IE Demonstrator – showcasing the IE

Alexander Dutton works for Computing services at the University of Oxford.  He is currently working on the Erewhon project…

What is Erewhon?

An example of what can be achieved with geo-spatial data, modeling relationships between university entities using RDF.  The software can be asked a questions like: “what college occupies this building?” or “what are all the websites associated with this college?” and it will give you an answer.  We have used it together with the library record system to help students locate not only if a book is available, but where a book is being held along with a map.  We are also developing a mobile portal so students can access university services through their mobile devices.

What problems/issues is Erewhon tackling?

It is supposed to making university resources data more available to those who want to use it.

How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?

We have released the RDF side of the project as open source, so that’s available for anyone to use and help improve.  The University also uses Sakai (Virtual Learning Environment) and we will need to work with others using this to help interface with this more easily.

What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?

We have a bit of involvement with Sakai, but mainly just watching what they’re doing.  We have also talked to other universities, including MIT, Bristol and Birmingham City, as they are doing similar work.

What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?

Having all this data available and being able to do interesting things with it!  However, it can be hard when you have to talk so many departments within the university to get to this data.

Filed under: Erewhon Project, Interview (Formal)