SUN Conference Day One Reflection

Last night there was a small supplier exhibition and it was useful to meet two companies who are doing some interesting things - one that we were already aware of (Giunti Labs product Harvest Road Hive) and the other was new to me (moodlerooms.com). They both had a different perspective on "open source". The first product is a storage repository for learning material and allows you to unlock from a proprietory solution by holding the learning content in one place, and the delivery mechanism as a separate layer (e.g. Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai, mobile etc). The second is a professional service to "make moodle easier". It turns out that Bradford (not the University but the Schools) are using both of these products to deliver "open source" learning on SUN technology via Sunray technologies. I found this out over dinner talking to one of the SUN hosts. Its interesting that you have to come a long way to find out stuff that's happening on your doorstep.....last night we walked to the Brandenburg Gate which is splendidly lit up at night and we saw the line in the road where the wall used to be - there are two lines of cobbles to show the location. The snow had gone by then but it was still freezing cold but a refreshing walk after a pretty busy day.