[Announcements] Sakai Newsletter April 5, 2012

[Margaret Wagner]

Sakai Newsletter

April 5, 2012


1.  Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment Community Coordinator

2.  Register Now for the Jasig Sakai Joint Conference

3.  Jasig-Sakai 2012 Conference: Project Collaboration Time

4.  Jasig and Sakai Announce Name for Proposed Foundation and
Membership Vote on Merger

5.  Jasig and Sakai Release Merger-Related Documentation for Review and Comment

6.  uMobile Community Call Archived Available

7.  Open Position at Columbia University

8.  Virginia Tech Job Opening:  Lead Web Developer Software Engineer


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1. Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment Community Coordinator

Following the complete transition of a key member of staff from the
Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment to the Sakai Open
Academic Environment, the Sakai Foundation is pleased to advertise the
following post:

Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment Community Coordinator

Full-time position (40 hours / week expected)

Core Responsibility:
To ensure the continued high quality and timeliness of Sakai CLE
releases, on a schedule that is appropriate for institutions depending
on the CLE worldwide.

Salary: In the range $80,000-$120,000

Required priorities (in order from most to least important):

1. Community coordination - Attend (and lead when necessary) the
weekly CLE team / release meeting and organize other meetings as
necessary (security meeting, JIRA triage, contributed patches review).
Provide periodic announcements and meeting summaries to the community
(and TCC) via established communication channels.

2. Security coordination - Monitor CLE security issues via established
Sakai Community security protocols and send out alerts and security
emails. Keep track of what is fixed, what is outstanding, and what
others have said they would fix. Follow up with community resources to
ensure issues are resolved and tested. Manage the list of security
contacts.

3. QA coordination - Provide QA team with outline of testing needs and
provide mechanisms/scaffolding for the QA team to track progress.
Identify QA resources in the community to assist with testing.
Provide QA status updates to the CLE team and community. Work with the
CLE and QA teams to determine when a release is sufficiently tested
and ready for release. Undertake QA testing to fill in gaps or backup
the rest of the QA team when necessary.

4. CLE JIRA issue management - Work with the CLE team to review
outstanding blocker/critical tickets for the upcoming release using
the Sakai Community JIRA issue tracking instance. Follow up with
developers who are assigned to fix issues and ensure they are resolved
in a timely manner. Identify community resources to resolve issues
that are unassigned (review the list of unassigned issues at least
once a month). Assist with review of incoming JIRA tickets and ensure
issues are not stagnating.

5. Infrastructure support - Oversee and ensure that there is adequate
support coverage for Sakai Foundation/Community infrastructure and
provide backup coverage as necessary. Current systems include: mailing
list management (mailman), version tracking system (SVN), issue
tracker (JIRA), wiki (confluence), continuous integration (Jenkins),
etc.

6. Documentation management – Cleanup and management of the Sakai wiki
space and release documentation. Identify out-of-date information and
follow-up with community authors to update information or move it to
an archive. Assist with confluence cleanup and documentation updates
(especially around releases and community volunteering) as needed.

7. Licensing management - Ensure that corporate and individual Sakai
CLE contributors have executed Corporate Contributor License
Agreements (CCLA) and Contributor License Agreements (CLA). Conduct
periodic license audits of Sakai CLE software to ensure conformity to
requirements of the ECL (the open source license used by the CLE
product).

It will be helpful for this position to be able to provide backup for
branch management, issue resolution (Sakai development), and other
technical work, however, that is not a primary responsibility.
Initially little (if any) technical work is expected; working with and
learning from the current technical community will be expected,
however.

This position will report to the Sakai Foundation Executive Director
but will receive direction and be expected to work closely with the
Sakai CLE TCC (Technical Coordination Committee).

Desired qualifications:
- Extensive familiarity with the Sakai CLE product
- Experience working within, and communicating with the Sakai community
- Experience administering and supporting services (e.g. JIRA, Mailman)
- Familiarity with the Sakai CLE source code
- Experience working with open source software and communities
- Experience of, and comfort with, remote working
- Comfortable with public speaking and meeting facilitation

Applications should be made to Ian Dolphin, Executive Director, the
Sakai Foundation, by email at iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org . They
should contain a complete curriculum vitae, and a short supporting
statement detailing experience in the required areas.

