xAPI Camp Jisc Presentation by Russell Duhon

1. VOCABULARY AND
ITS DISCONTENTS
RUSSELL DUHON
@FUGU13
CTO, SALTBOX - MAKERS OF WAX LRS

2. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
XAPI AND ITS DISCONTENTS
▸There’s tension between the needs of a broader xAPI
community and the needs of any one company or vendor.
▸A lot of this tension manifests in “vocabulary”, the question of
how we connect identifiers and meanings.
▸In short, the need for standardized meanings comes up
against the need for immediacy and flexibility.

3. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
WHENCE STANDARDS BODIES
▸The returns to custody and maintenance of individual
vocabularies are low.
▸A central resource to assist and vet vocabularies promotes
consistency and quality.
▸A convenient clearinghouse for those looking to discover
more—requiring balance between completeness and
curation.

4. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
WHERE VOCABULARIES FIT WITH XAPI
▸Everywhere there are URIs!
▸But especially: verbs, activity types, attachment usage, and
extensions.
▸Vocabularies provide portable semantics.
▸Vocabularies make localization, internationalization, and
data integration easier, too.

5. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
A BIT ON VOCABULARIES TECHNICALLY,
WHY NOT
▸Some words: RDF. OWL. JSON-LD. SKOS. PROV.
Schema.org. RUTABAGA. Semantic Web.
▸Some of these words have developed a reputation, but
they’ve also got a rich history of use and sophistication.
▸The technical aspects are important. Very important. But a
lot can be done without getting into their details.
▸In particular, JSON-LD bridges a critical gap between
modern web development and the semantic web.

6. WHAT CAN
VOCABULA
RIES DO?

7. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
IMAGINE A WORLD…
▸…where people can view their data interpreted via the lens
of any self-selected learning pathway.
▸…with automatic localization of learning records at every
level, including the addition of explanatory sections around
differences in educational systems.
▸…where an organization can build a model incorporating
learning occurring elsewhere against outcomes to identify
risk patterns in terms of their own business processes

8. RUSSELL DUHON. @FUGU13. CTO SALTBOX.
???
▸What data integration problems keep you up at night?
▸Are there key questions about your organization that you
don’t even know where to start *really* answering?
▸Does knowing for sure who really issued a badge help if you
don’t know any details about the course or institution? What
would help?
▸HR is driven on keyword filtering despite the abysmal
results. Can the forces driving that be harnessed for good?