Reflections on the JISC/CETIS conference in Oxford
13 Dec, 2004
Summary of a Report by Justin Tilton (Instructional Media + Magic and CREE) and Jim Farmer (Sakai Community Liaison) on the JISC/CETIS Oxford Conference in November 2004.
The presentations and discussions:
- Provided further evidence validating the technology choices made in the e-Learning Framework, especially the use of Web services (XML, SOAP. WSDL, UDDI) for "loosely coupled" integration.
- Acknowledged that further work is needed to make "open standards" interoperable in a specific environment. Often this referes to defining or extending a data model.
- To achieve interoperability, the implementation choices of standards and specifications using in a project should be published, reviewed, and applied to subsequent research.
- Software developers have a need for specific guidance on which standards and specifications should be applied to their project.
The conference improved communications among projects and developed the personal relationships that make subsequent communications - often doen electronically - more productive. The combination of general presentations and discussion sessions was effective in identifying areas of interest, and then subsequently participating in the discussion.
