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1999
JA-SIG (Java Architectures Special Interest Group) is founded with support from Sun to promote a Java-based enterprise system in higher education and encourage collaboration among institutions using Java. JA-SIG hosts its first semi-annual conference, bringing together higher education software developers on a regular basis for the first time. JA-SIG decides a shared coding project would be a good way to bring the group together around a common purpose. Developers from 20 colleges and universities meet monthly and code together.
2000
Beta version 1.0 of the uPortal software is released. The JA-SIG board is the highest governance structure responsible for uPortal, but feature functionality is decided by consensus of the core developers (with no formal voting process).
2001
Carl Jacobson of the University of Delaware and uPortal project liaison, and David Koehler, president of JA-SIG, seek and receive a three-year, $770,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an open source portal system. The grant is administered by the University of Delaware on behalf of JA-SIG. The goals are to develop a portal “for education and by education”; to combat advertising-supported portals growing increasingly popular on college campuses; to build a Java-based higher education community; and to promote standards.
JA-SIG hires less than two FTEs? to work directly on uPortal. JA-SIG contracts with commercial developers, led by IBS and instructional media and magic, to participate in the development of the next version of uPortal. Technical leadership would come from IBS; project and design leadership come from im&m. Contracted development “guarantee[s]? a high-level of sustained technical leadership” and help to “quick-start development.” Over the course of the three-year grant, JA-SIG would spend $260,000 per year on these contracts. Staff from about 20 institutions would participate in the design and development of the software as volunteers.
218 participants attend the first JA-SIG conference devoted to uPortal in Vancouver, BC.
Campus Pipeline, a commercial portal vendor, announces plans to drop its proprietary portal software and adopt uPortal. It promises to contribute resources and code to the project. LMS vendor WebCT? releases free uPortal channels for WebCT? courses, announcements, and news. Datatel, an administrative software vendor to smaller colleges, announces support for uPortal alongside its own Campus Cruiser offering.
2002
Version 2.0 of uPortal is released, introducing XML/XSLT architecture to allow for multiple “skins,” and display on various devices (browsers, PDAs?, cell phones, kiosks, etc.). 12 institutions have uPortal installed and running in production environments. At least another 20 are actively evaluating it.
Software vendor SCT acquires Campus Pipeline and integrates its uPortal-based software into the SCT Luminis product, dropping their proprietary portal. SCT devotes full time developers to the uPortal/Luminis code with no funding from uPortal. By 2005, at least 400 Luminis licenses would be sold.
Version 2.1 released, now including remote channels, web proxy, and richer usage statistics
Unicon acquires IBS, one of the main contract developers of the uPortal software. Unicon’s Academus portal and LMS were already based on uPortal. The acquisition allows them to broaden their market and sell consulting services to uPortal schools, as well as Academus schools. Unicon becomes uPortal’s primary contractor
JA-SIG reports that uPortal is adopted by more than 50 colleges and universities worldwide
Sun gradually weans the JA-SIG group from its financial support. JA-SIG covers its costs through conference fees.
2003
Total global higher education institution adoption for uPortal is 150. Over the course of 2003, consortia are set up in the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden to provide support for uPortal users.
By the end of 2003, commercial support is offered by Unicon, SCT/Campus Pipeline, iAssessment, instructional media and magic, Learning Assistant Technologies and Sigma Systems.
2004
Version 2.2 of uPortal is released, offering internationalization, WSRP, and aggregated layouts.
The original grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation runs out, but a further two years of funding is provided from the Foundation through the Sakai LMS project, to support collaboration between uPortal and Sakai. Carl Jacobson joins the Sakai board.
SunGard? acquires SCT but retains support for uPortal-based Luminis product.
2005
Carl Jacobson steps down from the Sakai and Unicon boards. Bill Thompson of Rutgers takes over the uPortal project liaison role.
uPortal has a legacy 2.x branch and an upcoming 3.0 branch. JA-SIG decides to stop spending on further development of version 2 to allow the volunteer community (including software engineers at universities, SunGard? SCT, and Unicon) to take over its support. Version 3 development would still be paid for out of grant money.
2006
The JA-SIG board decides to not seek a sixth year of foundation funding. It does not seek funds from the community of users or commercial support vendors, relying instead on volunteer contributions of resources and code.
