Introduction

The debate regarding both the feasibility and viability of open source software (in addition to other "open" initiatives) continues across many colleges and universities. The 2-3-98 project will collect and assess current approaches to development and adoption in order to define best practices in the implementation of open initiatives. This is in line with Jasig's purpose to:

Promote practical collaboration between educational institutions, the sharing of best practice, and dissemination of results of innovative approaches to applying open technology architectures and systems in an educational context
Sustain and develop a global community of interest among educational institutions to advance open source and open standards technologies, architectures, systems and content, promoting international collaboration in these areas.

2-3-98 Steering Committee

Patrick Masson (pmasson@umassp.edu)
University of Massachusetts, UMassOnline

Ellen Marie Murphy (ellen.murphy@esc.edu)
SUNY, Empire State College

Clark Shah-Nelson (clarkshahnelson@gmail.com)
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Project Scope

The 2-3-98 Project will provide support for college and university administrators, managers, and practitioners wishing to take advantage of both openness (as an organizational and operational orientation) and open initiatives, in order to reduce costs and increase choice. The project will strive to: collect data regarding the design, development and deployment of open source tools, technologies and technique (both successful and unsuccessful); identify and assess the various considerations, characteristics and qualities that enable, advance and constrain the understanding, adoption and practice of openness, and; provide a rationale for those who may be considering the feasibility and viability of openness within their own organizations.

Artifacts and activities will include:

• case studies
• in-person events
• mailing lists
• research and references
• use cases
• user stories
• wiki
• white papers

Project Goals

• Provide a forum for open and honest discussion with peers about the evaluation, procurement, decision-making, issues, and experiences behind the barriers to. and adoption of, open initiatives
• Understand the common attributes associated with "open" as a development methodology and community of practice
• Identify issues associated with open projects, communities and practies (strengths, weaknesses, benefits, risks), in order to assist organizations in their assessment of both open products and processes
• Document best practices for success in the implementation of openness within technology, program or organizational development
• Promote shared findings through a community of interest

Functional Requirements:

Functional requirements for the 2-3-98 Project are derived from organizational use cases. Organizations and individuals who are interested in influencing the direction of the 2-3-98 Project should contribute their use case(s) here

Modules

The output of the 2-3-98 Project will be delivered as modules specific to particular use cases.

Reference Library

In addition to the artifacts developed and delivered as part of the 2-3-98 Project, a reference library specific to the understanding of openness is provided.

Annual Discussion

The 2-3-98 Conference has been held annually at SUNY Delhi, in Delhi New York beginning in 2008. For each of the three previous years this conference took place over the summer in a traditional in-person format. While the sessions where made available through the web, speakers primarily delivered their presentations in-person, in front of the Delhi audience. With the economic crisis, and recognizing Delhi's remote location (90 miles from the closest airport) as well as a desire to increase participation (both in attendance and content) a new format has been developed for the annual conference. The 2-3-98 will now be delivered completely online with speakers presenting from across the U.S. and internationally. The audience will have access to the sessions via the web, however there may also be regional meetings to allow opportunities for networking and community-building. These regional meetings can meet and watch the online sessions together as well as host local speakers for webcast. The 2-3-98 Conference will take place online each February 3rd of every year. Speakers and participants can sign up here.

Communications

Subscribe to The 2-3-98 Project mailing list: https://wiki.jasig.org/display/JSG/2-3-98

A Little History Behind the Name

According to the History of the Open Source Initiative, "the 'open source' label was invented at a strategy session held on February 3rd, 1998 in Palo Alto, California. The people present included Todd Anderson, Chris Peterson (of the Foresight Institute), John "maddog" Hall and Larry Augustin (both of Linux International), Sam Ockman (of the Silicon Valley Linux User's Group), Michael Tiemann, and Eric Raymond." The Jasig project name, "2-3-98," references this day in history as the formal beginning of the open source movement.

Since then, the ideals of open source development have made their way into a variety of other initiatives, many outside of technology: Open Access, Open Courseware, Open Educational Resources, Open Research, and others. Indeed, considering the adoption rates of both open source software itself and the adoption of open methods, it might appear that openness was well understood and readily acceptable throughout not only academic communities and the IT industry, but also broader communities of practice.

Yet despite any apparent success, controversy persists with not only the applications developed through open methods but with the other open initiatives as well. While many question the readiness of open source software products themselves, a greater area of debate exists over the feasibility and viability of non-traditional development methodologies as well as the communities that support them.

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