Latest Sakai News

Hello all,

At the Denver conference in June, a self-organized group of
community members met to discuss and form a Sakai 2 Technical
Coordination Committee (TCC) to both nurture and enhance the
Sakai 2 ecosystem. Proposals for this sort of group -- inspired
directly by the Apache Foundation's Project Management Committees
-- have been under informal discussion for at least a couple of
years.

As experienced members of the Sakai community, we feel the TCC
can work with existing community groups and processes to provide
technical direction, advice, and coordination. We believe this is
currently an unfilled need in the Sakai 2 community and that it
will further the long term development and health of the Sakai 2
project. More concretely, we have identified the following action
items to be addressed by this group by September 2010:

-- Determine final appropriate merges to the 2.5 code base
-- Triage 2.6-related Jira tickets, and merge tested and verified fixes to the 2.6.x maintenance branch
-- Determine the scope and schedule for an imminent 2.6.3 release
-- Determine the scope and schedule for a 2.7.1 release
-- Determine the scope and schedule for a 2.8 release

The 2.8 planning is already reflected in the discussions and
proposals made at the Sakai 2 planning meetings in Denver:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/x/CBUhB

We will review this new group's work in September, and decide
whether the TCC needs to continue or be disbanded. Discussion of
our work can be followed on the TCC mailing list,
sakai2-tcc@....

Sincerely,

Sakai 2 Technical Coordination Committee Members

Alan Berg (Sakai Fellow 2008, QA Director, Security WG)
Noah Botimer (Product Council, Portfolio Team, Security WG)
Matthew Buckett (Sakai Fellow 2010, Maintenance Team, Security WG)
John Bush (Security WG)
David Horwitz (Sakai Fellow 2008 & 2010, Maintenance Team Lead, Kernel Team, Release Management WG, Security WG)
Matthew Jones (Maintenance Team, Security WG)
Beth Kirschner (Sakai Fellow 2008, Portfolio Team, Kernel Team, i18n WG)
Jean-Francois Leveque (Sakai Fellow 2009, i18n WG, Release Management WG, Security WG)
John Lewis (Product Council)
Megan May (former QA Director, QA WG, Release Management WG, Security WG)
Charles Severance (Sakai Board, Security WG)
Steve Swinsburg (Sakai Fellow 2009, Profile2 Lead, Kernel Team, Maintenance Team, Security WG)
Seth Theriault (Sakai Fellow 2006, Maintenance Team, Kernel Team, Release Management WG, Security WG)
Anthony Whyte (Release Management Lead, Branch Manager, Kernel Team, Maintenance Team, Security WG)
Aaron Zeckoski (Sakai Fellow 2006, Maintenance Team (and former Lead), Security WG)
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This is not so much an announcement as an attempt to gauge interest in
regional collaboration and events for the southeastern US. I think
there's now a strong pocket that combines new adopters and old hands
in our corner of the world, and I'd like to take advantage of it.

What we might pull together will depend on the interests of those
involved, but an early thought is that with the big conference in
Berlin next year we might have a regional conference as a budget
option for wider community engagement.

Rather than contact only those I'm already familiar with, I wanted to
make a wider call here. If you or your institution are interested in
regional coordination in the Southeast, please do get in touch with
me, and if there's enough interest we'll arrange an initial round of
dialogue to discuss what we'd like to do together.

Clay Fenlason
Director, Educational Technology
Georgia Institute of Technology
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I am very pleased to announce a new release of SMS in the 0. series.

Version:
SMS 0.17

Description:
The SMS service provides support for incoming and outgoing Short Message Service (SMS) messages to Sakai.


Works with:
Sakai 2.6 and later

Database upgrade:
No Database Upgrades are needed

Highlights:
0.17 represents a bug fix release and addresses a small number of issues when delivering messages to different network gateways. This release has been tested against two different gateways (Clickatell & Grapevine) and successful delivery to all South African based cellphone operators.

The two issues addressed can be viewed here: http://jira.sakaiproject.org/browse/SMS/fixforversion/11853


Acknowledgements:
Thanks to the following Sakai community members (in no particular order) for their involvement in this release:
Sean Donavan (Teqcle)

License:
SMS is released under the Educational Community License Version 2.0

More Information:
SMS Service: http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SMS/Home
Release Site: http://source.cet.uct.ac.za/release/sms/sms-0.17/


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Announcements Mailing List off off

We are pleased to announce availability of the Sakai 2.7.0 release.

