Uncategorized Archive

Open Source Software in Higher Education

The higher education sector is quite unlike other industries. It has its own processes and a different set of demands. Most commercial proprietary application vendors develop their applications focused on a wider domain spread across industries. This, academics complain, creates a distinct disconnect between software vendors and the end-users in academia.

To overcome these shortcomings, the education industry started looking to “open source” as an alternate model. Around a decade back, institutions started debating total cost of ownership in adopting an open source based community approach vis-à-vis proprietary applications, viability of open source based business models, sustainability and security issues.

The success of community developed open source software is quite well established. Linux and Apache are ample proof of its success. A similar trend, though not that widespread in its reach, can be traced to the development of community projects in education like the Moodle and Sakai.

Through the course of its formative years, the open source community based approach in education has developed several alternative models. Some of these models and schools of thought have thrived and been implemented successfully across a significant spectrum of the industry. Progress and success in open source projects like the Sakai, Moodle, Kuali, uPortal, Shibboleth, and many more are being closely watched by the industry.

Community Source Model

One school of thought believes that open source sharing is more a philosophical approach than a viable alternative. The adoption of open source in higher education seems to suggest otherwise. FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) communities are thriving well in learning environments too.

The FLOSS model has been extensively used in initiatives like the MIT OpenCourseWare and Open Source Biology. Project Gutenberg, the Wikipedia, The Open Dictionary project are prime examples of how open source has been successfully adapted to education initiatives.

In a community source project, multiple institutions come together to partner in the project. All partners contribute financially as well as in employing human resources for the effort. In the early stages, the partnering institutions provide all design and development efforts and only in subsequent stages is the project opened to the broader community. This way, the initial support is secured and the institutions have a substantial influence in deciding how the application is modeled and designed.

The initial focus of community source projects is on collaboration between institutions. The focus in the crucial first stages is therefore to form a common economic outlook and an appropriate administrative framework rather than forming a community around a shared code. Most community based open source projects slowly migrate to open source in the later stages.

The Sakai project, for example, started as a joint effort between four institutions (Michigan, Indiana, MIT and Stanford). The initial agenda was to set up a framework of common goals that would produce appropriate software based on an agreed list of objectives. The scope for participation was later increased by forming the Sakai Educational Partners Program (SEPP), whereby other institutions can join and participate in the community for a small fee.

The Current Landscape

An education enterprise like any organization has its own needs ranging from resource planning to budgeting. Additionally, they have typical requirements like the need to integrate with financial aid programs of the government, multiple payroll cycles, and student information systems (SIS) that handle admissions, grades, transcripts, student records as well as billing. All these call for robust ERP systems. Until recently, colleges and universities mostly rely on either custom-developed systems that are more than 15 years old, or have transitioned to commercial products from vendors like Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft or vendors like SunGard that are geared towards the higher education market.

Kuali Financials was borne due to the lack of open source solutions Enterprise applications in the higher education sector are comprised of a mix of some proprietary application vendors and some key open source community initiatives. PeopleSoft, Oracle, SunGard and Datatel are some key vendors that offer tightly integrated ERP packages for the education sector.

Recent consolidation in the industry, like the acquisition of PeopleSoft by Oracle and of WebCT, Angel, etc by Blackboard, has caused considerable unease in the education fraternity. The concern stems from the fear that the trend of consolidation would lead to the monopoly of a few key vendors. The plans of these vendors to offer tightly integrated systems heightens the fear that this will provide an unfair leverage to these vendors as it would extend the community’s dependence on them.

One area of concern about proprietary applications is a seeming disconnect between the industry and software application developers. Institutions also have strong reservations about the currently available administrative software and course management systems. The feeling is that applications provided by vendors such as SAP and PeopleSoft are adapted from other industries and does not work well for educational enterprises. Moreover, the proprietary nature of the applications implies that the source code is not available and customization efforts involve substantial costs.

In the context of such a wide breadth of requirements, open source can prove to be a viable alternative. In fact, these constraints provided the impetus for open source initiatives in higher education. Some of the success has helped provide a strong foundation to building an alternative support model for the education industry.

