Author Archive
Interface21 now SpringSource
I guess this happened late last year, but it escaped my notice: Interface21, the company behind the Spring Framework, has changed its name to SpringSource and has a spiffy new website to go with it. The Spring Framework has come to be synonymous with enterprise Java. It’s a great example of the cream rising to [...]
IMS Common Cartridge Alliance
I just signed up as a dues-paying member of the IMS Common Cartridge Alliance. IMS CC is a standard that has been evolving for several years, with the ultimate aim of creating a single format for publishers to create course materials that can be loaded into any learning management system. I wrote the underpinnings of [...]
Sakai As It Could Be
I just saw this, via Chris Coppola at rSmart. For me, this is where the view of Sakai as a platform for innovation is really exciting. Sure the CLE is an eLearning application that can be used out of the box as easily as any of the proprietary systems like Blackboard, Desire2Learn, Angel, and others. [...]
Sunlight is the Best Disinfectant
Jim Groom has an excellent post about Sakai from the point of view of a savvy outsider. It’s not exactly, um, positive, but I just have to post this because I think he hits the nail right on the head in terms of where we fall short. More than anything else, however, I was extremely [...]
Sakai Featured at eLearn Magazine
The current top story at eLearn Magazine is about the proliferation, albeit slowly, of open source software in higher education. Laurie Rowell cites various studies that suggest Sakai and Moodle adoption are growing quickly, but that even so CIOs like to take their time and make sure they know which way the wind is blowing. [...]
Texas State: Faculty to Faculty Testimonials
When I was at Texas State and we were launching our migration from Blackboard to Sakai, one of the things we realized very early on is that our social and political challenges were far more important than our technical ones. Unfortunately there is a widespread tendency among instructional technologists to think that their job is [...]
Book Review: Dreaming in Code
This one’s been out for a while, but I just got Scott Rosenberg’s “Dreaming in Code” for Christmas. It’s an inside view of the Chandler project, an open source effort by Lotus founder Mitch Kapor. They’re trying to create the ultimate personal information manager, a place to corral all your email, calendar appointments, notes, tasks, [...]
A Weekend at No Fluff Just Stuff
I just wrapped up a weekend attending No Fluff Just Stuff. To put it in a nutshell, it was the best technical conference I’ve ever attended, from the standpoint of the value it pays back for your time and money. Its salient features are: it is a traveling show, so you don’t fly to it, [...]
Who Needs Flash?
I was pretty amazed when I found out the iPhone browser wouldn’t support flash. It’s a little fishy; I can’t think of any technical reasons there can’t be a very solid flash player on there. I think Apple is intentionally locking it down because they don’t want to lose control of their platform overnight (and [...]
Maven 2 is a Go
Just finished my first Sakai build with Maven 2. Thanks Ian! This is going to take some getting used to: I have run Maven 1.0.2 around 10 times a day for the past three years. I may compile some notes about how Maven 2 is different.