Some people have commented on updates to Facebook & Linked in, so thought I’d author a quick post detailing what I’m up to these days. For anyone who’s wondering, as of January of this year, I am no longer at CampusEAI – I’ve chosen to join ContextWeb, an advertising network/exchange vendor based in NYC, as a Sr. Java Developer. While I was very proud of some of the work that we were able to accomplish in the development group at CampusEAI, and will greatly miss both the team and many of the community members (and hope that we keep in touch), it was time for me to move on to doing something different (and possibly spending some time with my family, and especially my kids).

So far, ContextWeb is a pretty neat place – a strong technical team focused on Agile(Scrum) and trying to do the right thing. One of the interesting challenges is the company is currently in the process of moving much of the infrastructure from an ASP.Net/SQL Server backend to a cloud-friendly, Java, OpenSource, and Hadoop backed system. While the shift has been going on for a while, it’s accelerated recently due to a number of upcoming product offerings and business requirements (in fact, see previous posts, ContextWeb is hiring Java devs). So it’s exciting in a lot of ways, both being able to go back to doing real coding and hands on development (apparently I do mostly remember what all those buttons in Eclipse do…) as well as working with a pretty good group of guys (though, some of those C# conventions drive me batty).

If anyone noticed that I finally gave in and really added banner ads to my blog, well I do now work for an online advertising exchange… (It’s definitely not because this site is making me lots of money)

I will still definitely be following what happens with Jasig, Sakai, and Kuali, and am optimistic that it’s an exciting time for those projects and communities – and will eagerly read anything Google flags for me to look at.

This may be old news to others, but I finally have my copy of the new “Sakai Courseware Management” book (courtesy of the folks over at Packt) and more surprisingly have even been able to carve out time to read the contents. For people who may not have been aware, this is the book that Alan Berg & Michael Korkuska have spent the last many months of their lives churning out.

After looking through “Sakai Courseware Management”, I’d say if you’re a technical staff member working with Sakai it’d be invaluable. Finally, much of the community knowledge and resources have been distilled into a single volume, greatly shortening the learning curve — and with enough topics that even old-Sakai hands will likely see some new bits, courtesy of the deep knowledge of Alan & Michael.

Continue Reading »

We made (and the seller accepted) an offer on a house today. 4 Bedrooms, a basement for the kiddies — promoting sanity for the parents, and a 15 person hot tub are the highlights. Of course, now the real work of actually getting the details, legal, financing, and other bits worked out starts but it’s an exciting (and scary) time in the Shao household!

Well the questions are pouring in (mostly due to my tardiness in writing this kind of announcement) and so, without farther ado…

What Happened?

While it still feels a little strange to say it, as of 2 Fridays ago (2/8) I am no longer employed at Rutgers University. Over the last 9 years as first a student, then staff member, I’ve had the chance to: first study under, and then work with some incredible people. I’ve gotten to watch projects and services grow and evolve into solutions that are used every day by tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff.

Before addressing my personal situation, I feel the need to speak a bit about the Rutgers Sakai deployment which up until now has occupied so much of my thoughts and energy. I was fortunate enough to see myRutgers grew into a service providing tools and services to every student at Rutgers. Sakai usage is currently somewhere on that curve, with usage growing by leaps and bounds. This Spring’s semester in many ways feels like a qualitative shift in the nature of the service — marked by a huge increase in the number of students asking “where’s my class’s Sakai site.” This semester these questions are particularly significant, as many of them are coming from students in classes where either:

1. Class was not yet in session. This is a big change from the dynamic in previous semesters where students typically visited the first meeting of their class, and were then directed to visit the Sakai site. Now students are looking to visit the Sakai site to see the syllabus, readings, and get a leg up on going to that first class.
2. Their instructor had not created a site. Sakai seems poised to make the jump into ubiquity, as in some students minds it’s already there.

Now to handle the really common question — if the Rutgers Sakai deployment is so clearly poised for greatness, where am I going and why? Well…

Starting this past monday (2/11) I have taken a position with the CampusEAI Consortium, where I will be serving as the Director of Open Source Solutions. Recent years have seen a huge upswing in the popularity, and visibility of open and community source solutions in Higher Education. Sakai, uPortal, CAS, Kuali, and othes have garnered attention, awards, and deployments. Due to significant interest expressed by member institutions, CampusEAI is looking to complement its existing strengths on the Oracle platform with broader offerings in the open-source space.

Answers to some personal-ish questions:

Are you moving to Cleveland?

No, I’m going to be based out of NJ, though Continental is certainly getting a good chunk of my time for the next few months as I schlep back and forth.

What does Lisa think?

She’s excited. Well, more excited when I’ve been gone < 2 days as opposed to > 3 days…

What do the kids think?

The kids are still getting used to not picking me up at Rutgers. They think it’s really funny that daddy works somewhere they can’t see. Sunday nights are hard. Phone calls are bittersweet. Coming back is good.

Aren’t you on the JA-SIG Board?

Yes. When my career change became definite I notified the board at the January video call. JA-SIG has always been a community of volunteers (stellar volunteers more often than not) and particular given my new employer’s willingness to continue backing my involvement in JA-SIG it was felt that there were no significant barriers to my continuing to serve in this capacity. As always, JA-SIG

So… is your Rutgers job open?

Yes. Though (see below) I’m hiring too…

What’ll I be doing?

