[Announcements] Sakai Product Council Nomination Deadline
Michael Korcuska
mkorcuska at sakaifoundation.org
Sun Apr 12 22:50:41 PDT 2009
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
More information about the announcements
mailing list