PIOP 3 proposals

Belongs to the Portfolio interoperability projects pages

Work currently under consideration
We are proposing to build on the success of Leap2A thus far, following a similar route to (but about two years behind) XCRI. We wish to encourage progressive uptake of the specification, and its gradual and orderly development in step with new requirements that emerge from the extension to other systems and implementations.

Current proposals
The proposals for development from now through to the first half of 2010 are these.

Chart a way forward for medium and longer-term governance of the spec(s)
This would be mainly the responsibility of CETIS, where there is considerable experience of the bodies that govern specs; and may offer synergy with any similar issues for XCRI, or any other community-based spec that we help to create. CETIS will in any case continue to look after Leap2A until other governance is agreed.

Improve documentation
Partners mainly think it is adequate, though less than perfect, so we should review how it could be improved to best help new adopters.

Bring more systems to implement Leap2A
The core proposal here that requires funding is to motivate other systems to adopt Leap2A, and at the same time to contribute to its ongoing development. All partners recognise that this is vital to the success of the spec. The main question is what it takes to motivate other systems to join.

Frameworks of skill and competence
There is some essential supplementary work to do, for effective interoperability between systems that work in the context of frameworks of skill and competence (e.g. strongly in medical education.) This is not strictly Leap2A, and it should be developed with a broader constituency in mind. It is initially being taken forward by CETIS in consultation with several other groups. A sensible option appears to us to be to engage appropriate new PIOP partners -- and some existing ones -- in some extra work on top of the basic implementation of Leap2A, to implement this.

Other work
There is further work that is not directly included in the current proposals, either to do later or to do separately.

Extension to RDF -- Leap2R
This is more forward-looking, and can be taken gently forward by CETIS, leading volunteer participants. Caution is appropriate here, particularly because HTML 5 is not yet stable. But the end result should be that the same information as in Leap2A can be represented in other formats, certainly in XHTML as RDFa, and ideally also in HTML 5.

14-19
14-19 issues in portfolio interoperability centrally involve wider questions than simply technical ones, and need to be taken forward in conjunction with other interested parties. CETIS will approach CRA, Becta and others as seems appropriate, looking out for good opportunities.

Full-scale trials
The first rollout of Leap2A functionality to users has only recently been done, so the time is not yet ripe to gather feedback from full-scale trials with real users. This needs to be kept under review.