RS3G in Five Minutes: An American Perspective

Web Services Harmonization MeetingOrlando, Florida USA | 12 February 2010

Jim Farmerinstructional media + magic, inc.

i n s t r u c t i o n a l m e d i a + m a g i c, i n c.

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In the beginning…

• Three young entrepreneurs—Simone Raviaoli from Kion SpA, and Manuel Dietz and Stephane Valey from QS-unisolution GmbH, wanted to improve the administration of “student mobility” following the Bologna process.

• They hosted an open meeting in Rome on 9 November 2007 (hence the name Rome Student Systems and Standards Group).

• The objective was “Defining electronic standards and procedures for the exchange of student curriculum data between Higher Education Institutions.”

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Rome: The old and the new

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and the results were …

• The group became a work group of the European University Information Systems (EUNIS) organization.

• The work of the Group is coordinated with the European standards agencies (CEN Comité Européen de Normalisation) via Workshop participation.

• All RS3G meetings are open--anyone may attend, all presentations and documents are immediately available, and all lists and discussions are public.

• RS3G Board members come from the 46-country European Higher Education Area.

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RS3G meeting, 22 June 2008

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CEN Standards process

• CEN has formal standards procedure. However to resolve the need for immediate standards versus the lengthy standardization process and informal specifications used in development and reviews by RS3G, RS3G developed a close working relationship with the CEN Workshops and Technical Committees.

• Anyone can participate—and many do. The Workgroups make recommendations transmitted to the appropriate CEN Committee as a CEN Workshop Agreements.

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CEN on CEN

• “In an era where the global standards market is gaining more and more international importance and recognition, CEN has introduced the CEN Workshop (WS) structure and process. This open process aims at bridging the gap between industrial consortia that produce de facto standards with the limited participation of interested parties, and the formal European standardization process which produces standards through consensus under the authority of CEN member bodies.”

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CEN Workshop Agreements

Currently in public comment before recommendation:

• Draft 1 - Guidelines on a European Learner Mobility model

• Draft 2 - European Learner Mobility (EuroLM)- Achievement Information

• Draft 3 - Europass Diploma Supplement - Application Profile of the EuroLMAI - (EuroLMAI Europass DS AP)

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Status of RS3G specifications

• MLO (Metadata Learning Opportunities)

• CEN Workshop Agreement drafted (and likely to become a CEN standard).

• Appears to overlap PESC core main and transcript standards and forthcoming course inventory and education record.

• Paul Heald, Sigma Systems Inc, is preparing a comparison among RS3G, PESC, SIFA and Kuali specifications. He has also identified issues with multiple identifiers and person and address representations (as implemented in a relational database management system).

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Status of RS3G specifications

• WS Data Transport

• RS3G had a presentation from Professor Hermann Strack at the 9 Nov 2007 meeting and informal briefings 22 June2008 on the OSCI (Open Source Computer Interface) specification Version 2. It is based on OASIS, W3C and IETF standards.

• This profile results from eight years of implementation. It has been offered for German and European standardization and adopted by the OASIS eGovernment Committee (but not an OASIS standard).

• RS3G has made no decision Data Transport.

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Process models

• RS3G has these process models:

• As a servicer, QS-unisoltion GmbH Germany has developed processes and software “used by 300 institutions of higher education for the management of international co-operations and exchange programmes.”

• Software: Kion SpA Italy is developing software to be installed and used by either institutions or servicers.

• Software: Janina Mincer-Daszkiewicz, University of Warsaw, is leading the development of a “Mobility Project Prototype”.

And likely others not yet known

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Observations

• Not withstanding youth, RS3G has knowledgeable, committed and experienced leadership. Likely to be very successful.

• The collaborative processes are successful in achieving RS3G objectives.

• RS3G is a model for collaboration across boundaries of countries, languages, and cultures for “common” benefits.

• The Bologna processes have been advocated by the Institute of Higher Education Policy as a model for the U.S.

The End

Jim Farmer

JXF [at] immagic . com

JXF [at] georgetown . edu