Phillip%20Long

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The Story of O (as in Open Source)

• Phillip Long
• MIT

Thursday, May 13th, 2004
longpd_at_mit.edu
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How many open source developers does it take to
change a light bulb?
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• 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

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The e-decade
e-publishing
e-commerce
e-business
e-Bay
The o-decade
open source
open systems
open standards
open archives
open access
open tools
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Meme -
"ideas should freely spread from one to another
over the globe Thomas Jefferson
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Liberation technology is not anti-business
Commerce across a continuum of non-exclusive
commercial rights
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The Cast
Open Content Open Standards Open Systems Open
Tools Open Access
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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
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Why Is MIT Doing This?

• Furthers MITs 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

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Where We Are
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Publishing 700 Courses
Open Content

• Site Highlights
• Syllabus
• Course Calendar
• Lecture Notes
• Assignments
• Exams
• Problem/Solution Sets
• Labs and Projects
• Simulations
• Tools and Tutorials
• Video Lectures

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Open Content
Access Data
Site Traffic Overview
  Since 10/1/03 December January February March
Page Views 20,604,427 2,680,794 3,311,611 2,884,061 3,025,412
Average Daily Visits 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
Figures in italics are averages Figures in italics are averages Figures in italics are averages Figures in italics are averages Figures in italics are averages Figures in italics are averages
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Open Content
Traffic Volume by Geography
March 2004
Country Country Hits Hits
11 Brazil Brazil 340,281
12 France France 334,190
13 Spain Spain 318,292
14 Indonesia Indonesia 251,495
15 Australia Australia 240,689
16 Turkey Turkey 239,972
17 Colombia Colombia 196,504
18 Singapore Singapore 185,495
19 Mexico Mexico 165,221
20 Greece Greece 164,496
Country Country Hits
1 India 954,167
2 Canada 859,782
3 China 822,206
4 U.K. 672,339
5 South Korea 448,975
6 Japan 421,334
7 Germany 402,965
8 Vietnam 401,498
9 Taiwan 392,701
10 Italy 366,484
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Open Content
Access Data

• 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

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Open Content
Emerging opencoursewares

• Other OCWs are beginning to appear
• Some using MIT materials, some using the format,
  some using the idea

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Open Content
Dual Mission

• 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

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Open Standards
Interoperability
Portability
Coordinated effort
end
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Dimensions of Interoperability
Open Standards
UI/Application Frameworks
Service Definitions
Data Definitions
Technology Choices
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Goals of Interoperability

• Data Exchange/Synchronization
• Enterprise Integration
• Application Portability
• Tool/UI Integration
• Language Integration
• Inter-Enterprise Resource Sharing
• Etc

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"an open and extensible architecture that
specifies how the components of an educational
software environmentcommunicate with each other
and with other enterprise systems."
Open Standards
Open Knowledge Initiative
http//sourceforge.net/projects/okiproject
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O.K.I. is
Open Standards

• 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

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O.K.I. Solution
Open Standards

• Focus on Service Based architecture
  specifications (data/metadata specifications are
  doing fine)
• Identify software infrastructure services
  critical to eLearning applications
• Define interfaces to them. Dont define how to
  implement them!
• Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)

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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
• Enable marketplace of software components
• Are about Architecture, NOT Technology

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Enterprise Applications
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Service Based Architecture
Open Standards
org.okip.service.shared.api.Thing things
myFactory.getSomething() if (null ! thingss)
for (int i 0 things.length ! i i)
out.println(thingsi)
System.err.println(typesi)
Application
OSID
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
Implementation
Infrastructure
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Open Standards
Boundaries
Opportunity the OKI license encourages
derivative works
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Code what counts
Borrow or buy the rest
Who will provide the services?
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Open Systems
Hiroyuki Sakai
Iron Chef French Fusion Cuisine
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Sakai Project Core Universities UMich, IU,
Stanford, MIT
Open Systems
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)

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Sakai Project Deliverables
Open Systems

• Tool Portability Profile
• Specifications for writing portable software
• Pooled intellectual propertybest of
• JSR-168 portal
• Course management system
• Quizzing and assessment tools, etc
• Research collaboration system
• Workflow engine
• modular pre-integrated
• Synchronized adoptions at Michigan, Indiana, MIT,
  Stanford with open-open licensing

