Re: Large Scale Integration

[Bruno Vernier <vernier@vernier>]

On Sat, Nov 14, 1998 at 08:04:26PM -0600, David Kirtley wrote:

> How I envision implementation
> 
> Basically it could be implemented with a core database using existing 
> tools.  Not really any programming needed. It could be platform 
> independent with a html interface. A basic webserver could be 
> enhanced by other tools such as mailing lists, usenet and possible 
> irc on separate networks. It would be scalable to the size of 
> district or campus. An installation could be as small as one 
> classroom computer or as large as a multi-server distributed database 
> serving several districts in different areas of the world.

Again, I think we should take a long hard look at http://www.imsproject.org
which looks like a serious global attempt at a standard for such
databases... using XML rather than HTML.  The only possible large scale
competing project is ARIANE or ARIADNE in Europe which has announced this
summer that it would be standard compatible with the IMSproject.

One goal is that anything a student does in any educational institution and
recorded on any server, can be accessed seemlessly from anywhere thus
producing an instant report card of all recorded educational activities.
(accessible only to the student who would forward whichever parts s/he wants
to whomever s/he wants)

I mean:  we are talking here about going beyond our schools' intranets to
district wide databases... why not look further to planetary databases (it is
a small leap) in which case we need formats and standards that are likely to
be accepted by all educational institutions in the near future.

If we want world domination, this is our chance: develop a nice open source
implementation of the IMSproject standard on GNU/Linux!

Bruno