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Outcomes, Reflections, and What's Next

James Hilton

University of Michigan

Brad Wheeler

Indiana University

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Michigan•CHEF Framework•CourseTools•WorkTools

Indiana•Navigo Assessment•Eden Workflow•OneStart•Oncourse

MIT•Stellar

Stanford•CourseWork•Assessment

OKI•OSIDs

uPortal

Sakai 2.0 Release•TPP•Framework•Services-based Portal

Sakai Tools•Complete CMS•Assessment•Workflow•Research Tools•Authoring Tools

Primary Sakai ActivityRefining Sakai Framework,

Tuning and conforming additional toolsIntensive community building/training

Activity: Ongoing implementation work at local institution…

Jan 04 July 04 May 05 Dec 05

Activity: Maintenance &

Transition from aproject to

a communitySakai 1.0 Release•Tool Portability Profile•Framework•Services-based Portal•Refined OSIDs & implementations

Sakai Tools•Complete CMS•Assessment

Primary Sakai ActivityArchitecting for JSR-168 Portlets,

Re-factoring “best of” features for toolsConforming tools to Technology Portability Profile

Sakai Project Timeline

SEPP Conference172 Attend Dec 1.5

Release Pilot

Aug 1.0

What we said…

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In production use with>25,000 users at uMich

Full 1.5 Pilot at IUJanuary-May05

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PerspectiveSourcing decisions are not new….

1970-80s 1990 2000

Build Build orBuy

Build,Buy, or“Borrow”

2010

RisksBenefits

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In Search of a Better Model…

CreatingSoftware

SustainingSoftware

CommunitySourceProjects

PartneringOrganizations

StakeholderCoordination

Open IP

LicensingFees

MaintenanceFees

CommercialCoordination

Closed IP

Objective…sustainable economics and innovation for satisfied users

…for how we pay and what we get. Software is not free.

Bundled IP & Support Unbundled IP & Support + Commercial Support Options

EducationalCommunity

License

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Control of Code & DestinyBut with responsibility too!

PKIDartmouth

Chandler/Westwood

Twin PeaksNavigator

Functionality of Systems integration, standards…innovation

Cost of Systems operations, maintenance, timing, evolution

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Michigan, Indiana

Independent decisions for community source engagement

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Why UM went down the Sakai path

• Legacy system with no positive trajectory forward• Saw market consolidation in CMS• Saw the potential of tapping core competence and starting a

virtuous cycle of development/teaching/research• Strategic desire to blur the distinction between the

laboratory/classroom between knowledge creation/digestion• NRC report and the need for collaboration• A moment in time opportunity (Mellon and synchronization)• Leverage links between open source, open access and culture

of the academy/wider world

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What goals did we set?• Replicate functionality of legacy CMS and

Worktools• Find collaborating partners (Sakai is at least as

interesting from the collaboration experiment perspective as it is from the technology perspective.)

• Get better at discerning open source winners. It shouldn’t be like playing the lottery.

• Evolve a business plan that would be sustainable• Implement parts that were not built at UM

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What have we learned?• Collaborations are hard work and they require

shared vision (when visions vary, or when they change, collaborations struggle).

• Projects like Sakai need to be entered into in a fully intentional way. – Separate board with dedicated developers. – Sakai sits between institutions with a clear governance

structure. • Open source requires real project discipline. Sakai

is as spontaneous as a shuttle launch.• Learn to balance pragmatics and ideals and trust

your partners.

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What have we learned?• Hard to test for scale • Importance of alignment/support from Provost/President • It’s good to be public. Our success or failure will be

spectacularly public• There are 89K open source projects in the naked city. Our

focus, and potential sweet spot for collaborative action, is open source at the enterprise level. Think Linux on servers versus desktops; Apache versus Mozilla; and Sakai versus classroom specific applications.

• Zeitgeist is critical. Important to link with repository efforts, open access push, and scholarly publishing opportunities if we are to keep academic commons/culture open.

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Sakai, OSPI, Kuali Lessons

• Collaboration is a capability• Organizational readiness, learning• Value for the future

• Choose your partners well• Like-minded institutions, timelines

• Sakai structure is promising• Small core development team• Large partners organization

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“Community source describes a model for the purposeful coordinating of work in a community. It is based on many of the principles of open source development efforts, but community source efforts rely more explicitly on defined roles, responsibilities, and funded commitments by community members than some open source development models.”

…. from www.sakaiproject.org

Community Source Projects

“Institutional Investmentsfor Institutional Outcomes”

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What’s Next

More leverage between community source projects

Improving commercial support optionsLots of tools and extensionsThe model used for Sakai is broadly

applicableThe Partner’s Program grows

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8-14 June 2005 - Baltimore

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Outcomes, Reflections, and What's Next

James Hilton

University of Michigan

Brad Wheeler

Indiana University