Wookie – Interview: Scott Wilson

Scott Wilson is based at the University of Bolton and is currently working on the Wookie project…

What is Wookie?

Apache Wookie (Incubating) is a widget engine that implements W3 widgets specification and allows web applications like VLEs to include standard widgets in their layouts.

What problems/issues is Wookie tackling?

The main thing at the moment is moving from being a project at the University of Bolton into the Apache Software Foundation, so we have to be absolutely crystal clear where every line of code came from to make it truly open source.  We are also trying to build the sustainable community around it by encouraging people to contribute.  So this is really the stage after the typical JISC project!

How would you like other software developers and users to get involved in what you are doing?

We are using the Apache support structure to help, but we need to get people to engage by submitting bugs, submitting patches and then getting committer status.

What developer communities have you been involved in and if none, why not?

Its varied because we work across a lot of the groups that JISC organises – such as Learning and Teaching and Repository – as we are working on things that are crossing the boundaries.

What is the coolest or most exciting thing in educational software development?

The future direction of learning platforms, so looking at how Sakai 3 is being developed, for example.