Kuali Foundation

The Kuali Foundation coordinates the development of free/open source administrative software under the Educational Community License. The name "Kuali" came from the Malaysian word for wok. At a time when many colleges and universities are paying tens of millions of dollars for administrative systems, the notion of a wok -- a humble, but essential dish -- seemed appropriate.

The Kuali Foundation is incorporated in the United States as a not-for-profit, 501(c)(3) corporation. Its members are colleges, universities, commercial firms, and interested organizations that share a common vision of open, modular, and distributed software systems. Jennifer Foutty of Indiana University is the foundation's Executive Director. [cite web|url=http://www.kuali.org/news/Jennifer_Foutty_KualiExecutiveDirector.shtml|title=Kuali Foundation website]

Kuali communities

The goal of Kuali is to bring the proven functionality of legacy applications to the ease and universality of online services. The Foundation is working on the following initiatives:

Kuali Financial Systems (KFS)

[http://www.kuali.org/communities/kfs/index.shtml Project homepage]

Kuali Research Administration (KRA)

[http://www.kuali.org/communities/kra/index.shtml Project homepage]

Kuali Endowment Module (KEM)

[http://www.kuali.org/communities/kem/ Project homepage]

Kuali Rice (Software Development Simplified)

[http://rice.kuali.org/ Project homepage]

Kuali Student (KS)

[http://www.kuali.org/communities/ks/ Project homepage]

The Kuali Student Services System is an ongoing project to develop a student-centered web service architecture that will provide students and administrators with tools to manage curriculum change and to develop individual learning plans. [cite web|url=http://www.kuali.org/communities/ks/index.shtml|title=Kuali Student Services System (KS)] The technologies suggested in the [http://www.kuali.org/assets/pdf/KS+Phase+I+Recommendations+v2.0.pdf Phase I Recommendation] (released 2008-02-14) include uPortal, Apache Derby, Drools, Apache CXF, GlassFish Metro, Apache Tomcat, Open ESB, Apache ServiceMix, and Kuali Enterprise Workflow. [cite web|url=http://www.kuali.org/assets/pdf/KS+Phase+I+Recommendations+v2.0.pdf|title=KS Phase I Recommendations]

Progress

The project was formally announced in August 2004; its initial non-profit members were Indiana University, the University of Hawaii, and the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO). [ [http://uitspress.iu.edu/083104_kuali.htm "Higher Education Open Source Financial System Project Launches"] , press release, University Information Services, Indiana University, August 31, 2004, accessed September 6, 2007]

In October 2006, the Foundation announced the first release of the open source Kuali Financial System (KFS). KFS was funded in part by a USD 2.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. It also announced that the its next development project would be Kuali Research Administration. [ [http://uitspress.iu.edu/102506_kualiannc.html "Kuali Foundation releases open source financial system, launches a research administration system project, announces new board members and corporate partners"] , press release, University Information Services, Indiana University, October 25, 2006, accessed September 6, 2007]

In November 2006, the rSmart Group announced that it was selling a pre-configured instance of the Kuali Financial System. [ [http://www.rsmart.com/news/rsmart-launches-kuali-financial-system-appliance "rSmart Launches Kuali Financial System Appliance"] , press release, November 15, 20061, accessed September 6, 2007] The first implementation of this software, by Strathmore University in Kenya, was announced in July 2007. [ [http://www.cpwire.com/artman/publish/article_1602.asp "Strathmore University is First 'Live' Implementation of Kuali Financial System"] , press release, rSmart Group, July 6, 2007]

The second release of Kuali Financial was in November 2007. Release 3.0 is due out in December 2008 with modules for accounts receivable and capital assets, and a large number of enhancements. [John Cox, [http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/27/Universities-build-open-source-enterprise-applications_2.html "Universities build open-source enterprise applications: Several universities have teamed together to build mission-critical software, which has long been the domain of proprietary apps, on open-source platforms"] , "InfoWorld", March 27, 2008]

Participants

The Kuali Foundation is made up of the following educational and commercial partners: [cite web|url=http://www.kuali.org/about/partners.shtml|title=Kuali Foundation website]

Foundation Partners

* Australian National University
* Boston University
* Bradley University
* Colorado State University
* Cornell University
* Florida State University
* Indiana University
* Iowa State University
* Marist College
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology
* Michigan State University
* Pennsylvania State University
* San Joaquin Delta Community College
* University of Arizona
* University of British Columbia
* University of California, Berkeley
* University of California, Davis
* University of California, Irvine
* University of California, Santa Barbara
* University of Hawaii
* University of Maryland, College Park
* University of Southern California

Commercial Affiliates

* Exeter
* Huron Consulting
* IBM
* rSmart
* Syntel, Inc.
* Sun Microsystems, Inc.

References

External links

* [http://www.kuali.org/ Kuali Foundation]
* [http://www.rsmart.com/products/kuali rSmart Group - Kuali Financial Systems]