E-mailSakai Foundation Fellows Program
Program Goals
The purpose of the Sakai Foundation Fellows Program is to acknowledge, celebrate and reward the contributions of these important Sakai volunteer contributors. The Sakai Fellows program seeks to foster community leadership and contribution through recognizing and supporting active contributors. Contributors bring varied expertise to the community, including architecture, design and development of technology, best practices in teaching, learning, research and collaboration, and coordination of community functions. The purpose of the Sakai Foundation Fellows Program is to enable outstanding Sakai volunteer contributors and/or evangelists to continue and extend their involvement in Sakai, by providing material resources to support their work. The Sakai Fellows program will recognize such contributions and support the efforts of the Fellows through a modest stipend. The contributions of the Fellows will be showcased across the boundaries of the current work/discussion group structures of Sakai, offering a way for the entire community to be introduced to areas of the project that they may not follow closely, and providing a view to the public of the peer leaders' endeavors within the Sakai community.
Fellows Program
Six Fellows will be chosen annually for a one-year term. Fellows will be given a $2,500 stipend for the year with the intention that the stipend be used in Sakai-related activities, e.g., travel, equipment and professional development. The fellowships will run from Summer conference to Summer conference. The idea is that new fellows will be announced at the conference.
Prospective Sakai Fellows may be nominated by anyone within the Sakai Community or may self-nominate. The nominations should be merit-based, describing how the candidate has contributed in one of the many areas of importance to the Sakai community, including code development, pedagogy, evangelism, technology and interface design, conference development, interoperability, functional expertise, or community leadership. The focus of the nomination should be on what the Fellow has accomplished in the community already, and what he or she proposes to accomplish during the fellowship period. Past contribution isn't absolutely required, but is often a good indicator of future engagement. Fellows are not required to be based at a Sakai Foundation participating institution. This is to assure that the Fellows Program recognizes individual contributors. A letter of support from the Fellow's institution is desired to assure that the person will receive support for these activities during their Fellowship tenure.
Sakai Fellows will be selected by a small committee of Sakai community members. A member of the Sakai Board of Directors will sit on the committee as a liaison to the Board, and to facilitate any funding or policy discussions with the Board.
During their tenure, Fellows will be asked to speak at Sakai conferences, and will have their work featured on the Sakai website and through other channels of Sakai outreach and education. Fellows who wish to publish or offer white papers on their activities are encouraged to do so. Such whitepapers will be prominently displayed.
The activities of the Fellows will be largely self-directed, although the Foundation Executive Director and/or Foundation staff will help coordinate Fellows' activities and help with twice-yearly report-outs of their activities.
Commercial and/or foundation support for this program will be considered. Initial support will come from the Sakai Foundation.
