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Apereo Newsletter | Fall 2023

The Apereo Foundation and our communities had an extraordinary summer! The Apereo community came together in person for the first time since the COVID-19 Pandemic at FOSSY in Portland, OR, U.S. The Sakai Community held Sakai Con 2023 in Ann Arbor, MI, U.S. The Opencast community held the German-speaking community meeting in Bern, Switzerland. Alliances were formed, micro conferences attended, and important legislation scrutinized. Things are definitely not slowing down! The Apereo Foundation has been selected as a nonprofit partner of All Things Open, the largest open source gathering in the Eastern U.S. Sakai Virtual Conference is coming up, and much more is being planned for our fantastic international community. Read all about it!

Apereo Events in Review
FOSSY 2023

The Apereo community joined the broader open source world at the inaugural FOSSY conference in 2023. We asked a few of the Apereo community members who attended FOSSY to share their reflections about the conference. 

Overwhelmingly, folks were glad to be in the same physical space as their Apereo colleagues after a long hiatus. Leveraging the wider OSS community present at FOSSY enabled several partnerships for the Foundation and spread the word that open source has a presence and power in education, something that FOSSY attendees whole-heartedly supported and were excited to hear about.

We hope you enjoy reading these reflections and consider joining us at FOSSY next year and/or at one of the other conferences where Apereo has been invited to partner.

Thank you, Patrick Masson, Laura Fernandez-Moran, Josh Wilson, Lucy Appert, and Clint Lalonde, for contributing reflections to this piece.

Full Article
 

SakaiCon 2023 took place in July, primarily online but with some in-person events at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. There were more than 200 registered attendees from around the world and a diverse range of topics to discuss.

Full Article
 

In July, Opencast’s German-speaking community gathered in person for the first time since Covid. The gathering was hosted by community members at the University of Bern in Switzerland during a heat wave. Thirty participants gathered for an un-conference style few days of brainstorming and collaboration.

The meeting in Bern, Switzerland, was a return to the “unconference” style the Opencast community grew up with, so participants engaged in different forms and forums to discuss matters they prepared or suggested ad hoc.

Full Article
 
Apereo MicroConferences
Mike Milinkovich

The Apereo Community got a chance to review Government Regulation of Open Source Is Here with Mike Milinkovich, of the Eclipse Foundation.

Watch Now
Stefano Maffulli

Stefano Maffulli, Executive Director at Open Source Initiative, joined the Apereo Community to talk about the process of Defining an Open Source AI.

Watch Now
Samson Goddy

The Apereo Community got a chance to learn about From Users to Contributors: Strategies for effective community management with Samson Goddy, co-founder of Open Source Community Africa.

Watch Now
Georg Link

Gerog Link, Director of Sales at Bitergia, & Open Source Strategist, joined the Apereo Community to discuss Project Health in Academic Open Source.

Watch Now
 
Anne-Marie at ALT

Apereo Chair Anne-Marie Scott delivered the Welcome Keynote speech at the 2023 ALT Conference. ALT is the leading professional body for Learning Technology in the UK. Her talk, “Things Cannot Be Made Simple,” was a profoundly human reflection on leading people through difficult times (see: pandemic, natural disaster, organizational change). Take the time to watch!

Her talk begins at approximately minute 28.

Watch Now
Apereo Foundation Updates
Policy Updates from Patrick

One of the critical roles Apereo plays is to identify the latest developments in open source across higher education and how these may impact our projects, member institutions, and educational communities. Below, you'll find updates from a few of our ongoing activities and initiatives, strategic partnerships, and expert analysis. Of recent interest is the increasing legislation and regulations affecting open source software production and use across the world--and particularly within academic and research institutions.

