rSmart News
rSmart's Smart Talk Newsletter for May, 2008 (Volume 2, Issue 5) including news about rSmart's new corporate Web site, Kuali Days VI, CLE 2.5 documentation, CLE test procedures, and our regular Smart Tip, Upcoming Events and other items.
PHOENIX, AZ. (April 28, 2008) -- rSmart, the leading provider of software support services for open source applications in education, today announces the availability of the rSmart Sakai CLE 2.5 at the JA-SIG open source conference in Minneapolis, MN. This represents the newest version of the industry’s first and only commercial distribution of the open source Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE). This milestone release comes early enough in the academic year that institutions considering a new learning management system can adopt Sakai in time for Fall semester.
- rSmart Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment Uses Open Source to Provide Advanced Teaching Solutions at Affordable Cost
PHOENIX, Ariz. – April 21, 2008 – rSmart has been named winner of the award for “Innovation Excellence in Education” in the annual IBM Beacon Awards competition, honoring IBM Business Partners for their ingenuity, innovation, customer satisfaction and outstanding achievements in providing business solutions.
Michael Korcuska, Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation, addresses the Blackboard Patent lawsuit on behalf of the Board of Directors of the Sakai Foundation.
Greetings,
As you probably already know, we learned on Friday, March 28 that the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a non- final action rejecting all 44 claims in Blackboard's U.S. Patent 6,988,138 as invalid. In 2006, the Software Freedom Law Center (SFLC) requested a re-examination of that patent on behalf of the ATutor Community, the Moodle Community, the Sakai Foundation and the rest of the free and open source software world. The USPTO combined the SFLC request with a similar request from Desire2Learn. This rejection of the patent is good news for the education community and supports what we have believed all along--that the patent in question should never have been issued in the first place.
Phoenix, Ariz. (February 27, 2008) –rSmart, the leading full-service provider of open source software solutions for education, today announced a new collaboration with Sun Microsystems. Together, the two companies will develop Kuali-based solutions that are certified to optimally run on Sun’s collection of systems and open source infrastructure software including Solaris™, MySQL, GlassFish™, OpenSSO and OpenESB. The first Kuali solution certified will be the Kuali Financial System (KFS) with other supported Kuali solutions to follow. The rSmart / Sun collaboration enables universities and colleges interested in deploying Kuali open source software to have full confidence in the solution’s ability to handle enterprise computing demands with ease.
Phoenix, Ariz. (January 7, 2008) – The rSmart Group, the leading full-service provider of open source software solutions for education, today announced a new partnership with Embanet, the foremost full service provider of online program design, development, marketing and enrollment and technology support services for postsecondary educational institutions. Together, the two companies will provide a full suite of support options for institutions wishing to power their online learning programs with Sakai, the premier open source course management and collaboration system for higher education.
Phoenix, Ariz. (December 4, 2007) – Today, at the 8th Sakai Conference, The rSmart Group announced exciting growth for its Sakai support and services offerings. rSmart, the leading full-service provider of open source solutions for education, is now providing commercial support and professional services for the rSmart Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) to educational institutions across the globe.
Institutions that have recently contracted with rSmart for support and services around Sakai include:
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Charles Sturt University (Australia)
• Cornell University
• Marist College
• Mesa Community College
• New York City Department of Education
- In Campus Technology Magazine, Chris Coppola, President of The rSmart Group, illustrates how all of us-software and service companies, users, and communities-play co-evolutionary roles in the enterprise software ecosystem in education with his article "The potato made me do it." To read the full story, CLICK HERE.
Phoenix, Ariz. (November 13, 2007) – The rSmart Group, the leading full-service provider of open source software solutions for education, today announced at Kuali Days V that several institutions of higher education have selected The rSmart Group to provide commercial support and services for Kuali Financial System (KFS), Kuali Enterprise Workflow (KEW), and Kuali Rice.
PHOENIX, AZ. (September 27, 2007) -- The rSmart Group is pleased to announce availability of the rSmart Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE) 2.4.1. Based on Sakai 2.4.x community code, the rSmart Sakai distribution includes newly certified platform support, up-to-date context sensitive help, a select set of new features and over 60 fixes or functional enhancements.
Jean Marie Angelo explains "What's a Kuali?" in the September issue of University Business magazine. The article not only explains the history of the Kuali project, but also how it aims to deliver the best of breed from nonproprietary software packages and save colleges and universities hundreds of thousands, sometimes millions of dollars. The rSmart Group is mentioned as an important partner, as we guide users through the process of converting to the Kuali software and teach them how to use it at optimum levels. To read the full story, click here.
In a recent eSchool News article called "Online-learning patent dispute heats up," Robert L. Jacobson writes that despite recent developments in the case, experts say the Blackboard's suit of rival Desire2Learn is likely to drag on quite a while. The case is between enterprise software makers Blackboard Inc. and Desire2Learn Inc. over patent rights that Blackboard was granted in January 2006 for its course-management software and other eLearning products. Chris Coppola, President of The rSmart Group and a Sakai board member, who back up open-source software for education, is quoted in the articles that the tide is moving against Blackboard, and that its "just a matter of time" before Blackboard will loose its patent.
Kuali Days V will be a major milestone for higher education as the Kuali Financial Systems (KFS) Release 2 will be available for major implementations. The software has been entirely designed by college and university financial staff to meet the needs of higher education. Dave Lyons, Program Chair, stated "With Release 2 of this enterprise class software and its readiness for major implementations, the Kuali Foundation is demonstrating the possibilities when we efficiently pool our resources to get the software we need."
