I am pleased and proud to note that SUNY Learning Environments, parent organization to the SUNY Learning Network, is proposing to build an LMOS to support its 100,000+ enrollments. From the announcement:
In the last eighteen months, LE has mounted a broad, thorough and inclusive investigation into new technologies to support SLN’s programs and services, including the 2005 LE Task Force whose report forms the basis for the attached document, SLN Technology Strategy Report: Request for Public Comment (SLN RFPC). This document identifies a candidate solution that will integrate the open source application Uportal with best in class tools from other open source applications, including Sakai and LAMS. More importantly the SLN RFPC identifies an innovative approach to technology development, a strategy designed to keep SLN agile and responsive to SUNY needs while providing significant efficiencies, cost-savings, and assurances of continuity to our SUNY campuses.
We are asking for your comments about the Educational Appropriateness, Technological Feasibility, Risks and Opportunities that you see in our plan, as well things we may have missed. The purpose of the SLN RFPC is to gather sufficient refinement and specification for this plan from your feedback to create a Request for Proposals which LE hopes to issue shortly. To this end, we are asking for your comments along with those of other SUNY and external stakeholders, including open source and proprietary providers.
The proposed SLN2.0 initiative would parallel the Open Source LMOS project, with the ultimate aim of maintaining compatibility with an all-Open Source LMOS stack supported by a broader community. As a result, Learning Environments is very much interested in getting input from the global online teaching and learning community as well as from the SUNY community. The SLN Request for Public Comment [PDF] is being circulated among several relevant Open Source communities; comments from interested non-SUNY parties are welcome and can be submitted to [email protected].
On a personal note, I would like to acknowledge the hard work of the entire SLN team, but in particular, that of Harry Cargile, Doug Cohen, Bernie Durfee, Paul McLean, and Israel Washington. The report is the culmination of quite a bit of down-in-the-trenches evaluation and analysis of individual products and technology options, and these guys really delivered.
