1. The Sakai Project and Partners Program
Jim Farmer
Sakai Community Liaison
Online Information and Education Conference 2004
Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, Bangkok, Thailand,
16 September 2004

2. Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the four universities
The Sakai Project
Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the four universities

3. The SAKAI Project
“The University of Michigan, Indiana University, MIT, Stanford, and the uPortal consortium are joining forces to integrate and synchronize their considerable educational software into a pre-integrated collection of open source tools.”
The Sakai Project, A proposal to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation,
2 December 2003

4. The broader goal
“Integrating these disparate efforts will also merge their associated communities of use and practice towards a critical mass to have a real economic and innovation effect for educational institutions.”

5. Sakai is A concept An architecture
A four-university development effort
An emerging community

6. The Sakai Vision
We will create an open-source Collaboration and Learning management system which is competitive with best offerings,
BUT at the same time create a framework, market, clearinghouse, cadre of skilled programmers, documentation and set of community practices necessary to enable many organizations to focus their energy in developing capabilities/tools which advance the pedagogy and effectiveness of technology-enhanced teaching, learning, research and collaboration
…rather than each just building another threaded discussion tool as an LMS.
Sakai Board, June 23, 2004

7. Sakai: So Whats New?
New approach to Portal Technology: Application Development Platform
New Approach to web application development: Code to work on desktop (someday)
New approach to Learning Management Systems: Not just for classes any more –research, collaboration
And, most importantly today:
• New form of development: “Community Source”

8. The Sakai architecture
Services-based architecture
Open Knowledge Initiative Service Interface Definitions (OSID)
JSR 168 portlet (and, implicitly, WSRP remote portlet)
Open Standards: XML, XSLT, SOAP, SAML
and others as the project progresses

9. Tool Portability Profile
A set of specifications to be followed when developing software
Sakai services based on the Open Knowledge Initiative’s OSIDs (OKI Service Interface Definitions).
User interface abstraction for localization
The JSR-168 portlet specification

10. Sakai 1.0 Contents (12/04)
Complete Framework including JSF to Portlet Rendering All of the CHEF tools and services in legacy mode
Three new TPP compliant tools: SAMigo (Assessment), and Gradebook
Ready to deploy as a Learning Management System (looks a lot like Michigan’s CHEF 1.2 plus)
Ready to use as a development platform with rich sample applications
Implementation of Sakai APIs, and MIT OSID plug-ins
Goal: Deployable in production at UM, pilot at the other three universities.

11. Sakai 1.0 Tools and Features
Worksite Info
Schedule
Announcements
Resources
Assignments
Discussion
Dropbox
Chat
Web Content
News
Archive
My Workspace
Users Present
Tear off windows
Multiple roles, permissions
Notification, preferences
Browsable sites list
Membership (self join sites)
Webdav to Resources
Public view
Message of the Day

19. Sakai 2.0 (May 2005) Significant replacement of legacy tools
– TPP Compliant, using OKI and Sakai APIs
– Tools will be richer and deeper
– Each core institution will focus on a set of tools to develop
• SEPP partners will be involved in new tool development based on ability and commitment.
Sakai organizational structures evolve to expand participation while maintaining core development focus

20. Sakai to use JA-SIG’s uPortal
The Sakai tools will be built to the JSR 168 to run in any JSR 168 compliant portal with installed services.
Joseph Hardin, Sakai Board Chair, July 2004
uPortal also developed “aggregated layout” specifically designed to “push” course Web pages to students

21. What is uPortal? Enterprise portal
Framework for presenting aggregated content (channels)
Personalization
Role-based access control and layouts
Open source, collaborative effort
Java web application

22. Illinois State University

23. Denison University

24. SAKAI product availability
Basis Production Version
CHEF WorkTools Summer 2005
OKI OSID
Navigo Assessment Spring 2005
IMS QTI, OKI OSID
CHEF CMS Summer 2005
Eden Workflow Spring 2005

25. The Sakai Education Partners Program
Funded by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the partners

26. Sakai Education Partners
Participate in the community discussion on future direction
Deploy Sakai-based software
Develop Sakai-based software, refactor current software using the Tool Portability Profile, or publish Sakai-based content
Implement the Sakai architecture
Based on expressed interests of the community