In the Sakai project, the participating institutions decided to integrate and synchronize their educational software into a pre-integrated collection of open source tools termed Collaborative Learning Environment (CLE). Sakai has active implementations running at multiple institutes including the University of Michigan and Indiana University.

In parallel, Sakai also established a set of activity based communities that have spawned an active cooperation between the industry and application vendors. The Sakai Educational Partners Program allows educational institutions to participate in the program for a small fee. Besides, there are the Sakai Commercial Affiliates, who offer fee-based services for installation, integration and support..

Kuali, on the other hand, mainly addresses aspects of educational administration. The Kuali Financial System (KFS) is the most prominent application. It handles administrative and operational tasks like general accounting, purchasing, salary and benefits, budgeting, asset management and grants. The system is designed around modules that enable it to be tweaked to work with existing commercial applications. For example, at Indiana University, Kuali applications work together with PeopleSoft’s HR and student system. The Kuali Foundation is a non-profit consortium of multiple universities and some hardware and software companies. The Kuali Commercial Affiliate program operates on similar lines like its Sakai counterpart. The community has been growing and now includes the University of California, Cornell, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College (Calif.), and The University of Arizona.

Significantly, according to the 2008 Campus Computing Survey, around 13.8 percent of the survey participants have already identified an Open Source LMS – either Moodle or Sakai – as the campus standard LMS.

Besides these, several other projects offer SIS functionality. For example, openSIS manages student demographics, scheduling, attendance, grades, transcripts, and health records, and its parent company makes add-on modules to support additional features like disciplinary tracking, billing, food service, and bulk email/SMS messaging for emergency contact.

Other Key intiaitives are

JaSig community developing uPortal, and CAS (Central Authentication Services) two components serving as input to Kuali Rice.

Internet2 – A consortium led by universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies including products such as Shibboleth and Grouper

Open Source Curricula

As with any “open source” activity, open source curricula by its very definition is one that can be freely used, distributed and modified. A model like this would seemingly be antithetic to the concept of higher education as it strikes at the credibility of the education environment. Campus education is designed to operate as a structured learning methodology. The concept of community collaboration involving academics and students on the same platform brings a lot of unpredictability into the scenario

However, FLOSS communities (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) in education have proved to be quite successful. A key principle of this learning approach is its root in adapting it to the context of ones’ experience. With its stress on learners and their preferences, this learning approach focuses more on learning by collaboration, communication and sharing.

Significant initiatives include the Connexions Project at Rice University, the OpenCourseWare project at MIT and the social learning medium of Wikipedia.

The FLOSS approach in higher education has been operating in combination with traditional teacher centered approaches. The objectives of the FLOSS approach are not to replace traditional methods but to achieve synergies in combination and offer the learner an enhanced learning environment.

The ‘FLOSS-like education transfer report’ published in September 2008, as part of the FLOSSCOM project, notes that FLOSS communities can create effective learning environments. The study has also come up with three different approaches that could be combined effectively with traditional teaching approaches.

Economic Models of Open Source

One aspect that clearly marks the adoption of open source as a winner is the fact that in this scenario, the developers are most often also the users of the software. This removes the perceived disconnect between the developer community and the end-users unlike in the case of proprietary applications. However, this is less evident in the case of administrative applications like payroll or HR. In such cases, adoption of open source has to be a directed process.

Initiatives like the Kuali project have proved that open source can also build up sustainable models that provide adequate support mechanisms. In such models, there is active collaboration between the community that comprises not only developers and end-users, but also an extended support group comprising commercial vendors. These support groups are available to offer timely support to mission critical applications. The community approach also ensures that the code is not closed and that an active community of interest ensures that enhancements keep happening as necessitated.

Projects like uPortal have been developed with minimal resources but are deployed across hundreds of institutions. The community approach has proved sustainable as in the case of the Sakai project. In terms of funding, the Sakai project garnered an investment of $6.8 million over two years.