JA-SIG (Java Architectures Special Interest Group) is founded with support from Sun to promote a Java-based enterprise system in higher education and encourage collaboration among institutions using Java. JA-SIG hosts its first semi-annual conference, bringing together higher education software developers on a regular basis for the first time. JA-SIG decides a shared coding project would be a good way to bring the group together around a common purpose. Developers from 20 colleges and universities meet monthly and code together.
2000
Beta version 1.0 of the uPortal software is released. The JA-SIG board is the highest governance structure responsible for uPortal, but feature functionality is decided by consensus of the core developers (with no formal voting process).
2001
Carl Jacobson of the University of Delaware and uPortal project liaison, and David Koehler, president of JA-SIG, seek and receive a three-year, $770,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to develop an open source portal system. The grant is administered by the University of Delaware on behalf of JA-SIG. The goals are to develop a portal “for education and by education”; to combat advertising-supported portals growing increasingly popular on college campuses; to build a Java-based higher education community; and to promote standards.
JA-SIG hires less than two FTEs? to work directly on uPortal. JA-SIG contracts with commercial developers, led by IBS and instructional media and magic, to participate in the development of the next version of uPortal. Technical leadership would come from IBS; project and design leadership come from im&m. Contracted development “guarantee[s]? a high-level of sustained technical leadership” and help to “quick-start development.” Over the course of the three-year grant, JA-SIG would spend $260,000 per year on these contracts. Staff from about 20 institutions would participate in the design and development of the software as volunteers.
218 participants attend the first JA-SIG conference devoted to uPortal in Vancouver, BC.
Campus Pipeline, a commercial portal vendor, announces plans to drop its proprietary portal software and adopt uPortal. It promises to contribute resources and code to the project. LMS vendor WebCT? releases free uPortal channels for WebCT? courses, announcements, and news. Datatel, an administrative software vendor to smaller colleges, announces support for uPortal alongside its own Campus Cruiser offering.
2002
Version 2.0 of uPortal is released, introducing XML/XSLT architecture to allow for multiple “skins,” and display on various devices (browsers, PDAs?, cell phones, kiosks, etc.). 12 institutions have uPortal installed and running in production environments. At least another 20 are actively evaluating it.
Software vendor SCT acquires Campus Pipeline and integrates its uPortal-based software into the SCT Luminis product, dropping their proprietary portal. SCT devotes full time developers to the uPortal/Luminis code with no funding from uPortal. By 2005, at least 400 Luminis licenses would be sold.
Version 2.1 released, now including remote channels, web proxy, and richer usage statistics
Unicon acquires IBS, one of the main contract developers of the uPortal software. Unicon’s Academus portal and LMS were already based on uPortal. The acquisition allows them to broaden their market and sell consulting services to uPortal schools, as well as Academus schools. Unicon becomes uPortal’s primary contractor
JA-SIG reports that uPortal is adopted by more than 50 colleges and universities worldwide
Sun gradually weans the JA-SIG group from its financial support. JA-SIG covers its costs through conference fees.
2003
Total global higher education institution adoption for uPortal is 150. Over the course of 2003, consortia are set up in the UK, France, the Netherlands, and Sweden to provide support for uPortal users.
By the end of 2003, commercial support is offered by Unicon, SCT/Campus Pipeline, iAssessment, instructional media and magic, Learning Assistant Technologies and Sigma Systems.
2004
Version 2.2 of uPortal is released, offering internationalization, WSRP, and aggregated layouts.
The original grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation runs out, but a further two years of funding is provided from the Foundation through the Sakai LMS project, to support collaboration between uPortal and Sakai. Carl Jacobson joins the Sakai board.
SunGard? acquires SCT but retains support for uPortal-based Luminis product.
2005
Carl Jacobson steps down from the Sakai and Unicon boards. Bill Thompson of Rutgers takes over the uPortal project liaison role.
uPortal has a legacy 2.x branch and an upcoming 3.0 branch. JA-SIG decides to stop spending on further development of version 2 to allow the volunteer community (including software engineers at universities, SunGard? SCT, and Unicon) to take over its support. Version 3 development would still be paid for out of grant money.
2006
The JA-SIG board decides to not seek a sixth year of foundation funding. It does not seek funds from the community of users or commercial support vendors, relying instead on volunteer contributions of resources and code.