Closing date: 27th April

Regards

Ian

--
Ian Dolphin
Executive Director, Sakai Foundation

iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org
+44 7737 862863
Twitter: d iandolphin24


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2. Register Now for the Jasig Sakai Joint Conference

June 10-15, 2012

https://www.concentra-cms.com/c/2012-jasig-sakai

Growing Community; Growing Possibilities:  Open innovative
technologies for learning, teaching, and research

Registration is now open! Here is your chance to participate in the
coming together of two established open source communities in their
inaugural joint conference. There will be something for everyone --

Pre-conference seminars in uPortal, uMobile, Sakai CLE, Sakai OAE,
Sakai OSP, CAS, Bedework, 2-3-98, Scheduling Assistant, and OpenCast
Matterhorn on Sunday, June 10th.

Presentations, Birds of a Feather discussions, and other concurrent
sessions on Monday, June 11th to lunchtime Thursday, June 14th in the
following tracks:  Awareness and Advocacy, Design and Development,
Deployment and Integration, Expanded Solutions, Getting Started,
Leadership and Future Directions, Teaching, Learning, Portfolios and
Research, and Technical Management.

Chances to work face-to-face with other developers and strategic
planners on: Sakai CLE, Sakai OAE, and the Jasig products.

WHEN:
June 10 - Pre-conference Seminars and Bootcamps
June 11-14 - Main Conference
June 14-15 - Project Collaboration Time and Developer Days

WHERE:
Westin Peachtree Plaza, Atlanta
210 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30303
Hotel Direct: 404-659-1400
Group Reservations: 1-800-937-8461
Online reservations: http://bit.ly/jasigsakaihotel2012
Group code: Jasig-Sakai2012 Conference

Early registration ends May 11th!

LEARN MORE (and keep checking back for updates):
http://www.jasig.org/jasig-sakai-conference-2012
http://www.sakaiproject.org/jasig-sakai-conference-2012

Help us Grow Communities and Grow Possibilities!  Register now.
https://www.concentra-cms.com/c/2012-jasig-saka

See you in Atlanta!

-The Planning and Program Committees for the Jasig Sakai Joint Conference


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3. Jasig and Sakai Announce Name for Proposed Foundation and
Membership Vote on Merger

Shortly after the 2011 EDUCAUSE Conference, Sakai and Jasig announced
a community naming process for the new, merged organization we
proposed a year before. We wanted suggestions for Foundation names
that were memorable and reflected the core values of the merged
organization which we previously articulated in the "Value of a Common
Foundation". In announcing the outcomes of this naming process today,
it is important to emphasize that the new organization will have a
strong focus on existing software communities and project brands.
Names such as Sakai and uPortal won't go away, they will remain an
essential element of reaching constituents old and new.

The Founding Board, which was elected by the Jasig and Sakai
Foundation Boards in October (2011) to take the lead on merger
decisions, is excited to announce that the name of the new
organization we are proposing will be the Apereo. The name is a
combination of community suggestions, and represents the fusion of two
Latin words, "aperto", which means "open" and "mereo", meaning merit.
Given the importance of openness and meritocracy, in all its forms and
flavors, to both organizations as well as the larger open-source
movement, the merging of these Latin words to form Apereo resonated
with the Founding Board. Combining the suggestions was also helpful in
securing the domain name.

We will begin to use Apereo as the name of the proposed new
organization in our communication moving forward. However this is not
intended to indicate the merger is complete; nor assumed as, most
importantly, a majority vote by our collective membership is required
to gain approval. To this end, the announcement of the proposed
Foundation name is being used to launch a larger communication
initiative. Over the coming four weeks we will release additional
information and create opportunities for conversations about the path
ahead. These will include discussion lists, webinars, and other
opportunities for community engagement on issues related to the
merger. This will culminate in a membership vote to approve the merger
which will take place in late April, 2012.

Finally, those who suggested the names we selected have generously
donated the prizes we were offering to participants in our forthcoming
June conference. We'll come up with some exciting ideas to put them to
good use at the event!

If you have questions or comments on the name please post them to the
Jasig-Sakai Collaboration Google Group (subscribe at:
http://groups.google.com/group/jasig-sakai-collaboration)

Joshua Baron
Senior Academic Technology Officer
Marist College
Josh.Baron at marist.edu

Note:  You can find PDF versions of this announcement in English,
Spanish (Español) and French (Français) at
https://groups.google.com/group/jasig-sakai-collaboration/browse_thread/thread/f5dcc82ff0fa5816#

Additional translations can be found on the site,
http://groups.google.com/group/jasig-sakai-collaboration


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4. Jasig and Sakai Release Merger-Related Documentation for Review and Comment

Colleagues,

The Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group and the Apereo Founding Board are
pleased to be able to share with our communities and the larger public
a series of important documents related to the proposed merger between
our two organizations. Although some of these documents have been
released in the past in earlier versions, all of them contain new and
updated information. We are also releasing, for the first time, the
proposed Transitional Apereo Membership Fee Structure that will allow
current members to understand how their membership fees will be
affected by the merger if it is approved. Below is a brief list of
each of the documents being released today.

