Provide technical and strategic advice
Link Affiliates provides advice on technical interoperability and standards to learning and research communities.
We provide advice through our participation in steering committees and expert groups. We identify where standards and technical interoperability solutions 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.
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"
Communicate about technical interoperability and standards
Link Affiliates creates and publishes information about technical interoperability and standards and their adoption and adaption by local communities.
We collect intelligence on technical interoperability and standards through our participation in local projects, committees, working groups and conferences. We also monitor communications from standards, specifications and community organisations.
We triage and analyse this intelligence, publishing relevant updates through news feeds, news letters, blog posts, and targeted email.
We also communicate more detailed analysis in papers and conference presentations.
Pilot interoperability demonstration projects
Link Affiliates has a proven track record in piloting the use of technologies and standards in demonstration projects. These demonstration projects establish best practice, policy and governance for using technologies and standards. They improve our understanding of the technologies and standards and help in explain their value to user communities. The demonstrator projects sometimes result in software toolkits that allow the technologies to be more easily integrated into education and research systems.
Solve real interoperability problems
Link Affiliates applies leading edge knowledge of technical interoperability and standards and uses innovative techniques to solve real interoperability problems and to analyse opportunities for integrating IT systems. We have a commitment to solutions that are flexible, interoperable and provide long-term benefits.
We make good use of our contacts and collaborations to access national and international experience and advice on building education and research systems.
