We all work in silos to one degree or another. Even with the integration of technology, very few of us are working with different people every day, solving problems with new coworkers each time. In fact, technology — while it helps to break down some of those barriers of time and space — also plays a key role in erecting new ones.
Think about a little thing like formats, for example. One canonical instance was the old videotape format of Beta vs VHS, where people who standardized on one type couldn’t meaningfully exchange video information with people standardized on the other. It still happens today with software and file formats, although the differences are lessening.
Or think about corporate competitors – if you’re standardized on Oracle financials, for example, it’s in Oracle’s best interest to make it difficult for you to migrate to a different manufacturer. One easy way to throw up roadblocks on that process is to establish proprietary formats that are difficult to match. (This happens in the CMS world all the time — Concrete5 is a perfectly-adequate CMS, but exporting all of its contents to migrate to someplace else is a royal pain!)
So it’s notable to me whenever an industry agrees on enough of a standard to be able to exchange meaningful data back and forth. And one industry that has done it — multiple times! — is the eLearning field.
Now they have been pushed along by large customers like the US military, but they still keep advancing the standards. Recently, a new API and standard called, alternatively, the Experience API or the Tin Can API, took the standards to a whole new level. Now, under this model, any bit of software can keep track of whether a user is learning or practicing a skill.
The implications are pretty big, if this gets ubiquitous. Right now, tracking your ability to learn a new Word skill, for instance, is limited to training programs that cover Word. What if Microsoft Word itself could track your progress? You’re doing an online course about how to mail merge, for example, and then you switch over to Word to practice — and the program feeds that information back to the online course, where you can get customized tips. Suddenly, everything can be about learning and professional development.
Pretty neat stuff – and it only happens when the barriers start breaking down. There are examples from other fields, too (especially through the power of XML), but those are for another day. If you’re so inclined, you should check out the Tin Can API. It’s got real potential!