Daily Archives: April 20, 2018

Sakai Coordinator: Funding in 2018

The Apereo Foundation is five years old. In that time we’ve grown from a handful of software communities serving higher education to almost twenty. The network of contributors to our software communities has grown significantly, encouraged by the global partnerships we forge.

We have structured our membership of educational institutions and commercial affiliates to be as inclusive as possible, and to reflect differing levels of financial resources available to higher education internationally. Large institutions are and remain important – but the voices of smaller institutions, or those with less available resource, should not be excluded or lost.

Membership subscriptions and in-kind contributions support everything we do. We have no endowment or other sources of revenue. Our membership structure has two main components – a core membership subscription, which supports the functions and activities the Foundation provides for all our software communities, and individual software community subscriptions supporting the specific activities of our constituent software communities.

Last year Foundation membership grew by more than twice the numbers we lost. In overall financial terms, our core membership revenue more or less broke even. Sakai supporting subscription revenue did not meet its target. In these circumstances, reluctantly, the post of Sakai Community Coordinator is being terminated effective April 30th.

Neal Caidin, the current postholder, has done an amazing job, and this decision does not reflect on the ability, enthusiasm and good humor Neal has brought to the role. In addition to Neal’s management of the Sakai release process worldwide, Neal has been a valuable coordinator and contributor from the introduction of the Lessons tool in 2.9 through the responsive and mobile design of Sakai 12 to the WCAG 2.00 AA certification effort – and much more. Sakai has matured to become a more inclusive and effective community as a result of Neal’s leadership and capacity to facilitate with sensitivity and empathy. Apereo itself has benefited from Neal piloting processes such as Funding and Resource Management (FARM), feature prioritization, and conference planning. We would like to thank Neal and to wish him well on his next ventures. Neal’s last day is April 30.

Sakai is losing a Community Coordinator, but is not losing community coordination. In the coming weeks the Sakai PMC will work with the Foundation to evaluate the best means to deploy available resources to meet the needs of the Sakai community. The Sakai Supporting Subscription will continue to make a very significant contribution to meeting those needs. We will conduct as much of this work in the open as possible, and ensure regular community communication and consultation.

Chuck Severance, Chair of the Sakai PMC
Ian Dolphin, Apereo Foundation Executive Director