PLENARY FOURChair - Mr Alan Arnold
Pushing the Boundaries of Innovation though Community Source
Dr. Charles SeveranceExecutive DirectorSakai Foundation
QuickTime™ and aTIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
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True change in T & L happens in ways can not anticipate. CLE/LMS’s can take completely new forms and directions…
Time / “Heat” / Money / Energy Applied --->
Latent Heat of CLE InnovationB
ette
r --
>
Frozen - Many different “imperfect” CLEs and LMSs
Melting Point
Liquid - We can tend toward common CLEs, and/or portability makes the choice of CLE irrelevant
Boiling Point
Gas - Innovation can spread to cover the space of T & L practices
The talk I was going to give…
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
• Enterprise Software is software that solves an enterprise problem rather than a departmental problem. Due to the cost, only large organizations attempt to build software that models the entire business enterprise and is the core system of governing the enterprise and the core of business communications within the enterprise.
From: Wikipedia
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
• As many business enterprises have similar departments and systems, enterprise software is often available as a suite of programs that have attached development tools to modify the common programs for the specific enterprise. Mostly these development tools are complex programming tools that require specialist capabilities. Thus, one often sees in job advertisements that a programmer is required to have specific knowledge of a particular set of tools, such as ". . . must be an SAP developer" etc.
From: Wikipedia
ENTERPRISE SOFTWARE
• As many business enterprises have similar departments and systems, enterprise software is often available as a suite of programs that have attached development tools to modify the common programs for the specific enterprise. Mostly these development tools are complex programming tools that require specialist capabilities. Thus, one often sees in job advertisements that a programmer is required to have specific knowledge of a particular set of tools, such as ". . . must be an SAP developer" etc.
From: Wikipedia
CRITICISMS…
• Often the term is used to mean virtually anything, by virtue of it having become the latest corporate-speak buzzword.
• Some enterprise software vendors using the latter definition develop highly complex products that are often overkill for smaller organizations, and the application of these can be a very frustrating task. Thus, sometimes "enterprise" might be used sarcastically to mean overly complex software.From: Wikipedia
TWO APPROACHES TO ENTERPRISE SOURCE….
CUBICLE SOURCE
• A cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions, generally five to six feet high. The term cubicle comes from the Latin cubiculum, for bed chamber. From: Wikipedia
Cubicle Source Variants
• Universities buy large proprietary systems and then locally customize the systems to meet local needs.
• Universities simply write and maintain systems all by themselves themselves.
Cubicle Source Project Plan
Cubicle Source Project Plan
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CUBICLE SOURCE
• A cubicle is a partially enclosed workspace, separated from neighboring workspaces by partitions, generally five to six feet high. The term cubicle comes from the Latin cubiculum, for bed chamber. From: Wikipedia
A New Approach to Enterprise Applications
Community Source
OPEN SOURCE
• There are many definitions of Open Source• Community Source tends follow to Apache
– Commercial friendly license– Developer-centric governance / Meritocracy– Apache has built broad-use utility software
• Community Source borrows Open Source– Cultural approach and values– Licensing and governance
http://www.dr-chuck.com/media.php
COMMUNITY SOURCE
• Colleges and universities have used the term Community Source to refer to a type of community coordination mechanism that builds on the practices of open source communities.
• The Community Source Model is a hybrid model that blends elements of directed development, in the classic sense of an organization employing staff and resources to work on a project, and the openness of traditional self-organizing open-source projects like Apache.
From: Wikipedia
Community Source (fast)
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The need for “Commons”
• For community source to work there needs to be an independent external entity that “tends the commons”
• Members of the community who participate in commons may come and go - but the commons must live on independently.
• There must be a contact point for a new member to “find and join” the commons.
Evolving Approaches to Community Source
COMMON THEMES
• Open Source / Open License• Encourage Commercial
Involvement for schools with smaller IT staffs
• Some formal “Commons” or “Foundation”
uPortal
• Mellon-Funded - Uni. Delaware Led• Grant-Funded commons (5 years)
– Unicon– Instructional Media and Magic
• Conferences - 100-300 people• Sustainability Issues• Now building the JA-Sig Foundation
– Jonathan Markow [email protected]
Sakai
• Mellon-Funded - Uni. Michigan Led• Borrowed Heavily From uPortal• Staff and leadership were Higher-Ed• Sakai Partners Program - solve
sustainability from the beginning• Sakai was a sprint - we built the
bike while we were riding it• Conferences 500-700 people
Membership LevelNon-Profit
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
1/14/04 7/12/04 1/8/05 7/7/05 1/3/06 7/2/06 12/29/06
Kuali Financial Services
• Mellon-Funded - Indiana Uni. Led• Improvements
– Built community slowly - understand the culture
– Functional Council - Better Predictability– Better use of the seconded resource model
• Differences Versus Sakai– Well-understood problem space - functional
experts do exist - and they agree after some discussion
– Patient adopter base - sees the benefit of “doing it right from the beginning”.
