For achieve that, I will do a simple task: adquire a complete XML file for testing purposes, and manually build a Moodle course with all information I can see in that XML file (wiki's, lessons, title, description...).

Tasks:

1. Obtain the DTD of Osyl XML syllabi.
2. Obtain a complete XML syllabi for testing.
3. Make manually a course with that XML.
4. Compare the XML backup of that course and the XML file and build a XSLT for transform the Osyl XML into a Moodle readable XML file.
5. Define the requirements which can be needed for the "import OpenSyllabus course" tool.

Realmente no estás exactamente igual, hay un pequeño detalle que ha cambiado. No se puede ver desde el exterior, pero sí desde el interior. La sombra de esa chica flota por encima de tu cabeza. Mientras estás sentado, la estás recordando. Notas como el tiempo ha avanzado, notas como el tiempo te ha hecho cambiar y estás distinto, notas que realmente estás vivo.

Y es que la memoria es la única manera que tenemos de poder percibir el cambio, la única manera que tenemos de poder evolucionar, de poder vivir como humanos, de poder aprender y crecer mentalmente.

Pero qué ocurriría si una enfermedad como el Alzheimer nos despojara de este don?

Así pues, cómo ser superfeliz según yo?

1. Trabajar en sitios donde cada día puedas hacer cosas diferentes e interesantes para ti, y que cada día aprendas más y cada día te sientas mejor, más a gusto con tu trabajo y más autorrealizado (Eric dice que esto es imposible).
2. Tener un horario que te permita compatibilizar ese trabajo con todo lo que quieres en esta vida (ya sean amigos, ya sea pareja).
3. Un sueldo que te permita vivir de forma holgada.

Sí, un trabajo perfecto debe cumplir esos 3 perfiles. Pero... EXISTE??????

Eric dice que no, todos los trabajos acaban siendo monótonos, sea el que sea. Yo digo que sí; aunque sólo conozco 1 trabajo que pueda ser así: Profesor de universidad (que a su vez, sea investigador).

Ser profe de universidad es la reostia en bicicleta (almenos profe de la FIB, y para ello me voy a basar en el profesor Marc Alier). Parece que él es totalmente feliz: Cada día se pasa viajando arriba y abajo -gastos pagados- (que si Alemania, que si Burkina Faso, que si Las Vegas...) y se lleva a su mujer, con lo cual se lo debe pasar bomba viajando. Luego, dando clase, las da de una forma que no sólo se lo pasa bien él, sino que además se lo pasan bien los alumnos. Y luego, dirige una serie de proyectos que no solo generan conocimiento y ayudan a expandir el conocimiento (Moodle, DFWikiLabs...), sino que además siempre está dando conferencias y asistiendo a ellas y aprendiendo cada día más y más sobre este mundo que cambia tan rápidamente, y conociendo a gente importante del mundo de los sistemas de información, comilonas, etc. Vamos, todo un lujo y todo un estilo de vida que, almenos a mi y visto así, me resulta envidiable (por dios, que alguien me corrija si me equivoco).

Almenos esa es mi "excepción" con la que pretendo decir que el trabajo puede realizar SIEMPRE. Por supuesto, estas cosas así son poco comunes. Normalmente todos los trabajos son los típicos de pasarte 8 horas dando el callo como un cabrón, aprendes lo que sea y luego ahí te quedas para mantener a tu família, y luego los horarios no coinciden con los de tus hijos cuando terminan el colegio / con el trabajo de tu esposa.

Es chungo buscarse una vida así, pero para ello, hay que sacrificarse un tiempo y... estudiar?

For playing on this server, you need a chess client. Lots of interfaces/clients are avaible for all platforms (the most used is Jin, an interface you can you on the web or in your PC, written in Java and is compatible with all platforms). However, as a Linux user, I use eboard.

Regardless the interface you choose, you have to create a FICS account to play on the server in the main website. (It's quite easy and it's free), or playing as guest.

Once you connect to FICS, you will be ready to play chess with other people. Interfaces often has a “seek graph” where you can see all people that want a match. If you want to play with someone, write the command “seek 2 12” (for example, for a 2 minutes and 12 increment game). Read the help for more help (or ask me).

If you want to talk on a chat channel or to an user, use the command “tell user/channel text to say”.

