Second Meeting RS3G, Rome, Italy

November 11, 2007, Rome Italy

Emerging International and European Group Encourages Data Exchange Standards to Support the Bologna Process

By David K. Moldoff, CEO and Founder of AcademyOne, Inc. and Board member of PESC, the Postsecondary Education Standards Council

Representatives from thirteen countries met in Rome, Italy on November 8-9, 2007 to discuss the assembly of common data exchange standards to support the goals of the Bologna Process. I attended the workshop as a representative from the United States, invited to present PESC and how AcademyOne in context, has supported and adopted specifications created by the PESC workgroups.

In order to establish a European Higher Education Area by 2010, 46 European states (January 2007) agreed with the Bologna Process on common aims concerning the restructuring of study programs and academic degrees at universities. Different measurements are about to be implemented to reach more comparability and compatibility for these study programs and academic degrees:

Bachelor Degree and Master Degree Study Programs
Modulation of Study Programs
Increased International acceptance of exam certificates and study programs workloads – by use of Diploma Supplements and European Credit Transfer System (ECTS)
Increased support for the mobility of students and lectures between universities.

The workshop was organized by members of several European software companies, universities, consortiums, associations and state run systems. Introductions and welcoming remarks were provided by Dott.ssa. Emanuela Stefani, CRUI’s Executive Director in Italy. Meeting in the CRUI’s executive conference center put into perspective the history, challenges, opportunities and interests of a diverse group getting together to align their data exchange ideas and approaches. The conference center was immense with fresco murals dating back over a thousand years. The Roman battles, led by Constantine in 300 AD, reveal how powerful the drive was to consolidate, standardize and sustain governance. It begged the question, what kind of battles do we face in order to achieve commonly accepted standards which can be used to support student mobility, economic development and efficient use of resources that will enable us to compete in the 21st century?

The battle to consolidate and standardize religion and trade across Italy lasted hundreds of years. Centuries later, the complexity and motives of participants coming together to collaborate on data exchange standards across Europe to overcome the barriers of acceptance of academic credentials centuries later was a much improved perspective. The conference room, like the Bologna Process, reveals that society recognizes the need to standardize in order to foster mobility and enhance trade.


The goals of the workshop were introduced by Simone Ravaioli from Kion and Stephane Vely from unisolution, two software companies reflecting the emerging calls to collaborate and coordinate efforts on the development of student data exchange standards. Specifically the workshop was organized into four segments:

Best practices presented as state level demonstration projects across Europe representing how systems are evolving to be compliant with the Bologna Process.
Best practices presented as projects throughout the world that have revealed issues, opportunities and lessons learned.
Discussion of using international standards for exchanging student data consequences for current projects and new opportunities.
Discussion for steps toward an international standard for exchanging student data; requirements, constraints, approaches and dissemination

Conclusions and next steps were summarized at the end of the workshop leading toward a follow-on meeting to be arranged in Dublin Ireland early 2008. The group agreed in concept to encourage the European University Information System association, which represents more than 120 institutions across 22 European countries, to investigate a task force that would fall under their auspices.

As an American and someone who has worked long and hard on creating an awareness for the need to develop data exchange standards across the education eco-system, I entered the workshop inspired by a day spent visiting ancient sites and walking the narrow streets of Rome. Centuries ago, the Romans created specifications for chariots and aqueducts with precision. Their roads were designed to accommodate the chariots. So were the houses and doors which are still standing with door knockers eight feet high off the stone path. Aqueducts brought portable water to support health and life. Each invention was architected, refined and then deployed, giving the Roman Empire economies of scale and competitive advantages of lesser organized communities.

In Italy, higher education is a thousand years in the making. Europe is migrating to a federated model by market demand, what centuries of conquest and wars attempted to accomplish. This does imply I am comparing the call for data exchange standards to the discipline and force manifested through the centuries. Yet, there are similarities in the call for economic development requiring standardization. Granted, we are not working through aggressive power. Peaceful governments are negotiating goals, methods and desired outcomes to make their educational systems more competitive and global facing. Regions divided by borders and institutional legacy must overcome fears, trust and urges for control and domination. This obviously takes time.

