Announcing the Sakai Registry

I'm pretty excited about the possibilities for the Sakai Registry (see announcement below). I've long felt that Sakai needed a better way to search for tools and other content, so rather than waiting for it to happen, Erik and I tackled it ourselves. The content tools are in place, Erik's done a great job of entering the intial products, and I've contracted for a series of interviews with "The People of Sakai".

The Registry is supported by contributions and advertising. The reason for this isn't so Mark and Erik can get rich (though we wouldn't complain, honest!). Rather, the idea is to have money available to compensate people for their time. Besides the interview series, I'd like to be able to pay (a nominal amount) for papers about Sakai. Wouldn't it be nice to read papers about how Sakai is used pedogogically? Erik and I have a lot of great idea for more content, but it's going to time and money to realize. Hopefully the Sakai community will help support these efforts since, in the end, they will be the ones to benefit.

To that end, we'd love to hear ideas from the community about what's really needed, or even what they'd like to see. Think about technical reviews on Sakai tools, or on-line training on how to use Sakai. Should we publish user/technical manuals? Do people like reading news articles and want more? Let me or Erik know.

- Mark

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With each passing release of Sakai there are more tools to choose from, new ways to customize, and improvements to integration. How do you find what you need to make intelligent decisions?

Introducing the Sakai Registry (http://www.sakairegistry.com). The registry is a database of Sakai products: tools, services, and commercial offerings. Using simple search commands, you can browse through over 40 descriptions of tools. These descriptions include information on when the tools was released, what status it has (contrib, provisional, full support), and other technical data. Links are provided to the tool source, documentation, and related information. Screenshots are being added.

You are invited to comment on tools and later you'll be able to rate them.

While initially focused on listing Sakai products, the web site will expand over time to include other kinds of content as well. The first new content is "The People of Sakai", a series of articles about the movers and shakers in the Sakai community. You can read interviews with Joseph Hardin, Jeff Merriman, and Charles Severance. A new interview with Rob Lowden will be posted soon.

The Sakai Registry is a joint project of Mark Norton and Erik Froese. The site is supported by contributions and advertisements. If this site is useful to you, please consider making a dontation and supporting our advertisers. Money will go towards maintenance, expanded content and new features.

If you have any feedback or suggestions, please send them to suggestions@sakairegistry.com .

- Mark Norton and Erik Froese