An update on the activities of the Sakai Foundation. Presented at the 10th Sakai Conference in Boston.

1. Sakai Foundation Update Michael Korcuska July 8, 2009

2. Agenda Sakai Foundation in 2008 Sakai Foundation in 2009 Membership Finances Conferences Proposed by-law changes

3. Sakai Foundation MISSION —help coordinate design, development, testing & distribution of software; manage & protect intellectual property; provide basic infrastructure & small staff; champion open source & open standards. PARTNERS — approximately 100 member organizations contribute $10K per year ($5K for smaller institutions, sliding scale for commercial affiliates). GOVERNANCE— ten board members elected by member reps to serve three-year terms; Executive Director manages day-to-day operations. BUDGET— funds 4-6 staffers, admin services, computing infrastructure, project coordination, conferences, Sakai Fellows Program, advocacy & outreach activities. We are not “in charge” of the Sakai Product. We do develop community practices.

4. Sakai foundation 2008

5. 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

6. Changes & Results Increased Foundation staff focused on QA Extended QA Cycle for 2.5 Formal Beta and Release Candidates Final 2.5.0 release in March instead of November Introduction of Maintenance Releases Currently on Sakai 2.5.4, the most reliable version of Sakai to date Challenge: Managing 2.5 and 2.6 releases simultaneously Not to mention 3.0

7. UX Improvement Did not make 2.6 release Not enough work completed in time for code freeze Many felt design needed happen on tools before they would deploy on campus 2.7 or 3? Currently the Foundation is working towards 3.0 Some design work can be implemented for 2.7, but we need resources willing to do this Overall Result Positive change in direction Won’t be satisfied until changes reach release

8. 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 8

9. Design Result

10. Sakai 3: What A set of R&D projects that will form the foundation of Sakai 3 A series of preview releases starting later this year No defined date for Sakai 3.0

11. Sakai foundation 2009

12. Current Challenges Predictable Roadmap Good things are happening When will they emerge into the release? Action: Sakai Product Manager, Clay Fenlason Communication Who is working on what? Who is interested in the same things I am? Action: Sakai Communication Manager, Pieter Hartsook Creating large changes User Interface Improvement: UX Improvement Project Major Tool Rewrites A Completely New Version? Action: New Product Development Process

13. Sakai Goals Adoption Broad & Diverse (significant adoption by different types of organizations) The top choice for innovators Product Experience Cohesive, effective and engaging (end users) Platform for local innovation (developers) Easy to deploy/manage (production) Community Easy to contribute (for new & experienced members) Diverse (roles & institutions) Excellence (recognized as desirable to belong to)

14. Community Wants Clear product vision & direction More communication from Foundation Roadmap that allows campus advocates to effectively communicate with stakeholders Project structure that attracts sufficient resources and uses them effectively More input from functional experts & designers Allow diverse types participation Large and small, Formal and informal, Institutional and individual

15. Product Life Cycle

17. Try new technologies

18. Prove desirability

19. Create dev team/plan

21. Test

23. 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

25. Noah Botimer (Michigan)

26. Eli Cochran (Berkeley)

27. Michael Feldstein (Oracle)

28. Clay Fenlason (Georgia Tech & Sakai)

29. David Goodrum (Indiana)

30. John Lewis (Unicon)

31. Stephen Marquard (Cape Town)

32. John Norman (Cambridge)

34. July 2009 10th Sakai Conference - Boston, MA, U.S.A. 21 New Foundation Members

35. Membership Steady overall Expiration of original 3-year SEPP commitment Some institutions are not renewing Introduction of 3-year discounted membership 20% for a 3 year commitment with up front payment Membership will be driven by adoption And effectiveness in coordinating community

36. 23 What Adoption Numbers? Moodle statistics are often referenced These aren’t right for us. Number of Courses/Installation, ~ 40 Number of Users/Installation, ~ 400 33% Higher Education, 12% Commercial 23

37. 24 Sakai Adoption Metrics Total enrollment of Higher Ed institutions that have adopted Sakai as their primary CLE 24

39. Adopting 2 or 3? Generally, the answer is 2.6 or 2.7 It works well today 3 doesn’t exist yet The best path to 3 will be through 2 Bb/WebCT migration to 3 is undefined Bb/WebCT migration to 2 is well known Many will be migrating from Sakai 2 to 3 Exceptions You don’t have a CMS or you are using something like Sharepoint Your adoption timeline is 2012 or later

40. Finances and budget

41. Finances Healthy: $890K of current assets Current Cash Balance of almost $500K A/R of almost $400K But Conference expenses haven’t come in yet Much of this reserved for future years (3-year memberships) Expect to collect/spend approximately $900k this year

42. Spending Goals Less spending on conferences Net of $300k two years ago Net of $60k (estimated) this year More spending on product development QA, UX, Release management More spending on communications Internal and external (outreach)

43. Other Topics

44. Conferences Single Global Conference Late June, Early July every year Regional Conferences (since Paris) Stockholm, Virginia Tech, Australia, Japan Development Meetings Next one?

45. By-Law Changes Remove requirement to have board approve conference chair and committee If they want to they can do so. But it shouldn’t be required in the by-laws. Allow up to 2 external board members To bring perspective we might not get via elections process (financial, legal) Approved by 2/3 of elected board Members must approve this change