Howe notes that Openadaptor is a case of an open-source product unlikely to see a commercial competitor. "The really good thing about Openadaptor is that it's really lightweight. There's not much real impetus for the vendors to put that sort of thing out; they couldn't charge very much for it," he says. In other cases, the project could have a more dramatic impact on an existing vendor. Such is the case with Sakai.

Costs and Competition

The Sakai Educational Partners Program is a set of projects spearheaded by universities looking to provide common platforms for a variety of tasks. One of those tasks is the creation of an open-source course management system -- one aimed directly at a technology space currently occupied by Blackboard and other commercial competitors.

According to Sakai community liaison James Farmer, a recent survey of 22 universities currently using Blackboard found that 100% planned to drop the commercial product in favor of Sakai code. But Farmer is clear to point out that this project isn't about vendetta; it's about saving money. Having an open-source, cooperative development option would let schools reduce their costs by skipping commercial alternatives completely, or indirectly, by using the threat of open-source to "put some restraint on price," Farmer says.

Malcolm B. Brown, director of academic computing at Dartmouth College, agrees with that assessment, noting that he wouldn't be afraid to use Sakai as leverage with his vendor. But he says cost is secondary to functionality. An admittedly happy Blackboard customer (he had zero downtime on his course management system last term), he says that the school is nevertheless keeping an eye on Sakai to see if it can provide a better product than the commercial alternatives. "The promise of Sakai is that it's written by universities for universities," Brown says, noting that university developers should be more aware of the complex relationships that can grow between educators and IT. "It can be tough to make all [the instructors] conform" to an application, Brown says. "The platform needs to be customizable and nimble." And if Sakai can deliver on those needs, he says, Dartmouth would consider moving to its platform. But for now, he notes, "It's too early to see how this is going to play out."

Getting the bulk of educational institutions moved to a single platform would save money in another way as well. "If you can interchange content, you will sharply reduce the cost of instruction," Farmer says. For instance, "McGraw-Hill produces 24 versions of its materials to support all the electronic teaching systems," including Blackboard. "If they could reduce to one standard, they could cut the cost of their media support by 80%. Textbooks are expensive because faculty members are judging not just on textbooks themselves, but on the quality of the other materials available for their online courses." Sakai, if widely adopted, would provide that single platform.