People talk of MS funding and using this for and Open Source version that runs on .NET.
Let me tell you in BIG CAPS, IT AIN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Microsoft won't allow what it considers viral licensing into any project they fund. They may port it completly to .NET, but make no mistake about it, it will run on SQLserver and IIS with C#.
As far as misleading, yes dotLRN probably won't be funded by MS, but I have heard other rumors to the effect that there are already two people working on a C#/.NET version right now. I don't know if these two are MIT funded, but certainly one or more of them work at MIT (and no it isn't Phillip).
All those rumors could be false (including Phillips) but I seriously doubt it. MS needs to get at higher education and this is an easy fruit to pick; steal the data model (which may or may not be covered by the GPL) and build on it. This also has the added benefit of MS being able to upsell all the Universities who got "sucked in" to this virally licensed .LRN.
I have no doubt that the people currently working on .LRN (either technically or otherwise) have the best intentions, but when your boss (MIT) gets into bed with MS and they have a revelation, after a nice big donation, that all eLearning needs to be using the latest and greatest MS offering, we will see who wins (principal or money).
Will this happen? I certainly don't know, but I think it is a likely scenario if the rumors are true.
Yours ever controversially.
