Apereo Values: Section 4 - The Value of Apereo

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4. The Value of Apereo

The Apereo Foundation provides a framework for the development of open source software ‘by education for education’. Apereo provides a shared space for higher education institutions to identify objectives, connect with other institutions and work to secure the resources required for the realization of common solutions. A key aspect of this aggregation of effort is the reduction of friction associated with collaboration.


Common Licensing 

Group holding up the Apereo A
Apereo reduces friction by providing a range of common licensing, community and technical services, together with a range of opportunities to collaborate and construct partnerships around common goals. Agreement around this flexible service and shared intellectual property framework reduces the necessity of negotiating point-to-point agreements between multiple institutions. 


Services

The services Apereo offers are provided collectively because they would be less efficiently provided on an institution-by-institution basis. Apereo is at core an organization rooted in the principle of subsidiarity (1), performing only those tasks that cannot be more effectively provided at a more local level. This reduces overhead and encourages direct participation and contribution. Apereo...

  • Manages inbound and outbound licensing, providing a neutral point from which to share contributed intellectual property. A shared licensing and intellectual property regime greatly facilitates the development and maintenance of trusted partnerships to undertake shared work. 
  • Provides community and technical infrastructure in the form of mailing lists, wikis, web sites, issue tracking systems, conferencing facilities etc. where appropriate.
  • Maintains a series of metrics demonstrating the health of Apereo Software Communities.
  • Provides financial management, including financial management for projects, software communities and communities of interest where required.
  • Promotes projects, software communities and communities of interest through outreach activities.
  • Hosts and manages an incubation process, where new projects can gain and share experience of sustainable software development and community building.
  • Provides a series of physical and virtual spaces and events where higher education institutions and others can share experience, access the experience of others, and broker new initiatives.

The Foundation is a legal non-profit entity registered in the state of New Jersey. It is deliberately lightly staffed to provide key services in a cost-effective manner. The Foundation hires a small number of staff who work with individual and institutionally committed volunteers to work towards common goals identified by foundation and project governance bodies. These include a foundation-level Board of Directors, and bodies governing individual projects, software communities and communities of interest.

 

Section 5. Apereo Software Communities

(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity

 

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 2.0 License
Illustrations by Giulia Forsythe