Open Knowledge Initiative
Life After OKI…IMS…MERLOT…….…
M. S. Vijay Kumar
Assistant Provost, MIT
NLII, San Diego 1/28/02
Open Knowledge Initiative
Premisses
Ed Asserts /Implies(?) and I agree! ( with some qualifications)
• Common Cause– Value: Locally realized; Multiplicity; Pluralism
• The Value Chain– Differentiated roles, capabilities, value `
• Locus of Control– Contextual Relevance– Dominant values/not to be subordinated– “ownership”
OKI
Open Knowledge Initiative
Why OKI
• Enable the development and delivery of wide range of applications – Efficiency and Effectiveness – Focus on Pedagogy not Common Infrastructure Services
(CS)• CS not built for each case (leveraged)
• Sharing of Resources
• Interoperability** Details in OKI Sessions**
Value Asserts
Open Knowledge Initiative
What is OKI?
• Infrastructure for Educational Application Development and Delivery
• Pedagogically Driven• Collaborative • Enabling Diverse Development Activity
– Educational Tools and Applications– Permit Application Sharing– Open architecture/open source
• API based
Value Asserts
Open Knowledge Initiative
Educational Ecology
• “Commons of the Mind”: (Boyle)
• Ecology -- free flow of ideas and practices» TEAL and Jack Wilson’s Studio Physics@RPI
» Carl Berger’s Lisa
» OKI
– An educational services ecosystem • Sustainable
• (with appropriate Locii of Control) Experiments
Open Knowledge Initiative
Why OKI?
• Enabling and Enduring– Architecture– Business Model ( Open Source)
Open Knowledge Initiative
Projects that bolster the intellectual commons
@ MIT• I-Lab Real Virtual laboratories (WebLabs) coupled with simulation
tools, immersed in a collaborative user environment
• OCW MITOpenCourseWare Course materials for all MIT courses on the Web, open the world
• And other transformational practices at MIT and elsewhere
Infrastructure: • Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI): Open software architecture for
educational applications and learning management systems• DSpace: Web archive for MIT research papers and other publications
Experiments
Open Knowledge Initiative
… one of my greatest concerns is that, either inadvertently or by design, universities will be so bemused by market opportunities that they will lose sight of, or downplay, their most essential purposes…
-- William G. Bowen, At a Slight Angle to The Universe (Romanes Lecture, 2000)
Open Knowledge Initiative
MIT OpenCourseware
• Question: How is the Internet going to be used in education, and what isyour university going to do about it?
• An answer from the MIT Faculty: Use it to provide free access to the primary materials for virtually all our courses. We are going to make our educational material available to students, faculty, and other learners, anywhere in the world, at any time, for free.
Charles Vest,Charles Vest,MIT President’s report, Fall 2001MIT President’s report, Fall 2001
Open Knowledge Initiative
•The Concept:– MIT will endeavor to put all its course content,
undergraduate and graduate, into a web-based format
– The OCW Website will be open and available
to the world
– MIT will commit to OCW as a permanent,
sustainable activity
MITOpenCourseWare (OCW)MITOpenCourseWare (OCW)
Open Knowledge Initiative
MIT OpenCourseware
• Demonstrate a model for university dissemination of knowledge in the Internet age
• Contribute to improving the quality and standard of education at all levels nationally and worldwide
• Set an example for other leading educational institutions worldwide
• Create a major, shared campus-wide intellectual resource
• Initial two years funded by an $11M grant from the Mellon and Hewlett foundations
Post OKI
Open Knowledge Initiative
• Alignment with MIT’s mission:OpenCourseware is fully consistent with MIT’s core values and
educational mission:
• Digital distribution increasingly commoditizes content, which helps sharpen our focus on the substantive values of residential education: personal attention from faculty and participation in learning and research communities.
• “Giving it away” helps defuse complex intellectual property issues of ownership and control that can otherwise distract the university from its mission to disseminate knowledge.
OpenCourseWare@MIT OpenCourseWare@MIT
Post OKI
Open Knowledge Initiative
Educational Services Ecosysytem: Locii of Control
MITImp.
MITImp.
NCSUImp.
UWisc.Imp.
NCSUImp.
StanfordImp.
.Stanford
Imp.
AuthN AuthZ DBMS File GUID Log Etc...
Course Mgmt Content Mgmt Assessment Etc...Components
CommonServices
Pedagogical ToolsEducational Application Suite
Infrastructure
Faculty and Academic Programs
Marketspace
Educational Institutions
Post OKI
Open Knowledge Initiative
Sustainable Ecology and Entropy
• Services and components – Reusable and value adding– Low threshold for development, using and
sharing– Appropriate locus of control– Redefining the relationship of the University
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
• 1.0 Version of OKI Framework Spec.
• Implementations of Framework APIs
• Suite of Exemplar Applications
• Developer Community Strategy
• Sustainability Strategy
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
StanfordImplementation
MITImplementation
StanfordImplementation
UPennImplemenation
MITImp.
MITImp.
NCSUImp.
UWisc.Imp.
NCSUImp.
StanfordImp.
.Stanford
Imp.
AuthN AuthZ DBMS File GUID Log Etc...
Course Mgmt Content Mgmt Assessment Etc...LMS APIs
CommonServiceAPIs
Pedagogical ToolsApplication Suite
Infrastructure
Open Knowledge Initiative
OKI Philosophy
• Infrastructure for Educational Application Development and Support
• Pedagogically Driven
• Collaborative
• Enabling Diverse Development Activity– Educational Tools and Applications
• API based
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
• OKI Framework Specification
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
AuthN AuthZ DBMS File GUID Log Etc...
Course Mgmt Content Mgmt Assessment Etc...LMS APIs
CommonServiceAPIs
Infrastructure
• Framework Implementations
Open Knowledge Initiative
Issues Ahead
• Sustainability– Business Models
– Intellectual Property
Guiding Principles– Low Threshold for contribution
– Low Threshold for adoption
– Alignment with Original Intent
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
• OKI Framework Specification
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImplementation
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
MITImp.
AuthN AuthZ DBMS File GUID Log Etc...
Course Mgmt Content Mgmt Assessment Etc...LMS APIs
CommonServiceAPIs
Infrastructure
• Framework Implementations
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
• OKI Framework Specification
• Framework Implementations– Local Implementations
StanfordImplementation
StanfordImplementation
StanfordImplementation
StanfordImplementation
StanfordImp.
StanfordImp.
StanfordImp.
StanfordImp.
StanfordImp.
StanfordImp.
.Stanford
Imp.
AuthN AuthZ DBMS File GUID Log Etc...
Course Mgmt Content Mgmt Assessment Etc...LMS APIs
CommonServiceAPIs
Infrastructure
Open Knowledge Initiative
Deliverables
• 1.0 Version of OKI Framework Spec.
• Implementations of Framework APIs
• Suite of Exemplar Applications
• Developer Community Strategy
• Sustainability Strategy