I'm in Chicago for the sixth Kuali Days event this week. It's a gathering of the Kuali communities and an opportunity for newcomers to learn about Kuali Financial System, Research Administration, Student, Rice, and more. While anyone can download the Kuali software from the website, or get a pre-configured appliance to evaluate the software, Kuali Days is the only real opportunity to get a first hand sense for what's going on. Kuali, like Sakai, is much more than just software. There's a tremendous opportunity for peer collaboration. It's a professional development event as much as anything and there's no substitute for being here.

This morning I read Joseph Panettieri's article called "Is Open Source the ERP Cure-All?" in Campus Technology. It deals most directly with open source as an alternative to proprietary systems but it goes beyond that to talk about 3 sourcing options: Traditional on-premise, SaaS (hosted applications), and Open Source. I think there's a risk in talking about these three as alternatives because it's mixing apples and oranges a bit. On-Premise and SaaS (On-Demand) are two different ways to acquire/deploy/pay for software. Proprietary and Open Source are two different methods for developing and licensing software. Clarity here is important as there are still many misconceptions. One thing you might miss if you think of these things as "alternatives" is the importance of open source in the delivery of SaaS solutions, for example.

I appreciate how much Joseph and Campus Technology pay attention and inform our community about these important developments.