The Open Knowledge Initiative
started at MIT in 2001 with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
O.K.I.'s first phase will be complete in July 2003 with delivery of the following:
- A set of Service Interface Definitions that specify
interactions between modules, programs, and systems within and across institutions.
- Open source code for a reference implementation of each service,
with documentation of the architectural assumptions that underlie the Service
- Open source code for two production learning management systems — Stellar,
developed at MIT, and CourseWork, developed at Stanford University.
Having provided the architectural framework for a new educational
infrastructure, O.K.I. seeks to create and sustain a community where both
open source and commercially licensed products can evolve. To achieve this,
O.K.I. has the following goals:
- Maintain and refine the core Service Interface Definitions
- Research and develop new educational interoperability specifications
- Build a global developer community by providing developer training and
access to information
- Advance customer adoption of O.K.I. educational software by helping educational
institutions and vendors learn and implement the architecture