Resources: standards and architectures

I've been meaning to do some serious writing on the subject of why "small and loose" standards are the right path for many developments we would like to see in software for education. I did manage to write a little about it in the draft report on standards and architectures, but there is so much left to say...

I'm delighted to see that a new organisation has been formed which appears to take this as a founding principle: Microformats.org

Microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patters (e.g. XHTML, blogging).

From the new site's "Learn more about microformats" page:

Designed for humans first and machines second, microformats are a set of simple, open data formats built upon existing and widely adopted standards. Instead of throwing away what works today, microformats intend to solve simpler problems first by adapting to current behaviors and usage patters (e.g. XHTML, blogging).

This is so good I have to quote it more fully :o):

the microformats principles

• solve a specific problem
• start as simple as possible
  • solve simpler problems first
  • make evolutionary improvements
• design for humans first, machines second
  • be presentable and parsable
  • visible data is better than invisible metadata
  • adapt to current behaviors and usage patterns, e.g. (X)HTML, blogging
• reuse building blocks from widely adopted standards
  • semantic, meaningful (X)HTML. See SemanticXHTMLDesignPrinciples for more details.
  • existing microformats
  • well established schemas from interoperable RFCs
• modularity / embeddability
  • design to be reused and embedded inside existing formats and microformats
• enable and encourage decentralized development, content, services
  • explicitly encourage "spirit of the Web"

Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) is a collaborative effort to harness the power of information technologies to modernize structured learning. ADL, therefore, employs a structured, adaptive, collaborative effort between the public and private sectors to develop the standards, tools and learning content for the learning environment of the future.
 
The vision of the ADL Initiative is to provide access to the highest-quality learning and performance aiding that can be tailored to individual needs and delivered cost-effectively, anytime and anywhere.
 
For additional information on the ADL Initiative refer to the ADL FAQs section.

This site is the official home for documents, presentations and other resources related to the CanCore Learning Resource Metadata Initiative.
CanCore enhances the ability of educators, researchers and students in Canada and around the world to search and locate material from online collections of educational resources. CanCore is based on and fully compatible with the IEEE Learning Object Metadata standard and the IMS Learning Resource Meta-data specification.
The CanCore Initiative is currently funded by the e-Learning Marketplace Strategy Group of Industry Canada's e-Learning Directorate and supported by TeleUniversite and Athabasca University.

Author: Dave Winer
Posted: 6/14/1999; 7:58:47 PM
What is XML-RPC? It's a spec and a set of implementations that allow software running on disparate operating systems, running in different environments to make procedure calls over the Internet.

It's remote procedure calling using HTTP as the transport and XML as the encoding. XML-RPC is designed to be as simple as possible, while allowing complex data structures to be transmitted, processed and returned.

CORBA® BASICS
If you want to understand CORBA, this is the place to start!
You can either read straight down the page, or click on a question to go straight to a topic that interests you.

CORBA is the acronym for Common Object Request Broker Architecture, OMG's open, vendor-independent architecture and infrastructure that computer applications use to work together over networks. Using the standard protocol IIOP, a CORBA-based program from any vendor, on almost any computer, operating system, programming language, and network, can interoperate with a CORBA-based program from the same or another vendor, on almost any other computer, operating system, programming language, and network.

The hundreds of member companies of the Object Management Group produce and maintain a suite of specifications that support distributed, heterogeneous software development projects from analysis and design through coding, deployment, runtime, and maintenance. Here's an overview:

Innovative use of telematic tools to support a professional community of practice, Mike Malloch and Graham Attwell, Online EDUCA Berlin, 2001

REM was the project that got me started in web environments for education, along with Martin Owen (now at NESTA Futurelab) and Oleg Liber (now at CETIS).

REM takes a unique approach to tele-learning by creating a rich multimedia environment to support learning through collaboration, interaction and conversation. Implicit in REM’s view of education and training is a belief in constructivist principles of learning for students, teachers and professionals.

The REM project enables learners to collaborate closely by supporting the exchange of a wide variety of experiences and resources with advanced telematics.

Project Name:

REM

Research Area:

Tertiary-Level Education and Vocational Training

Main Results:

Multimedia Database of Learning Tools; Telematics Learning Environment; Collaborative Learning Tools

Timescale:

1.1.96 to 1.4.99

Budget:

ECU 1,695,032

Target Users:

Teachers in Training; Teachers in Service Courses and Nursery Staff

User Benefits:

Participation in collaborative learning across Europe on Erasmus/Comenius-like activities at lower cost and with greater ease

Technologies Involved:

Internet; World Wide Web; Computer Conference Systems; Object Oriented Databases; Modems; Local Area Networks, Videophones and CD-ROM

Innovative Aspects:

Widely-accessible, scalable and seamlessly-integrated learning environments

Keywords:

Collaborative Multimedia-based WWW Networks; Integrated Learning Environments

The IMS Global Learning Consortium develops and promotes the adoption of open technical specifications for interoperable learning technology. Several IMS specifications have become worldwide de facto standards for delivering learning products and services. IMS specifications and related publications are made available to the public from www.imsglobal.org.

Representational State Transfer (REST) is a collection of principles for managing information over a computer network like the world wide web. The term originated in a 2000 doctoral dissertation about the web written by Roy Fielding, one of the principal authors of the HTTP protocol specification, and has quickly passed into widespread use in the networking community.

While REST originally referred to a collection of architectural principles (described below), people now often use the term in a looser sense to describe any simple web-based interface that uses XML and HTTP without the extra abstractions of RPC-based approaches like the web services SOAP protocol. Strictly speaking, it is possible (though not common) to design web service systems in accordance with Fielding's REST principles, and it is possible to design simple XML+HTTP interfaces that do not follow REST principles, so these two different uses of REST cause some confusion in technical discussions.

Systems that follow Fielding's REST principles are often referred to as RESTful; REST's most zealous advocates call themselves RESTafarians.