My suggestion to the group was that the act of getting together with discourse will reveal the need to specialize efforts, create workgroups with the goals of study and isolation of practices. It will also create the need to construct a common dictionary, policies and procedures and governance to steer. In this effort, historical perspectives and prior specifications and standards can be reviewed in practical terms, related to the present and future goals and requirements. If standards are found, they can be reviewed, adjusted and brought into view for the group to consider. I also suggested terminology separating the need of the group to potentially create specifications based upon requirements, which individual organizations can adopt and support, leading to standards. Standards evolve through adoption. Some come about by market penetration while others can be achieved by mandate.

Given the public investment in education and the political drivers, I was really moved by this voluntary effort convened in response to 46 governments trying to align goals, methods and outcomes. So, going forward, the evolution of data exchange standards in Europe will be a long term process of collaboration, comprise and determination to create a means to improve, streamline and employ operational practices voluntarily or by mandate that will serve institutional centric issues as well as student services. Sustainability will be dependent upon adoption and overcoming many barriers. Time will tell, if the goals set out by the workshop can eventually be achieved. I hope my effort and contributions were appreciated. Arrivederci – until we meet again.

Rome Student Group DC Briefing

5/27/2008 Washington DC, PESC Briefing

I want to welcome Stephane Velay, Manuel Dietz – from unisolution representing the RS3G. As a show of support and extension of our goodwill, I want to present Stephane and Manuel a gift that we often utilize as metaphors of life in America – our national pastime of Baseball.

Like electronic data exchange supporting student and administrative processes across higher education, the game rules, field of play, equipment and players have evolved over decades.

The history[i]
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the United States. Baseball emerged in America in 1845. But even before that, as early as the 17th century, people in England played a similar game called rounders with paddles. The players of one team had to eliminate the runner of the other team by throwing the ball and hitting him with it! In the 18th century, town ball arrived in the American colonies. Any young colonist was allowed to play and sometimes each team had as many as 25 players! And all the 25 players had to bat before the change of roles! The popularity of town ball grew very rapidly.

In 1845, Mr Alexander Cartwright developed new rules. He also drew a field shaped like a diamond, and called the new game baseball. Cartwright’s rules were different from the rules of town ball; in fact batters would now use bats instead of paddles and there were four flat bases instead of posts. Each team could have only nine players. But the most important thing was that fielders could not eliminate a runner by throwing the ball at him. Instead, the fielder had to throw the ball to another player, who would eliminate the runner by touching him or touching the base. Pitching was underhand, and the game was won by the first team to score 21 runs, in however many innings.

Cartwright and his friends formed the first official baseball team, called the Knickerbockers Baseball Club. The first organized game was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, on June 19th, 1846. The Knickerbockers faced a team called the New York Nines, who won the game 23 to 1. The baseball we play today still follows many of the rules Cartwright thought up in 1845. Of course, some rules have changed over the years. For example, in 1845 there were no balls or strikes. The batter simply told the pitcher what kind of pitch to throw. By the 1860s, the sport was being described as America's "national pastime."

Some Important dates
1947: the Brooklyn Dodgers signed Jackie Robinson, removing the color barrier that had consigned black players to the "Negro Leagues."
1858: Baseball was institutionalized and further developed by the National Association.
1869: The Cincinnati Red Stockings became the first openly-salaried team and is considered the first professional team.
1871: The first professional baseball league, the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, was established.
1876: The first major league, the National League, was formed.
1878: Frederick Winthrop Thayer of Massachusetts (captain of the Harvard University Baseball Club) received a patent for a baseball catcher's mask on February 12.
The rival National (1876) and American (1903) Leagues competed in the first World Series in 1903 and All-Star Game in 1933.

