[school-discuss] Zis Communication

[Les Richardson <richl@mail.tfsd.sk.ca>]

Hi Steve,

I've had a brief look at your software a year or so ago, but since my
responsibilities didn't overlap yours, I haven't pursued it. However, I
have written all administration software for use in our
school...mainly just attendance, report cards, and simple scheduling. I
have been doing contract work for the last 6 months or so (part-time..I'm
a full time teacher) building a web based admin package for use in 6
elementary schools in a local Catholic school division. It is understood
by this division that it will be licensed under the GPL. 

The upshot of this is I would like to get this system to talk to your
system using this Agent <-> ZIS <-> Agent method. 

Does this sound like a plan? Initially we should "get" a ZIS server
somewhere and get the agents working so that they can talk, etc. When
done, we can then look at replacing the ZIS server. 

Of course, I would write the agent in Perl (since the entire app is in
perl using DBI to talk to MySQL. ) We could collaborate on the perl agent
code, if you'd like...

What thinkest thou?

Les 



On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Tonnesen Steve wrote:

> 
> On Tue, 22 Jan 2002, Les Richardson wrote:
> 
> > 
> > I've been looking at the SIF specs and muttering...oh my, oh my, ...
> > 
> > It seems to me that there are several things that have to come before the
> > ZIS server
> > 
> > To me it would seem like more pressing solutions would be:
> > 
> > 1) Building SIF compliant applications that have a built in agent to talk
> > to ZIS servers. One would like to have a small complement of apps to carry
> > out the core administrative functions, which IMHO are:
> > a) attendance
> > b) student demographics
> > c) report cards (ie. student reporting)
> > 
> > 2) A toolkit (or software assemblage) including good documentation to SIF
> > enable existing applications.
> > 
> > 3) A good database schema for student demographics, grade book/report
> > cards, attendance, 
> > 
> > 
> > I would think that #3, and #2 would lead to number 1...more SIF capable
> > apps. Once we have a few of those, then ZIS server could occur. Otherwise,
> > I would say that it's premature...
> 
> The SIF specifications has some schemas laid out already.  My cursory
> glance through them makes me think that there is plenty missing.  Bruno
> Vernier's EduML might be another good starting point. 
> 
> My thinking is that developing a ZIS server would be an excellent way to
> come up with a solid #2.  It's going to be pretty hard for open source
> developers to add ZIS support to an application if they don't have access
> to a ZIS server in any case.  Also, I believe that we already have some
> applications that could benefit from the addition of SIF.
> 
> 
> > My 2 cents USD (1 cent CDN). 
> 
> Likewise,
> 
> Steve Tonnesen
> A little west of Les
> 
> 
>