27. Sakai founding partners
University of Colorado at Boulder
Cambridge University
Carnegie Mellon University
Columbia University
Cornell University
Foothill-De Anza Community College District
Harvard University
Johns Hopkins University
Northwestern University
Princeton University
Tufts University
University of California Berkeley
University of California, Davis
University of California,
Los Angeles
University of California, Merced
Santa Cruz
University of Hawaii
University of Oklahoma
University of Virginia
University of Washington
University of Wisconsin, Madison
Yale University

28. Additional Sakai partners
Arizona State University
Boston University, School of Management
Dartmouth College
Florida Community College, Jacksonville
Georgetown University
Maricopa Community College District
Simon Fraser University
University of Arizona
University of Hull
University of Lancaster
University of Melbourne
University of Nagoya
University of Toronto
University of Washington

29. Partnership benefits
Sakai Education Partners Program is for administrators [for planning], adopters who will need support, and developers who will want to contribute tools and services to the higher education community.
Partners will receive early information on the Sakai Project, including strategic directions, technical design and the initial tool sets for the 2004 and 2005 releases, and an invitation to the semi-annual SEPP meetings.

30. SEPP support
Developers to provide technical support for partners and liaison with the Sakai Core development team,
Support tools of immediate and specific interest to partners, such as a shared knowledgebase,
Technical documentation and specifications,
Administrative Support person to aid SEPP staff members and partners.

31. Sakai organization Sakai Project Sakai Partners Sakai Board
Joseph Hardin, Chair, University of Michigan
Bradley C. Wheeler, Indiana University
Lois Brooks, Stanford University
Mara Hancock, University of California, Berkeley
Carl Jacobson, University of Delaware
Amitava ‘Babi’ Mitra, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Jeff Merriman, Open Knowledge Initiative
Vivian Sinou, Foothill DeAnza Community College District

32. Sakai Partners Educational institutions
Contribute US$10,000 per year for three years
Participate in Sakai activities

33. Sakai Partners 2005 Sakai Project Sakai Partners Sakai related
Foothill DeAnza authoring tool
University of California Berkeley gradebook
Sakai related
Open Source Portfolio Initiative
CREE Project: JISC Library access portlets
University of Nagoya multimedia “immersion”

34. The Berkeley Grade Book
An example of collaboration
University of California, Berkeley funded development of an on-line grade book
Develop the grade book in collaboration with MIT
Deploy and test the grade book integrated with local student systems
Re-factor the grade book to Sakai “Tool Portability Profile” to support interoperability

35. An example of collaboration
The Etudes Project
An example of collaboration
Hewlett Foundation funded deployment of Sakai Collaborative Learning Environment at Foothill-De Anza Community College District
Develop an authoring tool, primarily for faculty
Deploy and test Sakai as an information service (ASP: Application Service Provider) for 48+ community college districts
Develop open standards sharable learning materials

36. An example of collaboration
The Twin Peaks Project
An example of collaboration
Sun Microsystems, Inc. funded deployment of a citation/link authoring tool by Indiana University.
Transfer a citation and link from a Web search or browser display into a document.
Integrate into a JSR 168 portlet with an open source on-line WYSIWYG editor.

37. An example of collaboration
The CREE Project
An example of collaboration
UK JISC-funded project led by the University of Hull, a Sakai partner
Redevelop search applications as Sakai JSR 168 portlets
Improve the user interface; explore alternative presentations (by role, experience, disabilities)
Includes Z39.50 (Jafer), Web Services-based SRW/SRU, Open URL (BALSA), portal environment (HEIRPORT), and Google
Tested, documented, and made available as open source

38. The end jim farmer jxf@immagic.com; jxf@UMich.edu +1-202-296-2807

39. Publisher’s Note
uPortal is a project of the JA-SIG Collaborative led by Carl Jacobson at the University of Delaware and funded, in part, from the Sakai Project.
im+m has contributed to uPortal, and the Meteor and California Electronic Transcript Project prototypes referenced in these presentations.
The author is Chairman of the Board of im+m and Sigma Systems Inc., contracted by the University of Michigan for the Sakai Educational Partners Program, and volunteers as uPortal Project Administrator.

40. Permissions
Sakai and JA-SIG publications are in the public domain and can be freely reproduced.
These presentations may contain material reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Users are requested to comply with any copyright restrictions and to appropriately reference any materials that are used in their own works.