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- the institutional community backing it - their caliber, resources and shared needs.
- the framework, its service architecture and APIs. This is what separates us from more polished LMS/VLE products, and it is a strength we should retain as a priority and deepen even as we work toward the enhancement of particular tools.
- an express emphasis on collaboration in all its a variety of academic forms, and not just the classroom, though Sakai has yet to live up to this promise.
A successful business plan will turn upon these distinctions rather than an LMS feature footrace with Moodle, Blackboard, etc. Feature credibility Excellence in the LMS arena is necessary, but we should be framing the conversation in different terms. We can best succeed in the LMS arena by co-opting the strengths of others that are ahead of us (e.g. interoperability with Bodington, LAMS) through a deepening of our shared services, adherence to useful (i.e. not all) standards, and a refinement of our integration points.