Open Knowledge Initiative
Educause Focus Group
Geoff Collier and Robby Robson, Eduworks
Educause 2002, Atlanta
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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What is OKI?
 Architecture
 Application Programming Interfaces (API’s)
 Open source implementations
 Community
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
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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
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OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
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Projects
University of Michigan
MIT
Tufts University
Stanford University
University of Cambridge
Indiana University
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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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?
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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
OKI Focus Groups at Educause, October 2002
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