• Release artifacts are available at http://source.sakaiproject.org/release/
• Release documentation including install guides is available at http://confluence.sakaiproject.org//x/NgchB
• Sakai 2.7.0 is licensed under the Educational Community License version 2.0

Dedication

The Sakai 2.7 series is dedicated to the memory of Steve Smail, Programmer/Analyst in Library Information Technology at Indiana University, who died in late December 2009. He was a respected and long-time member of the Sakai developer community; many knew him through his work on the Sakaibrary project, Citations Helper and previous library resource integration efforts as well as his regular participation at Sakai conferences.

Highlights

Sakai 2.7.0 adds significant new capabilities to the core build including:

• Site statistics
• A new profile interface
• Initial support for the IMS Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) spec
• Improvements to the core tool set
• Accessibility, performance and security enhancements
• Language/locale updates
• Bug fixes that improve upon the Sakai 2.6 series

Of note, the addition of IMS Basic LTI as a core capability provides users with a simple, standards-based mechanism for launching and sharing information with externally- hosted tools.   Basic LTI sends course, user, and role information to an external tool, signed securely using OAuth (http://www.oauth.net) security protocol.  Multiple Basic LTI placements can be added to a Sakai site in order to connect to one or more tool producers running outside of Sakai.  External tools can be written in any language.

Older Releases

With the advent of the Sakai 2.7 series, official Community support for Sakai 2.5 ceases. Organizations running Sakai 2.5 (or earlier versions) are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest versions of Sakai 2.6 or 2.7 in order to take advantage of continued maintenance support.

Thank you to all who have contributed to the success of the 2.7.0 release.

The Sakai Foundation Staff

We are pleased to announce availability of the Sakai 2.7.0 release.
·       Release artifacts are available at http://source.sakaiproject.org/release/
·       Release documentation including install guides is available at http://confluence.sakaiproject.org//x/NgchB
·       Sakai 2.7.0 is licensed under the Educational Community License version 2.0

Dedication
The Sakai 2.7 series is dedicated to the memory of Steve Smail, Programmer/Analyst in Library Information Technology at Indiana University, who died in late December 2009. He was a respected and long-time member of the Sakai developer community; many knew him through his work on the Sakaibrary project, Citations Helper and previous library resource integration efforts as well as his regular participation at Sakai conferences.
 
Highlights
Sakai 2.7.0 adds significant new capabilities to the core build including:
·       Site statistics
·       A new profile interface
·       Initial support for the IMS Basic Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) spec
·       Improvements to the core tool set
·       Accessibility, performance and security enhancements
·       Language/locale updates
·       Bug fixes that improve upon the Sakai 2.6 series

Of note, the addition of IMS Basic LTI as a core capability provides users with a simple, standards-based mechanism for launching and sharing information with externally- hosted tools.   Basic LTI sends course, user, and role information to an external tool, signed securely using OAuth (http://www.oauth.net) security protocol.  Multiple Basic LTI placements can be added to a Sakai site in order to connect to one or more tool producers running outside of Sakai.  External tools can be written in any language.

Older Releases
With the advent of the Sakai 2.7 series, official Community support for Sakai 2.5 ceases. Organizations running Sakai 2.5 (or earlier versions) are strongly encouraged to upgrade to the latest versions of Sakai 2.6 or 2.7 in order to take advantage of continued maintenance support.

Thank you to all who have contributed to the success of the 2.7.0 release. 

The Sakai Foundation Staff


Strategic Communication Lead | Sakai Foundation | 503.816.4721 | kthanos@...


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Please send suggestions for items for the Sakai Newsletter by noon EDT  
(GMT -4) on Wednesday, July 14, 2010 to:


Margaret Wagner
mwagner@...


Thanks!
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Hi All,

Some people saw this in Denver - we have developed a simple tool to
validate new guest accounts. This allows the new user to claim the
account or to merge it with an existing account on the system. More can
be found here:

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/~dhorwitz/Account+Validator

NOTE a small patch to site-manage is required. This can be found in the
docs folder of the source code.

