March 4, 2010

Michael Korcuska, Executive Director, Sakai

Foundation

Universidad de Murcia

About Sakai

Sakai History

Courseware Management SystemStarted in 2004

Michigan, Indiana, Stanford, MIT (and Berkeley)

Mellon Foundation Grant

2.7 release in QA

Why Start Sakai?

5 Schools with Homegrown CMSInefficient to build 5 systemsWanted to maintain controlExperts in teaching and learningDesire to work together and share knowledge

Why Sakai?

Stanford wrote about 20% of the original code in Sakai. What we have received in return is five times what we have put in, a tremendous return on investment. The value of community source is very real to us.Lois Brooks

Director of Academic Computing Stanford University

Coursework, Stanford University

Defining Sakai: Product Scope

COURSE MANAGEMENT — all the tools of a modern course management system.

RESEARCH & COLLABORATION — project sites for research and work group collaboration.

SAKAIBRARY — Library-led component to add citations directly into Sakai.

PORTFOLIOS — Open Source Portfolio (OSP) is a core part of Sakai.

Course Management

Portfolios

SakaibraryResearch &

Collaboration

Defining Sakai: Community

COMPOSITION — educational institutions & commercial enterprises working in partnership with standards bodies & other open-source initiatives.

GOALS — work collaboratively to develop innovative software applications designed to enhance teaching, learning, research & collaboration in education.

VALUES — knowledge sharing, information transparency, meritocracy.

Educational Institutions

Commercial Affiliates

Open Source

Standards Bodies

Sakai on the ground

200+ PRODUCTION/PILOT DEPLOYMENTS: From 200 to 200,000 users

Some Sakai Names

Oxford Cambridge Stockholm University Limerick Umea University Universidad Politécnica de

Valencia Universidad Pública de Navarra Universidade Fernando Pessoa Paris 6 (UPMC) Universite de Poitiers University of Amsterdam Universitat de Lleida Roskilde Universitetscenter

Yale Stanford UC Berkeley University of Michigan Indiana University Johns Hopkins Rutgers Virginia Tech University of Virginia University of Delaware University of Florida Etudes Consortium (22

colleges) University of Montreal

Sakai on the ground

Users Institutions

130,000+ Indiana, UNISA

60,000+ Michigan

11,000 - 50,000

Berkeley, Cape Town, Etudes Consortium, New England (AU),

Valencia, Virginia Tech, Yale

1,000 - 10,000

Cambridge, Cerritos, Charles Sturt,

Fernando Pessoa, Lleida, Mount Holyoke,

North-West, Rice, Roskilde, Rutgers, Saginaw Valley, UC Merced, Whitman,

Arteveldehogeschool

CTOOLS, University of MichiganFirst production Sakai deployment, 2004

Defining Sakai: Code

OPEN LICENSING — Sakai’s software is made available under the terms of the ECL, a variant of the Apache license. The ECL encourages a wide range of use, including commercial use.

NO FEES OR ROYALTIES — Sakai is free to acquire, use, copy, modify, merge, publish, redistribute & sublicense for any purpose provided our copyright notice & disclaimer are included.

NO “COPYLEFT” RESTRICTIONS — unlike GPL redistributed derivative works are neither required to adopt the Sakai license nor publish the source code as open-source.

EDUCATIONAL COMMUNITY LICENSE

(ECL)

Open Source Value

Vendor Software

Local Version New Version

Customization

New Version

Local Version

Customization Again

Proprietary Software Brick Wall

Defining Sakai: Foundation

MISSION — manage & protect intellectual property; provide basic infrastructure & small staff; help coordinate design, development, testing & distribution of software; champion open source & open standards.

GOVERNANCE — ten board members elected by member reps to serve three-year terms; Executive Director manages day-to-day operations.

PARTNERS — ~100member organizations contribute $5k - $10k

BUDGET — funds 4-6 staffers, admin services, computing infrastructure, project coordination, conferences, Sakai Fellows Program, advocacy & outreach activities.

Why Sakai?

UCT decided to move to open source in 2004, migrating from WebCT & a home-grown system. Open source offers the advantages of flexibility & avoids the risks of vendor lock-in & escalating license costs. We were attracted to Sakai by the size & expertise of the community around it.

Stephen Marquard, Learning Technologies Coordinator, University of Cape Town

What will the future bring?

Integrated, enterprise software? Configurable personal learning

environments? Loose aggregations of web 2.0

applications (mashups)? Google Wave replaces VLE? Mobile devices take over? The 5 minute university?

More Words of Wisdom

What does the future hold?

Integrated, enterprise software? Configurable personal learning

environments? Diverse aggregations of web applications

(mashups)? Mobile devices take over? Google Wave replaces augments VLE? The 5 minute university?

YES!

Why Sakai?

The people at this conference are the best qualified to define the future of the LMS.

You don’t need to be alone: Sakai community shares ideas and risks

Design the Future with the Best Academic Partners Around the

World

Past and future

Sakai Foundation

Focus on Quality

August 2007: My first month at Sakai Sakai release 2.4 going in production Large institutions spending too much time on

troubleshooting & maintenance Fewer resources for new feature development

Immediate Foundation Goal Quality, Quality, Quality

Other Issues Desire to rebuild Sakai UX (Perception of a) developer-dominated community Roadmap

Challenges

Predictable Roadmap Good things are happening When will they emerge into the release? Action: Hiring Sakai Product Manager to help address

Communication Who is working on what? Who is interested in the same things I am? Action: Hiring Sakai Communication Manager

Managing New Feature Development What should be in the release? What should be removed? Action: New Product Development Process

Pro

duct Life

Cycle

Major P

roduct Changes

• Generate new ideas• Try new technologies

• Prove desirability• Create dev team/plan• Reduce dev risks

• Finish building• Test• Document

Community

Product Council

Product Council

Authority: Decide what is in the official release

How: Based on objective criteria as much as possible Open process and document decision-making

Also: Provide guidance to incubation projects who

are wondering what they need to do to make the release

Product Council

• Nate Angell (rSmart)• Noah Botimer (Michigan)• Eli Cochran (Berkeley)• Michael Feldstein (Oracle)• Clay Fenlason (Georgia Tech & Sakai)• David Goodrum (Indiana) • John Lewis (Unicon)• Stephen Marquard (Cape Town)• John Norman (Cambridge)• Max Whitney (NYU)

Why and What and When

Sakai 3

Why Build Sakai 3?

Changing expectations Google docs/apps, Social

Networking, Web 2.0 Success of project sites

= Sakai beyond courses New technologies

Standards-based, open source projects JCR (Jackrabbit) Open Social (Shindig)

Client-side programming JavaScript/AJAX

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Benefits

Increased end-user satisfaction Flexibility for site owners Best of class user experience

Stability, quality & scalability Smaller code base, shared with other OS projects Transaction-level clustering

Fewer local customizations More knowledge of existing uses cases

Simpler development environment Java and JavaScript

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Content Organization,

Searching & Tagging

Sakai 3 Themes

Learning Space Construction

Academic Networking

Breaking the Site Boundary

Customizable Workflows (No Tool

Silos)

The unSakai

Open Teaching

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http://3akai.sakaifoundation.org

Sakai 3 Demo

Thank You!