Re: Another XML effort underway

[Bruno Vernier <vernier@vc.bc.ca>]

> Timothy Wilson wrote: 
> > He was very interested
> > and informed me that there is another group interested in developing an
> > XML standard for educational data exchange. The group is called the
> > Schools Interoperability Framework. Their webpage is at
> > http://www.schoolsinterop.org/

Thank you Timothy for bringing this information to our mailing list.  We are 
each other's eyes and ears.  This particular bit of information is invaluable. 

I just posted the specs for this microsoft-led effort to provide a free XML 
for education framework in order to help commercial companies calm their 
frustrated clients.  Their specs were in ms-word v7 which I converted into 
text with catdoc (because mswordview does not do v7, only v8).
I recommend we read it:

       http://cran.seul.org/~vernier/eduml  (bottom of first menu)

On Tue, Mar 16, 1999,  Doug Loss wrote:

> I also looked at their site quickly.  I suspect that to actually find
> out more about it (what I saw was fairly vague about just what they're
> doing) you'd have to register as a participant.  It all sounded a lot

I registered to see what would happen.  All I got was a marketing 
questionnaire.  Participation in the working groups requires me to belong to a 
K12 software vendor.  This is the microsoft marketing machine at its height.

> like the IMS project, heavy on bureaucracy and discussion, light on
> actual product.  The phrase, "elephant laboring mightily to bring forth
> a mouse," comes to mind.  As you say it's worth a look, but I suspect
> that we'll have actual running code realizing their goals before they
> finish defining and re-reexamining their purpose and "roadmap."

There are some similarities:

1. both promise specs for an XML for EDUCATION (just like EDUML)
   both promise specs for an API that uses the XML (just like "functions"
   in EDUML)
2. both limit serious participation to commercial entities
3. both promise to keep the specs free and open (though I am not sure
   what open means in this context since we can't really influence it)
4. both are motivated by prospects of profit from the education sector
5. both provide partial specs in ms-word format
6. both are motivated by stagnation in the education market caused by
   lack of interoperability
7. both promise to offer "certification" services to guarantee compliance


There are some differences:

1. SIF covers the exact same territory as EDUML, whereas IMS specializes 
   mainly in web-based transactions.

2. SIF tackles the problem of data redundancy directly, so much so that
   I could amost use their prologue for EDUML!  It is well written
   description of the data redundancy problem ... Microsoft looks like they
   are mounting a big marketing campaign which I predict will put the
   term "avoid data-redundancy" into the mouth of most school
   administrators :-) ... Microsoft even made a small movie on the subject.
 
> Bruno's work has gone from a standing start to being more useful than
> the IMS stuff already, I think.  I don't see SIF as changing that. 

Thank you for the compliment. I agree: I think IMS is asleep. However, SIF 
should probably influence EDUML, as should any other XML in education 
standard.

more random notes:

1. Reading the SIF document, it is clear that the authors know what they are 
   talking about.  If I put aside their marketing focus, I can learn 
   from their work (esp. if they keep posting updated specs unlike IMS)

2. SIF elements for <contact> are similar to eduml but very US-centric :-)
   <county> <state> <zip>

3. The part about "relationships" and "Queries" is foggy and I predict they 
   will be changing that part radically.  Standard XML tools will soon
   be developped that I think will take care of that issue.

4. K12Event Messages : they trigger things like enrollment, withdrawal, 
   un/subscribe, un/publish  ... hummm... sounds like a good idea but see
   next comment for context:

5. SIF does not make any attempt at a central XML database, it is concerned
   only with data transfers via XML as a middleware.  It assumes all the 
   applications will stick to their proprietary formats while providing
   automatic conversion functionality.  I prefer planning for both a 
   standalone XML central database as well as XML transfers to proprietary 
   formats.

6. Appendix A contains the complete list and description of their current
   list of elements. It is a little hard to read because catdoc did not render 
   the table very nicely.  But it shows that they have done some significant 
   work.  It is past the vaporware stage, for sure. In fact, that appendix is 
   a more complete description of their "SIF.xml" than we have for EDUML:
   Appendix B is a summary of the elements and Appendix C is the DTD. I put a 
   cleaned up version of Appendix B at the end of this email.