Regards

David
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Sakai Newsletter


July 1, 2010

1.  New Sakai Executive Director, Ian Dolphin

2.  New Sakai 3 Project Director, Alan Marks

3.  Call for Resources: Managed Sakai 3 Project

4.  Save the Date - Sakai 2011 Conference

5.  Sakai Teaching and Learning (T&L) Group - New Initiatives - Call  
for Ideas and Assistance

6.  University of Virginia Upgrades

7.  rSmart Welcomes New Community Members

8.  Columbia University Job Opening

9.  Job Opening at Virginia Tech:  Dir. of Online Learning and  
Collaboration Services

10. Recent Email Group Discussions

11. Events


------------------------------------------------
1. New Sakai Executive Director, Ian Dolphin

Please welcome Ian Dolphin as the new executive director of the Sakai  
Foundation.  Ian currently serves as the international director of the  
e-Framework Partnership.  Based with the UK Joint Information Systems  
Committee (JISC), his role has focused on broadening education and  
research collaboration projects between government and public agencies  
in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

Through his service on the boards of the Sakai Foundation, Jasig,  
Curriki Global Education and Learning Community, and the European  
Multimedia Forum, Ian has gained a breadth of experience in education  
open source community leadership.

Ian is an avid photographer, sharing photos from his travels at  
http://www.flickr.com/people/iandolphin/. He is also very active on  
Twitter (@iandolphin24), where he provides regular updates on the  
behavior of the humber sheep.

Ian joins the Foundation formally on August 1, 2010, and can be  
reached at iandolphin@....


------------------------------------------------
2. New Sakai 3 Project Director, Alan Marks

Alan Marks has joined the Sakai Foundation as Project Director for the  
managed Sakai 3 project. Alan will be a Sakai Foundation employee  
reporting to Sakai Foundation executive director, Ian Dolphin, and  
accountable to the Sakai 3 steering group. The position is supported,  
at present, by funds from the participating institutions.

Alan has 18 years of experience in all phases of software development  
from concept through release to sustained engineering. He has directed  
product development and managed significant software projects for  
Microsoft, HP, SAP, Adobe and others.

Alan can be reached at alanmarks@....


------------------------------------------------
3. Call for Resources:  Managed Sakai 3 Project

The managed Sakai 3 project has made significant progress. A formal  
steering group has been formed which includes: co-chair Ian Dolphin  
(executive director, Sakai Foundation), co-chair Philip Uys (Charles  
Sturt), David Ackerman (NYU), Clay Fenlason (product manager, Sakai  
Foundation and Georgia Tech), David Goodrum (Indiana), Oliver Heyer  
(UC Berkeley), and John Norman (Cambridge).

Each institution represented in the steering group has or is  
attempting to tender significant resources to the managed project. The  
steering group has selected a dedicated project director, Alan Marks,  
and defined a specific project roadmap for the managed Sakai 3  
project. Progress, plans, and context can be found at  
http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SAKDEV/Sakai+3.

Additional resources are still required to execute the Sakai 3  
roadmap. Please review the MoU (Memorandum of Understanding for  
Contributing Partners), which describes the resource needs. The  
project can also accept donations of funding -- large or small --  
which can be pooled to address resource needs. The success of the  
Sakai 3 project requires broad participation. If you have questions,  
please contact Ian Dolphin (iandolphin@...) or Philip  
Uys (puys@...).


------------------------------------------------
4. Save the Date - Sakai 2011 Conference

Are you suffering from withdrawal from daily interaction with your  
Sakai community colleagues? The next annual Sakai conference is only  
11.5 months away. Mark the dates on your calendar now. We will meet in  
Berlin at the Ramada Hotel Berlin - Alexanderplatz on June 14 - 16,  
with pre-conference sessions on June 13.


------------------------------------------------
5. Sakai Teaching and Learning (T&L) Group - New Initiatives - Call  
for Ideas and Assistance

All members of the Sakai Community are invited to join the Teaching  
and Learning group as it plans initiatives for the coming year. In  
addition to continuing work on the Learning Capabilities Design Lenses  
and the Teaching with Sakai Innovation Award, the T&L Group is  
brainstorming possible new initiatives, including Distance Learning,  
Student Engagement, and Enhancing Communication. We are seeking ideas  
from both the community and members to help. To see the T&L Group's  
work and contribute to the conversation, please visit our Confluence  
page: http://tinyurl.com/SakaiTL.

Rob Coyle
rcoyle@...


------------------------------------------------
6. University of Virginia Upgrades

The University of Virginia is pleased to announce that we successfully  
upgraded from version 2.5.3 to version 2.6.2 on May 25, 2010.

