dcannell has posted some thoughts on learning object repositories and metadata from a user's perspective. I'm hearing from yet another source that "expensive" standardized metadata strategies won't fly with the users.
I disagree with dcannell's "thing of the past" verdict, in that I strongly think that learning object repositories are valuable (I've built a couple, and am working on something new), but that their role must change drastically if their value is to be realized.
I'm seeing something that is a cross between Pachyderm, Breeze, Contribute, Keynote, iPhoto, Flickr, and some other pieces. Something that focuses on users (who they are, what they do, how they do it), rather than on the infrastructure. To compare, CAREO (and all other learning object repositories of its generation) is pretty solidly based on exposing infrastructure. That's just plain wrong, moving forward...
PS. dcannell - I don't know your full name, because you don't have it anywhere on your weblog... And with comments and trackbacks disabled, there was no way for me to comment on your post directly...