News / Events

Dolphin Brings International Leadership in Educational Community-Source Software to Sakai

The Sakai Foundation is pleased to announce that Ian Dophin will join the organization as Executive Director. Mr. Dolphin has led organizational and technology projects to improve post-­‐secondary education in the United Kingdom and played a leading role in collaboration with Australia, New Zealand and the United States. He joins the Sakai Foundation at a time when Sakai is experiencing unprecedented growth in adoption, investment and new product development.

The Sakai Project, an educational community renowned for innovation in open teaching, learning and research software, has experienced over 30% growth in global adoption of its learning management system (LMS) in a 12-­‐month period. Institutions adopting Sakai primarily cite low total cost of ownership, the strength of the academic community, and the compelling vision for the future as differences from other LMS offerings. Douglas Johnson, Assistant Director for Learning Services, University of Florida explains, “In our evaluation, the next generation of Sakai is fundamentally different and, for our needs, better than any other learning management system.”

At this inflection point, Mr. Dolphin brings important leadership and experience to the Sakai Foundation. Dophin most recently served as the International Director of the e-­‐Framework Partnership. Based with UK the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC), his role has focused on broadening education and research collaboration projects between government and public agencies in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Mr. Dolphin has served on the Board of the Sakai Foundation, JASIG, Curriki Global Education and Learning Community, and the European Multimedia Forum.

“We are elated that Ian Dolphin will serve as the Executive Director of the Sakai Foundation,” says Lois Brooks, a Founder of Sakai during her tenure at Stanford University and the head of the search committee. “It is a credit to the Sakai community that the success and momentum created through the contributions of so many have allowed us to attract a leader of Mr. Dolphin’s caliber. His long association with higher education, and leadership in open source communities, offer the Sakai Foundation tremendous benefit during this time of dynamic growth for us."

Says Dolphin: “The current conjecture is replete with both risk and opportunity for higher education. Against this backdrop, I believe that the Sakai community is pivotal. The collegiate nature of the Sakai community, its ability to work collaboratively, and to pool resource to create an environment which is robust, and capable of providing effective affordances for innovation are critical strengths which will create a pole of attraction in the higher education community internationally. I look forward leading and serving in this role.”

The Sakai community will welcome Mr. Dolphin at the Annual Sakai Conference held in Denver Colorado on Jun 15—17, 2010.