Trisha Gordon
UVaCollab Project Lead and User Support Manager
https://collab.itc.virginia.edu
collab-support@...


------------------------------------------------
7. rSmart Welcomes New Community Members

Each month rSmart works with a new group of institutions to install  
and use the rSmart Sakai CLE. Bringing new institutions into the Sakai  
community is an important part of our contribution. It is our pleasure  
to welcome the following institutions that are adopting and  
implementing Sakai:

Northeastern Community College, in Nebraska, has just made a decision  
to transition from Blackboard's Angel Learning to rSmart's Sakai CLE.

St. George's University, a medical veterinary school in Grenada, is  
moving to Sakai from Blackboard's Angel Learning and has already  
smoothly transitioned content for many courses to Sakai. Having spent  
a week on campus, we believe that St. George's is the perfect venue  
for a future Sakai Conference.

Smyrna School District in Delaware will implement Sakai as a platform  
for faculty development, with plans to increase access to students  
over time.

The Uniformed Services University will use Sakai and will also begin  
implementation of Kuali Rice in preparation for broader use of the  
Kuali enterprise suite. rSmart looks forward to working with USU and  
the Naval Postgraduate School to identify integration and leverage  
points between Sakai and our sister community, Kuali.


------------------------------------------------
8. Columbia University Job Opening

Columbia University is currently hiring for a position on its Web  
Architecture team that includes duties related to our current LMS and  
Sakai. This position is fully described at:

http://jobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=118961

Candidates must submit a resume and cover letter via the above link  
for formal consideration. Preliminary inquiries and questions are  
welcome and should be addressed to Carol Kassel, ckassel@....


------------------------------------------------
9. Job Opening at Virginia Tech:  Director of Online Learning and  
Collaboration Services

Virginia Tech invites applications for the position of Director of  
Online Learning and Collaboration Services. Reporting to Learning  
Technologies' Senior Director for Strategy and Planning, the director  
provides leadership and management of central online learning and  
collaboration systems and services supporting teaching, learning,  
discovery and engagement throughout the university. This position  
requires a dynamic "systems-thinker" with professional experience in a  
complex technology-intensive environment providing robust customer  
service, conducting training, and managing a staff unit.

The director develops and maintains face-to-face interaction and  
collaboration opportunities with clients and a team of professional  
peers in Learning Technologies, Distance Learning, and other  
university units to strategize on existing and potential new service  
offerings, product selections, and policies, and to ensure the  
efficacy, soundness and relevance of these services to the university  
community. The director collaborates with a team of application  
developers, systems integrators, help desk agents, trainers and  
documentation developers to ensure excellence in system functionality  
and performance and to provide effective end-user support and  
training. This position requires a comprehensive and thorough  
knowledge of these systems as a whole as well as an understanding of  
the multiple ways they are integrated into other systems such as SIS  
and Banner. The director also coordinates QA testing for all upgrades  
and new service deployments.

To learn more about this position or to apply, please visit  
http://www.jobs.vt.edu and search for posting number 0100409 (Director  
of Online Learning and Collaboration Services). Review of applications  
will begin on August 2, 2010.


------------------------------------------------
10. Recent Email Group Discussions

[Building Sakai] About License and inclusion in the map Who is using SAKAI?
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-About-License-and-inclusion-in-the-map-Who-is-using-SAKAI-td5248925.html#a5248925

[Building Sakai] Assessment zombies in gradebook
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Assessment-zombies-in-gradebook-td5248751.html#a5248751

[Building Sakai] Assignment "In/New" counts all read 0 after upgrade
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Assignment-In-New-counts-all-read-0-after-upgrade-td5241486.html#a5248913

[Building Sakai] Entitypicker
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Entitypicker-td5249399.html#a5249399

[Building Sakai] External LDAP users in a clustered environment.
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-External-LDAP-users-in-a-clustered-environment-td5248997.html#a5249017

[Building Sakai] Fwd: Add Users
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Add-Users-td5208547.html#a5208547

[Building Sakai] presence.events.log
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-presence-events-log-td5246698.html#a5246698

[Building Sakai] Profile2 v1.3.9 release imminent
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Profile2-v1-3-9-release-imminent-td5245853.html#a5245853

[Building Sakai] Public announcements from Admin Workspace not possible?
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Public-announcements-from-Admin-Workspace-not-possible-td5246572.html#a5246572

[Building Sakai] Spam and list moderation
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-Spam-and-list-moderation-td5244963.html#a5244963

