[Announcements] Sakai Open Academic Environment Project Update

[Ian Dolphin]

In November and December last year, several stakeholders in the Sakai Open Academic Environment Managed Project, including Indiana University, the University of Michigan, UC Berkeley and New York University committed to a substantially increased collective investment in the project. Others recommitted, and rSmart has recently approached the stakeholders with an offer to join the managed project and contribute resources under its direction, the first Sakai Commercial Affiliate to do so.
 
This is all great news for the Project, and great news for the Sakai Community. It is also a testament to the work of the first year of the project in realizing the OAE vision.
 
What does this change? Firstly, and most obviously, it gives the project access to additional development resources. As the project ramps up, this translates into more rapid and richer development. This will not be instant; it takes time to bring new resource on board and up to speed. It will, however, be noticeable after March, when the ramping up process will be substantially effected. Secondly, there have been some adjustments to the governance structures of the project. A new Project Council will oversee a further OAE investment drive, and act to ensure the Project is resourced effectively. The Steering Group continues to provide Project direction, the User Reference Group ensures that the project remains design and mission led, and the Technical Reference Group provides a vital conduit to institutional technology perspectives.
 
1.2 Release
The Open Academic Environment Project team continues to work hard on the next release - 1.2 - which is due on or before 24th February 2012. Meanwhile, to whet your appetite, and let you try out the environment, an OAE community instance is available at
 
https://oae-community.sakaiproject.org/
 
The 1.2 release roadmap – and the roadmap for 1.3 – is available at
 
https://confluence.sakaiproject.org/display/3AK/OAE+Year+2+Roadmap
 
Widget Library
The OAE Project has recently launched a Widget Library and Widget Software Development Kit (SDK). The Sakai OAE Widget SDK provides up-to-date documentation, example widgets, code best practices, FAQs and a design style guide, aiming to make it very easy for developers, students, researchers and staff to create their own widgets.
 
http://oae-widgets.sakaiproject.org/
 
NYU Videos
Six new videos featuring the Atlas Network, the NYU OAE pilot, have been added to the Atlas channel on YouTube. These cover academic networking, graduate nursing courses, writing courses, and interdisciplinary humanities courses. You can find them at:
 
http://www.youtube.com/user/nyuatlas?feature=watch
 
The OAE Project is on a solid footing, and is making significant strides forward. Additional investment is required to increase the velocity of the project further. If your institution is interested in participating as an investor, please contact Ian Dolphin or David Goodrum at the addresses below.
 
Best
 
Ian
--
Ian Dolphin
Executive Director, Sakai Foundation
iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org
 
 
Contact the Open Academic Environment Project:-
 
Steering Group Chair: David Goodrum, Indiana University - goodrum at indiana.edu
 
Sakai Foundation: Ian Dolphin, Executive Director -iandolphin at sakaifoundation.org
 
Project Co-Leads: Anthony Whyte - arwhyte at sakaifoundation.org & Nico Matthijs - nicolaas at sakaifoundation.org
 
User Reference Group Chair: Lucy Appert, New York University - lga2 at nyu.edu
 
Technical Reference Group Chair: Owen McGrath, UC Berkeley - owen at media.berkeley.edu