The viability of the open source, community based model stems not from the monetary or cost aspects but principally the adaptability that it offers. The debate over cost of ownership between commercially available proprietary software and open source applications is yet to be proved empirically. However, the fact that the code is open means it can be easily adapted to suit new requirements and does not involve significant investments in terms of customization or enhancements. This does make significant economic sense in the longer term.

The case for open source in higher education is nicely documented in a study by the Alliance for Higher Education Competitiveness. In a 2005 study report titled, ‘Will Open Source Software Become an Important Institutional Strategy in Higher Education?’ Rob Abel notes how open source is a “great fit for higher education”. The study, based on an analysis of open source projects in education, opines that the community-based approach is an interesting model that also helps reduce the inherent risks in adopting an open source approach.

As for the cost model, the study notes that while open source has helped generate cost savings in the range of 20 to 30 percent for the commercial sector, the same may not be entirely true in education. The community-based approach, the writer notes, with its associated participation fees, may prove only marginally beneficial in terms of costs. Institutions that have their own infrastructure and resources may however, benefit from substantially reduced costs from their open source initiatives.

The Future

Open source has proved to be adaptable and a reliable platform for collaboration and learning. In their quest for ideal application software to handle administrative, operational and education platforms, most CIOs are looking at interoperability, reliability and scalability of applications. Applications like the Sakai and Kuali have proved beyond doubt that open source applications offer great configurability.

Development communities and the support of commercial vendors, as in the case of Kuali and Sakai, fuel a greater rate of innovation. Moreover, the advantage that is offered by collaboration also provides an impetus to continued improvement of the system. Support systems and enhancements for future requirements are ensured.

On the question of how to approach or adopt open source as a model, the answer would depend on the needs, the infrastructure and the means available to an institution. The community development model has shown that costs can be broadly distributed amongst participants. Experience shows that universities and colleges can collaborate to produce open source software that caters to their needs in a way that is superior to some commercial products. The collaborative model enables educational institutions to pool their financial and technical resources. Moreover, a larger community ensures that the applications are tested in a variety of testing environments, thus aiding in building robust solutions.

In term of core academics, learning systems will evolve to accommodate formative assessments and evaluation outside the classroom. Many higher education institutions have taken the lead of MIT and are offering online course materials that are accessible by anyone, free of cost. It has been adopted at Yale, Notre Dame, Tufts and Stanford School of Engineering, to name a few. The United Nations has launched an initiative that would leverage social media technologies and ideas to offer higher education opportunities to people who would otherwise not be able to afford the costs.

Commercially, open source projects have taken their first steps in the marketplace. The model is evolving aided by some significant commercial vendor backing. For the community-based open source approach to prosper, substantial financial backing is an absolute necessity to prevent it from faltering and to avoid the pitfalls that arise form source code being easily modifiable and rebranded by a different vendor. From the commercial perspective, projects like Sakai and the Kuali Foundation are likely to thrive as they have substantial stakeholders from both the academic and the corporate world.

What could derail further adoption? There are several potential risk areas:

Lack of understanding of entry points for adoption
Lack of support to adopt the applications
Minimal staff to support the applications
Lack of training / documentation to train staff
A “runaway” project that consumes much press and develops a negative bias toward the project
Many of these risks may be mitigated though co-operative initiatives between the foundations developing the open source solutions and commercial affiliates looking to support the solutions – and develop complementation solutions. Some examples:

Further publicity through conventional, non-education related channels such as Google and industry-based sites such as edu1world
Furrther innovation and cooperation – whether through ‘summer of code’ collaborations; or community collaborations that will transform the current listservs to more accessible forums
Commercial affiliates offering training and webinars
Commercial affiliates offering ease of use entry points, such as pre-installed servers or virtual images that can be downloaded and used out of the box
In conclusion, open source initiatives in higher education have a long way to go before they enter the commercial mainstream in a significant fashion. However, with industry and academic collaboration, it has a great potential to change the higher education landscape in the longer term.

