Re: [school-discuss] Project developing free school server solution

[Bjoern Scheuermann <bjoern@solution.de>]

Hi,

> Some of those features could be implemented using a learning manaagment
> system such as ILIAS.
>
> From their website:
>
> "The current version of ILIAS offers the following features:
>
> (...)
>
> <http://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ios/index-e.html>
>
> or the german version of the site at
>
> <http://www.ilias.uni-koeln.de/ios/index.html>

Thanks! I some time ago also had some (short) contact with ILIAS, as well as 
some other similar systems. Indeed, I think the integration of such a system 
would be a very good thing and I'm giving this a quite high priority.

At the moment we're still thinking somehow a little bit more "low level" - at 
first we'll need a working Windows logon handling, IP address assignments, 
mail infrastructure (we'll probably use postfix/cyrus) etc.

We're at the moment working on the functional specifications, and if we 
believe we're more or less ready with this first step, we'll probably publish 
our ideas in some way and hope for more feedback as good as what I get in 
this list. We're also talking to skolelinux now, and maybe - if they like our 
approach - we could indeed somehow merge projects.

> No IMAP. Is it really necessary for your project? If it is, there's postfix
> and SquirrelMail.

I think IMAP is a really neat solution if you have users who use multiple 
workstations and not only one single one - a typical school situation. With 
IMAP they can access their mail with the mail client they personally prefer 
from everywhere, including a webmail interface (we were using Horde/IMP up to 
now, and I don't see a good reason to change this). And with Postfix+Cyrus 
(my personal configuration of choice) it's really easy to handle.

> Check it out. Maybe ILIAS is a good tool for most of the tasks you want to
> implement, considering the time frame you mentioned in your initial mail...

Well, it won't help much in providing the main part - the basic network and 
user management infrastructure - but it is really a nice thing to have, and 
it for sure is an extension that can be of great value in practical use.


Björn