1. Open Code and Open Content for Education: The LAMS Experience
James Dalziel
Professor of Learning Technology &
Director, Macquarie University E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)
Presentation for Unlocking IP Conference, 18th November 2004, UNSW, Sydney

2. Overview What is LAMS? Opportunities for dissemination of LAMS
Taking an “open approach”
Open software
Open content
Sustainability and hybrid models

3. What is LAMS? LAMS = Learning Activity Management System
LAMS is a next generation e-learning platform based on the concept of “digital lesson plans”
LAMS allows teachers to create, share and run sequences of collaborative learning activities
Innovative software that creates a new category of media
Screenshots: Author and learner view

6. What is LAMS?
LAMS is developed by Macquarie University E-learning Centre of Excellence (MELCOE)
Software owned and managed by the (non profit) LAMS Foundation Ltd
Services provided by LAMS International Pty Ltd
LAMS users include:
UK SST/DfES trial for up to 100 schools
UK JISC trial for 20 Universities and 20 Vocational colleges,
Tas Dept of Education trial
Oxford, Cambridge, ANU, UCanberra, NLNZ, etc

7. Opportunities for LAMS
(1) Traditional proprietary software commercialisation (sell e-learning platform)
(2) Traditional content commercialisation (sell digital content, like an educational publisher)
(3) Traditional implementation services commercialisation (sell support services, etc)

8. An open approach to LAMS
(1) Release LAMS as free/open source software
Users freely available to use, modify, extend and redistribute the software source code
(2) Encourage use of open licences for LAMS content (ie, sequences)
Easily assign Creative Commons licences on creation
Encourage sharing and modification of sequences
(3) Provide implementation support services
But no one is required to purchase services

9. LAMS and Open Software
LAMS will be released as Free/Open Source Software under the GNU General Public Licence (GPL) in February 2005
Encourage many developers to create/extend LAMS “activity” tools
Small team focus on core platform development led by MELCOE
Avoid a “secret” sequence file format

10. LAMS and Open Content
LAMS will encourage the Creative Commons licensing approach to LAMS sequences, eg:
Attribution, Derivatives & Share alike
Attribution & Derivatives
Attribution & No Derivatives
CC licences to be available as simple drop down menu items when saving sequences
Alternative licences available as free text field
Teachers able to search via CC licences

11. Sustainability and Hybrid Models
Sustainability of open software and open content is now one of the key strategic challenges
Models are still evolving, but examples include:
Government and/or charitable foundation support for core R&D
Commercial support services
“Dual licensing” of GPL software (eg, MySQL provide non-GPL version to proprietary software companies for a fee)
Dual licensing of Creative Commons with non-commercial use
Provide hybrid platform for free and fee content, but charge a margin on fee content (but not free)
The principle of “quid pro quo” (eg, MySQL policy)