OpenSource

OS Software & Content

UNESCO Open Educational Resources Conference

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Like Stephen Downes, I have had difficulty getting into this UNESCO conference on Open Educational Resources (open content for higher education) – lterally and figuratively.

Because of this rather large number, participants have been split into two groups:

* one group can send and receive messages (members selected to balance geographic participation);

* the other group will receive daily digests of the messages to read.

I am in the second group, so I get to receive the e-mails, which after the first week are about a dozen and some of these include an additional dozen attachments. All of the comments take a lot of time to sift through and I thought that I’d be able to summarize them and put them on this blog. Unfortunately I haven’t had the time or the discipline to do this, but Joe Hart has, so you can read his summary instead. Here’s one of his summary comments after week one:

It is important in our forum to recognize that online universal higher education is not a utopia, that it is not a threat to established education, that it is a great opportunity for producers and users alike, and that these messages should be conveyed to governments, universities, and other organizations.

The BlackWeb Opportunity

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Ben Watson has posted an industry analyst’s report on the Blackboard-WebCT merger in his comment on the Learning Circuits blog. The analyst’s perspective may be correct, but I see another opportunity. According to this report, there are about 562 current WebCT clients who do not use the enterprise version. These institutions have opted for the cheaper flavour of WebCT and may be willing to try out an open source platform instead of upgrading to "BlackWeb" enterprise.
Now is the time for the OS user/developer/services community, such as Moodle.com, to get the word out about open source learning platforms. For starters, here is the Edutools feature comparison of the soon to be defunct WebCT Campus (the non-enterprise version) compared with .LRN, Moodle and ATutor. And don’t forget about ELGG :-)

OpenOffice 2.0 Released

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OpenOffice.org is the open source office suite that is compatible with MS Office. With the public release of version 2.0 there is now a simple way to have all of your office productivity applications on a single no-cost suite. It is very simple to master the applications and the additional benefits are worth the effort. For instance, you can load as many copies on as many machines as you wish – no licensing issues. There is also a large user community. From the press release:

In addition to the OpenDocument format, the redesigned user interface  and a new database module, OpenOffice.org 2.0 also adds improved PDF  support, a superior spreadsheet module, enhanced desktop integration  and several other features that take advantage of its advanced XML  capabilities, such as the ability to easily create, edit and use XForms.

One of my favorite features is that you can export your slide presentations as Flash files. OpenOffice also imports WordPerfect files much better than MS Word does. My family, which runs the spectrum of computer skills, uses all of the OpenOffice applications with no difficulty. With 2.0 it is even easier to take control of your desktop and switch to open source. It won’t cost you anything.

Vendors have only one thing to sell

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George Siemens was not too impressed by a recent presentation from Blackboard:

The entire presentation was focused on two things: money, and implementation challenges. If I adhere to their assumptions, then they presented their case well. However, I’m at odds with their core statements of what it means to learn. In the end, it’s very likely that, in North America at least, there isn’t a large cost savings between open source and proprietary software. But as an educator, that’s not my concern. I’m concerned about the learners. And their learning. This wasn’t mentioned at all. I know administrators are cost and implementation focused, but I would hope that they also see the instructors and learners as stakeholders in the process. A bad solution, well-implemented, still sucks.Why not ask learners what they want? Or faculty? If Blackboard, D2L, and WebCT are genuinely interested in meeting learner needs, then engage us (as faculty and learners) in a legitimate discussion. Once you listen to what we need/want, rather than telling us what you’ll do for us, we can begin to partner.

I agree with George, other than his assumption that there "isn’t a large cost savings". Open source IS cheaper, when you look at licensing and when you look at total cost of ownership. Examples include detailed cost comparisons, such as this one for the Québec public school system.
However, George’s point about the vendors’ lack of focus on learning is the root of the problem. Having worked for an LCMS vendor, I learned that there is only one bottom line – sell more licenses. That is what brings in the money. Selling services is not what they are about. Therefore, until you separate the services from the technology you will have an ongoing conflict of interest. The vendor will try to sell you licenses, even if you do not need their system. It’s how they are measured by their investors.
I don’t think that any vendors are going to have legitimate discussions about learning with George or anyone else in the foreseeable future.

Another Bubble?

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On no, is there an OS tech bubble looming around the corner, ready to burst on some unsuspecting souls? Maybe P.T. Barnum was right.