About Innovativ Consulting Partners: Innovativ Consulting Partners is one of the leading education consultants in the country. Innovativ provides consulting services to clients in the Higher Education and Public Sector industries. Innovativ is a premier Open Source consultant and provides products and services to support Kuali solutions. The Innovativ team have delivered Drupal consulting services and led successful implementations for clients within the Education and Public Sector industries Innovativ is an Oracle Partner

Why Do Residential Block Freeholders Need A Managing Agent?

Residential property management for blocks of flats is a largely hands on and time consuming process. In addition to specialist knowledge of the extensive legislation and regulation, it demands significant effort, time, organisational skills and care. The block management agent’s property services are understandably increasingly in demand, assisting freeholders, landlords and property management companies in carrying out their duties in looking after and protecting their freeholds and associated interests.The professional block management agent should arrange for the building fabric to be regularly inspected, maintained and redecorated to the required standards as set out in the lease. Cyclical maintenance must be implemented at the required times to meet current regulations requiring specialist property management input. Assessment of any necessary work or repairs may require inspection and professional expertise. Monitoring and approving the finished job may however demand a qualified surveyor in certain circumstances.Work will not always be properly executed and some members or lessees may well refuse to meet the costs at the expense of the property management company service charge account. Understandably such payment problems and disputes over finances can cause friction amongst freeholders and leaseholders as well as placing pressure on available reserves and cash flow.Robust systems must be put into place by the block management agent to deal with the process and to plan and smooth the way forward. These management company procedures are essential to successful block management and should include all matters including estimating and collecting monies required for works and services.The freehold block manager will need a full understanding of how the property lease permits the maintenance charges to be raised, whether in advance or arrears. Payment, leaseholder notices and consultation arrangements must also satisfy current property services legislation covering lease management and service charges. It is a requirement that there must be sufficient and appropriate accounting procedures in place to provide final accounts along with the annual statutory summaries to the leaseholders. It is important to note that there is a need to distinguish between the financial affairs of the service charge account and that of the freehold property management company or landlord.The block managing agent is responsible for ensuring that accounts are clearly defined, protecting leaseholder funds in a suitable client account for the sole purpose of maintenance and management of the freehold property in accordance with the lease and statute.Other block management duties which may be required cover lease management and compliance issues. Restrictions and obligations must be enforced where a resident is in default of his or her lease. This could be anything from non-payment or arrears of rent or service charges or breach of a clause of the lease for noise disturbance or nuisance. Management Agents can provide important advice in resolving such matters. After all, it can be difficult to challenge neighbours effectively if residents opt for self management arrangements. It is only to be expected that freehold residential management companies may well feel uncomfortable taking legal action against a fellow leaseholder. Indeed many consider that such actions would be better carried out by an independent block management professional.It is important to note that property law and associated legislation is currently undergoing quite radical change. These changes are affecting lease management, accounting, tenants rights, service charges, ground rent collection and health and safety procedures to name but a few. Frankly can be difficult for leaseholders and residents to try to keep up with this and better communications from government and regulatory bodies would be a useful improvement.So in view of the above, if you still consider that you can effectively manage your block of flats without a specialist block management agent then it is clear that commitment will be key. Many freehold management companies of course take the easier option and choose to employ professional help.When it comes to maintaining and ensuring the smooth running of freeholds for blocks of flats or apartments, few things would appear more essential than securing the services of professionally qualified and regulated block management agents.

What’s Up With This Hype About Network Marketing Anyway!?

MLM, Split Second Marketing, Affiliate Marketing, Online Marketing, it’s all the same – just Network Marketing. More and more people are becoming interested in Multilevel Marketing “Make Life Meaningful”, MLM in short. Even though Network Marketing has existed since the beginning of time, most people are still unsure of what it actually is and how it works. There have also been many rotten apples that have tainted MLM’s existence with negative outlook and gave Network Marketing a bad name. As people tend to remember negative experiences rather than positive. You may have gone to the same restaurant 100 times, but if the food or service was awful once… what did you do? Probably remembered ‘that’ particular instance over the hundred great times that you’ve been there. With schools all over the world from Harvard to Oxford teaching Multilevel Marketing/Network Marketing; it’s a no brainer that MLM is one of the best ways to build residual income.Studies by the Direct Selling Association (DSA) indicate that:

Direct selling accounts for annual sales of more than $190 billion world-wide.

