First: “Anyone who wants the fire hose can follow JIRA activity, source code commits, mailing lists, Confluence updates, and the conversations in the #sakai channel on IRC.” I argued awhile back on the lists that this infrastructure is exactly one BIG part of the problem: it’s simply not up to the task of this project. It’s chaotic, and takes way too much work to figure out what’s going on. There are too many mailing lists with unclear purpose. And Jira, for example, is ugly and tedious, and not very well (or at all) integrated with the other services you use.

It may be that solving this issue isn’t worth the time investment, but I do think it’s part of the reason the process seems opaque from the outside.

Second, “The downside is that this is a lot of conversation which is not transcribed anywhere.” To me, that’s really unacceptable, and your subsequent dismissal of email seems like a cop-out frankly. Find a consistent mechanism to document every important decision you make; no excuses. Of course, this goes back to the first point.

Third, on sponsorship: I have no problem with it myself. It makes perfect sense that institutions that step up with resources have a greater role in setting priorities. OTOH, there is a danger that this yet again puts too much emphasis on institutions (rather than individuals)*, and much more importantly, it should be critical that aspects other than actual code work be as widely open as possible. E.g. use case and requirements work should be wide-open.

On this last point, I’m not saying it’s not the case. I have personally found people open to listening to me, and some my suggestions have made their way into OAE. I’m just saying it’s important to constantly reflect on.

• If I had one big critique of Sakai in general, it’s that it’s very institutionally-focused. One big task I think you all should set yourself is to try to balance this will greater voice from individuals; particularly faculty and students. Perhaps OAE itself can provide a platform towards this end.

Any help more than welcome!

Great videos. But, the getting started video link is not working. Please check.

Looking forward to see more video tutorials from aeroplane software.

Thanks, Sashi G