IMS specifications, whilst developed mainly outside of IEEE are being submitted to the IEEE process. There is for example an IEEE specification, which corresponds to the IMS Metadata specification. There are two significant organisations that need to be mentioned. Participation in both of them is voluntary, with only very minimal financial support for participants with organisational roles. This group is presently gathering requirements within mostly Higher Education in Europe and is due to report around March 1999.
Much discussion takes place on email lists, though the groups do meet periodically.
Subscription to the email lists is open to all. The Virtual Campus Programme is closely watching all these developments and will in the future produce some guidelines to staff as standards start to emerge.