[Building Sakai] students unable to create course sites in 2.6
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-students-unable-to-create-course-sites-in-2-6-td5244970.html#a5244970

[Building Sakai] SVN checkin issue
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-SVN-checkin-issue-td5249091.html#a5249091

[Building Sakai] User account integration
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-User-account-integration-td5248159.html#a5248159

[Building Sakai] Web service and Samigo
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/template/NodeServlet.jtp?tpl=search-page&node=1343168&query=Web+service+and+Samigo&days=0

[Building Sakai] wsetup.home.toolids and Home page synoptic tool order
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Building-Sakai-wsetup-home-toolids-and-Home-page-synoptic-tool-order-td5248186.html#a5248334

[DG: Teaching & Learning] please contribute staff and financial  
resources to the S3 project
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/please-contribute-staff-and-financial-resources-to-the-S3-project-td5225254.html#a5225254

[DG: Teaching & Learning] Use of Survey question type in SAMigo
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Using-Sakai-Use-of-Survey-question-type-in-SAMigo-td5223481.html#a5223481

[DG: User Experience] [sakai-kernel] Context sensitive help
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Re-DG-User-Experience-sakai-kernel-Context-sensitive-help-td5218325.html#a5218393

[DG: User Experience] Fwd: UIEtips: Baking Social Interfaces Into Your Design
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/DG-User-Experience-Fwd-UIEtips-Baking-Social-Interfaces-Into-Your-Design-td5224396.html#a5224396

[Portfolio] Clarification: possible OSP independent release
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Portfolio-Clarification-possible-OSP-independent-release-td5231165.html#a5231165

[Portfolio] Image Gallery
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Portfolio-Image-Gallery-td5243684.html#a5243684

[Portfolio] Turning in form instances for assignments
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Portfolio-Turning-in-form-instances-for-assignments-td5248981.html#a5248981

[Using Sakai] Embed button in a rich text editor?
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Using-Sakai-Embed-button-in-a-rich-text-editor-td5245375.html#a5245375

[Using Sakai] how to install sakai bin in an existing tomcat6
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Using-Sakai-how-to-install-sakai-bin-in-an-existing-tomcat6-td5246794.html#a5246794

[Using Sakai] sakai 2.6 broken link on wiki and sakai.properties for  
sakai 2.7 not found in binary
http://sakai-project-mail-list-archives.1343168.n2.nabble.com/Using-Sakai-sakai-2-6-broken-link-on-wiki-and-sakai-properties-for-sakai-2-7-not-found-in-binary-td5247165.html#a5247549


-----------------------------------------
11.  Events

2010 AuSakai Conference
Wednesday - Friday, September 15 - 17
Pre-conference session: Wednesday,  15th September
North Sydney College, Northern Sydney Institute of TAFE
www.nsi.tafensw.edu.au/AuSakai2010

Sakai 2011 Conference
June 14 - 16, 2011
Ramada Hotel Berlin - Alexanderplatz
Berlin, Germany


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Sakai.Newsletter.July.1.2010.pdf (191K) Download Attachment

Thoughts on Sakai 3 in a "post LMS" era, following the international conference in Denver two weeks ago. Comments welcome  :-)

 

http://philipuys.blogspot.com/2010/06/post-lms-or-lms-plus.html

Regards

Philip
.....................................
Dr Philip Uys

Co-Chair, Sakai 3 Steering Group

Director, Strategic Learning and Teaching Innovation
Division of Learning and Teaching Services (LTS)
Charles Sturt University, PO Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia
puys@...               Phone: +61 (0)2 6365 7501
Fax: +61 (0)2 6365 7670      http://www.csu.edu.au/division/lts/

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Please send suggestions for items for the Sakai Newsletter by noon EDT  
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Margaret Wagner
mwagner@...


Thanks!
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Colleague

 

The Sakai 3 project is now in full swing with the appointment of Alan Marks as the Sakai 3 project director (http://sakaiproject.org/news/foundation-selects-sakai-3-project-director). The first S3 community pre-release will be at the end of September 2010 (while NYU and Berkeley will have S3 institutional pre-releases respectively in July and August 2010).

 

You can follow and participate in the S3 managed project by responding to information at, and linked to from

http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SAKDEV/Sakai+3 (e.g. the roadmap, design model, development work, MoU).  

