Dissimilar Educational Systems Can Communicate
The Data Flow Controller (DFC), by Information Systems of Florida, Inc. (ISF), enables all educational software, no matter the brand, platform or type, to access and exchange information with any other DFC-compliant program seamlessly and quickly.
Developed by ISF and Encyclopaedia Britannica Educational Corp., with support from the Florida Dept. of Education, the DFC is a trend-setting initiative designed to enable incompatible systems to easily exchange information and improve productivity.
The DFC is a standards-based interface and data router for educational software. Rather than forcing each package to include individual interfaces to all other programs, the DFC provides a standard Application Program Interface (API). Once an educational software package is written to the API, it can seamlessly exchange and transfer data with any other package written to the API.
The DFC eliminates the need to rekey data across applications, reducing redundancies and errors. Once a student's address is changed in the student information system, for example, it could automatically be updated in the school's financial system as well.
Around 20 firms have already signed up to participate in the DFC Initiative, including McGraw-Hill, Winnebago, Jostens Learning and U.S. Telecom, among others. Information Systems of Florida, Inc., Jacksonville, FL, (904) 724-2277, www.isf.com. WM
This article originally appeared in the 02/01/1997 issue of THE Journal.