While there are a few very successful open source projects that achieve significant market share such as the Apache Web Server, Tomcat, Linux, and PHP, the vast majority of Open Source projects often achieve a relatively small fraction of market share.  This is not surprising given the lack or a profit motive by open source projects. Individual participants in open source projects may have profit motives, but generally the project itself is focused on building the best quality software regardless of the ultimate market share.  Even when an open source project has a relatively small market share, it can have a strong influence in the overall market by participating in standards activities as well as providing high-quality reference implementation of standards when those standards are approved.  Open Source projects are often the best way to get a standard to the tipping point in terms of market adoption even if the open source software only represents a small fraction of the real market.

This talk will discuss standards in general and in particular standards for teaching and learning produced by the IMS Global Learning Consortium.   We will discuss the progression of the IMS Learning Tools Interoperability Standard and how open source involvement in the process has greatly affected the overall marketplace.