 

We need significant staff and financial resources for the S3 project to achieve the deliverables in the roadmap. Please discuss in your institutions whether you could contribute finances (we still need at least USD250 000) or staff (we still need at least 10FTEs - see MoU for breakdown of type of staff required).

 

If your institution is able to contribute, be it a small or substantial contribution, please complete the MoU and send to Ian Dolphin <iandolphin@...>  with a cc to me and to Alan Marks <alanmarks@...>. We are keen to know of your commitment ASAP. Thank you.

 

Regards

 

Philip

.....................................

Dr Philip Uys

Co-chair, S3 Steering Group

 

Director, Strategic Learning and Teaching Innovation

Division of Learning and Teaching Services (LTS)

Charles Sturt University, PO Box 883, Orange, NSW 2800, Australia

puys@...               Phone: +61 (0)2 6365 7501

Fax: +61 (0)2 6365 7670      http://www.csu.edu.au/division/lts/

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Announcements Mailing List off off See the Sakai 3 space on the project wiki to learn more about Sakai 3 development.

I am very pleased to announce that Alan Marks will join the Sakai Foundation staff as project director for the Sakai 3 project. Alan’s hire is an important milestone for the project and for our community.

Alan’s most recent role was vice president of product development at Limelight Development, a software startup. He has 18 years of experience in all phases of software development from concept through release to sustained engineering. He has directed product development and managed significant software projects for Microsoft, HP, SAP, Adobe & and others. His background also includes public speaking and lecturing at the University of Washington on topics such as user interface design and the presentation of online information. His academic background includes a M.S. from the University of Washington and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Incoming Sakai executive director, Ian Dolphin, has been involved throughout the selection process and shares his perspective: “Alan brings a unique combination of talent and experience to the position of Sakai 3 project director. We had a very deep pool of qualified applicants for this position. We were able to identify and attract the candidate that brings the approach and experience that create greatest confidence in the success of the Sakai 3 project. I look forward to working with him to realise the exciting vision for supporting academic collaboration that Sakai 3 embodies".

Alan will be a Sakai Foundation employee reporting to Sakai Foundation executive director, Ian Dolphin, and accountable to the Sakai 3 steering group which includes: co-chair Ian Dolphin (executive director, Sakai Foundation), co-chair Philip Uys (Charles Sturt), David Ackerman (NYU), Clay Fenlason (product manager, Sakai Foundation and Georgia Tech), David Goodrum (Indiana), Oliver Heyer (UC Berkeley), and John Norman (Cambridge). The position is supported, at present, by funds from the participating institutions.

Alan begins work on Monday, June 28 and can be reached at alanmarks@sakaifoundation.org. Please look for a message from Alan next week, introducing himself and sharing his approach to the Sakai 3 project.

Join me in welcoming Alan to the Sakai community.

Josh Baron
Chair, Sakai Foundation Board

I am very pleased to announce that Alan Marks will join the Sakai Foundation staff as project director for the Sakai 3 project. Alan’s hire is an important milestone for the project and for our community.

Alan’s most recent role was vice president of product development at Limelight Development, a software startup.  He has 18 years of experience in all phases of software development from concept through release to sustained engineering. He has directed product development and managed significant software projects for Microsoft, HP, SAP, Adobe & and others. His background also includes public speaking and lecturing at the University of Washington on topics such as user interface design and the presentation of online information. His academic background includes a M.S. from the University of Washington and a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania.

Incoming Sakai executive director, Ian Dolphin, has been involved throughout the selection process and shares his perspective: “Alan brings a unique combination of talent and experience to the position of Sakai 3 project director. We had a very deep pool of qualified applicants for this position. We were able to identify and attract the candidate that brings the approach and experience that create greatest confidence in the success of the Sakai 3 project. I look forward to working with him to realise the exciting vision for supporting academic collaboration that Sakai 3 embodies".

Alan will be a Sakai Foundation employee reporting to Sakai Foundation executive director, Ian Dolphin, and accountable to the Sakai 3 steering group which includes: co-chair Ian Dolphin (executive director, Sakai Foundation), co-chair Phillip Uys (Charles Sturt), David Ackerman (NYU), Clay Fenlason (product manager, Sakai Foundation and Georgia Tech), David Goodrum (Indiana), Oliver Heyer (UC Berkeley), and John Norman (Cambridge).  The position is supported, at present, by funds from the participating institutions.

