UWC funds AVOIR

5 old-style comments

1. wjv — May 03, 2005 at 10:50 AM.

   The ever-affable Jean of Upfront Systems tells me that his organisation would probably adjust costs *upwards* for non-open source development. The reason is quite obvious: if they develop open components they can re-use them in future projects.

2. Derek Keats — May 06, 2005 at 07:53 AM.

   You seem confused between UWC SEMS and the AVOIR project. The student enrollment system (SEMS) is a UWC project, it is not an AVOIR project. AVOIR is a collaboration among African universities that include UWC, the current project is an e-learning system that is being released as Release Candidate 2 today, and it is an awesome "something" to be delivered.

   SEMS is a UWC project to map and develop systems to support the full enrollment cycle of a student from first contact to grave. Most institutions in South Africa that have implemented just the core part of such a system have spent between over 35 million (some substantially more) on just the core functionality. SEMS is not just software, it includes a major business process re-engineering, and an alignment of the business and IT processes under the umbrella of Enterprise Architecture.

   Where SEMS will leverage off AVOIR work is in the use of the application framework developed by the AVOIR team, and this synergy will continue throughout the project. Once the project has begun with the software development, all our processes will be public, so you will have ample opportunity to comment on facts. I am also happy to answer any questions that you may have that will help you adjust your opinion with factual information.

   regards derek

3. Neil Blakey-Milner — May 06, 2005 at 10:53 AM.

   Hi Derek, I think between my inability to adequately express my thoughts and your defensiveness, you get the wrong idea of what I was saying. Firstly, I'm certainly not saying AVOIR isn't intent on delivering things, or is in any way not going to do so. I'm looking forward to seeing how AVOIR, Kewl NextGen and KINKY grow and succeed. I think AVOIR is a great idea, even if we only consider the social and development factors. My primary gist is that SEMS according to both Tectonic and ITWeb will be built on top of KINKY, a product of AVOIR. In other words, at the onset of the project, they're aligned. At the onset, the glue language and the framework have been decided. While projects generally have broad-based requirements like "Must use a portable language", or "Must use only Free Software components", or "Must support components designed in multiple language", this level of alignment is unusual, and this is why I'm a bit wary. Don't feel singled out, I'm often wary. I'm not accusing anyone of anything - I'm using the information that is available to ask questions and provide some of my own thoughts on a matter, obviously presented as personal thought, and not as fact. I do it openly so that the real answers can be provided if possible, and so that I can avoid being falsely accused of having a hidden agenda. I still believe that R10m is a large amount for the development of such a business and technical system, but my primary question relates to the time period. Perhaps I don't understand just how slow UWC would adjust to change, although my experiences with other universities' administration has been entered into my equation. Neil

4. Derek — May 14, 2005 at 05:09 PM.

   The reason for the alignment is a simple matter of building capacity to support systems, with the enterprise architecture of the University. Instead of having to maintain multiple islands of functionality, we are creating systems that interoperate seemlessly with one another, and that see the University as a system instead of silos. Why will it take three years? UWC is not a wealthy institution, we cannot afford to do it in one year, and software development has to be accompanied by relevant business process alignment. If you think R10 million is a lot of money, McGill University in Canada won a prize for implementing such a system for the meagre R120 million! Typically, institutions take 2-3 years to implement proprietary solutions, mainly because of the business process re-engineering that has to happen.

5. Neil Blakey-Milner — May 14, 2005 at 08:13 PM.

   Thanks for taking the time to post some clarifications and give some extra background and context, Derek. Consider my wariness resolved. My interest entirely has to do with seeing Free Software endeavours in Africa succeed, so I try to look at them critically. I hope it's obvious that I wish the project the best of luck.