Lois Brooks 2008 Thoughts

Like the other BOD thought pieces, this was originally written in March/April of 2007

While not an overall vision, I offer areas of focus that should be uppermost in our planning and support. Success for the Sakai Foundation and product over the long run requires demonstrated accomplishment in these four areas:

1. Adoption

The most important measure of success is adoption. While we have made good headway in capturing early adopters, long-term success requires that Sakai is adopted by second-wave followers. Adoption should serve learning communities, and also research and collaborative communities. A stable, reliable and easy to use product is critical to reach this goal.

2. Inclusive community that mirrors the wider interests of higher education adopters

The Sakai community should have vibrant participation from developers, teachers, researchers, and administrators, mirroring the community at large. Adopters should find a welcoming affinity group to focus on the particular issues of successful deployment that focuses on the learners without intimacy with the programming community. Researchers should find others of similar discipline, sharing best practices and making new connections through Sakai. Administrators who focus on ROI, enterprise interoperability, and decision making at scale should find information and peer advice, lending support to their effort and demonstrating wide-spread acceptance of community source as a strategic choice.

3. Innovative practices

Whether through adoption of standards, participation in innovative efforts like FLUID, incorporation of emerging technology, and flexibility between languages and interfaces, Sakai should demonstrate innovation in programming techniques and practices. The code base should constantly evolve and improve, and the community of developers should offer support for innovation and improvement.

4. Evolution in the Foundation

Sakai is widely touted as a leader, and projects such as the Kualis credit Sakai as an inspiration and model. Sakai should learn from its own experiences, and learn from the practices of peers as well. Whether in public presentation and marketing, programming practices, community involvement, or internal practices, Sakai should continually reflect, improve and grow.