Comments on: Sakai and OpenSocial: A Different Approach to Distributed Learning Applications http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-and-opensocial-a-different-approach-to-distributed-learning-applications/ What Michael Feldstein Is Learning About Online Learning...Online Fri, 05 Dec 2008 03:56:36 +0000 By: Ewout ter Haar http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-and-opensocial-a-different-approach-to-distributed-learning-applications/#comment-71016 Ewout ter Haar Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:09:45 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-and-opensocial-a-different-approach-to-distributed-learning-applications/#comment-71016 This sounds like a very interesting and encouraging initiative. I had no idea this was going on in the Sakai world. The lessons of the Web are very well expressed with the phrase "connections and communications are capable of leveraging greater efficiencies and delivery than application silos". It is my impression that "hard-core" Java developers, besides not focusing on the UI layer generally fail to take this into account by considering the Web as just one more UI. (Your article has the same problem, by the way: it needs a link.) It would be wonderful if VLE and social software could be made more permeable. I see social networks and VLE taking a federated approach with standard communications protocols between them. On that view, we need the equivalent of SMTP and XMPP. The original OpenSocial spec did nothing in that regard: standardizing a widget platform is interesting but not world changing. Making connections between people (or profiles anyway) on different networks on the other hand is potentially revolutionary. Maybe the RESTful API in OpenSocial 0.8 is the beginning of moving in that direction. This sounds like a very interesting and encouraging initiative. I had no idea this was going on in the Sakai world. The lessons of the Web are very well expressed with the phrase “connections and communications are capable of leveraging greater efficiencies and delivery than application silos”. It is my impression that “hard-core” Java developers, besides not focusing on the UI layer generally fail to take this into account by considering the Web as just one more UI. (Your article has the same problem, by the way: it needs a link.)

It would be wonderful if VLE and social software could be made more permeable. I see social networks and VLE taking a federated approach with standard communications protocols between them. On that view, we need the equivalent of SMTP and XMPP. The original OpenSocial spec did nothing in that regard: standardizing a widget platform is interesting but not world changing. Making connections between people (or profiles anyway) on different networks on the other hand is potentially revolutionary. Maybe the RESTful API in OpenSocial 0.8 is the beginning of moving in that direction.

]]> By: Scott Wilson http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-and-opensocial-a-different-approach-to-distributed-learning-applications/#comment-70930 Scott Wilson Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:38:06 +0000 http://mfeldstein.com/sakai-and-opensocial-a-different-approach-to-distributed-learning-applications/#comment-70930 I think this is a really interesting direction you're taking. We've been doing something very similar here by developing on the W3C Widgets specification, extending to add support for collaboration-type widgets. Again, parallel with OpenSocial and Shindig. We've been experimenting with different containers including Moodle, Wordpress, and Ruby on Rails apps. I really like some parts of OpenSocial, and it certainly has momentum. I just hope it converges with genuinely open standards rather than remains a Microsoft-style de-facto proprietary technology. I think this is a really interesting direction you’re taking. We’ve been doing something very similar here by developing on the W3C Widgets specification, extending to add support for collaboration-type widgets. Again, parallel with OpenSocial and Shindig. We’ve been experimenting with different containers including Moodle, Wordpress, and Ruby on Rails apps.

I really like some parts of OpenSocial, and it certainly has momentum. I just hope it converges with genuinely open standards rather than remains a Microsoft-style de-facto proprietary technology.

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