Forum .LRN Q&A: Re: .LRN as a distribution of OpenACS

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Posted by Malte Sussdorff on
Let's take .LRN vs. OpenACS as an example. OpenACS offers all the functionality of forums, file storage and so on.

.LRN is a prepackaged solution which installs on top of stock OpenACS code pieces and preloads the database to make it easy for an educational environment make best use of OpenACS. This means, you get forums, file-storage and other packages preinstalled, you have the roles set correctly for professors and others, you have custom applets that may be different from the stock ones shipped with the new version of OpenACS.

Other vertical solutions that come into my mind:

.NGO for non profits with intranet functionality and the campaign tools that e.g. Greenpeace is using and building.

.WRK a solution for the office space that Lars described some time ago and is working on. Preinstalled and ready to roll, maybe with it's special setup page to install one or more offices (instead of the normal bootstrap installation that comes with OpenACS)

This is where the vertical comes in. It stretches across all functionality of OpenACS, but exposes certain parts in a special way, predefined and packaged towards a certain user group.

For the moment though we are not even close to a state where .LRN is "only" a vertical solution due to the magnitude of changes and additional packages that it incorporates. But the goal (at least to my understanding) has been to create a functional layer on top of OpenACS that makes up .LRN.