Sakai 09 Megasites panel: my reach exceeds my grasp

Liveblogging Sakai panel: MegaSite Lessons Learned

Session Description: This session will present examples from three universities demonstrating the unique challenges associated with mega sites-- single sites serving hundreds, even thousands, of students. What kinds of needs are we being asked to meet at this scale? Which tools are the best fit? What customizations were employed? Finally, what do mega-sites need from 3.0?

Presenters: Diana Perpich, University of Michigan; John Leasia, University of Michigan; Stephen Marquard, University of Cape Town; Margaret Ricci, Indiana University; David Martinez, Polytechnic University of Valencia.

Margaret Ricci: "Mega Sites or, as I call it, shoving a round peg in a square hole. Doing this makes Sakai do things that...it's a big stretch."



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I've learned something important in this session: There is a good deal of information about Sakai that is out of my range of understanding. It's possible that this session was just misplaced--I suspect I'd have a better sense of the connotations of megasites once I have a sense of a regular old normalsite--and it's possible that the panelists were rushing to make up for Vijay Kumar's keynote going 15 minutes over schedule. It's also possible that my next session will be chosen to give my confidence level the powerboost it now needs.