counts
Borrow or buy the rest
Who will provide the services?
Open Systems
Hiroyuki Sakai
Iron Chef French – Fusion Cuisine
Open Systems
Sakai Project Core Universities:
UMich, IU, Stanford, MIT
http://www.sakaiproject.org
• Commitments
– 5+ developers/architects, etc. under project
leadership – no local responsibility for 2 years
– Public commitment to implement Sakai
– Open/Open licensing
• Project
– $4.4M in institutional staff (27 FTE)
– $2.4M Mellon Foundation
– Additional investment through partners (SEPP)
Open Systems
Sakai Project Deliverables
1. Tool Portability Profile
 Specifications for writing portable software
2. Pooled intellectual property…best of
 JSR-168 portal
 Course management system
 Quizzing and assessment tools, etc
 Research collaboration system
 Workflow engine
 …modular & pre-integrated
3. Synchronized adoptions at Michigan,
Indiana, MIT, Stanford with open-open
Open Systems
Sakai Core Project
July 04
Jan 04
May 05
Activity:
Maintenance &
Transition from a
project to
a community
Michigan
• CHEF Framework
• CourseTools
• WorkTools
Indiana
• Navigo Assessment
• Eden Workflow
• OneStart
• Oncourse
MIT
• Stellar
Stanford
• CourseWork
• Assessment
OKI
• OSIDs
Dec 05
"Best
of"
SAKAI 1.0 Release
• Tool Portability Profile
• Framework
• Services-based Portal
• Refined OSIDs
& implementations
SAKAI Tools
• Complete CMS
• Assessment
Refactoring
SAKAI 2.0 Release
• Tool Portability Profile
• Framework
• Services-based Portal
SAKAI Tools
• Complete CMS
• Assessment
• Workflow
• Research Tools
• Authoring Tools
Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution…
uPortal
Primary SAKAI Activity
Architecting for JSR-168 Portlets,
Refactoring “best of” features for tools
Conforming tools to Tool Portability Profile
Primary SAKAI Activity
Refining SAKAI Framework,
Tuning and conforming additional tools
Intensive community building/training
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
Servers
Network
Service A1
App. 1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Servers
Network
Service A1
App. 1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
App. 1
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Imp. C - Local
Connector
Local Service C
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Application Client
Applications
OSID
Implementations
Servers
Protocol A
Imp. A – Protocol
Connector (plus
Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Data
Imp. B – Protocol
Connector
Network
Service A1
Network
Service A2
App. 2
Imp. C - Local
Connector
Local Service C
Protocol B
Network
Service B
Open Systems
Sakai Architecture
JSR 168
Portlet API
OSIDs
App. 1
JSR169 Enabled Portal
App.
2
App. 3
App.
4
Open Systems
Sakai Educational Partners Program
http://www.sakaiproject.org/partners.html
• Facilitate adoption and
development of tools for
inter-institutional
portability
• What’s a SEP get?
