MisterB

@ David - OK, yes, we have discussed Moodle integration quite heavily, talking to pteppic and Synergy Learning who both come highly recommended. Whilst I am not writing off ode contribution to a Moodle repository it's worth remembering that at it's heart ode is a shop containing commercial content and needs to function as such. ode doesn't own or make content at all, unlike services such as Open University. We have slightly different ideas about what the ode service could do for Moodle users e.g. direct access to their ode library and playlists. I imagine our content partners may see "Read only" as "free access". But we will keep pushing a number of ideas around this area, everything is on the table. The idea of content creation tools embedded into ode occured to us very early on and we are pursuing this as we think it's a great idea. I don't see it as an immediate concern, but something to focus on once the basic platform is up and running. We follow Getting Real and instead of trying to do everything at once we intend to release updates quickly and regularly. I think it's likely we will partner with someone who already does this well and integrate that facility via the API rather than build it ourselves. Did you have a webtool in mind? @ sahmeepee - Haha! Yep, I totally get where you're coming from. Anyone who's ever worked a helpdesk will understand the frustration at having to service and support products that seem to work against the customer. Didn't a cigar chomping movie mogul once say: "Nobody sets out to make a bad movie"? Part of me hopes that by liberating the content from these products will not only free up your time to concentrate on the technology and platforms in your schools it will also inspire the content creators to think more about the quality and usefulness of the content itself at individual SCORM level, instead getting bogged down in interfaces, server side compliance and install routines. If ode works we should see some remarkable content being produced purely for this type of model/distribution, whether it's from commercial organisations or individuals.

@dhicks but I guess everyone else too! Hey all, This is Chris, one of the co-founders of ode as mentioned by David. I thought it might be cool to pop into the thread and thank David for his comments. I have been a long time lurker at Edugeek and even use one of your forum quotes in our philosophy page (honestly, we really do, look here: http://www.odeworld.co.uk/our_philosophy.html ). We want to create a very open web platform that allows anyone (from huge corporations to individual teachers or technicians) to sell digital content into a global education market at a micropayment level. I guess the closest comparison would be itunes or Amazon, but for educators. We're funded/incubated by Pearson but fiercely protect our independence, for the right reasons I hope. The team follows the User story/Agile development method and codes in .NET and C#/SQL 2005 and we're developing an API so that ode could be plugged into any webservice (we're producing a Moodle plug in for example as we love Moodle and all downloadable content will be SCORM compliant) so that teachers can source little bits of content from a huge range of suppliers from lots of different places. I know you'll probably have lots of questions/criticisms/praise about this model and if you have any thoughts I'm happy to answer them and share them with the team, in this thread or by email/on the blog. We understand we can't compete against free resources but we believe there is still a model for commercial content liberated from it's constraints and usable at the classroom/individual student level. Plus we've got loads of content suppliers/brands on board already, some you'll have heard of and some you won't, but that's half the fun of the long tail, right? Also if any of you want to come on board for the beta at some point in 2008 you are very welcome. We want to hear from you guys too. Also it may interest you to know that I used to be the ICT Support Manager for Harcourt/Heinemann and talked to 1000's of network managers and technicians over the years before putting my money where my mouth is and trying to do something different. So forgive my intrusion but I've always wanted to post something that wasn't an apology for some CDROM not installing ! Thanks Chris