Provide technical and strategic standards advice
Link Affiliates provides technical and strategic standards advice to Australian learning and research communities.
- We provide advice through our participation in steering committees and expert groups.
- We identify where standards can directly help Australian e-research and e-learning projects.
- We facilitate relationships between projects to assist them in deploying standards-based infrastructure.
- We identify interoperability "gaps" in infrastructure development projects and identify areas that require further interoperability and standardisation attention within the broader e-research and e-learning communities.
Assist the development, adoption and adaptation of standards
Link Affiliates assists in the adoption and adaptation of standards by working with Australian communities and helping them identify, adopt and adapt (profile) standards to meet interoperability and infrastructure requirements.
Create, publish and disseminating information about standards activities
Link Affiliates is able to create, publish and disseminate information about standards and their adoption and adaption by local communities.
In conjunction with international partners, Link Affiliates is developing the e-Framework as a knowledge base to facilitate technical interoperability through the use of standards. This knowledge base helps prevent duplication of effort by identifying interoperability work already underway and will identify knowledge gaps in communities' standards development.
Advocate Australian education sector requirements
We gather requirements through participation in local projects, committees, working groups and conferences.
We then advocate these requirements while participating in national and international standards development.
We participate in both formal ISO style standards organizations and more agile standards development consortia. We take a broad view of the term "standard", using a definition of "authoritative advice created through a consensus building and endorsement process".
Pilot standards in demonstration projects
Link Affiliates has a proven track record in piloting standards in demonstration projects to establish best practice, policy and governance for using the standards. Participation in pilot projects has improved our understanding of standards and a means of developing software toolkits that allow standards to be more easily integrated into education and research systems.
Manage key e-learning and e-research partnerships
Link Affiliates manages and supports DEEWR's international partnerships targeted at the standards-based interoperability agenda. This includes JISC in the UK and the US Department of Defense. We make good use of our partnerships to access international experience and advice on building education and research systems.
