[Announcements] Sakai Product Council Nominations

[Michael Korcuska]

Greetings,

As you may know, the Sakai Foundation is forming a Product Council as  
part of the proposed new development process. Nominations are due to  
me (mkorcuska at sakaifoundation.org) on or before April 15, 2009.  The  
Sakai Board will be appointing the initial members soon thereafter  
(planned for April 30th).

The white paper describing the development process and a screencast of  
a webinar on the topic can be found on my blog at:

http://sakaiblog.korcuska.net/2009/03/26/sakai-devprocess-webinar/

The following excerpt from the white paper describes the role of the  
council and the qualifications for the members:

Role of the Product Council
-------------------------------------
The ultimate role of the product council is to determine which  
projects are incorporated into the formal product release. That is  
their only formal authority. The product council will use a  
transparent process for decision-making. Where possible, decisions  
will be evaluated against defined and objective criteria. Certain  
decisions will require more subjective standards and, in these cases,  
the reasons for any decisions will be clearly and openly communicated.  
The product council will also seek expert review from persons not on  
the council.
We anticipate that projects will want some indication from the product  
council that their project is a good candidate for the release.  
Therefore, even though its only formal authority is to evaluate a  
projects readiness for release, we believe it will need to advise  
incubation projects about their readiness to enter the product  
development phase. Note that while the Product Council may be  
consulted for advice during the project, the product council will not  
direct project resources or tell projects how to conduct their  
business.  They will tell them if the work itself is ready for release.

The Membership of the Product Council
------------------------------------------------------
The council will be made up of a group that brings the different areas  
of expertise required to effectively fill the product council  
function. We expect our understanding of the skills required to evolve  
over time, but the initial view is that the following areas of  
expertise are required

* User experience, including accessibility and usability
* Teaching and learning,
* Research,
* Software design and architectures,
* Software production management (deploying and/or maintaining a Sakai  
installation)

In addition to these areas of expertise, all product council members  
should also have the following:

* A broad understanding of the Sakai product
* The ability to advocate for the needs within his/her area of  
expertise and maintain a broad view of community and product needs
* Demonstrated commitment to engage with and contribute to the community
* Expertise in more than one aspect of the product

The product council will also include the Executive Director of the  
Sakai Foundation and a Sakai Product Manager, who will facilitate the  
group's interactions. The product council and the Board will together  
identify a process to evolve council membership over time.


Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.

Best regards,

Michael

-- 
Michael Korcuska
Executive Director, Sakai Foundation
mkorcuska at sakaifoundation.org
phone: +1 510-931-6559
mobile (US): +1 510-599-2586
skype: mkorcuska