Forum .LRN Q&A: Berklee Status

Collapse
Posted by Alfred Essa on
A number of you have asked whether Berklee will be making available their code to be rolled back into either OACS or .LRN. We have had numerous conversations with them, but it's not clear at this point what their intentions are. We certainly  hope that they will.
Collapse
2: Re: Berklee Status (response to 1)
Posted by Michael Serio on
Berkleemusic.com is currently in a live beta test period with our formal launch date scheduled for mid-January '03.  At present we are focused on testing and improving the Berkleemusic web site, building a viable business and making our customers happy.  This is taking up the vast majority of our development time and is the directive given to us by the college leadership.

Regarding the LMS that we are developing, our goal is to provide a solid foundation to ensure the success of the LMS as a platform.  While the Berklee LMS code does not require .LRN, .LRN interoperability and integration will be feasible.

It is not an option for us to open our CVS directly to others, as the code base includes a customized ecommerce system and business logic proprietary to the college.  Given the intensity of ongoing development, it's unclear when or if we will be able to properly clean up and release a useful Berklee LMS module, or what that release would even look like. 

We realize that this situation may be frustrating for certain members of the OACS community.  If you have an immediate need for an LMS, you would do best to pursue other options.  That said, we have written OACS modules including an Asset Manager and XML Content Manager, upon which the LMS and Berkleemusic.com depend that we hope will be of general use that we plan to contribute in a much shorter timeline. 

Collapse
3: Re: Berklee Status (response to 2)
Posted by Roberto Mello on
Michael,

Can I add these projects to the list of OpenACS Packages being worked on? (https://openacs.org/projects/openacs/packages)?

-Roberto

Collapse
4: Re: Berklee Status (response to 1)
Posted by Carl Robert Blesius on
I hope you will make a real effort to sync the relevant parts of of your code (and any PG improvements) with dotLRN. I would really hate to see you all alone way out on a branch (regardless of how cool it is).
Collapse
5: Re: Berklee Status (response to 4)
Posted by Alfred Essa on
Michael,

Thanks for the clarification and your continuining support for open source. We were hoping that Berklee would contribute the LMS work back to dotLRN, but it appears now that we will have to develop this piece independently.

It's a shame since Berklee would have benefited in the long run through collaboration instead of going out on your own. I also don't quite understand what "business logic" at a university, especially as it pertains to learning, would be "proprietary". But that's neither here nor there.

I know that in the final analysis it was not your decision.

Collapse
6: Re: Berklee Status (response to 2)
Posted by Alfred Essa on
Michael,

Can you give us a status on whether Berklee is planning to contribute anything either to dotLRN or OACS? In your last message in November you indicated that Berklee will not be contributing any code associated with the LMS but did say that the Asset Manager and XML Content Manager would be contributed in a much "shorter timeline". Since we are investigating needs for asset manager and content manager, any information would be much appreciated.

If Berklee is not planning to contribute anything, that's fine. We just need to know. Many thanks, Al