Kuali Research Administration
• Starting with Kuali governance model
• Part of the Kuali Foundation• Differences from KFS
– Very common to have local-developed quirky solution
– Much more diverse environment - funding agencies - legal requirements -
Kuali Student
• Working on Mellon-Funding• Led by University of British Columbia• Unique Approaches
– Service Oriented Architecture– Multi-Year architecture and use case
phase up front– Shows the level of belief in the C.S.
model that visionary CIO’s have developed
Fedora Commons
• Very mature project• Well established in the market place• Well established leadership and
culture• Many years of solid Mellon, NSF, and
other funding• Long-term sustainability plan• Clear “commons pattern”
Evolution
• There is a community of communities• We learn from each other and evolve• Each community will be somewhat
different based on stakeholders which make up the community - this is OK
• We have talked about an über community - it is a challenging problem
http://www.ithaka.org/about-ithaka/announcements/ooss-study-final-report/
An Example Commons
The Sakai Foundation
Mission Statement
• The mission of the Sakai Foundation is to hold ownership of the Sakai software and to guide and nurture the community of activity around the Sakai software. The Sakai Foundation seeks to maximize the positive impact of the Sakai software, technology, and community on teaching and research.
Sakai Stakeholders
• CIOs and IT Management– Contributing Organizations– Adopting Organizations– Supporting Organizations– All Organizations
• Deploying IT Staff• Technical Support Staff• Designers and Developers• End Users
– Teachers, Students, People
Production Servers
Members without Servers
Volunteers
• Core Sakai– 900,000 Lines of Code– $13 million dollars investment– 53 Volunteer Developers
• Contrib– 800,000 Lines of Code– 47 Volunteer Developers
• QA Averages 60 people and over volunteer 1000 hours per release
• See www.ohloh.net
Developer Video: http://www.dr-chuck.com/media.php?id=53
Community Flows
Sakai Sub Communities
• Teaching and Learning• Technology• Portfolio• Implementation• User Experience• Research
Sakai Conference Tracks
June 12-14, 2007 Amsterdam, NL
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Approaching a C.S. Effort
• How large is your IT staff?• Do you want to innovate or just
use?• Do you want to truly influence the
direction of Sakai?
Levels of C.S. Involvement
• Top Tier – Have 3-8 staff who evolve and customize the product– Contribute 20-40% to the common good– Join foundation and provide community leadership
• Mid Tier– Have 2-3 staff focused on local issues– Contribute patches and fixes– Join Foundation to acknowledge value
• “It is just a product” Tier– Have 0-1 staff, often local support only– Outsource all technical details– What Foundation?
Top Tier Sakai Members
• Current– Cambridge UK, Michigan, Indiana, Foothill
College, Stanford, UC Berkley, Rutgers University, University of Capetown, Virginia Tech, rSmart
• Up and coming– Charles Sturt University, Oxford UK,
University of the Highlands and Islands (Scotland), Boston University, Unicon, Valencia, Uni. Fernando Pessoa, Georgia Tech
The Community Effect
• CIOs have each other on IM• Programmers in cubes around the world
have each other on IM and speak on first name basis - “Yes that is just Stephen being Stephen”
• It is like a startup company “under glass”• We do all of the things companies do - but
transparently - with 1500 people watching
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
Dr.Chuck
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
Dr.Chuck
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
Dr.Chuck
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
Dr.Chuck
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
Dr.Chuck
A day in the life of a Sakai
ant…
SUMMARY
• Enterprise Software is a different animal– Many different use cases and users– A kit of capabilities– Customization / Localization is the norm
• Community Source– Shortens the distance between user
requirements and developer keyboards– Participating allows “customization” to
become part of the product - not just local
CONCLUSION
• Why community?– Share Risk– Control Destiny– Open Communication - success and failure– Save money - sure one of these days
• Don’t just think LMS / Sakai– Think financial systems, student systems,
library systems - things that really cost money.
If there is interest, I will go to this Karaoke place right after the dinner tonight. If you want to join - just show up. You do *NOT* have to sing nor do you have to like singing nor do you have to be a good singer. Liking beer is a plus.
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