Alan begins work on Monday, June 28 and can be reached at alanmarks@.... Please look for a message from Alan next week, introducing himself and sharing his approach to the Sakai 3 project.

Join me in welcoming Alan to the Sakai community.

Josh Baron
Chair, Sakai Foundation Board of Directors

-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron
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I'm forwarding this email to you on behalf of Megan May...   Good evening colleagues,
For some non-virtual social networking consider the informal “dine arounds.”   You’ll join a group of fellow conference attendees for dinner at a local restaurant on Tuesday, June 15th after the Welcome reception. There is a sign up sheet on the conference wiki (http://confluence.sakaiproject.org//x/nggQB) and a dinner facilitator will help coordinate travel to destinations.
Each attendee is responsible for their own bill and gratuity.
Hope to see you there!
Megan

--
Mary Miles
Sakai Foundation
Administrative Coordinator
Phone:  734-764-3614
Fax:      734-763-7829
Cell:      734-395-2650

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Announcements Mailing List off off Dolphin Brings International Leadership in Educational Community-Source Software to Sakai

The Sakai Foundation is pleased to announce that Ian Dophin will join the organization as Executive Director. Mr. Dolphin has led organizational and technology projects to improve post-­‐secondary education in the United Kingdom and played a leading role in collaboration with Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He joins the Sakai Foundation at a time when Sakai is experiencing unprecedented growth in adoption, investment and new product development.

The Sakai Project, an educational community renowned for innovation in open teaching, learning and research software, has experienced over 30% growth in global adoption of its learning management system (LMS) in a 12-­‐month period. Institutions adopting Sakai primarily cite low total cost of ownership, the strength of the academic community, and the compelling vision for the future as differences from other LMS offerings. Douglas Johnson, Assistant Director for Learning Services, University of Florida explains, “In our evaluation, the next generation of Sakai is fundamentally different and, for our needs, better than any other learning management system.”

At this inflection point, Mr. Dolphin brings important leadership and experience to the Sakai Foundation. Dophin most recently served as the International Director of the e-­‐Framework Partnership. Based with UK the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), his role has focused on broadening education and research collaboration projects between government and public agencies in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Mr. Dolphin has served on the Board of the Sakai Foundation, JASIG, Curriki Global Education and Learning Community, and the European Multimedia Forum.

“We are elated that Ian Dolphin will serve as the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation,” says Lois Brooks, a Founder of Sakai during her tenure at Stanford University and the head of the search committee. “It is a credit to the Sakai community that the success and momentum created through the contributions of so many have allowed us to attract a leader of Mr. Dolphin’s caliber. His long association with higher education, and leadership in open source communities, offer the Sakai Foundation tremendous benefit during this time of dynamic growth for us."

Says Dolphin: “The current conjecture is replete with both risk and opportunity for higher education. Against this backdrop, I believe that the Sakai community is pivotal. The collegiate nature of the Sakai community, its ability to work collaboratively, and to pool resource to create an environment which is robust, and capable of providing effective affordances for innovation are critical strengths which will create a pole of attraction in the higher education community internationally. I look forward leading and serving in this role.”

The Sakai community will welcome Mr. Dolphin at the Annual Sakai Conference held in Denver Colorado on Jun 15—17, 2010.

Please send suggestions for items for the Sakai Newsletter by noon EDT  
(GMT -4) on Wednesday, June 16, 2010 to:


Margaret Wagner
mwagner@...


Thanks!
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The Sakai Teaching and Learning group will be convening a brief Birds of a Feather (BOF) session on Tuesday (6/15/10) from 5:30 PM to 6 PM in the WindStar(A) for those interested in learning more about the group and how to get involved.  We will also be talking about the idea of creating regional T&L Sakai groups as means to involve more institutions from outside the US.

If you are unable to attend the BoF but are interested in the group you may wish to come to the Teaching and Learning Design Lenses session on Thursday from 1-2:30 PM to learn more about the work the group has been engaged in over the past year and to discuss future initiatives.  

I'm looking forward to meeting some new folks interested in being part of this group!

Josh

-----------------------------
Joshua Baron
Director, Academic Technology and eLearning
Marist College
Poughkeepsie, New York  12601
(845) 575-3623 (work)
Twitter: JoshBaron
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Dear Sakai Community,

I am pleased to announce that Ian Dolphin will join the organization as Executive Director.  Mr. Dolphin has led organizational and technology projects to improve post-secondary education in the United Kingdom and played a leading role in collaboration with Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He joins the Sakai Foundation at a time when Sakai is experiencing unprecedented growth in adoption, investment, and new product development.

