Really quiet here!

Yes, it was really quiet on this weblog. I have been very, very busy with some other stuff. Especially the latest Sakai conference kept me real busy. I wrote about 10 posts on this conference on the group weblog of the Sakai community in The Netherlands. And then I wrote a short report on this conference, which (ofcourse) is available (but is written in Dutch) online.
What else?

1. I tried out the free weblog service on wordpress.com. This is pretty impressive, in my opinion. No wonder that Google is pushing hard with their NEW Blogger service!
2. Here at the University of Twente we are preparing for some technical trials with Sakai. This means diving into SCORM and service endpoints within Sakai. Fortunately two of my collegues, Eelco Laagland and Dennis Vierkant, are doing the best parts of this.
   
3. Also regarding my homebase: there will be a demo of Sakai (and our project) at the end of January for all interested students and faculty. We are now in the preparation phase (who, where, when etc) of this demo-session.
   
4. And then we have a 'minor' upgrade of our current VLE (TeleTOP) coming up next week. Lots of preparation has been gone into that. Too much, maybe...
5. And then we have an upcoming restructuring of the service departments at our University. Final goal: more efficient service, less costly. Solution that is worked on right now: Shared Service Centres.

If you are still here: Happy Holidays and see you in 2007!

And the winner is...

Ben Werdmuller, one of the 'inventors' of Elgg, is a bit sad: "Alas, Elgg was unsuccessful in its bid to the Andrew W Mellon Foundation Awards for Technology Collaboration, which awarded $650,000 in prizes on Monday. I've got to confess that I'm a little disappointed(..)". I would also have thought that Elgg really should deserve some prize money, but on the other hand to be awarded such a price, certain rules have to be obeyed. Just read the whole post and also the last comment from Christopher J. Mackie, who is Associate Program Officer for the The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

Next stop: Atlanta (GA)

Next week I will be attending the 6th Sakai conference, held in Atlanta, Georgia (USA). For coverage of this conference, you can go to our group weblog at http://sakai-nl.blogspot.com.
This weblog will remain untouched until Dececember 11, 2006.

Patent should be reexamined!

This message is also posted on our weblog "Dutch Sakai News & Opinions".
Just before the next Sakai conference will take place in Atlanta, there is an official press release on sakaiproject.org: 'November 30, 2006 - The Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) today announced that it has formally asked the Patent Office to reexamine and ultimately cancel all 44 claims of Blackboard's patent on e-learning systems (SFLC Press Release). The SFLC filed the request for reexamination on behalf of the Sakai Foundation (sakaiproject.org), the Moodle Community (moodle.org), and the ATutor Community (atutor.ca), three open source software projects which develop online educational systems.'
There is also a Patent FAQ available.

School Online - free internet & content

English: our largest telecomprovider (KPN) will offer free internet for schools in primary and secondary education. But they are offering free 'learning content' as well (wrapped in a proprietary VLE as far as I can see). This news comes only a few days after the news (press release in Dutch only) that our Open University will offer free courses. I like the OU idea much better!
In Dutch: School Online - Internetverbinding: "School Online opnieuw gebruikmaken van drie jaar gratis internet van KPN. Maar School Online biedt meer. School Online bevat ook digitaal lesmateriaal en online oplossingen".

OSS licenses - much needed info

OSS Watch - open source software advisory service: "OSS Watch promotes awareness and understanding of the legal, social, technical and economic issues that arise when educational institutions engage with free and open source software." There is so much valuable information to be found on this website. Unfortunately it is mainly geared to the UK public (as could be expected, being JISC funded) and all stuff is in the English language. If you want to know more details regarding different open source licenses and licensing models, you can start reading this excellent FAQ, written by Andrew Charlesworth and Anna Home from the Centre for IT and Law, University of Bristol.
In the Dutch language I have found the following source of valuable information on the OSOSS website: "De licentiewijzer is bedoeld om u wegwijs te maken in open source software licentiemodellen."

Sharepoint is the cure...?

{this might be a little provocative, you have been warned} In the last couple of days I have heard the word "Sharepoint" too much. Really! It seems that Sharepoint is a real alternative for Sakai. That is the message I am hearing repeatedly. And today I received information that Sharepoint might be good for content management.
Let me say a few things:
1. Sure, Sharepoint has some great tools for collaborative work. Sakai has them too. But Sharepoint (and I mean out of the box) has no real elearning tools, like Sakai has. For example: Online testing, a.k.a. Samigo. Sharepoint has no integration with LAMS (if that is your cup of tea). Sharepoint has no SCORM capabilities. So, in my opinion, if you really are serious about elearning, please take into account the needs and wishes of your teachers, faculty, of whatever you want to call them.
2. Sharepoint as an engine for a dynamic website, for community building, with web 2.0 capabilities... This is really quite new to me. But I am quite confident that there are better fits for this, already out there (no beta software), which are cheaper if you look at the TCO. Just a few products (opensource and commercial) that come to mind, in no particular order: Joomla, Drupal, Elgg, Smartsite, Mambo, Zope, Typo3, Hippo, GX Webmanager, Roxen etc
Really, I am quite disappointed. Disappointed by the complete uninformedness and incompetence that comes with these kind of simple comparisons. What do you think?