So what does this mean in concrete terms? My personal definition is pretty simple. We’re looking to help members deploy solutions built on open source software. Given my background, Sakai, uPortal, CAS, and maybe even Kuali are obvious possibilities. I think however, that it’s a broader story than just support for deploying a few specific products. Many institutions have experienced challenges in building around open-source due to shortages in staffing or specific skill-sets. Others have successfully deployed open-source solutions, but been burned trying to deepen integration, or due to staff turnover (a problem which I should note also happens around commercial solutions). So the goal of this new unit is to make deploying solutions built on open-source:

1. Easy
2. Cost Effective
3. Low Risk
4. Sustainable
5. Did I say easy?

Basically the goal is to allow schools to leverage the strengths inherent in the open-source development model:

• Try before buy
• Rational licensing and cost-containment (instead of getting wracked with heavy licensing burdens as you get “too successful”)
• Open implementations, generally of open standards
• Economy of scale versus custom developed institution-specific software
• Freedom from vendor roadmaps and strategy shifts — even to go as far as obtain competitive bids from multiple vendors on the same solutions
• Peer interaction with really bright people working hard to solve the same problems you see

So that’s the goal. Make open-source easier, removing barriers for schools large & small — the kind of topics that have continually been commented on lists, in journals, and at conferences. Reducing installation pain. Helping with patch management. Providing support and training. Taking the pain and risk out of going open-source, all while working to make strategic contributions to enable the production of more good software.

It should be exciting.

P.S. Did I mention we’re hiring? Drop an email talking about your love for open-source, and how you really want to join in making it easier: jason_shao@campuseai.org. Oh, and mention you saw the posting in my blog

Rethink: Beginning Rails: From Novice to Professional:

But where does this leave individual developers/firms/companies who’ve used the logo to promote Rails services or Rails-based products? If the logo is a trademark (and it is), then shouldn’t everyone who’s used it in vain stop using it? I should think so, but it would be nice if there were some kind of “logo program” to replace it—some kind of official “We Use Rails” logo with open-but-very specific licensing provisions to allow people to indicate that they use Rails, or that their product/book/service is about Rails, without necessarily claiming or implying approval by DHH. I mean, when Engine Yard uses the logo, does that mean they’re an “approved” Rails host? Are they more or less “approved” than Dreamhost? If we’re talking about the logo as a protected trademark, then let’s not keep the discussion limited to books and conferences.

(Via nuby on rails.)

Interesting question for lots of organizations. I know a lot of groups are starting to develop sanctioned “affiliate”, “partner”, or other logo programs. Seems One incentive is the ability to then offer usage of a logo as a benefit to joining at some level.

Ballmer says Google’s hiring pace is ‘insane’

Google also is reliant on a single source of revenue, Ballmer said. The company made almost all of its revenue last year from advertising sales. “They’re still really one business, and it’s a search and advertising business,” he said. Google’s other efforts have been “cute,” he said.

I’m not sure that Ballmer’s rosy picture of Microsoft’s talent matches what Microsoft’s underground bloggers seem to be saying. Although, consensus from many seems to be that when Microsoft went into rapid-hire expansion mode the quality of their employees took a dive.

Also, considering how much of Microsoft’s revenue comes from either Windows or Office, as opposed to all of their other business offerings, I’m not sure how much ground Ballmer has to make that kind of comment. If he were at Procter & Gamble…

eTel: The open source phone crowd talks to itself

An example: An otherwise excellent speaker on identity, Kaliya Hamlin, tried to suggest some potential win-win strategies in identity management that would help users while still enabling the operators to make money. She suggested that the operators offer identity services and tie them to a commerce engine, so users could buy things and charge them through their wireless bills. It’s a great idea, and the Japanese operators are already doing it. But I know from personal experience that as soon as you mention ‘billing’ to most of the US and European operators they run screaming from the room. Their billing systems are already too complex, held together by chewing gum and spiderwebs, and the thought of making a big change to them is terrifying. Kaiya gets an A for effort, but in a forum that had a balanced representation her idea would have been discussed and debated rather than just tossed out there.”

I wonder if there’s enough of a market in pushing cell phones as a credit card replacement to justify starting up a new cell company or MVNO…

George Lindholm wrote:

I’m starting some work on the UBC Webmail channel as part of our 2.0.3 to 2.5.x upgrade project.

George — I’ve responded inline to get notes on the list, there’s a blog version of this online at: which has pictures which is probably much simpler to get a feel for what I’m talking about.

Rutgers has a significantly enhanced a local fork of UBC_Webmail whose enhancements we’ve always been interested in working back into head for a while (never have enough time or people though). Our philosophy has been to try to deliver a fast, intuitive mail client which is optimized for casual email usage. Continue Reading »

Java.net has a project for a Portlet Repository Protocol that would let portals go out and retrieve pre-compiled binary portlets, which could then be installed and offered to users. I’ve thought for a while that portlets could do with Eclipse style add/update, and this seems like it could be promising foundational work to roll and admin GUI to allow installing/updating functionality.

As you can see by the orgchart above, I have accepted an offer of employment from Rutgers University Office of Information Technology. I’m working full-time as of 1/26/2005, and will be working on the myRutgers Portal among other projects. You can see me reporting to the “vacant” box in the lower right hand corner.

Although I was tempted by several other offers, the lifestyle and opportunities at Rutgers ended up being too much to resist. I’m quite impressed both with the quality and direction of the Architecture & Engineering group. Having more time to spend with Christian while also working on my Masters degree was a powerful incentive as well. In the end it just feels like the right place to be.