At this exciting juncture, Mr. Dolphin brings important leadership and experience to the Sakai Foundation.  Dolphin currently serves as the International Director of the e-Framework Partnership.  Based with the UK Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), his role has focused on broadening education and research collaboration projects between government and public agencies in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Mr. Dolphin has served on the boards of the Sakai Foundation, Jasig, Curriki Global Education and Learning Community, and the European Multimedia Forum.

Ian is at the Annual Sakai Conference in Denver, Colorado this week, meeting community members and engaging in our projects.  Please join me in welcoming him back to Sakai.

Best regards, Lois
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Dear Sakai Community,

Work on a new vision for academic collaboration software has been  
underway at several universities for more than a year.  Dubbed Sakai  
3, the project aims to deliver a new vision  of online support for  
academic activity (teaching, learning, research, administration and  
social life).  Building on ideas developed with the Sakai 2 learning  
and collaboration software, the Sakai 3 project incorporates  
principles of social networking, content creation and sharing, and a  
broadly defined academic workflow.   Tailored versions of Sakai 3 are  
already in use at a few institutions, and pilots are planned at  
several other universities in 2010.

Representatives from several universities and the Sakai Foundation  
banded together a few months ago to jumpstart the planning process for  
a community release of a fully functional product in June 2011.   The  
team plans to develop the coordination around the project at next  
week's conference, and hopes to recruit others to participate in  
design and development.  In preparation for the conference, documents  
from the planning phase of this project are available on Confluence at http://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/SAKDEV/Sakai+3 
  under the header "Coordinated Project for a Community Release".    
These are working documents and will be updated as the project  
progresses.  We welcome your input on the Confluence pages and at the  
Sakai conference next week.

Lois Brooks


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Announcements Mailing List off Sakai User Mailing List

Alliance to Support Exceptional Technology-Enhanced Teaching and Learning

Richmond, Virginia, U.S. – June 9, 2010 – SoftChalk, LLC, a leading developer of content authoring software for eLearning, and the Sakai Project, an educational community renowned for innovation in open teaching, learning and research software, today announced an integration and collaboration partnership. SoftChalk has become a member of the Sakai Foundation and introduced integration between the SoftChalk authoring solution and the Sakai Learning Management System.

“We are so pleased to have SoftChalk formally join the Sakai community,” says Lois Brooks, Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation. “Sakai exists to support exceptional technology-enhanced teaching, learning and research. The integration that SoftChalk has invested to create provides real value to faculty members in our community.” Sue Evans, Co-founder and CEO of SoftChalk, said, “We are delighted to partner with Sakai and offer our clients the ability to publish their content directly into the Learning Management System. This time saving option will add value to all of our clients that are part of the Sakai Community.”

Brad Wheeler, Vice President for Information Technology, CIO, and professor at Indiana University, concurs, “SoftChalk has demonstrated a commitment to work with open educational resources like Sakai, MERLOT and Connexions. These kinds of partnerships fit well with Indiana University’s strategy to work with blended, commercial, and open education communities to manage scholarship and teaching materials.”

The partnership between the Sakai Foundation and SoftChalk will allow faculty members to use SoftChalk’s easy-to-use tools to create media-rich lessons within the powerful collaboration environment created by Sakai. “SoftChalk removes many technical barriers, so faculty can concentrate on good pedagogy and rich learning experiences for their students,” explains David Goodrum, Director of Faculty and Academic Services, University Information Technology Services, Indiana University, and Sakai community member. “SoftChalk’s Sakai integration makes this process even easier, allowing instructors to efficiently modify and upload content."

As a Sakai Commercial Affiliate, SoftChalk and educational institutions across the Sakai community will work together to identify new opportunities to enable and share exceptional technology-enhanced teaching and learning. SoftChalk will be present at the annual Sakai Conference (June 15-17, 2010) in Denver, Colorado and also plans to host a joint partner webinar with Sakai after the conference.

About SoftChalk, LLC

SoftChalk, LLC is an award-winning provider of e-Learning software for worldwide education and business institutions. Specializing in the development of intuitive, easy- to-use tools, SoftChalk products allow instructors to create powerful and professional- looking content for e-Learning and smart classrooms in K-12, higher education and corporate training. For more information, visit www.softchalk.com.