7. My overall impression is that SIF is worthy of our attention, that it is
   focussed on the US education market and designed to get rid of data 
   redundancy among the proprietary software products particularly in the area
   of contact information:


SIF element     Description
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Address         Student Address
AptNumber       Apartment Number
AptNumPrefix    The prefix of an apartment number
AptNumSuffix    Apartment Number Suffix
AptType         This specifies the type of apartment such as suite
AreaCode        The area code in the form xxx (3 numeric)
BirthDate       Date of Birth D8 format (CCYYMMDD)
ChangedStatus   New, or changed status
ChangeReason    Reason Code from SPEEDE/EXPRESS
City            Free-form text for city name
Complex         Apartment Complex designation
Contact         Student Contact information
ContactName     Contact Name    Contact Name
ContactUpdate   Contact Update  Contact Update Message
County          Code identifying the county within a state Note to User:
Credentials     SPEEDE/EXPRESS for codes for credential code
Date            In the form D8 (CCYYMMDD)
DateHired       Indicates the date hired. D8 format (CCYYMMDD)
Department      Identifies the department to which the teacher reports
DistrictNbr     Identifies the School District
EffectiveDate   Date in D8 format CCYYMMDD
ElectronicID    Student Electronic identifier, may be a barcode, magstripe, or pin
EmployeeID      The teacher's employee ID
EnrollStatusChg This event specifies a change in enrollment status.
                Changes include admissions, withdrawls, and graduations
Error           This is a error condition which is returned instead of data
Event
Ext             This is the extension. This is an alpha numeric field
FirstName       First name
Gender          SPEEDE/EXPRESS DMG03
GradeLvl        Identifies the grade level of the student
GradYear        Identifies the graduation year in D8 format YY
HomeRoom        Identifies the student home room
IDUpdate        A message to indicate a change in an object's unique identifier
ImmigrationStatus  Specifies the immigration status
K12Event        The K12 Event Message is sent in response to an event
                in which data in a K12 educational software application changes.
                This message is sent to notify other applications of the kind
                of change and to automatically deliver the changed data.
K12Framework    K12 Message Framework
K12Publish      K12 Publish data object message
K12Request      A K12 Request is a query from one software
                application for information from another application
K12Response     The K12 Response is sent by the software application which was
                requested to send information. The response may contain the
                information fields which were requested, or may contain
                reasons why the information could not be returned
K12Subscribe    K12 Subscription Message
K12Unpublish    K12 Withdraw from Publication Message
K12Unsubscribe  K12 Withdraw Subscription Message
LastName        Last name, may be hyphenated
MiddleName      Middle name field. This is required. If no middle
                name the field is still required. If two middle names,
                both go in this field
MsgHead         Identifies the source of the message, perhaps the date.
                This is to be determined at the time of implementation
MsgID           This is the unique identifier of this message Generated
                by the source
NewContactID    Indicates a new Contact unique identifier
NewSchoolID     Indicates a new School unique identifier
NewStudentID    Indicates a new Student unique identifier
NewTeacherID    Indicates a new Teacher unique identifier
Number          This field is used to return a count in response to a query
Object          Data Object
PartialContactUpdate  This element contains all contact fields for partial update
PartialSchoolUpdate   Used to update part of the school information
PartialStudentUpdate  This contains any of the student data fields which may
                      make up a partial update
PartialTeacherUpdate  This element contains all teacher data fields to enable
                      partial update
PhoneNumber     Phone Number
PublishHead     Heading of Publish Message
Race            race codes from SPEEDE/EXPRESS DMG05
RecordCount     This indicates the number of records being sent or returned
Relationship    This specifies the relationship between the contact and the student
RequestHead     This is the header information for the request
RequestMsgID    This is used to match the response to the request
ResponseData    Response Data returned to  Query or K12 Request
ResponseHead    Header for Response messages
School          This is the school information object
SchoolID        Unique School Identifier
SchoolName      Official School Name
SchoolUpdate    This message updates school information
SchoolYear      School Year in D8 format YY
Source          The Network Identifier identifies the sender of the message
SSN             Social Security number is not a student identifier
State           Two letter state code SPEEDE/EXPRESS CODE IND04
Status          Identifies the status of the student in the school, such as
                enrolled, withdrawn
Street          This is made up of a number of nodes
StreetName      Street Name
StreetNumber    Address number
StreetPrefix    Direction such as N, S, E, W, NW
StreetSuffix    Another Direction such as NW, NE
StreetType      This is the type of street such as Ave. Street, Blvd
Student         This defines the student object. It will be placed
                inside messages
StudentID       Unique Student Identifier
StudentName     Student Name, made up of first name, middle name, last name
StudentUpdate   Student Information Update Message
SubscribeHead   Subscription Heading
Teacher         Teacher data object
TeacherID       Unique Identifier for a Teacher
TeacherName     Teacher's name
TeacherUpdate   Update to Teacher Information
Time            This specifies the Time in
XMLQuery        This is the actual request, sent as an XQL query
Zip             Zip Code