The US contributes nearly $53 billion.

19 million Americans derive independent contractor income from direct selling.

One in every 10 households has someone involved in network marketing or direct sales.
What is Multilevel Marketing and how does it work? MLM works because people prefer to use products listed by a friend or an acquaintance. It works because the products offered are good and cost fair value. It works because people feel satisfied with the product and indicate to acquaintances who are satisfied with the product and so forth on a scale of exponential growth.Anyone can be a network marketer, but usually dedicated individuals and entrepreneurs that know they can make money with alternative income, also known as residual income tend to be involved in MLM. We normally sign up for an MLM company that consists of working to promote the products and the opportunity offered. With the main advantage of being able to start without initial investment that a normal business would accommodate. Taking into an account of high cost needed to start any company.”If I lost everything and had to start again, I would find myself a great network marketing company and get to work!” – Donald TrumpWho should avoid MLM?Disbelievers in MLM. Anyone thinking about earning money easily without having to work.What are advantages of MLM?Possibility of unlimited gains. Without an expensive initial investment. Ability to work on your own time.What are the disadvantages of MLM?Moderate level of rejection by those who do not know. Not only by them, but mainly by those who “think they know.” This rejection is created by millions of people who promise unlimited earnings without any work. People who use MLM companies with particular forms of pyramids just to get more people registered without worrying about the quality of products or showing guidance when sponsoring. All this nonsense turns people off from serious chances of success.Network MarketingThe Evolution of Network Marketing… Marketing in general context, is the junction of Relationship Marketing. It focuses on the quality of customer relations and direct marketing, which happens to be the direct relationship between vendor and customer. Therefore, Network Marketing allows the direct relationship of the distributor (seller) with the client to maintain a quality of relationship between them, since this system only devotes itself to the permanence of a direct relationship in the long run. Network Marketing is a distribution system or a form of marketing that’s moving legitimate goods and services with high market value, from the manufacturer to the consumer through a network of independent contractors. It’s a way to organize and pay for resellers involved in direct sales. It has a compensation plan for direct sales in which resellers can receive earnings with the following common two ways. First, marketers may receive compensation for their personal resale of products and services to consumers. Second, marketers may be paid for their purchases or resales of people recruited and sponsored. Individuals may also be paid from the resale of the group or network that recruited and sponsored them previously. At the end, it is an opportunity for marketers to set up their own business by reselling goods and services and developing and training an organization or a network of resellers they sponsor to do the same. A multilevel distribution company means any person, firm, corporation, or other business entity that sells or distributes goods or services through independent marketers, reps, agents, contractors, distributors, and varied participants may recruit other participants. Commissions, bonuses, refunds, discounts, dividends, and other considerations of the program are or should be paid as a result of the sale of a service, product, recruitment, performance shares, or additional participants.”I would rather earn 1% of 100 people’s efforts than 100% of my own efforts” – John Paul Getty (American Billionaire)How can you succeed?Short answer:Work diligently, work consistently, and don’t give up.Long answer:All companies are different, and what works in one company might not work in another. You should learn from your upline – ask them what works and what you should do to succeed. Draw on them for help. They’ve found out from experience what works and what doesn’t and they’re interested in your success. The fundamental ideas, though, are the same in any company. Do what a distributor/associate/whatever is supposed to do in your company – retail products, sell services, consume products, whatever… and find others to do the same. Teach them to do what you do. *Duplication* is the key to success. Wherever there is a McDonalds – there is a Burger King. You’re not supposed to go out and enroll the world, or sell something to everybody on the planet. You’re supposed to find a few people who want to build a business, and help them do it. More importantly, teach them to do what a distributor does and go out and find a few people to work with and teach those new people. Until you have “taught your people to teach their people to teach,” you have