Letter from rSmart: Kuali and Mellon

In recent weeks, you may have learned that the Mellon Foundation merged the Research in Information Technology (RIT) program into the Scholarly Communications program. You may also have read some of the coverage that followed, raising questions about the future of Kuali. The Kuali Foundation’s board has posted a response that provides much-needed clarity on the issue. We'd like to add to this response by reaffirming the value of the community source model for developing software.

There’s no denying the importance of RIT, which helped finance not only Kuali but also the Sakai Project. But it’s important to recognize the central mission of the program’s efforts. Simply put, Mellon’s funding has always served as a catalyst, not a permanent lifeline. Rather than provide ongoing support, this funding helps create a self-sustaining collaborative community, one that keeps growing with new contributors and new innovations. Using this model to evaluate Kuali, consider how far we have come:

• System maturity and adoption. Several institutions are now running the Kuali Financial System in full production, and many others are in the process of implementing it. The Kuali community has demonstrated an ability to produce a bona fide enterprise-level solution, capable of meeting all real-world demands.
   
• Community strength. The Kuali Foundation has four staff members--paid from membership income--to facilitate and foster member participation. The community conference held in November 2009, which attracted a record 500 attendees and offered many user-focused sessions, demonstrates the tremendous growth and maturity of the Kuali community, which now has over forty members. The Kuali Foundation coordinates more than $45 million for a variety of Kuali projects, and most of this funding comes from Kuali partner institutions.
   
• Diversity. The community has expanded Kuali solutions to include a broad spectrum of software—from Kuali Rice, Coeus, and Student, to the new Kuali Ready and Kuali OLE (Open Library Environment) projects—that meet the many different needs of higher ed institutions. 

Any discussion of Kuali’s future should also raise the question of what defines sustainability. For many institutions who’ve chosen Kuali’s open-source solution, it’s the vended system that holds an uncertain future—with a history of consolidations and transfers of ownership that force unwelcome, disruptive change upon schools.

In addition to funding, the Mellon Foundation has always provided another, equally vital contribution: leadership and vision for the community source model. In fact, the two individuals who led Mellon's RIT program, Ira Fuchs and Christopher Mackie, were crucial to the success of projects such as Kuali and Sakai. They lit a fire among institutions, helping to produce an unprecedented collaboration infrastructure for developing and sustaining software for education. And so far--as the recent announcement of a $2.38 million grant to the Kuali OLE project illustrates--Mellon's Scholarly Communications program has continued on the path paved by Ira and Chris.  

Ultimately, the continued growth of Kuali will depend upon the many people who are committed to using and supporting it.  And by that standard, Kuali’s future is looking healthy indeed.