As reported by Andrea Porter in the Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required):

4 Colleges Collaborate on Open-Source Courseware

In what may be a big threat to commercial providers of course-management systems, four universities have announced a $6.8-million collaborative venture to create open-source courseware tools and related software for higher-education institutions.

The universities developing the system, called the Sakai Project, are the Indiana University system, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, which will lead the effort.

The effort will leverage code from the existing uPortal effort, and is being funded by a $2.4-million grant from the Mellon Foundation as well as $4.4-million of in-kind services from each of the four lead Universities. In commenting on the announcement, Blackboard’s Chairman Matthew Pittisnsky questioned whether the open-source Sakai project could provide enough research and development resources compared to his own company’s efforts. Said Pittinsky to the Chronicle, “Do you want to be part of a small-developer community, or do you want to join a large-developer community where the costs are spread out more?”

I think Pittisnsky may have his “small” and “large” (developer communities) backwards. He might also want to pose the question to the Linux community, as it’s members might have some light to shed on the matter.

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