Tool Portability Profile
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Open Systems
Sakai Core Project
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 uPortal
SAKAI 2.0 Release Tool Portability Profile
Framework Services-based Portal SAKAI Tools
Complete CMS Assessment Workflow Research
Tools Authoring Tools
SAKAI 1.0 Release Tool Portability Profile
Framework Services-based Portal Refined OSIDs
implementations SAKAI Tools Complete
CMS Assessment
"Best of"
Refactoring
Activity Ongoing implementation work at local
institution
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
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Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Open Systems
Application Client
Servers
Applications
Network Service A1
App. 1
Network Service A2
App. 2
Network Service B
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Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Open Systems
Application Client
Servers
OSID
Applications
Network Service A1
App. 1
Network Service A2
App. 2
Network Service B
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Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Open Systems
Application Client
Servers
OSID
Implementations
Applications
Protocol A
Network Service A1
Imp. A Protocol Connector (plus Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Imp. B Protocol Connector
Network Service A2
App. 2
Protocol B
Network Service B
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Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Open Systems
Application Client
Servers
OSID
Implementations
Applications
Protocol A
Network Service A1
Imp. A Protocol Connector (plus Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Imp. B Protocol Connector
Network Service A2
App. 2
Imp. C - Local Connector
Protocol B
Network Service B
Local Service C
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Service Abstractions for Interoperability
Open Systems
Application Client
Servers
OSID
Implementations
Applications
Protocol A
Network Service A1
Data
Imp. A Protocol Connector (plus Local Business
Logic)
App. 1
Data
Imp. B Protocol Connector
Network Service A2
Data
App. 2
Data
Imp. C - Local Connector
Protocol B
Network Service B
Local Service C
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Sakai Architecture
Open Systems
OSIDs
JSR 168Portlet API
JSR169 Enabled Portal
App. 1
App. 2
App. 3
App. 4
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Sakai Educational Partners Program
Open Systems
http//www.sakaiproject.org/partners.html

• Facilitate adoption and development of tools for
  inter-institutional portability
• Whats 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 (lt3000 students)
• 15k (5k/year for 3 years)

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Open Systems
SEPP 1st Conference
http//www.sakaiproject.org/conference/agenda.html

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Open Systems
http//www.cetis.ac.uk/content2/20040503155445
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Open Systems
JISC Technical Framework
Sakai Technical Framework
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LionShare
Open Systems
http//lionshare.its.psu.edu/main

• Emerging from Napster Kazaa Gnutella
• .. peer-to-peer with authentication

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Segue Harmoni - Middlebury College
Open Systems

• Segue - PHP based CMS
• http//sourceforge.net/projects/segue/
• http//segue.middlebury.edu/index.php?actionsite
  sitemit-test
• Harmoni - next gen Segue
• http//harmoni.sourceforge.net/

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Harmoni Architecture
http//sourceforge.net/projects/harmoni
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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

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Open Tools

• Tufts Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)

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Many Repositories
Remote
Institutional
Local
I
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Many Repository Related Protocols
Remote
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
Local
DRI
Z39.50
I
HTML
File System
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Many Data Specs/Standards
DC
Remote
Mark
METS
SOAP
SRW
Institutional
IMS CP
LOM
Local
DRI
Z39.50
I
HTML
SCORM
File System
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Federated Search
Open Tools
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Gradebook
Open Tools
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Sakai GradeBook
Open Tools
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Open Tools
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Open Tools
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Open Tools
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Open Tools
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Reload
Chandler
Connexions
TWicki
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Open Access - DSpace
http//www.dspace.org
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Fedora
Open Access
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

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Open Architecture
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Ed Tech Architecture Should

• Make it easy for software developers to utilize
  enterprise infrastructure, otherwise they wont.
• 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)

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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

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• Commerce across a continuum of non-exclusive
  commercial rights

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Where are these ideas tested?
_at_ MIT last year
Alt-i-lab 2004, in the Bay Area, July Watch IMS
website http//www.imsproject.org
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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

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Are new ideas good ideas?
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(No Transcript)
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Not always
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Open Content Open Standards Open Systems Open
Tools Open Access
Reflect the application of scholarship to the
problem of learning systems - thats what higher
ed does well
If higher ed innovates wheres the
opportunity? Its hard for individual
institutions to support, maintain, or
incrementally advance products and services well
(consortia?) HE needs interoperable content
HE needs partners not vendors
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(Questions - Your Turn)
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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.or
  g
• Open Knowledge Initiative http//sourceforge.net/p
  rojects/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