The Sakai Community

Open Source software efforts are organized in a variety of different ways. Some of them are driven primarily by a single commercial organization. Others, like Linux, are a result of a diverse contribution of many individuals and organizations and are often led by a "benevolent dictator". The Sakai community fits neither of these descriptions but, instead, is at its core, a collegial alignment of educational institutions and commercial organizations, working collaboratively to build the Sakai software. Often an organization will commit the time of staff members to participate in Sakai. In other cases, individuals volunteer their time to contribute something of value.

The Sakai community as a whole, not a single organization or individual, is responsible for all aspects of evolving Sakai software. There is no central decision maker, which places a premium on communication in determining the best way forward based on the merits of the idea. Sakai software is designed truly by education, for education. These community members, who generally work at educational institutions around the world, sit extremely close to the end users of Sakai. Members of the Sakai community believe that this community-driven development model leads to the best product for use on campus, shortening the distance between identifying the need for innovation and its realization. So, when you interact with the Sakai community you should keep in mind that nobody is "in charge" — your contributions will be accepted based on their value and the time and effort you have put into contributing.

This community is fundamental to Sakai's value. Sharing product development, academic, and e-learning best practices with peers around the world is a unique aspect of Sakai, a rare cross-institutional collaboration in higher education information technology. For many organizations and individuals, this aspect of Sakai is cited as the reason they choose to participate, and is at least as important as the functionality of the software itself.