2011 - Benn Oshrin

Biography

I have been a member of the Jasig Board since 2008, and of the higher education community since 1992. I am currently an independent contractor serving the HE community. Previously, I worked for Rutgers University as manager of the Identity Management group (2007-2009), Columbia University in a variety of roles in Unix administration and Identity Management from entry level programmer through manager (1997-2007), and as a student employee at Yale University.

As a Jasig Board Member, I have helped develop the Incubation Process, have been on several Unconference and Conference Planning Committees (including for ACAMP, jointly sponsored by Jasig), served as the Board Liaison to the CAS Steering Committee, and brought the OpenRegistry Project and FIFER Community of Practice into incubation. I have helped with outreach to our peer communities, such as Internet2 and Kuali. I currently serve on the Jasig-Sakai Joint Working Group.

I have had various involvements with contributing to and developing OpenSource software, including as the architect and lead developer of the latest incarnation of the COmanage Project. I have also served on the Cyrus Project governance board, helped design the early iterations of OpenRegistry, and developed various OpenSource projects while at Columbia. I am currently helping to establish a joint venture for an OpenSource Identity Management stack, with participation from Jasig, Kuali, Internet2, and Sakai; and am involved with various identity management projects for the University of California, Berkeley.

In my spare time, I offer informal travel advice and write short autobiographies with self-referential concluding sentences.

Platform Statement

Now is a time of great potential for OpenSource software in higher education. The alignment of Jasig with Sakai offers opportunities for greater visibility at all levels, broadening the audience for our products and increasing the potential for obtaining resources to sustain them. As a member of the Jasig-Sakai JWG, I am helping to ensure the values that make Jasig a unique and valuable community (values which we share with our friends in the Sakai community) thrive as we seek ways to better bridge the gap at the intersection of higher education and open software. As this process kicks into high gear, it must be accompanied by an open dialogue across our communities to ensure success for all involved.