Session Title: Sustainability Happens
Presenter: Tom Caswell, eduCommons Project Manager, OpenCourseWare Consortium
Time & Date: 10:15 A.M. - 11:00 A.M., Friday, August 14, 2009
Location: Rm. C150
Session Description: How many grant-funded projects ever end up bring truly self-sustaining? While sustainability may be a common goal for many OER projects, a large number of them tend to end when the funding ends. The focus of this presentation is to share strategies and preliminary successes with sustainability for the eduCommons project. The eduCommons project has shifted from a centrally funded platform with a small pool of dedicated developers to a truly community supported project. A spin-off company formed by the core eduCommons developers, enPraxis, is achieving its own sustainability by offering for-fee services around eduCommons, including hosting, support, and consulting. This presentation will also discuss the relationship between for-fee services and community development. During this transition process, the core eduCommons developers have worked with consultants to refine a social sourcing strategy. Social sourcing allows stakeholders to distribute the burden of development and support based on the concept “give a little, get a lot.” To help ensure a successful future for eduCommons, the process for getting new participants and existing stakeholders involved has been streamlined. This includes providing improved documentation describing the various collaboration processes, as well as actively seeking developers, translators, and beta-testers. The goal is to strengthen the involvement of eduCommons community, ensure ongoing stewardship, and promote a high quality OCW platform that is able to adapt the needs of the future.
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Full eduCommons 3.2.1 release announcement here: http://ocwblog.org/2009/08/10/educommons-3-2-1-launch-available-now/
Free software downloads here: http://educommons.com/downloads/educommons/releases/3.2.1
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