[sakai2-tcc] Planning for Sakai 2.10 and beyond

[Mark J. Norton]

Thank you for being so gentle in your put-down, Chuck.  :)

 >  this is the list of ideas from one stakeholder who is not even a 
teacher or student using Sakai on a daily basis.

This doesn't actually invalidate my suggestions.  All well and good to 
brush me off as yet-another-developer, but there is more to it than 
that.  Some of us developers (including myself) are in direct contact 
with admins/instructors/students on a weekly basis.  Non-technical 
people are not really in a position to express their desires in a direct 
manner.  They look to people like me, Steve, Seth, etc. to communicate 
needs in a manner that can be understood by the doo-ers.  Currently, 
they have no other way to communicate their wants, needs, and desires.

 >  The problem happens when the TCC, Sakai Board, or Product Council 
represents that this captures the product direction for Sakai.

Steve's OP concerned an exploration of vision for the future of the 
CLE.  You shifted that discussion into governance.  Well, that's fair 
(to some degree).  Governance is a matter of great concern to you, and 
rightly so.  Trust me, I know what it's like to explore blue sky ideas 
only see them fade away into the mists.

Seth's example of the ill-fated Requirements WG is worth considering.  
As a former chairman of that group, I defend the work that was done.  If 
the effort was wasted, it was because the resource and governance were 
not in place to do anything with the results.  That doesn't mean that it 
should never have been done. It means that we were not prepared to do 
anything with the results at the time.

As such, resources and governance should play a role in this 
discussion.  I agree with Steve that the CLE has reached a plateau that 
could, perhaps, lead to a decline.  We've already gotten notice that one 
of the original Big-4 members of Sakai is considering alternative 
platforms.  To me that says that the CLE is not maintaining it's 
competitiveness in the market.

So how DO we go about getting the resources need to bring the CLE to the 
next level (what ever that is)?  Fixing bugs won't do it. We need a 
vision, we need people to WANT Sakai, we need some excitement and 
energy.  We had that excitement and energy under your leadership as ED.  
I think Ian is doing a great job, but he has no agenda beyond what the 
board sets for him.  Who holds the vision for the future of Sakai?

- Mark Norton

PS.  Chuck, would you mind re-posting this to the sakai2-tcc list as I 
can't seem to post.

On 9/24/2012 10:47 AM, Charles Severance wrote:
> 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 <http://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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