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The Sakai Project was officially launched in December 2003 with a goal of creating open source learning management software through a collaborative process. It originated at the University of Michigan, which had built an open source, portal-based course management system known as CHEF, and Indiana University, which had developed a CMS known as OnCourse?. These institutions were joined by MIT and Stanford, which also had produced CMSs? (Stellar and CourseWorks?, respectively). The Open Knowledge Initiative (OKI) at MIT and uPortal consortium also joined the effort. With a grant from the Mellon Foundation, this group of entities formed the Sakai Project and agreed to deploy the product of their collaboration on their own campuses. In 2004 Foothill-De Anza Community College was awarded $600,000 from the Hewlett Foundation to adopt and extend the Sakai software tailored for the needs of community colleges.
The Sakai project has been supported by the Mellon and Hewlett Foundations and by the core institutions, each of which was expected to contribute both financial and human resources. In order to develop a long term source of funding, in February 2004 Sakai announced the creation of the Sakai Educational Partner's Program (SEPP), which sought contributions of $5,000 to $10,000 from member institutions. The launch of SEPP was supported with a $300,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Funding raised through SEPP was intended to support the staff and services required to develop a long-term community for sustaining and evolving Sakai-based software. SEPP, since renamed Sakai Partners Program (SPP), has 97participating institutions as of August 2006. It offers partners early information on the direction of the Sakai Project, strategic briefings to help plan for Sakai implementation, discussions of the project roadmap, early access to Sakai documents, and some pre-release software as well as technical support staff.
In 2004 Sakai launched the Sakai Commercial Affiliates (SCA), which consists of commercial firms that offer support and expertise for the Sakai Project's community source software. Commercial Affiliates often offer some combination hosting, consulting, installation, integration, and support services. They include Unicon, rSmart, IBM, Oracle, SUN, Pearson Education, Harvest Road, and others.
During the early stages Sakai’s software development was overseen and conducted primarily at core institutions, particularly Michigan and Indiana. Following the production release of Sakai at a number of institutions, Sakai began seeking to attract broader engagement from the programmer community. According to Sakai’s website, the QA team for the Sakai 2.2 release (in July 2006) consisted of 82 volunteers from 28 institutions and seven countries. The Sakai community operates on the basic principle of "meritocracy," modeled after Apache, whereby “a self-governing leadership team is responsible for each major aspect of Sakai. A new member is invited to join the leadership team when they demonstrate sufficient interest, commitment and proficiency to the project's leadership.” Sakai has also sought to build interest and participation by hosting a series of conferences, which aim to provide information and networking opportunities for developers, instructional designers, implementers, faculty, and administrators.
In 2005 the Sakai Project entered a new phase of its evolution with the decision to create a new not-for-profit entity to act as a license holder, provide ongoing oversight for the software’s development, and continue to build the community of users and developers. The Sakai Foundation was launched in October 2005 and elections for a board of directors were held in November. In December, Michigan, Indiana, Stanford and MIT granted copyright licenses of the software to the new Foundation. The Foundation aims to employ minimal staff, and instead to rely upon contributions from the developer community for ongoing development of the software code.
The Sakai project has been supported by the Mellon and Hewlett Foundations and by the core institutions, each of which was expected to contribute both financial and human resources. In order to develop a long term source of funding, in February 2004 Sakai announced the creation of the Sakai Educational Partner's Program (SEPP), which sought contributions of $5,000 to $10,000 from member institutions. The launch of SEPP was supported with a $300,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Funding raised through SEPP was intended to support the staff and services required to develop a long-term community for sustaining and evolving Sakai-based software. SEPP, since renamed Sakai Partners Program (SPP), has 97participating institutions as of August 2006. It offers partners early information on the direction of the Sakai Project, strategic briefings to help plan for Sakai implementation, discussions of the project roadmap, early access to Sakai documents, and some pre-release software as well as technical support staff.
In 2004 Sakai launched the Sakai Commercial Affiliates (SCA), which consists of commercial firms that offer support and expertise for the Sakai Project's community source software. Commercial Affiliates often offer some combination hosting, consulting, installation, integration, and support services. They include Unicon, rSmart, IBM, Oracle, SUN, Pearson Education, Harvest Road, and others.
During the early stages Sakai’s software development was overseen and conducted primarily at core institutions, particularly Michigan and Indiana. Following the production release of Sakai at a number of institutions, Sakai began seeking to attract broader engagement from the programmer community. According to Sakai’s website, the QA team for the Sakai 2.2 release (in July 2006) consisted of 82 volunteers from 28 institutions and seven countries. The Sakai community operates on the basic principle of "meritocracy," modeled after Apache, whereby “a self-governing leadership team is responsible for each major aspect of Sakai. A new member is invited to join the leadership team when they demonstrate sufficient interest, commitment and proficiency to the project's leadership.” Sakai has also sought to build interest and participation by hosting a series of conferences, which aim to provide information and networking opportunities for developers, instructional designers, implementers, faculty, and administrators.
In 2005 the Sakai Project entered a new phase of its evolution with the decision to create a new not-for-profit entity to act as a license holder, provide ongoing oversight for the software’s development, and continue to build the community of users and developers. The Sakai Foundation was launched in October 2005 and elections for a board of directors were held in November. In December, Michigan, Indiana, Stanford and MIT granted copyright licenses of the software to the new Foundation. The Foundation aims to employ minimal staff, and instead to rely upon contributions from the developer community for ongoing development of the software code.
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