not really duplicated yourself. Keep plugging away. Unless you’re incredibly good at this, it will take time to build a group. It takes time to find good people and teach them what they need to know. Sometimes your best people will give up and drop out. Sometimes it can be very discouraging. Sometimes you may be tempted to give up. If your company isn’t working very well, maybe you should. But if the company’s working well, and others are succeeding, you need to take a look at what you’re doing that isn’t working. It may be that you wouldn’t do any better in another company, even if the grass looks greener, because you’re doing the wrong things.It is a sad fact that a very small percentage of people who enroll in any particular MLM will succeed big. This is not, however, a fatal flaw of MLM; it’s a reflection of real life. 90%+ of small businesses fail within 1-5 years… and the owners lose a whole lot more than the few hundred dollars an MLM person typically invests. 98%+ of corporate employees will never achieve executive levels. 95% of 65-year-old retirees in the US (according to Insurance & Social Security statistics) are dead or broke.The sad fact is, very few people succeed big in any endeavor. Most people simply will not do what it takes to succeed. MLM is no different in this regard. However, many people get into an MLM with the idea that it’s some kind of “easy road to riches”. It’s not. It takes work. It takes time and dedication. But most people don’t see that, either because their sponsor misled them with rosy predictions of instant wealth, or because they chose to hear the easy story. People like this enroll and don’t do anything, or give it a try but give up after a few months. This is where the vast majority of “MLM failures” comes from.The biggest problem with MLM is that it’s “too easy” to get into (usually no more than a few hundred dollars), so it’s “too easy” to get out. With only a few hundred bucks committed, it’s easy for someone to say “Ah, heck, I talked to 5 people and none of them were interested. This doesn’t work! Guess I wasted $200.” You should approach your business as if it was a “real” business, one that you had invested your life savings into. If you had sunk $200,000 into your MLM business, would you let 5 “no”s stop you? Hell no!! You’d get back out there and keep working until you made it work, because you had too damn much money in it to give up! Well, guess what? That’s what makes MLM work too – that dedication to keep working until you make it work. If you work consistently, and effectively and build your group faster than the faint-hearted people drop out, your group will slowly but steadily build. And if you’ve taught your people the correct ideas of “work consistently, work effectively, and teach your people how to duplicate your efforts”, you should see a consistent rate of growth. It will probably take longer than you’d like (hey, that’s the way life works), but as long as you keep working at it, your income will eventually build to the level you want.The problem is, most people don’t do this. Most people who get into MLM give it a half-hearted try, then give up the first time they get a “no” and complain that “It doesn’t work.” Only the people who determine to put in the effort, and actually DO what it takes to succeed, will stick it out and end up on top.Some questions to ask yourself before entering MLM/Network Marketing OpportunityIs there a legitimate product involved?What do you get in return for your start up investment, other than the potential to earn good money? If you’re not getting a product or service or if the training tools appear to be overpriced you could have discovered a scam.Do you get commissions based on product distribution or on recruitment? If they are paying commissions based purely on recruitment, walk away now.Consider the following factors that might influence long term success. Does the company have a proven track record?If the company has been around for a few years then there is a fair chance that governing bodies that police pyramid schemes have already pulled the business model apart and given them the OK.Is this a get rich quick scheme?Although there is a lot of potential to earn very good money in network marketing very few have made it quick, most make their millions through consistent effort.Shop aroundIf you are looking into the industry for the first time don’t be scared to look at other business models and products, particularly if you don’t know which company to join.What training do they provide?A good company has a solid training system.Say hello to MLM and Network Marketing Thoughts become things. With self development, business, and entrepreneurial mindset and dedication we must teach people to do their due diligence while progressively enhancing their outlook on Multilevel Marketing and Network Marketing because it is a proven system that has created wealth around the world for people like you and me. Anyone can be a network marketer, but usually committed people that know they can make money with alternative income, also known as residual income tend to be involved in MLM.