The rules
Baseball is one of the most complete sports and belongs to the group of sports which have a lot of rules. It is very much like data integration and exchange. In baseball there are two teams. Each team has 9 players and the reserves. The game is divided into 9 INNINGS and each inning is divided into offensive and defensive (in one inning each one of the two teams must go in offensive and defensive roles). The two teams play alternately in offensive and defensive roles. During the defensive the players are on the field (which has a diamond shape).
Each one has a specific position to cover:
NUMBERS 1 TO 6 ARE THE INFIELD POSITION AND ARE SITUATED ON THE DIAMOND

The game starts each inning when the pitcher throws the ball to the home base. Pitcher and catcher manage the game and the other players defend the diamond when the player of the other team hits the ball to the diamond. The defenders must stop the ball as quickly as possible. During the offensive the players, one at a time (in a precise order prearranged by the team), have to hit the ball with the bat. The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher and the hitter, who is beyond the catcher, has to hit the ball before it arrives in the catcher’s glove. If the batter fails for 3 times (called strikes) or doesn’t hit a strike ball, he is out. If the pitcher fails and throws bad balls (called balls), out of the strike zone for 4 times, the hitter has a free base and he becomes a runner. When a batter hits a ball, he has to run to the first base before the defensive catches the ball and touches him, or touches the base before he arrives.

- There are several types of gloves: catcher, pitcher, first base, outfield, infield
- Bats come in various sizes and weights. And, made of different types of wood.
- Baseballs are made with a small rubber core, leather and wool straps stitching.

If the runner arrives before the ball on the base, he is safe and he conquers the base, otherwise he is out. If there are other players on the bases when the hitter hits the ball, the runners must run to the next base before the ball does it. If the batter hits a fly ball and the defensive player takes it before the ball touches the ground, the hitter is out and the other runners must stay on the base. They can run only after the defensive player has touched the ball. If the runner starts before that and the defensive player throws the ball to the backward base of the runner, he is out. The game goes on with another batter and the runners try to conquer all the bases running from the first base to the home base and do a score. The runners can run to the next base at every moment of the game, except when the hitter touches the ball and it doesn’t go to the diamond. In this case the ball is called foul ball, and it is a strike for the batter. It is considered a strike only if the hitter has one or two strikes, it isn’t considered a third strike. The pitcher or the catcher can pitch the ball on the base trying to eliminate the runner when he is trying to steal a base. The defensive players must stop the runners before they arrive on the home base. If the runner arrives on the home base, it is a point for the offensive team. The offensive has to conquer as many points as possible. At the third out there is a change of roles, so the defensive has to eliminate 3 players as soon as possible.

Sports evolve and are governed by global and national associations. The rules, like the size of a baseball, the regulations governing bats, gloves, and the bases reflect a balance between offense and defense. Rules are established in the competitive spirit. Teams evolve and recruit players skilled and trained in positions. Every day, thousands of games are played following the same rules.

Electronic data exchange standards are similar to baseball in America. First, we have to recognize we are working across parallel tracks with multiple perspectives. Some view our efforts as complex and technical. We are, in the simplest terms, defining a level playing field in order to emphasis specifications and rules of governance focused on data exchange, interoperability of systems and the need to bridge processes spanning institutional or stakeholder control. How do we do this?

How does one ‘pitch’ data? How does one ‘catch’ data? How does one respond to a hit? How does one view out of bounds? How does one advocate best practices? Techniques? The game of baseball has a lot of rules. It has been played for over a century. The game covers “all the bases” or all the planned events, like we would cover “the use cases” of a business process. What is anticipated is orchestrated by transactions that reveal granular or complex events. The steps in other words are engineered, practiced and refined.

Having rules and governance without adoption is like having no one to play the game. Our meeting today is one of sharing, respect and discovery a complex array of players. We hope to build an alliance between members of the international community focused on data exchange standards in support of student and administrative processes.

We hope you find the information in this briefing relevant and forward thinking in the evolution of data standards supporting higher education here and around the world.

[i] : http://www.malignani.ud.it/WebEnis/theWebWeWant/baseball.htm & http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_plate#Home_plate