Well, if you’re into this sort of thing then this will come as probably no surprise but at considerable interest nonetheless.
Looks like WebCT ‘PowerLinks’ (got I hate their naming!) allow for:
“Open the WebCT system to deliver end-user access to:
-Custom in-house applications
-Open source extensions
-Other third-party applications” [my emphasis]
In particular, “PhpWiki Integration”
Now you don’t have to go through the entire 1.75 MB powerpoint (although you can if you really want to) but the essence is that WebCT, as far as I can tell, are now ‘integrating’ and are planning to integrate a huge swathe of open source tools essentially into WebCT so you can kiss your independent sandpit / development goodbye…. why would you want it when the ‘One Great Solution’ can provide it for everyone.
Somebody please tell me that they haven’t gone near WordPress… please.
And I swear there was a note of gloat in the admin who just conveyed this news to me… we shall see… we shall see!
Oh and in case I didn’t make it clear enough, news is that they have now implemented it….
James,
I think you misinterpreted the part about the open source tools in the powerpoint presentation mentioned above.
Our current Vista product contains an SDK that we call the PowerLinks Kit. Our commercial partners use the SDK to build integrations with their products (such as HorizonWimba mentioned in the presentation).
Our customers can also use the SDK to integrate with either their homegrown applications or potentially open source applications that may be used on campus.
We have created a site called the Vista DevNet, where licensed customers have access to resources, forums, how-tos, etc. all related to the use of the SDK. A key component of DevNet is a contributions area where institutions can share the code that they have developed, so that others can either use it or build upon it.
We are not integrating open source applications into WebCT – for example, the phpWiki integration allows instructors to easily link from Vista to the wiki application and provides some workflow aids. The two products still run on their respective servers, and no phpWiki code is incorporated into Vista.
So – the integration serves as an example to our customers on how to integate Vista with an external application. It is there for other customers to look at, modify or build upon. If a campus is using phpWiki and Vista, it may be of interest to them.
I hope that clears things up – let me know if you have any further questions on this.
Take care,
Sasan
WebCT
One of the big selling points of the Sakai project (to me at least) was that it had the express intention of building an ecosystem in which both proprietary and open source software could co-exist, both building upon the open and level playing field that Sakai is attempting to create.
The big proprietary vendors seem to have a similar vision where a great deal of the value-add comes from third-party proprietary plug-ins, academic research projects, homegrown solutions and tie-ins to existing open source software tools. Yet they still make their money by tying you into an expensive yet strangly limited framework that ‘enables’ all this to happen.
To me this is topsy-turvy and makes as much sense as having two would-be monopolist private enterprises building and owning seperate road networks (complete with tolls) and expecting the government to fund a diverse set of cutting edge vehicle design.
I say let open source do what it’s good at, infrastructure, standards and interoperation, and only allow proprietary software to compete in open and free markets where customer lock-in is not an effective tactic.
[...] soned approach 2005-06-10
I was in a foul mood the other day when I posted the open source robbery article and totally accept the view that it was, to put it mildly, pretty hostile [...]
Have had another brain dump here if anyone’s interested: http://incsub.org/blog/?p=511