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Abstract

The e-Framework is an initiative by Australia's Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST), the U.K's Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), New Zealand’s Ministry of Education (MoE), and the Netherlands SURF Foundation to produce an evolving and sustainable, open standards based, service oriented technical framework to support the education and research communities. The primary goal of the e-Framework is to facilitate technical interoperability within and across education and research through improved strategic planning and implementation processes.

The e-Framework supports a service oriented approach to developing and delivering education, research and management information systems. Such an approach maximises the flexibility and cost effectiveness with which systems can be deployed, both in an institutional context, nationally and internationally.

The e-Framework allows the communities to document its requirements and processes in a coherent way, and to use these to derive a set of interoperable network services. By documenting requirements, processes, services, protocol bindings, schemas and standards in the form of 'service usage models' members of the community are better able to collaborate on the development of service components that meet their needs (both within the community and with commercial and other international partners).

This paper will outline some of the practical ways in which communities have engaged with the e-Framework and the challenges faced in terms of creating a sustainable and flexible resource base.

About the speakers

Lyle Winton is an independent consultant working with the JISC and DEST led e-Framework initiative. He began postgraduate research with the University of Melbourne's Experimental Particle Physics group in 1993. His Ph.D. involved research on an international experiment at the world's largest particle physics laboratory, CERN. Subsequently he worked for 5 years as an IT professional for several organisations in software design and project management. Most recently Lyle worked as a research fellow with the Experimental Particle Physics group at the University of Melbourne. Lyle was also involved with the university's IT Research Computing Services, the APAC National Grid and the APSR project. He remains in the university as a senior research support officer supporting the e-research and research community.

Kerry Blinco is an independent consultant and technical adviser to DEST.  She is the co-manager of the e-Framework Operations Group and the e-Framework and Standards Manager within the RUBRIC project. She participates in a range of international e-learning technical standards activities with IMS, ISO, NISO, and the IEEE LTSC and collaborative activities with organizations such as the JISC's Centre for Educational Technology Interoperability Standards (CETIS). Kerry's particular focus is on frameworks and architectural models, the intersection between learning and information environments, and identity management. She has been involved in a number of national and international collaborative projects win both e-learning and the information environment, representing a variety of institutions including IMS Australia, Macquarie University, the Australian Vice-Chancellor's Committee and Griffith University.