I have resigned from the Sakai Foundation Executive Director position effective June 1. I have attached my resignation letter at the end of the blog post.
In the past four years, it has been an absolute privilege to be the Chief Architect of the Sakai Project and then the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation. This has been the dream job for me – for my whole career I just wanted to be part of something that has broad impact. I have truly enjoyed meeting all of you and working with you. We have explored Community Source together and found a way to develop software together with a team assembled from people around the world.
The University of Michigan has offered me a position where I can continue to be involved in the Sakai Community going forward and allow me to focus on technical aspects of Sakai. My travel budget will likely be much lower – so I will probably not come to as many of your offices as I have done in the past – and my photo blog will be more boring :)
Like most of my life, a partial explanation can be found by carefully reading some PowerPoint I wrote :).
Software to Fit Teaching and Learning Practices (December 2004)
Resignation Letter
Date: March 2, 2007
To: John Norman
Subject: Resigning as Executive Director
I would like to submit my resignation as the Executive Director of Sakai. Increasingly it is becoming clear to me that I am not the right person for the job. Continued conflicts between my vision for the Sakai Foundation and the board’s vision for the Sakai Foundation put me in a position where it is not possible to fulfill the duties of the job as I see them. I hope to find a way in my next career move to remain involved in the Sakai community and Sakai software development effort going forward.
I would like to cooperate in any way possible to ease the transition to new leadership. I am happy for the resignation to be effective anytime between now and three months from now. I would like to hand over my responsibilities for the operation of the Foundation and interaction with the Foundation board to someone else and to turn my focus to transition issues and my career options looking forward as quickly as possible