[Announcements] Sakai Foundation Staff Role Changes

[Michael Korcuska]

As you probably know, we've recently announced changes to the Sakai  
development process. We're also making some related changes to the  
role the Sakai Foundation plays in how it supports the community and,  
as a result, I am making some changes to the staff roles.  Two new  
positions are being created, one for a Product Manager and a one for  
Communications Manager. Between the two, the goal is for the  
Foundation to increase communication overall and to play a more  
proactive role in developing and executing the product roadmap.

The Sakai Product Manager will lead the new development process for  
Sakai and will drive both greater engagement from users and  
contributors as well greater roadmap predictability for adopting  
institutions. He or she will also serve as the liason between the  
community and the Sakai Product Council. This will be a challenging  
and invigorating role since the Product Manager will, in a very real  
sense, "own" the Sakai roadmap.

The Sakai Communications Manager will be responsible for both internal  
and external communications for the Sakai Foundation. He or she will  
own the content for the Sakai website and the overall organization of  
our wiki and other communication vehicles for Sakai. This will be a  
very hands on role and will involve everything from developing a  
communications strategy to writing lots of content.

These are both open positions and I am looking to fill them by the end  
of May or early June. Job descriptions for both of these positions  
will be posted "real soon now".  In the meantime feel free to contact  
me directly if you are interested.

At the same time, the Project Coordinator position currently held by  
Peter Knoop is being eliminated. In the years since the Sakai  
Foundation was formed many things have changed and the new positions  
allow us to best meet the challenges of the future.  While we are  
still working on the exact details of his transition, Peter will  
likely be with Sakai through the conference in Boston and afterwards  
will be working at the University of Michigan. Those of you who have  
worked with Peter over the years know that his knowledge of Sakai is  
extremely broad and deep and have appreciated, as I have, his  
diligence and exceptional intelligence.  I want to thank him, on  
behalf of the Foundation and the community, for his contributions. I  
hope he will continue to stay involved in Sakai.

In addition to myself as Executive Director, this leaves the Sakai  
Foundation staff with the following full time staff roles:

   * Product Manager: Open
   * Communication Manager: Open
   * Developer Support, Release Management & System Admin: Anthony Whyte
   * Quality Assurance Manager: Pete Peterson
   * Conference Coordinator & Administration: Mary Miles

These are the "permanent" staff roles for the Sakai Foundation at this  
time.  We do, from time to time, bring on part time and/or temporary  
assistance to support certain initiatives (Nathan Pearson for the UX  
initiative as an example) or to complete special projects.

Please let me know if you have any questions about these changes.

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