On the surface just another repository project, but of interest to me because it is a current project from outside of Canada that seems to have picked up the Edusource Communications Layer (ECL) developed by Marek Hatala and others as part of the Edusource project.

This is the second piece of information I’ve had in as many weeks that Edusource isn’t maybe as moribund as it’s original website would lead one to believe. I guess some of the action has moved on to this eRIB site and to this eduSource Registry of Services, but still, it seems pretty unclear to me what in fact is still going on. Would love to know, though. – SWL

Via the latest CETIS Quarterly newsletter (thanks Stephen) came news of this interesting U.K.-based project. According to the precis on the E-Learning Framework site, the project will deliver “web services and toolkit[s] capable of searching various library and resource gateways and transforming the search results to reusable and standardised schemas for e-learning purposes.”

If I’ve understood correctly (and it’s entirely possible I haven’t) what will be provided is middleware that will enable the core services of search/expose, request/deliver, and submit/store, across heterogenous repositories (from Z39.50 library systems, to LORs, to Amazon and more) through a single set of web service interfaces. Crikey! – SWL

I’m sure there’s some good reason for working on software for a few years, releasing it into the public domain, and then not telling anyone about it, right? In any case, with amazingly little fanfare the impressive ECL connector software is available for download. Billed as one of the first implementations of the IMS DRI specification, it will allow repositories to share search results, gather records, alter each other to new materials and submit new materials in other repositories. You’ll likely see the ECL show up in some format or another in a number of future initiatives as a way to interconnect repositories and other stores of learning materials, and we hope to have it implemented in the repository we deploy here in B.C. by September. – SWL

While this project was announced last fall, it seems to be up an running now and has this website. For those who missed the announcement last October, this is the NSERC-funded $7.5 million/5 year project that, as far as I know, represents the largest ongoing learning object repository research initiative in Canada.

The project has 6 themes and stretches across 6 Canadian research Universities. I don’t know if it is fair to call this ‘edusource II’ as the aims of the project seem farther reaching, but it does involve some of the same principals from Canada’s last ‘nation-wide’ learning object repository research project. – SWL

“LionShare is an academic P2P system which will assist in the distribution of academic materials through the university’s network and beyond. The primary goal of LionShare is to provide a means for collaboration among faculty, students, departments, and eventually multiple universities.” Don’t have a lot more info on this – just one of a few nuggets brought back in a friend’s trip report from Educause.

Postscript – as a follow on, this article mentions a partnership with both OKI and the Canadian-based edusource project.- SWL

Cancore and Athabasca University have announced the release of three new components to assit in the development of learning object metadata and repositories. They are, variously,

• A LOM Interface or API simplifying the manipulation and transmission of LOM data within and between software systems.
• LOR Interface or API for communicating with a Learning Object and Metadata Repository.
• A custom LDAP schema which allows LOM records to be stored and accessed via an LDAP server.

This is great news Both the LOM and LOR APIs are Java bindings, which makes me wonder if this foretells of plans for future interoperation with potential OKI-compliant systems.

UPDATE: I’m in Calgary today for some meetings on educational metadata and got a little more background on this project – it sounds like it is no more or less than it seems, a proof of concept that one can use an LDAP server as a lightweight object repository. – SWL

- via [e-Learning Eclectic]