  • "Negative Impacts of the Cyber Resilience Act on Open Source in Higher Education" (https://www.apereo.org/content/negative-impacts-cyber-resilience-act-open-source-higher-education)
  • "Open Letter from the Apereo Foundation ED: Impending E.U. Regulatory Requirements" (https://www.apereo.org/content/open-letter-apereo-foundation-ed-impending-eu-regulatory-requirements)
  • "Apereo Joins Drupal, Eclipse, Open Source Initiative, Python, and others to Address European Union's Cyber Resilience Act https://www.apereo.org/content/cra-should-support-open-practices-open-source-and-development-european-open-source-advantage
  • Join Apereo's Policy Discussion group at: https://groups.google.com/a/apereo.org/g/apereo-policy-discussion
 
The Apereo Foundation joins two alliances!

Apereo is thrilled to join forces with two distinguished open-source-focused groups to advocate for open-source-friendly policies and engage the broader open source community.

This summer Apereo joined OSPO Alliance and Open Policy Alliance. Keep an eye out for further updates as our work with these organizations comes into focus.

 
Apereo AGM & Board Officer Elections

The Apereo Annual General Meeting took place virtually on July 26th. The three board members were officially seated after re-election: Inge Donkervoort of DLearning, Sam Lee Pan of the University of Cape Town, and Stuart Phillipson of The University of Manchester will serve a second term through 2026.

Officers of the Board for 2023-2024 were also seated during the meeting. Board Chair Anne-Marie Scott will continue to lead the foundation through her final year on the Apereo Board. The Foundation has greatly benefited from her leadership and continued commitment to furthering the mission of open source for higher education. Thank you for continuing to lead Anne-Marie!

Josh Wilson will continue to serve on the board as Vice-Chair through mid-2024. Josh will also represent the Board on the Apereo Finance Committee for the coming year. Thanks to Josh for continuing to serve Apereo and our committees with your expertise and leadership.

Our esteemed Treasurer of the Board, Theresa Rowe has agreed to continue serving in her role for another year. The Board, staff, and Finance Committee are deeply grateful to Theresa for her continued guidance and leadership at Apereo.

Apereo is thankful to Board Secretary Francois Campbell for agreeing to stay on in his role for his final year of service on the board. We are grateful for his continued leadership and support of Apereo.

Thank you to all our board members who give their time and energy to Apereo!

 
2023 Apereo Dolphin Awardees & Fellow

As a part of FOSSY, Apereo held our Dolphin Awards and Fellows ceremony at the FOSS Friends and Fun event at Spirit of 77. Anne-Marie was on deck to MC the awards ceremony, and Josh was nice enough to be our photographer for the event! Not all of our awardees could make it to FOSSY, but we were so pleased to have a live, in-person awards ceremony for the first time in several years! Congratulations to all of our fellows and awardees. Interviews will be forthcoming and we look forward to learning more about these amazing people and all they do for Apereo!

Full Announcement of Awardees & Fellows
Fellows
  • Katrin Ihler
  • Laura Fernandez-Moran
  • Benito Gonzalez
  • Christina Schwiebert
Awardees

The IAN:
  Ron Mitchell & David Horwitz

Teaching and Learning:
  Yasin Özarslan

Enterprize Solution Innovation:
  Adrian Fish

Laura Fernandez-Moran, 2023 Apereo Fellow and Anne-Marie Scott, Apereo Board Chair

Katrin Ihler, 2023 Apereo Fellow could not attend in person but was celebrated along with all of the other fellows and awardees!

Benito Gonzalez, 2023 Apereo Fellow and Anne-Marie Scott, Apereo Board Chair

Upcoming Events | Mark Your Calendar!

Apereo is heading to the Windy City for EDUCAUSE’s Annual Conference, taking place from October 9th to 12th, 2023. During the conference, Apereo will host the Openness Community Group meetup, discussing the role of Open Source Program Offices in higher education. This is a fantastic opportunity to engage with thought leaders, share experiences, and explore how open source practices can drive innovation in educational institutions. Join us in Chicago to be part of this dynamic conversation! Register for EDUCAUSE Annual Conference and tag @Apereo when you post about it on social media.

