National Techie Event 2008

Jason Ming Sun

Deon van der Merwe

Introduction to Sakai

The Sakai Community

• Composition• Academic institutions & commercial enterprises working in

partnership with standards bodies & other open-source initiatives.

• Goals• Work collaboratively to develop innovative software applications

designed to enhance teaching, learning, research & collaboration within higher education & beyond.

• Values • Knowledge sharing, information transparency, meritocracy, “do-

ocracy.”• Praxis

• 150+ production installations• 100+ volunteers active in design, development & testing of Sakai

releases.

The Sakai Foundation

• Mission • Manage & protect IP• Serve as a liability shield for the community• Provide basic infrastructure & small staff• Help coordinate design, development, testing & distribution of software• Champion open source & open standards.

• Governance • Ten board members elected by member reps to serve three-year terms• Executive Director manages day-to-day operations.

• Partners • 112 member institutions & organizations contribute $10K per year ($5K

for smaller institutions).• Budget

• Underwritten by members ~ $1M per annum• Funds 4-6 staff members, admin services, computing infrastructure,

project coordination, conferences, Sakai Fellows Program, advocacy & outreach activities.

The Sakai Value Proposition

• Academic Institutions• Participate in a dynamic, peer-based community• Solve common problems through collaboration• Tap into global sources of innovation• Leverage inter-institutional economies of scale• Get project, team & code transparency

• Commercial Enterprises• Enhance brand name recognition• Establish new client relationships• Generate revenue

• Individuals• Work on cool projects • Work with cool people worldwide• Incredible opportunities for learning and development (e.g.

Programmers Café)• Hang out at International Sakai Conferences

Sakai Users

Sakai at Unisa (myUNISA)

The myUnisa Team (Jan 2008)

Decisions, decisions, decisions…….

• Keep (old system)• Build • Buy (Commercial Products and Partners e.g. BlackCT)• Borrow (Open Source e.g. Sakai & Moodle)

• User • Contributor• Mature OSS product ……Best of three words

Why Sakai (Value Proposition)

• Academic institutions• Participate in a dynamic, peer-based community• Solve common problems through collaboration• Tap into global sources of innovation• Leverage inter-institutional economies of scale• Get project, team & code transparency

• Individuals• Work on cool projects • Work with cool people worldwide• Incredible opportunities for learning and development• Hang out at International Sakai Conferences

Why Sakai

• In addition to previous….• In-house research and architecture development.• The Sakai Project was introduced to Unisa by a visiting Senior

Gartner consultant.• Virtually 100% match between the architecture adopted by Sakai

and the online architecture envisaged for Unisa.• Maturing product• Very active (and approachable) community• Coordinated community (Foundation)

Deployment History

• January 2006 Sakai v2.1 • Registered students, end 2006: 120 765

• May 2007 Sakai V2.3 • Registered students, end 2007: 159 538

• April 2008 Sakai V2.5.x • Registered students to date in 2008: 185 923

Support

• Students• Getting started pamphlets• Unisa Call Centre (Dedicated agents with ICT Team Leader)• Online Help within Sakai

• Staff • ICT Help Desk• Deployment specialist (turn complaint into an opportunity)• myUnisa Help & Tutorial Website (adding video)• myUnisa Team• Partnership with the Institute for Curriculum and Learning

Development (ICLD)• “Account Managers”

Support

• Technical (Internal)• Portal and Academic Solutions (PAS) or myUnisa Team• Other ICT Staff• Sakai Community• Sakai South Africa Partners• SA and International Commercial Partners

Enterprise Change Management & Training

• Deployment Specialist• Formal Training • Coffee Sessions• One-on-One training• Road Shows and Exhibits• Posters, Pamphlets, Hand-outs• Features in Institutional Newsletters • Academic Excellence Awards

• Departmental Partnerships (CCM, ICLD)• PAS Team• myUnisa Board• Many presentation at all levels

Usage

Over to Jason….

EnvironmentSakai release: 2.5.x

OS: Ubuntu Server

OS version: Gutsy

Web server: Apache HTTP Server and Tomcat

Web server version: 2.2.4

Database: Oracle 10g

JVM: Java 1.5.x

JVM version: 1.5.0_11

JVM tuning: JAVA_OPTS="-server -Xms700m -Xmx700m -XX:MaxPermSize=500m"

Hardware64-bit processing: No

Application server(s): VMware ESX3 virtual server farm = Physical Dell PE1955 Blade, 2 x Dual Core Xeon 5160 3.2Ghz 16GB RAM Virtual 6GB, 2 x CPU

