Michael Korcuska Sakai Blog

No good deed goes unpunished.  I’m sure Josh Baron is feeling a little like that after his innocent comment on the Educause CIO email list generated over 35 on-list responses. There were undoubtedly many other off-list responses directly to Josh.

It started like this (the list archives are public, so you can see for yourself):

Colleagues;

Looking for some guidance on a breakdown of roles and responsibilities for a Moodle Implementation team.  I will not be assimilated by Blackborg!  Any help is always appreciated.

Thanks

Scott

To which Josh replied simply:

Scott,

We’re in the final stages of a college wide transition to Sakai which has gone very well.  If you are interested in another open source option at all let me know as I would happy to share our experiences.

Josh

And hence followed the flurry of “I’m interested” and “me too” emails. So Josh finds himself hosting a webinar on Thursday, June 18, from 12 noon – 1 pm EDT  to discuss Marist College’s Sakai transition. You can sign up here.

This is really terrific, obviously, and I’m very thankful to Josh for offering to do this. There is no better marketing for Sakai than this kind of “from the horse’s mouth” success story. It’s cheap and unbelievable effective. Sakai has built excellent brand awareness (people know who we are) but with that awareness also comes a number of myths (it is only for universities with giant IT staffs). And while the Sakai Foundation and Sakai Commercial Affiliates are getting the word out there is no substitute for something like what Josh is doing.

So a tip of the hat to Josh Baron. And a reminder to you to:

• Tell your colleagues at other universities about Sakai.
• Submit a presentation proposal to an Educause event (or another educational technology venue, THE Journal maintains a nice list).
• Write up a case study of your organization’s use of Sakai. We’ll put it with the others on the Sakai website.