As announced recently, we are releasing these materials in advance of
a planned membership vote on the merger as means to allow our members
to better understand the rationale for merging, the value we believe
it will bring to our work, and the benefits we hope to derive from it
over the long term. We are also hoping that these materials will
stimulate a broader discussion across and between the Jasig and Sakai
communities about the merger and would like to encourage everyone to
post your questions, comments and concerns to the previously
established Jasig-Sakai Collaboration Google Group (see
http://groups.google.com/group/jasig-sakai-collaboration).

JASIG-SAKAI MERGER-RELATED DOCUMENTATION

1. Proposed Transitional Apereo Membership Fee Structure -- This
document will provide the history, rationale and details associated
with the initial membership fee structure that is being proposed for
the new organization. Both the Jasig and Sakai Board of Directors
endorsed this plan.

2. The Value of a Common Foundation: The Case for Apereo -- This is
the third public release of this "living" document, which discusses
the rationale and benefits associated with the merger and has been
updated to reflect prior comments and concerns from our communities.

3. Updated Apereo Bylaws -- This final draft of the bylaws has been
updated significantly since its initial release in August 2011 and has
also been endorsed by both the Jasig and Sakai Boards.

4. Jasig-Sakai Merger FAQ -- We have developed an FAQ based on the
questions and issues that our communities have raised over the past
year, and will continue to add to it as additional questions are
posed.

All of these documents can now be found on the Apereo website
(http://www.apereo.org) although it should noted that this basic
website is simply being used at this point as a convenient place to
host these files (as opposed to duplicating them on our current
websites) and is not intended to "brand" or market Apereo, nor suggest
that the merger is in anyway finalized.

Within the next week a series of webinars will be scheduled to provide
opportunities for "live" interactions with Jasig and Sakai Board
members.

Ian Dolphin
iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org

Joshua Baron
Josh.Baron at marist.edu


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5. Jasig-Sakai 2012 Conference: Project Collaboration Time

Immediately following the main proceedings at Jasig-Sakai 2012, the
conference will be hosting Project Collaboration Time for active
contributors and adopters in all the various community projects to get
together face-to-face and collaborate. This will take place on
Thursday afternoon (June 14th) and all day Friday (June 15th).

This time can be used for project planning, technical discussion,
roadmap work, joint development, or whatever a given project/community
finds to be productive while they can work face-to-face. Examples for
the use of this time include the "Project Coordination Meetings"
typically held in some Sakai projects and the "Developer Days"
typically held in some Jasig projects.

These sessions are open to the public and anyone is welcome to attend,
but the focus is on collaboration amongst active contributors working
to make the project better for everyone in the community (this
includes all forms of contribution, e.g., development, documentation,
implementation, requirements, etc.).

There will be several rooms available for this purpose. At a minimum,
there will be tables available for small groups to get together in a
shared space. If projects need a more dedicated space for a larger
group, they need to get those requirements to Jennifer Cummings at
<jenn at concentra-cms.com> by Friday, April 20th.

Each project/community governance group should be communicating their
plans for Project Collaboration Time to their contributor community
quickly. Conference attendees will need to indicate their intent to
participate in Project Collaboration Time at the time of registration
(there are no additional costs, though) and will also be making travel
plans soon.

Please let us know if you have any questions and we look forward to
seeing you all collaborate in Atlanta!

- Jasig-Sakai 2012 Conference Planning Committee


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6. uMobile Community Call Archived Available

In case you missed the March 2012 uMobile Community Call, the
presentation and audio has been archived at
http://www.slideshare.net/uportal/umobile-development-strategies. The
call discussed information for developers at institutions considering
adopting uMobile as part of their mobile strategy.

The agenda included:
- uMobile development options and tradeoffs
- Adding a mobile view to an existing portlet
- Handling web-proxied portlets
- Deploying the uMobile native app
- Titaniam native module development
- Where to go for more information
- Q&A

Jim Helwig
jim.helwig at doit.wisc.edu


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7. Open Position at Columbia University

Columbia has a open position for a Sakai System Administrator.
Information about the position is available at:

jobs.columbia.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=129227

Thanks,

Maneesha Aggarwal
Maneesha at columbia.edu


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8. Virginia Tech Job Opening:  Lead Web Developer Software Engineer

Virginia Tech invites nominations and applications for the position of
Lead Web Development Software Engineer in the Office of Learning
Technologies (LT).

