Microsoft releases Moodle plug-in under the GPL

Following the release of its Linux virtualisation drivers under the open source GPLv2 license earlier this week, at OSCON 2009 in San Jose, California, Microsoft has released a Windows Live services plug-in for Moodle. The Live Services plug-in from Microsoft's Education Labs group is being released under the GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2) and adds access to Live Services, including email, instant messenger and calendar, to Moodle. Moodle is an open source cross-platform Course Management System (CMS) and software package that can be installed on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. The goal of the Moodle project is to provide educators with the tools they need to manage and promote learning for their students.

According to Peter Galli, Senior Communications Manager on the Microsoft Platform Strategy team, the release of the Live Services plug-in under an open source license "underscores Microsoft's commitment to interoperability and open standards, as well as to collaboration so as to help customers, partners, educators and students across the world be successful in a heterogeneous technology world."

More details about the Live Services plug-in can be found in the Port25 blog post announcement from Galli. The plug-in is entirely PHP based and a demonstration video is also available.

(crve)