The Open Knowledge Initiative (O.K.I.) is an organization responsible for the specification of software interfaces comprising a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Service-oriented architecture

In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...

 based on high level service definitions.

Description

The Open Knowledge Initiative was initially sponsored by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

The goal of an SOA

Service-oriented architecture

In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...

 is to provide a separation between the interface of a service and its underlying implementation such that consumers (applications) can interoperate across the widest set of service providers (implementations) and providers can easily be swapped on-the-fly without modification to application code. Using this architectural style preserves the software development

Software development

Software development is the development of a software product...

 investment as underlying technologies and mechanisms evolve and allows enterprises to incorporate externally developed application software

Application software

Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

 without the cost of a porting effort to achieve interoperability with an existing computing infrastructure.

O.K.I. has designed and published a suite of software interfaces known as Open Service Interface Definitions (OSIDs)

Open Service Interface Definitions

Open Service Interface Definitions are programmatic interface specifications describing services. These interfaces are specified by the Open Knowledge Initiative to implement a Service-Oriented Architecture to achieve interoperability among applications across a varied base of underlying and...

, each of which describes a logical computing service. In contrast to other interface definitions that encapsulate a specific technology, an OSID more easily permits a variety of technologies to interoperate through its interfaces for a given service. The OSIDs include service definitions for:

• Repository
• Scheduling
• Workflow
• Messaging
• Course management
• Assessment
• Authentication
• Authorization
• Identity
• Filing

More information

Current Version 2 OSID specifications can be downloaded from Sourceforge. Articles and whitepapers are available from the O.K.I. library.

Vendors and adopters

• Apple Computer
  Apple Computer
  Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
  
  : http://www.apple.com
• California State University
  California State University
  The California State University is a public university system in the state of California. It is one of three public higher education systems in the state, the other two being the University of California system and the California Community College system. It is incorporated as The Trustees of the...
  
  : http://www.calstate.edu
• Cisco Systems
  Cisco Systems
  Cisco Systems, Inc. is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Jose, California, United States, that designs and sells consumer electronics, networking, voice, and communications technology and services. Cisco has more than 70,000 employees and annual revenue of US$...
  
  : http://www.cisco.com
• Giunti Interactive Labs: http://www.giuntilabs.com learn eXact
• Global Education Learning Community: GELC
• HarvestRoad: http://www.harvestroad.com
• Mac Learning Environments: http://maclearningenvironments.org
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
  
  : http://mit.edu
• Microsoft
  Microsoft
  Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
  
  : http://www.microsoft.com
• Moodle
  Moodle
  Moodle is a free source e-learning software platform, also known as a Course Management System, Learning Management System, or Virtual Learning Environment...
  
  : course management
• Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
  The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Massachusetts, is one of the largest museums in the United States, attracting over one million visitors a year. It contains over 450,000 works of art, making it one of the most comprehensive collections in the Americas...
  
  : http://www.mfa.org
• Nuvvo eLearning: http://nuvvo.com/
• IMS Global Learning Consortium: http://www.imsglobal.org/okiosids
• Nolaria Consulting: http://www.nolaria.org
• OnTapSolutions
• Open Knowledge Initiative: http://www.okiproject.org
• PHPOKI: http://www.phpoki.org
• Sakai Project
  Sakai Project
  This page is about the software project, for other meanings, see Sakai.Sakai is a community of academic institutions, commercial organizations and individuals who work together to develop a common Collaboration and Learning Environment...
  
  : http://www.sakaiproject.org
• Savvica: http://savvica.com/
• Sun Microsystems
  Sun Microsystems
  Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
  
  : http://www.sun.com
• Tufts University
  Tufts University
  Tufts University is a private research university located in Medford/Somerville, near Boston, Massachusetts. It is organized into ten schools, including two undergraduate programs and eight graduate divisions, on four campuses in Massachusetts and on the eastern border of France...
  
  : Visual Understanding Environment (VUE)
• Verbena Consulting