Our mission is to help create standards, to provide a reference implementation of an open architecture, public, standards based PK12 eLearning platform, and to use those standards, and that platform to help teachers and students transform PK12 education, one classroom at a time.  We will work with others engaged in this work who are developing technologies (specifications, guidelines, software, and tools) that help create a forum for information exchange, a new digital marketspace for edcommerce, inspiration, independent thought, and collective understanding.

OpenVES is a non-profit educational organization with these goals and operating principles.

1. Open, public, eLearning Platform Access

W3C defines the Web as the universe of network-accessible information (available through your computer, phone, television, or networked refrigerator...). Today this universe benefits society by enabling new forms of human communication and opportunities to share knowledge. One of OpenVES's primary goals is to help make the educational value of these things available to all people, whatever their hardware, software, network infrastructure, native language, culture, geographical location, or physical or mental ability. Our commitment to universal access and to bridging the digital divide extends to giving everyone Web access to the core features of a global, user centric, and personalized eLearning platform.

2. Semantic Learning Web

People currently share their knowledge on the Web in language intended for other people. On the Semantic Learning Web ("semantic" means "having to do with meaning"), we will be able to express ourselves in terms that our computers can interpret and exchange. By doing so, we will enable them to organize and present knowledge in new ways, help us find information quickly, and transform teaching and learning as we engage with knowledge content in new ways. The OpenVES Architecture, the XML Topic Map Ontologies and Taxonomies, and the edXML Implementation Specifications and Best Practices are the building blocks of a Semantic Learning Web.

3. Web of Trust and Collaboration

The Web is a collaborative medium, not read-only like a magazine. In fact, the first Web browser was also an editor, though most people today think of browsing as primarily viewing, not interacting. The OpenVES eLearning Platform is a rich, collaborative publishing environment for all users.  To enable a more collaborative environment for PK12 teaching and learning on the Web, we must build a "Web of Trust" that offers safety, security, confidentiality, instills confidence, and makes it possible for people to take responsibility for (or be accountable for) their collaborations and for what they publish. This goal drives much of the OpenVES interest and work on XML signatures, annotation mechanisms, group authoring, versioning, deep and pervasive collaboration, scaffolding, etc.

4. Open Interoperability and edXML

Twenty years ago, people bought software that only worked with other software from the same vendor. Today, people have more freedom to choose, and they rightly expect software components to be interchangeable. They also expect to be able to view Web content with their preferred software (graphical desktop browser, speech synthesizer, braille display, car phone...). OpenVES  promotes interoperability by designing and promoting an open (non-proprietary) Web based eLearning platform, together with the open standards, specifications, and protocols that make it possible. OpenVES works in the OASIS edXML community to provide leadership in support of standards development for the PK12 community of practice.

5. Evolvability and Enterprise Scalability

OpenVES aims for technical excellence but is well aware that what we know and need today may be insufficient to solve tomorrow's eLearning challenges. We therefore strive to advocate eLearning platforms, tools and applications that can continue to evolve into an even better open eLearning platform, without disrupting what already works. The principles of simplicity, modularity, compatibility, and extensibility guide all of our architectures, and designs.

6. Decentralization and Distribution

Decentralization is a key principle of modern distributed systems, including societies. In a centralized system, every message or action has to pass through a central authority, causing bottlenecks when the traffic increases. In architecture and design, we therefore focus on both distributed solutions and economies of scale. Even at those points on a design continuum when our implementations of infrastructure are centralized, management and administration of that infrastructure, and content management will be distributed.

7. Multimedia to make Teaching and Learning FUN!

Who wouldn't like more interactivity and richer media on the Web, including resizable images, quality sound, video, 3D effects, and animation? Building eLearning platform implementations does not have to limit creativity or mean boring browsing. OpenVES will extend the eLearning Platform through use of Avatars, 3D VRML, MPEG-4, MPEG-7, MPEG-21, DRML, and the Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL).

8. Driven by Public Private Partnerships

OpenVES aims for technical excellence but is well aware that what we know and need today may be insufficient to solve tomorrow's eLearning challenges. We therefore strive to advocate eLearning platforms, tools and applications that can continue to evolve into an even better open eLearning platform. We believe that collaborating with vendors and others in a public-private partnership is the best way to achieve our mission and goals.