[sakai2-tcc] Planning for Sakai 2.10 and beyond

[Charles Severance]

This list form Mark is a perfect example of what I am talking about :)

At our current resource levels, it is 7-8 years of work - and this is the list of ideas from one stakeholder who is not even a teacher or student using Sakai on a daily basis.

If we asked more people more broadly we would end up with 20 years of work at our current resources levels.   And frankly none of the ideas from the non-contributor focus group would be to make the product more stable and scalable.  And once the people were done with their wish list they would vanish into the mists when it came to providing resources.

This should be required reading for anyone involved in Open Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Hen

It is perfectly fine for Mark to have this opinion and perfectly fine for him to state his opinion publicly - he could even purchase markssakaivision.com and put them up there - that is free speech and open communication and I thank him for his input.  The problem happens when the TCC, Sakai Board, or Product Council represents that this captures the product direction for Sakai.   The problem is that because the roadmap is produced without any regard to resources and without the involvement of the actual resources - it becomes an instant *lie* and further reduces the credibility of the Sakai brand.

Frankly our largest crisis is to bring back some credibility to the Sakai brand that has now been badly damaged by the Sakai Board, the Sakai OAE project, and the previous Executive Director.  We bring credibility back by delivering a good product according to a predictable roadmap that is aligned with resource availability.   We cannot bring credibility back to this brand by publishing yet another horessh*t list as our grand direction and then never delivering on it.

The problem is about bringing credibility back to the Sakai brand - not adding the hyperbole about what we will deliver.  We need to get back to under-promising and over delivering.  Let our competitors react to what we deliver as software rather than reacting to our grandiose plans that never come true.

/Chuck

On Sep 24, 2012, at 8:25 AM, Mark J. Norton wrote:

> On 9/24/2012 12:54 AM, Steve Swinsburg wrote:
>> I've just sent this out on my blog (below, edited for email). I think we are at the perfect crossroad to start a discussion and actively plan the future of the CLE.
> I agree, though I think that this should be more widely discussed than 
> on the TCC list.
> 
> Some initial thoughts:
> 
> Pedagogy
>     Make it easy to develop rich and diverse tools
>     Samigo Lite - simple tests and quizzes
> Improved support for industry standards
>     IMS Common Cartridge - import and export
>     eBook readers and creators
>     IMS QTI 2.1
> Workflow (examination of how Sakai is used)
>     What does an instructor do?
>     What does a student do?
>     What does an admin do?
> Administration
>     Live addition of tools
>     Central management of sites - editable tool lists, for example
> Course Management
>     Improved section support
>     Management tools for higher level structures (deptarments, etc.)
>     Integration with Kuali Student
> Development (Make it easier to develop for Sakai)
>     Rationalize the service APIs (starting with Content Hosting)
>     Improve technical documentation
>     Simplify and expand the Indie process
>     PosgreSQL support - Oracle is ruining MySQL
> 
> - Mark Norton
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