Mission and Purpose
Mission Statement
The enCore Consortium seeks to coordinate and promote the open source development and distribution of the enCore Program.
Description and Purpose
The enCore Program represents the enCore MOO core and the enCore Xpress Graphical User Interface (see "enCore" as described at http://lingua.utdallas.edu/encore/manifesto.html ). This Consortium's focus will be on the enCore Program and not general MOO development.
The enCore Consortium is a direct outgrowth of the enCore MOO Project started in 1997. The enCore Project has made significant progress in making MOO technology available to the average user by providing a modern graphical user interface. Much of the command-line functionality of text-based MOOs has been translated into a friendlier point-and-click interface common to modern computer applications. One of the enCore Consortium's goals is to continue the development of the enCore program, making MOO functions work more smoothly and powerfully in a web environment.
Another goal of this Consortium is to improve the enCore program as an online educational learning environment. The Consortium will seek to make enCore equivalent in ease of use and breadth of function with other online educational tools such as Moodle, Blackboard, or WebCT, and to Learning Management software like Classfronter. These enhancements will be made while preserving the unique advantages of MOO contained within the enCore Program. Some possible improvements might include the development and enhancement of faster and easier tools for registering and managing student accounts, further development of existing educational objects, and the creation of new ones. The development will focus on making enCore a natural and excellent choice in self-contained Learning Environment and Course software.
The Consortium will be formed as a non-profit organization and will establish a Board of Directors voted on by the members of the Consortium. The Consortium's function will be to form this constituency of enCore users, coordinate enCore development by identifying specific programming and development tasks, and allocate these program development tasks to individuals or institutions to perform. The Consortium will also work to promote the use of enCore to a greater number of users. A related function will be the testing and reviewing of code submitted by developers. The Consortium will seek grant monies to fund much of the projected development work.
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