Re: [school-discuss] Creating the 'Killer App'

["Colin Dellow" <cldellow@64.114.106.119>]

After a couple days of downtime (PCMCIA to PCI bridge card containing
wireless link *falls out* of PCI slot, all hell breaks lose...), I've now
caught up with SchoolForge-discuss.

Paul's idea of a centralised system is very interesting. Other projects
have gone a long way towards getting Open Source into schools but the
quality I like the most is being modular-based.

I don't just mean that you can *add* functionality to something, but that
you can *remove* it as well.  In an elementary school where I'm helping,
they want the following services through a website: Mail.  Calendar.  News
posting system (without forums).  Integration into library system (read:
Koha).  Ability for teachers to have students do math drills, and track
their progress online.

That's not to be found in any of the current offerings, so I'm currently
going it alone -- but it *is* time we started connecting things together.
When all is said and done I hope to have a core system (authentication
would be part of the core), and all the features above existing in a
completely modularised implementation.  Of course, I won't program the mail
myself -- I'll write a wrapper for SquirrelMail.  Library system?  I'll
hook into Koha's database.  Calendar?  Grab one off of freshmeat and
commence assimilation.

We've got the parts, why not connect them into a functional intranet?

Is there anyone else out there interested in this sort of thing?
Developing it?  Testing it?
-- 
Colin Dellow
cldellow@ndschool.org