Found this paper (in pdf) by Jon Mason at education.au limited via Stephen Downes site, which is also highly recommended for distance education news and trends.

Stories that describe the evolution of e-learning could commence at any number of times and places; and they do. The story that is told here is one that ties together technical innovation, transformational practice, and the emergence of an ' interoperability standards agenda'. It is a story that can be told with a background context consisting of only a decade or so, and a story of the emergence of a new industry. The central argument that follows is that much of the infrastructure development that supports e-learning can be seen to be convergent with systems developed to support knowledge management. The more obvious examples include content management and workflow management. However, observing convergent trends is only the beginning. From a service perspective there are compelling grounds for facilitating this Convergence.