C-Level View :: November 8, 2006

Executive View

Now's the Time for Open Source

A perspective on the higher education marketplace and its readiness for open source

By John G. Robinson, The rSmart Group

As I look back over the past 35+ years of higher education technology, I would say that, for the first 20 years or so, the major proprietary vendors built their businesses and their solutions in response to the market’s needs. This was driven by people who had been in higher education and had a mission to help the higher education community. But during the past 10 to15 years, vendors have repositioned themselves to become “marketing machines.” The results have been very little important innovation by major companies and a tremendous focus by vendors on gaining market share through acquisition, extending the life of obsolete products, raising maintenance fees, and heavy marketing and sales...

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Worth Noting

Datatel and ELM Resources Offer Secure FFELP Data Exchange

Developed and configured to work with ELM, the new product for Datatel Colleague announced November 1 will automate the loan data transfer process...

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Kuali Days in Tucson November 14-15 to Reflect Progress

On the heels of an on-schedule October 25 first release of the open source Kuali Financial System and the announcement of Kuali Research Administration as its next community source development project, the Kuali Foundation is looking forward to a productive “Kuali Days” conference, the largest gathering to date for the growing community for open source administrative software solutions...

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From the Personnel Office

Sun Microsystems' Kim Jones Inducted to WITI Hall of Fame

Sun Vice President of Global Government, Education, and Healthcare Kim Jones was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame at an October 30 awards dinner in Santa Clara, CA. The prestigious honor is given each year to women who have made significant contributions in science and technology worldwide...

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