You have lots of questions.
We have answers.
What is I2IDL?
The Institute for Infrastructure and Interoperable Data in Learning (I2IDL) is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization that advances the science of open source data systems serving learning, training, and education organizations across the globe.
What does I2IDL do?
The institute provides stewardship and maintenance of essential TLA-related open source technologies and conformance systems. It will also reconstitute elements of the research capacity previously led by Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL).
is I2IDL just ADL 2.0?
I2IDL is not ADL 2.0. Whereas ADL’s priority function was to serve the DoD, the institute is designed to provide value for an intentionally much broader set of international stakeholders across industry, government, and academia – and the institute is able to support commercialization efforts in ways that ADL never could. As a non-governmental organization, the institute, both in-house and through university and industry partnerships, will support applied research and new TLA product development through incubation, acceleration, and commercialization. Whether or not the US government decides in whole or in part to reconstitute a new version of ADL, the institute protects against the political and economic volatility native to government programs while expanding capability and sustainability through equity-focused incubation and acceleration.
How do we help to connect digital learning and workforce systems?
Organizations across government, industry, and education invest billions in training, education, and related HR information technologies.
But these systems operate in silos. Data doesn’t flow. Credentials don’t transfer. Training completed in one system is invisible to another, making lifelong learning and certain HR functions inefficient (at best).
As AI transforms how we learn and work, the cost of fragmentation is growing more acute. We need an “internet for lifelong learning,” but the infrastructure is missing. The technology exists, but we need a neutral body and sustainable home for shared data standards, open-source conformance testing, reference implementations, and trusted open-access R&D.
Without a trusted steward, interoperability erodes.
Trusted orchestration for the digital learning ecosystem
The technology to connect learning systems already exists. Open data standards like xAPI, learning metadata standards, machine-readable competencies, and learner record specifications have been developed and validated over decades.
What’s missing is a sustainable, non-governmental home to maintain and advance this infrastructure. Not a vendor with a product to sell. Not a government program subject to political winds. A trusted third party that can host conformance testing, steward open-source tools, and coordinate R&D across sectors.
I2IDL is that home.
As an independent non-profit we provide the neutral ground where government, industry, and academia can collaborate on shared infrastructure—without any single stakeholder owning the outcome.
With I2IDL as the trusted steward, interoperability scales.