Opencast starting talks with Linux Foundation Europe as a future umbrella organisation to retrace the increasingly European focus of the community
Initiated by UC Berkeley, Opencast started life in 2007 as a project of a group of universities with a shared interest in educational video. The group matured into a community who developed and released Opencast as open source software, and in 2016, joined the Apereo Foundation as a member project. Apereo is a global non-profit advancing open source software in higher education.
On a day-to-day level, Opencast follows a community governance model shared by many open source projects, with development led by a group of committers, and project co-ordination managed through the Opencast Board. On a legal and financial level, Opencast’s membership of the Apereo has meant that the Apereo Foundation is the copyright holder of Opencast code for licensing purposes, and Opencast’s financial transactions are managed by Apereo on behalf of the project.
Over time, the centre of gravity of Opencast adoption and development has shifted to Europe, while recognizing Opencast has a global footprint with key contributors and developers also located in Canada, the US, (South) Africa and the Asia-Pacific. Community events, projects and cooperations, services, and financial transactions therefore became more European. This has prompted the Opencast Board to explore how to best align the mechanisms for directing financial support from European-based university contributors to software service providers and vendors.
After carefully evaluating several options, the Opencast Board has resolved to shift our institutional home from the Apereo Foundation to the Linux Foundation Europe. As part of this process, we also engaged in open dialogue with Apereo leadership to ensure a smooth and respectful transition. This change preserves Opencast’s community-based open source model, and is unlikely to have any direct impact for most Opencast adopters or contributors.
The Opencast Board recognizes and affirms the valuable work being led by the Apereo Foundation in positioning open source as a key strategic enabler for higher education, especially in a time of growing concern about data sovereignty and the importance of shaping technology to serve the broad interests of society. We intend to maintain active ties with Apereo in areas of shared interest, and encourage universities to retain their ties with Apereo in support of Apereo’s broader mission to support open source in higher education.
The Board will be co-ordinating a migration process from Apereo to our new parent over several months. If you have any questions about this process and how it might impact your involvement in or contribution to Opencast, please contact Olaf A. Schulte, Opencast Board Chair.
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