Total app servers: 12

Db server(s): Oracle 10g

Total db servers: 1

File storage: Fileserver/NFS: Virtual 2GB, 1 x CPU

Cluster/load balancing: Pound/Apache-mod_jk Software Load Balancing

myUnisa Cluster

Pound.cfg• ListenHTTPS• Address 196.20.20.20• Port 443• Cert "/SSL/certificate.pem“• xHTTP 1• HeadRemove "(X-Forwarded-For|X-SSL-Connect)“• Service• URL "^/axis-webservices(.*)$"• BackEnd• Address 196.20.20.21• Port 80• TimeOut 500• End• End• Service • BackEnd• Address 196.20.20.22• Port 80• TimeOut 500• Priority 1• End• BackEnd• Address 196.20.20.23….• End

End

Redundancy

• Apache mod_jk load balances over 2 tomcat application servers (e.g. tomcat failure)

• Pound (software load balancer) inherently monitors availability of Apache HTTP server and directs traffic away from the problematic node (e.g. web server reboot)

• vmware v-motion allows automatic migration of a virtual host from blade server to blade server in case of a blade’s hardware failure

• “Multiple levels of redundancy”

Disaster Recovery

• vmware Virtual Infrastructure supported by SAN (Storage Area Network)

• SAN mirroring to remote DR site

• Complete set of blade servers at DR site ready to be commissioned in DR situation

• “Virtualization saves the day”

Sakai Framework

• Fundamentally Java

• Spring Framework (Service/API-driven)

• JSF

• Struts

• Reasonable Server Faces (RSF)

• “Anything-Java should work - unrestricted”

Integration

• Out-of-the-box LDAP Authentication Service

• Unisa Directory Provider (implementing the Authentication Service API) provides AD account management (e.g password change)

• “FOSS philosophy – free to modify”

Custom Development

• Out-of-the-box discussion tool (Message Centre)

• Unisa Discussion Forums – Struts-based Sakai tool

• “Sakai philosophy – free to replace”

Release Management

• Sakai Release Management:– Feature releases– Maintenance releases– Major releases

• Unisa Release Management:– Feature release implemented on-demand– Incremental upgrades occur in line with maintenance

releases (1 to 3 month release cycle)– Major (architecture) releases as available

• “Requires continuous involvement and collaboration”

Collaboration Coschmagoration

• Sakai Project vs Sakai Product

• Project Collaboration vs Product Development

• Collaborative Sakai tools (like Rwiki, Blog Tool and Discussion Forums) are developed through efforts of collaboration.

• Sakai culture and DITCHE culture

“…[while] in textbook-based learning the activity focus is to get students to remember, understand and apply knowledge, collaborative learning encourages them to analyze, evaluate, and create”

Michael Laine – Collaborative Contributor to Wikinomics Wiki

Thanks

Jason Ming Sun jmingsun@unisa.ac.za

Deon van der Merwe dvanderm@unisa.ac.za

…. and More?

What Made it Possible?

• Attitude & Passion

• “No problems, only challenges”

• Willingness to take risks (calculated, but “bold”)

• Dedication of the Team:

• Nothing is too much effort

• Prepared to work long hours

• 24/7 availability

• Resilience, perseverance and patience

• Turning a bad situation into an opportunity

• Use every opportunity to “brag”

What Made it Possible?

• Common goal • A vision of belonging to something larger than any one person or

institution and to be part of a global community of like-minded people aspiring to produce a enterprise system for all.

• Team spirit – participative environment, common goals and team building.

• Merger – Threat or opportunity (more of the same (play it safe) or take a chance and do something new).

What Made it Possible?

• Influencing and aligning with university vision & goals• Organizational mission & strategic objectives, Institutional Goals, 2015

plan, Teaching and Learning Model, ICT Strategic plan• Top management approval & support

• Restructuring ICT to accommodate a Academic Solutions Directorate and eventual refocusing of ICT (Change ICT from admin-centric to Learner support and academic centric)

• Unisa’s new ODL Academic Model (Participation in development of Model)

• High prominence of technology in Vision, Mission and 2015 Strategic Plan

What Made it Possible?

• Strategic partnerships• Intra- Institutional (Alliances with Corporate Communication & Marketing

(CCM) and Institute for Curriculum and Learning Development (ICLD))• Inter institutional (South African initiative)• Sakai community

• Engagement of Users• User centric approach• Encourage user inputs• Business analysis

What Made it Possible?

• Management style• Empowering & trusting• Project management principles (DotProject)• Unique business model based on investment in people (staff

development) rather than technology• Strong motivation for selection of solution

• Introduction of new OSS orientated business model & value propositions

• Selling the vision rather than product (Global initiative, collaboration potential, foot in door for non ICT projects e.g. Open Courseware Initiatives, International exposure

What Made it Possible?

• High level of (diverse) in-house expertise:• Exposure of staff to newest developments in Teaching and Learning

Technologies • Change Management & training:

• Perception Management• Combination of advocacy& enforcement• Multi-pronged approach (Top down, bottom up, peer to peer &

student pressure)• Building a support network & infrastructure

….THE END….….NO REALLY!