Shades of 1999! I met a venture capitalist who told me lovingly about his "early round of financing" for a company that had a nice-sounding idea behind it but didn’t yet have either a domain name or working code. Then I met another VC with a similar story. And another. And I saw business cards exchanged to the tune of buzzwords I thought had died in the dot-com crash, plus a bunch of new ones that have popped up since then.

I thought giddily for a minute that I should run to the Office Depot across the street from the Argent Hotel (where the conference is being held) and grab some blank CDs. I could then come back to my room and make a slide presentation for a business that would develop a VoIP-based multimedia wiki that would track disintermediated community-generated podcast blog reviews. It would be based on open source software, of course. And cross-platform. And extensible and highly scalable.The above quote is from NewsForge reporting on the current Web 2.0 conference. I somehow thought that open source was going to be a little bit different, but we seem to be rapidly climbing the hype curve. I also thought that 2006 would be the year that OS goes mainstream, but it’s getting a lot of press now.

As much as I may be an open source evangelist, I promise not to get caught up in the hype. Open source to me means not only good, cheap software for the masses but is a foundation that enables smaller businesses to compete and survive against the multinationals. OS is not the answer to all of our problems, nor is it the best way to get rich quick, though there are people making money on it. Let’s just use some common sense when we talk about open source.

ELGG 0.3 Available

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ELGG is an open source system that facilitates communities on the web. It has several functions including blogs, file uploading & sharing and social networking. You can create communities and groups on the fly, so there are no built-in constraints. The user decides who to connect with and what information is available for viewing publicly, personally or only for selected groups.
Version 0.3 provides multilingul support that is easy to implement with only a single text file that can be localized for your particular needs. I’ve been impressed with version 0.2 and see many improvements with the latest version. Other good news coming down the pipe is that ELGG will likely integrate easily with the Moodle open source learning system. Then you could have small pieces loosely joined – one for communities and the other for more formal learning.

SCORM 2004 Enhancement for Moodle

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Ohio-based DigiLore has released enhancements to make the Moodle open source & free learning management system compliant with the defence sector’s SCORM (sharable content  object reference model). This combination of private sector development with an open source community platform should be a winning combination and I think that we will see more of this model in the LMS/LCMS field. Basically, it’s cheaper and more effective to only develop the specific modules that you cannot do without, and then use open source modules to handle the more generic tasks.

ELGG Contract Call

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Mancomm Performance has just issued a contract call for the development of a calendar function for ELGG. We have been testing ELGG for a while and like many of its functions, such as the integrated blog, easy creation of groups & communities, and its ease of use for web novices.
This contract will pay for the development of a module of an open source system which will then be given back to the ELGG community. Mancomm is the first private sector company offering to pay for ELGG development.
If you’re an experienced developer looking for some paid OS work, then check out the post and contact us at Mancomm.

“Roadmap for Open ICT EcoSystems”

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From a recent report (Roadmap.pdf) released by The Berkman Center for Internet & Society.

The Problem:

Following last year’s tsunami disaster:

In the race to identify victims and assist survivors, Thailand’s government hits its own wall. Responding agencies and non-governmental groups are unable to share information vital to the rescue effort. Each uses different data and document formats. Relief is slowed; coordination is complicated. The need for common, open standards for disaster management was never more stark or compelling. The Royal Government of Thailand responded by creating a common website for registering missing persons and making open file formats in particular an immediate national priority.

Similar issues have arisen during Hurricane Katrina relief operations.

The Solution = Open Standards

Guiding principles: An Open ICT EcoSystem should be Interoperable, User-Centric, Collaborative, Sustainable, Flexible

Attribute

Open Standards

Open Source

Nature Set of Specifications Software Code
Openness of Interface By Definition By Design
Interoperability Enabled Cannot be Assumed
Licensing Various Types Various Types (GPL, BSD, etc.)
Development Model Collaborative Collaborative

Who was involved?

Members from various countries, including one from Canada – Gary Doucet of the Treasury Board Secretariat.

The Results:

An Openness Maturity Model:

  • Level 0 – Mainly Closed
  • Level 1 – Ad Hoc
  • Level 2 – Open Aware
  • Level 3 – Defined and Developing
  • Level 4 – Managed Openness
  • Level 5 – Measured and Sustainable

Plus – A Framework for a Business Case

Comment: An excellent starting point prior to the development of any regional, national or international web initiative that involves more than one organisation. For instance, the roadmap could inform the initial structure of national learning or health portals.