 
Apereo at All Things Open

Apereo Foundation has been selected as a 2023 nonprofit partner for All Things Open (ATO). All Things Open is the largest open source/tech/web conference on the U.S. East Coast. More than 150 speakers and sessions will be featured, including some of the most influential technologists and companies in the world.

Register Now 

The Apereo community is eligible for discounted registration
** $99, sales end on Oct 18, 2023 **

Apereo was selected as a “Non-Profit Partner” and will be on-site, hosting an exhibitor's table. We look forward to meeting attendees and sharing our passion for all things open source edtech. Stop by our booth to learn more about Apereo's latest activities and discover how you can get involved.

Don’t forget about the after-hours socials and networking opportunities!

 
Sakai Virtual Conference 2023

The Sakai community will host the Sakai Virtual Conference on November 15th, 2023.

The call for proposals is open until September 30th! Please contact wilma.hodges@apereo.org with questions or concerns.

 
Opencast Summit

Save the date! The international meeting of the Opencast community will be held in Zaragoza, Spain, February 13-15, 2024.

Thanks to our hosts at Zaragoza University, who will provide more details soon. https://opencast.org/conferences/

 
Apereo Community Meetings

Apereo Teaching and Learning and UX Meeting - First and Third Wednesdays at 11 AM Eastern, US

Opencast International Adopters Meeting - Last Wednesday of every odd month 3 pm UTC

Opencast German-Speaking Community Meeting - Last Wednesday of every even month 3 pm Europe/Berlin

Opencast Technical Meeting - Every Tuesday 3:15 pm UTC

Sakai Spanish Users (S2U) Open Spanish Sakai Users Group meets every Wednesday from 09:30 to 10:30 CEST

uPortal Community Meeting - Second Friday of every month 1 pm CT/ 11 am PT

Join the uPortal mail list (uportal-user@apereo.org) for more information or contact info@apereo.org 

uPortal Technical Meeting - Fourth Friday of every month 1 pm CT/ 11 am PT

Join the uPortal mail list (uportal-user@apereo.org) for more information or contact info@apereo.org 

Apereo Project Spotlight! | openEQUeLLA

openEQUELLA is a central digital repository that places all your content within reach. openEQUELLA sits at the heart of your EdTech stack and connects seamlessly with your existing platforms to establish a single source of truth for your learning data. House teaching and learning, research, media library, skills content, and more in collections that can be open, closed, or a mix of both. Here are some examples of how openEQUELLA is being used:

TAFE Queensland (TQ) - enabled the creation of a collection for use across 60+ local and international locations. TQ created master product collections that immediately increased content sharing and reduced duplicate effort. Content updates are put through a workflow management process to ensure quality and a consistent student experience. The lifecycle is visible, including license and quality details, at a glance, assisting with regulation, quality, and compliance issues.

Swinburne University of Technology - provides a centralized digital media platform for staff and teachers, where files can be easily cataloged, searched, and used. Use was extended to service all of the institution's internal resources and historic collections made open to the public as a significant cultural archive. Customized permissions allowed their team to use granular controls not available in pre-configured platforms. Standardized approvals workflow ensures quality and consistency, even across large collections with thousands of contributions.

Macquarie University (MQ) - formed the basis of their copyright management system and a centralized digital repository for library resources, learning and teaching, and multimedia content. openEQUELLA's interoperability meant that MQ could respond with flexibly to changing needs, including the development of a custom integration. With content controls managed seamlessly within openEQUELLA, teachers, and staff can focus on the content they're producing and how it can be used.

Once staff discover how easy it is to use - there's no stopping them.

Learn more about openEQUELLA's typical use cases
Project News
HAX (part of ELMS Learning Network (ELMS:LN))

The HAX project team has received renewed interest with the recent release of the 7th major revision to the project. As a result, they've been investing in documentation, tutorials, and marketing to help bring on additional collaborators and grow the project. The new website https://hax.psu.edu/ emphasizes the Penn State community while setting the stage for additional project details to be organized within.

