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SunGard HE Opens Up Shared Code Repository

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/05/11

SunGard Higher Education has introduced a repository where customers can share functional enhancements, scripts, tools, and other contributions with each other. The Shared Code Repository is part of SunGard's Community Source Initiative and will include contributions from the company as well.

SunGard compared the purpose of the repository to the sharing done in community source projects such as Sakai. The result is intended to cross-institutionalize efficiencies and innovations and to help participants perform quicker development and lower development costs. Current posts in the repository include a geolocation app and a feedback app, among others.

"The repository provides a common set of rules and understanding for participation; a massive library of code, apps and utilities that were not easy to find in the past; and a platform whereby institutions can quickly set up collaborations to solve common problems," said Bill Thirsk, vice president of IT and CIO at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, NY.

The repository supports multiple code variants and provides components for making feature requests and doing assignment tracking. Contributed code is made available to institutions "as is," so that contributors aren't expected to provide technical support. To the contrary, the company said in a statement, contributors may find their own work improved by the contributions of others.

SunGard too will participate in the repository as a member of the community with the same understanding--that its scripts, tools, and other contributions can be used as-is.