Semantic web, knowledge platforms, collaborative authoring

Keynote on the development of the SELF platform by Nagarjuna G., Homi Bhabha Centre for Science Education (India)

Though the SELF Platform will be a web application server made using existing free software, it will be futuristic in furthering not only the values of free software movement, but also of the emerging semantic web by adopting the vision of Web 2.0. The Platform publishes the knowledge base, containing the educational and training resources, on the Web. The knowledge base can be viewed and managed
by the traditional web browser as well as by any network aware client.

Each resource in the knowledge base is:

a software agent specially crafted to nurture and propogate the virtues of freedom, sharing of knowledge and collaboration among the human agents;
modifiable (both in form and content), copyable and distributable;
an exemplary resource accessible in open standards, ensuring perennial access, decodability and inter-operability;

Technically, the platform will innovatively adopt the existing wisdom by:

adopting a rich and reusable learning object model
using certified views for standard compliance to ensure universal access contributed by Plone, Drupal, and other free CMSs.
using a fine grained flexible, distributable, object oriented semantic knowledge base made using GNOWSYS.
developing inter-operable XML based data-exchange module for both data and metadata using OWL and XTM.
making it available for distribution in a transplantable form across operating environments using Knoppix technology as DVDs.