University of California (UC) Berkeley officially launched its new release of bSpace for the fall, 2007. Moving from Sakai version 2.1.2 to the newest version, Sakai 2.4 x, will be a huge improvement for users. After this point, UC Berkeley intends to be as aligned with the 2.4.x branch as soon as possible. In addition to the features included in the 2.4.x branch, the University is including Indiana University's forum tool, Boston University's mailtool, and the University of Capetown's poll tool. Finally, the University also has a fresh face, with a vastly improved skin, which not only looks good, but greatly assists users navigating Sakai.
University of Southern California (USC) recently announced that it has joined the Kuali Foundation (http://kuali.org) as an investing partner in the development of community source administrative systems for higher education.
Based on the proven design of the Indiana University financial information system, the Kuali Financial System (KFS) is the community source enterprise financial application being developed by staff from Cornell University, Indiana University, Michigan State University, San Joaquin Delta College, University of Arizona, University of Hawaii, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, University of California Office of the President, and The rSmart Group.
- Janice Smith, Senior Education Consultant, was recently featured on Matt Asay's blog, "The Open Road." Asay is currently the VP of Business Development for Alfresco and a pioneer for the open source movement. Janice is the second employee from The rSmart Group to be featured in his blog this month and explains that the community-approach in open source is very simliar to her previous experience in academia. To read the full interview, click here.
Kui Kinyanjui, editor for the Business Daily, features Strathmore University's (Nairobi, Kenya) recent implemention of the Kuali Financial System. Strathmore is the first educational institution to implement Kuali because it enables users to reduce the cost of the enterprise software while providing superior functionality. rSmart explains how this project is a forbearer for many other institutions who will benefit from the Kuali community's effort to develop unique technology solutions. To read the full article, click here.
- "The Open Road," a blog created by Matt Asay, VP of Business Development for Alfresco, features one of rSmart's employees, Jonny Brown, Senior Information Architect, titled "In the trenches with...Jonny Brown of rSmart Group." Mr. Asay has been involved with open source since 1998, and is one of the industry's leading open source business strategists. He also co-founded Novell®'s Linux Business Office in 2002 and was an early agitator and architect for the company's shift to open source. The interview covers Jonny's role and responsibilities at rSmart, and her excitement about rSmart's involvement with Sakai and commitment to the open source community.
Campus Technology recognizes the first live implementation of Kuali Financial at Strathmore University in their articles section on their website. The rSmart Group was mentioned and will provide technical support in Strathmore's implementation of the first truly mission critical community source project. For more information and to read the full article, click here.
Phoenix, AZ. (July 3, 2007) – The rSmart Group, the leading full-service provider of open source solutions for education, today announced that Strathmore University, one of Kenya’s leading universities, has implemented the first instance of the Kuali Financial System (KFS). Strathmore University (SU) is running its new fiscal year accounting with KFS. SU saw KFS as a way to dramatically reduce the cost of enterprise software and saw the functionality of Kuali to be superior to the commercially available solutions.
“This is indeed a landmark day for community source,” said John Walsh, Project Director of the Kuali Foundation, “This is a huge accomplishment for Strathmore University, the rSmart team, and the Kuali community.”
PHOENIX, AZ. (June 11, 2007) -- The rSmart Group, the leading provider of commercial support for open source applications for education, announces the availability of rSmart Sakai CLE 2.4 at the 7th Sakai Conference in Amsterdam today. This represents the newest version of the industry’s first and only commercial distribution of the open source Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment (CLE). With it, the company is pleased to make its CLE distribution freely available under the terms of an OSI-approved open source license. Starting in July, the rSmart Sakai CLE may be downloaded in both source code and binary forms from the company’s website.
PHOENIX, AZ. (June 6, 2007)-- The rSmart Group, the leading commercial support organization and full-service provider of open source applications for education, continues its long-standing tradition of collaborating with and supporting the Sakai community at the upcoming 7th Sakai Conference in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 12 – 14, 2007. rSmart is participating in multiple presentations covering implementation and technical aspects of Sakai as well as pedagogical application for it. In addition, rSmart, in conjunction with its global partners IBM and Stoas, is sponsoring the Technical Demonstrations and Posters Reception the evening of Wednesday, June 13, 2007, in order to demonstrate and share innovations developed throughout the community.
Phoenix, AZ. (May 14, 2007) – The rSmart Group, the leading full-service provider of open source solutions for education, today announced that A|M|D|G, provider of professional academic and training programs online, has launched a pilot of the rSmart Sakai CLE with an eye toward rolling it out as their primary eLearning platform. The rSmart Sakai CLE is a feature-rich, fully scalable collaboration and learning environment, unique in its ability to support teaching and learning, project collaboration, group interaction and ePortfolio construction.
President of the rSmart Group, Chris Coppola, said, “We are excited to be working with A|M|D|G. Our hope is that this pilot will give A|M|D|G the confidence to deploy the rSmart Sakai CLE as their primary eLearning solution.”
rSmart Chairman John Robinson and VP of Marketing and Strategy Mike Zackrison talk about open source adoption and the potential for education at the 1st EOSL Forum hosted by Zayed University in Dubai. See full story:
- The President, Raul Rodriguez, of San Joaquin Delta Community College, one of rSmart's clients, explains what open source is and why his college has made the switch in this article titled, "Open Source Software: A New Business Model for Community Colleges." The article answers the question: "Should community college leaders embrace the movement in higher education toward open source software?" To read the full article, Click here.