Virginia Tech, which is in Blacksburg, Virginia, is a world-class
research university, working with cutting edge and enterprise
technologies. We are looking for a talented software engineer to lead
our web development efforts and our efforts to work on our Scholar
system, based upon the Sakai open-source platform. If you are serious
about advancing your career to the next level, and working with
exciting and new technologies, then Virginia Tech is the place for
you! We offer a competitive salary and generous benefits.

Virginia Tech is an ideal place to live, learn, and work. We are a
nationally ranked research institution, and Blacksburg has been named
as a top-ten dream town to live in.

This position is responsible for leading development for all
technology services provided by the LT team, most notably Scholar, the
Faculty Development Institute, Element K, and WordPress. This position
is the senior software engineer and has direct responsibility to lead
other software engineers in the department which includes mentoring
other engineers, coding, designing, developing, and all phases of
application development and integration with other systems. The
position is robustly involved across the department with other project
team members, management, and users of the system. This position
furthermore is the technology ambassador for the Learning Technologies
group.

Specific responsibilities include:

- Leading Development Efforts - Setting standards, meeting deadlines,
and coaching other developers. Prioritizing workloads, setting
development schedules, and leading group discussions about meeting
university requirements and schedules. Works collaboratively with
other teams including support, quality assurance, and usability to
meet both project goals and organizational objectives. Utilizes best
practices to insure customer service and compatibility. Works with the
systems integration team to put development projects into pilot and
production stages.

- Open Source Project Lead - Participates in global open-source
projects such as Sakai, and develops high quality, documented code
that can be contributed back by Virginia Tech to the project.
Determines system requirements for new and existing systems by working
with end users and project stakeholders. Documents designs and
implements these to meet requirements.

- Develops Applications - Works with existing applications and creates
new applications in enterprise systems. Works and communicates with
Virginia Tech IT developers and global developers to share information
and establish common knowledge. Provides customizations to integrate,
enhance, and maintain vendor software and enterprise systems. Tests
work products to insure end user satisfaction and reliability.

Required Qualifications:

The ideal candidate will need to have at least a Bachelor's Degree in
Computer Science, Engineering, or similar field. Further requirements
are as follows:

- Significant experience developing, maintaining, and troubleshooting
complex, distributed web applications using Java.
- Familiarity with Java development tools and libraries, such as
Maven, Eclipse, Hibernate, JSF, and Spring.
- Understanding of relational databases, SQL, and data abstraction
methodologies.
- Demonstrated ability to independently implement code based on high
level design documentation and requirements
- Ability to work collaboratively with end users and project
stakeholders and to adjust designs based on user needs
- Demonstrated experience in best programming practices and
application documentation
- Exceptional interpersonal skills, specifically in presenting complex
technical topics to non-technical audiences

Preferred Qualifications:

- Master's Degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related
field, or experience that equates to a Master's Degree.
- Experience with Sakai CLE
- Proficiency with Ruby, PERL, and/or Bash
- Experience with Linux command line environment
- Familiarity with XML-related standards including XSD and XSLT
- Experience with protocols related to network applications, such as
HTTP, SSL, SMTP, LDAP, and SOAP
- Experience as a developer in a higher education setting
- Experience with open-source development
- Experience developing mobile applications
- Experience in strategic initiatives
- Experience managing small teams of developers

To Apply:

To review the job description and to apply online, please go to
https://listings.jobs.vt.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=195126

For more information, please contact David Ferraro, Senior Recruiter
at 540-231-7773.

Virginia Tech is an AA/EEO. Virginia Tech has a strong commitment to
the principle of diversity and, in that spirit, seeks a broad spectrum
of candidates including women, people of color, veterans, and people
with disabilities.

Brian T. Broniak
Director of Online Learning and Collaboration Services
Virginia Tech
bbroniak at vt.edu


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9. Events

Jasig/Sakai Annual Conference
Sunday, June 10 - Friday, June 15, 2012
Supplementary half-day Jasig and Sakai Seminars on Sunday, June 10
Westin Peachtree Plaza
Atlanta, Georgia

I Congreso Iberoamericano de Sakai
16th and 18th October, 2012
Rio de Janeiro
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