who is this?
We are curious technologists seeking to advance the e-learning industry by doing our own research & development. Often, content and tools firms are too small or too strategically focused to explore and evaluate new techniques and technologies. As a result, the learning industry tends to lag behind the state of the art. Our hope is to serve that need through free and open source initiatives. The aim is a bias toward unique benefits and simplicity so our work is valuable to our colleagues, both technical and nontechnical.
an ethos
@treefarm grew out of a love for learning, technology, clean design, and good faith that the open exchange of ideas is the best way to make great leaps forward quickly. Although there are a few exceptions, for the most part e-learning vendors cannot afford to expose themselves to the financial risks inherent to R&D. For that reason, our strategy is to forge ahead as a community and mitigate that risk by making light work for the individual contributor through large-scale collaboration.
In creative work such as this, we don't believe in 'project management' as a dedicated role. For us, the best ideas are realized through the mutual trust and respect between uniquely talented individuals. The inherently soft nature of software lends itself to vast and unnecessary complexities in the way projects are managed. This leads to the concept of bikeshedding, wherein issues and elements with the least real impact in terms of value tend to garner the most time consuming debate, while truly crucial matters tend to be ignored or otherwise minimized.
We subscribe to a Dude's Law, as coined by David Hussman: V (value) = W (why) / H (how). The purpose behind any software project (or any project, for that matter!) is its resultant value. That value is ultimately proportional to the why; the need or justification. Ultimately how a project is approached, how much time or effort is exerted in debate around process for instance, works against the ultimate value. We aim to maximize the why and minimize the how through stark efficiency of process and charitable approaches to one another.
what do you do?
The plan for @treefarm is to explore a wide variety of technical topics relevant to learning and collaboration, such as:
- Plugin-free peer-to-peer data exchange for real time collaborative applications
- Plugin-free video/audio recording and streaming
- Real-time collaborative content creation and sharing
- Unique applications for the @adlnet xAPI
- Methods for achieving uniquely authentic mobile learning experiences
how can I help?
Thanks for asking! This is a humble grassroots initiative being fueled by deep passion for sustainable change for the better in an e-learning industry that can sometimes be a bit staid. Anyone of like mind regardless of background is welcome to contribute whether it be in the form of ideas, research, engineering, documentation, or what have you.
We'd especially welcome help from folks with the following background:
- Graphic Designer this could be a great opportunity to build a portfolio of unique works
- Community Manager anyone with a talent for social promotion looking for an outlet
- Engineer all skill levels welcome, but we are building a core team of experienced technical generalists
Contact @treefarm to let us know what you'd like to do!
where is all of this going to happen?
We'll share all of our code via github, probably use google groups as a discussion space (ideas?), and inform the community via google+, facebook, and twitter.