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Invest Locally

A community source leader's thoughts on how to break down the barriers to open source adoption.

3/28/2007

By Christopher D. Coppola



Let's consider for a moment how one institution is "spending locally." San Joaquin Delta College (CA) is a school that exemplifies many of the ways in which colleges and universities can invest locally in open source communities. Delta College is one of the founders of the Kuali Financial System (KFS) project and the Kuali Student (KS) project. Delta is a paying member of the Etudes Alliance, a not-for-profit organization that hosts Sakai for many of California's 109 community colleges. Delta has also back-filled a number of positions to dedicate people who contribute time and expertise to Kuali while building local capacity at Delta. Delta College also engages commercial open source firms to assist with implementation, contributions to the projects, and to provide subscription support services. This diversified approach to spending their open source dollars is a way to ensure their own success, as well as the success of the communities.

Institutions differ greatly in ways that make one form or another of "spending locally" more or less feasible. What can you do? Do you have the people and skills to contribute talent and/or implement the software at your institution? Are you able to invest in the Sakai and/or Kuali Foundations to invest in the development of the software, ensuring these organizations have the resources to produce software you'll want to implement at some point? Are you ready to implement one or more of these systems and need help from a hired expert? Have you already implemented and want to protect your investment by engaging a commercial support provider? You have a lot of options to invest locally in a community that will make your life better. You also have the option to do nothing. Or, in other words to passively support the industry that exists, which may appear easier and cheaper, until you find the hidden costs and switching barriers. Make a choice. Invest locally in open source software. If you don't, who will?

[Editor's note: Chris Coppola will present a session on open source governance in higher education at Campus Technology 2007 in Washington, DC, July 30-August 2.]


Christopher D. Coppola is president of the rSmart Group, a provider of open source solutions for education. He is a board member of the Sakai and Kuali foundations.

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Christopher D. Coppola, "Invest Locally," Campus Technology, 3/28/2007, http://www.campustechnology.com/article.aspx?aid=46385

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