Ahhh, also, write the following command to add me to friends: “+notify davigetto”. I will be notified if you add me to friends and if you wish, we can play some matches :)

The following game is Battle for Wesnoth. The main website is http://www.wesnoth.org. Again, this game can be played in all platforms. It's a turn-based strategy game with a fantasy theme (with orcs, elves, dwarfs...) where the main objective is “destroy the opponent”. It's quite easy to play this game, and when you catch “the feeling of the game” you can be attracted strongly, so be careful :)

Once again, if you want to play with me at this game, send me an email or a comment to this post. However, in this game, opposite to Warcraft III, matches often are very long, so often I prefer playing the campaign mode.

Also, if you wish, I can play with you to the mythical Warcraft III... for remembering oldies purposes :)

Yesterday I invested the whole afternoon in install on my PC Mahara (I followed the guide in the oficial webpage, but it was quite difficult) and make working OpenSyllabus into Eclipse (omg, 3 hours for making it working good!). Regardless, now I have a full working mahara and OpenSyllabus on my PC and I can take a look to code when I want.

After that, I could explore what is Mahara, and what is Portfolio. And O-M-G! It seems to be a nice CMS and Portfolio a nice tool! (I say seems because I have only tested it one day, however I can see interesting uses for myself :D). You know what is a portfolio, right? The typical folder where you store your drafts, currículums, learning resources... Well, Mahara implements something similar:

• First, it has a complete and interesting user profile (where you can put your personal information, like other CMS systems). Nevertheless, it's different in Mahara. In your profile you can define your own Curriculum Vitae (Certifications, books and publications, education history, employment history), your academic/career goals, and what are your skills. Moodle doesn't have an user profile as great as Mahara.
• Portfolio allow users to upload files (their notes, pdfs, even source code) in a structured way (in folders). Also it allows creating view pages for every user (blogs, etc...). However, it's bugged for now.

So, Mahara Portfolio is a good tool to allow students having their own Curriculums and notes in a structured and organized way.

Now, How can we integrate Mahara and OpenSyllabus into Moodle once we know what are their advantatges and disadvantatges? I've got some ideas. I write one of them:

• Modify the Moodle user profile to make it equal to Mahara user profile and Portfolio. With a good user profile, users and students would be engaged in organizing their notes and their curriculums, sharing them among other students. This will improve their learning experience and their learning performance.
• Add/embed OpenSyllabus to Moodle for creating easy and uniform syllabi, and allow teachers to create courses in a very easy way. This would improve the organization of courses and their upgrading.

Well, in 21th I'm talking with Marc and Pigui about all of these.

Hey, I'm really enjoying this project! :D

PD: I attach two screens about Mahara profile and portfolio.

I've recived a good amount of information in my mail/MSN conversations. Jacques sent me Powerpoints and PDFs explaining what is OpenSyllabus, its objectives and its technology. Nevertheless I want to extract some points which try to refer as little as possible to technological part:

• The syllabi around all universities have a common structure. However, information in a Syllabi can be redundant. What solution can we use? Osyl uses XML files for achieve that, XML files that have a structure that Sakai can represent. I wonder if a database could be used in the same way XML is used...

  So, XML exchange is used to represent data. Does it mean that in the local machine, a little copy of Sakai is stored to get asynchrony?

• I got an account for testing the OpenSyllabus they have implemented into Sakai. QUÉ GUAY! (Parezco un anuncio de juguetes...). Also I got the source code of Sakai (omg, 400MB file!!!!)

• The architecture is something like this:

  

• In Moodle, when you build a course, you have manually to add all resources that can be needed (wikis, blogs, exercises...). In OpenSyllabus, through the Syllabi defined from one subject (for example, ES2), meanwhile the course is advancing in date, wikis, exercises, lessons and all required data is automatically published (well, it's what I understand). I believe that Sakai does that in that XML file and with a good code.

Maybe there are more points that I've eluded, I will think of them if I have the chance.

Also I am now trying to get running OpenSyllabus in my machine through Eclipse. However I have some problems with GWT Libraries. I sent Claude Coulombe, one of the Sakai 'masters', a mail asking for some help (yes, I know what you think, but after talking, you must know that I have tried to do all I was in my hands and I can't make it working).