– Strategic briefings
– Project Roadmap input
– Early Access
• Tool Portability Profile
(TPP)
• Software/Tools
• Developer training
– Community
• Technical liaison
• Implementation support
• SEP Costs
• Large institutions:
– $30K ($10k/year for 3
years)
• Small institutions (<3000
students)
– $15k ($5k/year for 3 years)
Open Systems
SEPP 1st Conference
http://www.sakaiproject.org/conference/agenda.html
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20040503155445
Open Systems
Sakai Technical
Framework
Open Systems
JISC Technical
Framework
Open Systems
LionShare
http://lionshare.its.psu.edu/main
• Emerging from Napster + Kazaa + Gnutella
….. peer-to-peer with authentication
Open Systems
Segue & Harmoni Middlebury College
• Segue - PHP based CMS
– http://sourceforge.net/projects/segue/
– http://segue.middlebury.edu/index.php?&action
=site&site=mit-test
• Harmoni - next gen Segue
– http://harmoni.sourceforge.net/
Harmoni Architecture
http://sourceforge.net/projects/harmoni
Harmoni Basics
• Development Status: 1 - Planning, 2 - Pre-Alpha, 4 Beta
• Environment: Web Environment
• Intended Audience: Developers, Education, System
Administrators
• License: GNU General Public License (GPL)
• Natural Language: English
• Operating System: MacOS X, Windows, POSIX
• Programming Language: Java, Perl, PHP
• Topic: Front-Ends, CGI Tools/Libraries, Site
Management, Security, Software Development
Open Tools
• Tufts Visual Understanding Environment
(VUE)
Many Repositories…
Remote
IDC
Institutional
Local
IDC
iMac
I
BM
Many Repository Related
Protocols…
Remote
IDC
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
Local
DRI
IDC
iM ac
Z39.50
I
HTML
File
System
BM
Many Data Specs/Standards…
DC
Remote
Mark
IDC
METS
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
IMS CP
LOM
Local
DRI
IDC
iMac
Z39.50
I
HTML
File
System
BM
SCORM
Open Tools
Federated Search
Open Tools
Gradebook
Open Tools
Sakai GradeBook
Open Tools
Open Tools
Open Tools
Open Tools
Reload
Chandler
Connexions
TWicki
Open Access - DSpace
http://www.dspace.org
Open Access
Fedora
http://www.fedora.info
• Cornell/Univ.of Virgina open source digital
repository project
• Repository exposed via web service APIs &
OKI OSIDs
• Associate services with objects
• Provides version control
Open Architecture
Ed Tech Architecture Should…
• Make it easy for software developers to utilize
enterprise infrastructure, otherwise they
won’t.
• Make it possible for institutions to share and
collaborate on educational software
• Provide ability for integration requirement to
be more clearly specified in RFPs
• Mitigate technology change
• Support both Web and Client based
applications
• Driven by sustainability concerns NOT
research (Pioneers not Trailblazers)
Continuum of Open
• A growing ecology where open standards
builds markets
– Allowing open, community or proprietary source to
add value
– Business opportunities are expanding, shifting to
the services not just the products
• Be sanguine about what open standards
means to you
– The point is to get
• interoperability,
• portability, and
• persistence
Commerce across a
continuum of nonexclusive commercial
rights
Where are these ideas
tested?
@ MIT last year
Alt-i-lab 2004, in the Bay Area,
July
Watch IMS website
http://www.imsproject.org
What does higher ed care
about?
•
•
•
•
Choice
Flexibility
Sustainability
Scholarship as a methodology
– The largest open source project has the Human Genome
Project
• Enabling investments - getting the web and the
desktop to work together
Are new ideas good
ideas?
Not always…
Open Content
Open Standards
Open Systems
Open Tools
Reflect the application
of scholarship to the
problem of learning
systems - that’s what
higher ed does well
Open Access
If higher ed innovates… where’s the opportunity?
It’s hard for individual institutions to support, maintain, or
incrementally advance products and services well;
(consortia?)
HE needs interoperable content;
HE needs partners not vendors
Thank you.
(Questions - Your Turn)
longpd@mit.edu
Some Open Source Links
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu
CETIS http://www.cetis.ac.uk/
Creative Commons http://creativecommons.org
eduplone (Plone is an enterprise CMS based on Zope/CMF)
http://sourceforge.net/projects/eduplone/ and http://eduplone.net/
IMS Global Learning Consortium http://imsglobal.org
Open Knowledge Initiative http://sourceforge.net/projects/oki
Opensource CMS http://www.opensourcecms.com/
The Sakai Project http://www.sakaiproject.org
Segue - Middlebury College - http://
uPortal http://www.uportal.org
DSpace Federation http://www.dspace.org
The Fedora Project http://www.fedora.info
Connexions http://cnx.rice.edu
LionShare http://lionshare.its.psu.edu/main