Product Owner Bill Rose has been hard at work behind the scenes writing user tutorials under an initiative we've dubbed "User Scaffolding." HAX7 released a new OS level system for finding functionality called "Merlin." Merlin and the User Scaffolding initiative will see the HAX core team treating documentation as a living thing that end-users of HAX can access directly from the interface with the click of a button. This will allow HAX users to learn about new features and tutorials, even adding proven instructional strategies in a few clicks directly in their content! It's like having a personalized Instructional Designer to help author interactive content with HAX.

Learn more about the Ontology that powers our solution HERE

openEQUELLA

The latest release (28 August 2023) of openEQUELLA 2023.1, includes:

  • LTI 1.3 integration support for Moodle, Canvas and Brightspace
  • Google Analytics 4 support
  • New WebDAV Control
  • Various dependency upgrades, including React, Material UI, and Java 11 - all of which provide improved security and performance
Opencast

The Opencast community celebrated nine releases over the summer!

Opencast 14.0 was a major release and accomplishment for the community! Followed closely by additional updates.

  • Opencast 14.1
  • Opencast 14.2
  • Opencast 14.3
  • Opencast 14.4
Sakai

Sakai Virtual Conference 2023

The Sakai community will host the Sakai Virtual Conference on November 15th, 2023. The call for proposals is open until September 30th! Please contact wilma.hodges@apereo.org with questions or concerns. 

Sakai 23 Release! New in Sakai 23:

  • New Portal UI
  • Sakai Plus LTI integration
  • Accessibility improvements
  • New or enhanced features in Assignments, Calendar, Dashboard, Discussions, Gradebook, Lessons, Messages, Roster, Rubrics, and more.
uPortal

Steering Committee election results!

The annual election of new uPortal Steering Committee members took place at the end of August 2023. The following community members have been elected to join Jonathan Tran, Laura Moran, and Mary Elder on the steering committee.

  • Chris Beach, Unicon, developer representative
  • Julien Gribonvald, GIP RECIA - K12 schools of Center-Loire Valley Region, developer representative
  • Benito Gonzalez, Unicon, developer representative
  • Marc Huffstickler, Texas A&M University, community representative

Congratulations!

uPortal September Community Call Recording!
Laura did a fantastic job putting together this event and updates announcement! Well done!
uPortal Community Call - Sept 8, 2023

  • uPortal Realease - v5.15.1 (newest!)
  • uPortal Release - v5.15.0
Foundation Membership Thank You's

Thank you to our institutional and commercial affiliate members who continue to help Apereo grow and thrive.

We are incredibly grateful to the many members who chose to designate funds toward particular software communities via the Software Sustaining Subscriptions. Thank you for being champions of Apereo open source projects.

Foundation Membership +Project Support

  • Albany Medical College - Foundation and Sakai
  • HEC Montreal - Foundation and Sakai
  • Kanematsu Electronics Ltd - Platinum Sponsor
  • Learning Experiences - Platinum Sponsor
  • Universidad Publica de Navarra - Foundation, Sakai, uPortal and Bedework
  • University of Cape Town - Opencast Supporter
  • University of Edinburgh - Foundation, CAS, and uPortal
  • University of Manchester - Foundation, Opencast, CAS and uPortal
  • University of Michigan ITS - Foundation

Contact membership@apereo.org to learn more about how you can support Apereo - the home of open source for education.

News to Share?

Contact our newsletter editorial team at newsletter@apereo.org or contact Michelle Hall, Apereo Communications Manager, at michelle.hall@apereo.org.

Apereo Foundation
9450 SW Gemini Dr PMB 98572
Beaverton, OR 97008-7105
United States

Phone: 303.254.6600
info@apereo.org

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