OSAF receives $2.75 million in grants

You can see the formatted version of this announcement on the OSAF 
website at:
http://www.osafoundation.org/MellonAnnouncement_Sep-26-2003.htm

==========================
OSAF receives $2.75 million in grants
==========================

September 2003

------------------------------------------------------------------------

We are very pleased to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and 
the 25 university members of the Common Solutions Group (CSG) have 
agreed to provide OSAF a total of $2.75 million in grants. These funds 
will allow OSAF to extend the functionality of the Chandler software 
application to meet the information technology needs of higher education.

“I am thrilled with the financial support from the Mellon Foundation and 
the CSG universities.” said Mitchell Kapor, Chairman of the Open Source 
Applications Foundation (OSAF). “These generous contributions from both 
public and private institutions represent a new funding model for open 
source software development and provide a significant contribution 
toward ensuring sustainability of a non-profit open source endeavor like 
OSAF. With these grants, OSAF will now have the resources to extend 
Chandler to meet the requirements of higher education.”

Chandler is taking a fresh view of calendar, email, contacts, and 
instant messaging functionality, and will feature sophisticated 
information sharing based on easy, server-optional networking. Inspired 
by expressions of significant interest from the higher education 
community, OSAF began working with the members of the CSG to determine 
how to address their desire for open source standards-based calendaring 
solutions, as well as interoperability, scalability and security 
requirements.

The Mellon Foundation initially provided a $98,000 grant 
<http://www.osafoundation.org/MellonAnnouncement_Mar-31-2003.htm> in 
March 2003 to investigate whether Chandler could be extended to meet 
higher education needs. That study determined the additional 
requirements 
<http://www.osafoundation.org/Chandler_in_higher_ed_TOC_3002_05_13.htm> 
for implementing a higher education version of Chandler. The current 
grants -- $1.5 million from the Mellon Foundation and $1.25 million from 
the 25 university members of the CSG – which supplement OSAF’s initial 
funding of $5 million, will enable OSAF to complete the development of 
this additional functionality for Chandler by the end of 2005.

One of the Universities that OSAF has been working with is the 
University of Washington. Oren Sreebny, Assistant Director of Computing 
& Communications, is excited about the prospects of an open source 
shared personal information manager tailored for higher education use. 
“Having a freely distributable, open source PIM that will support 
relevant standard protocols and connect to our existing enterprise 
systems will be a tremendous help in our institution. The campus has 
been trying for years to find good solutions for integrating calendaring 
and messaging that can really be supported for hundreds of thousands of 
users in scalable and cost-effective ways. We look forward to working 
with the great OSAF staff to achieve these goals."

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is a private foundation, with assets of 
approximately $4 billion, which makes grants on a selective basis to 
institutions in higher education; museums and art conservation; 
performing arts; population; conservation and the environment; and 
public affairs. Information about the Foundation, including its annual 
reports, is available on its website (http://www.mellon.org). The 
Foundation does not make grants directly to individuals.

The Mellon Foundation currently provides grants in several areas, 
including Research in Information Technology. This program seeks 
research and development initiatives intended to create new ways in 
which information technologies, and particularly digital technologies, 
can benefit scholarship and research, teaching, and learning.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Common Solutions Group, (CSG) is a set of leading universities and 
mid-level networks working together to create a common infrastructure 
and toolset required for the future of our institutions. Where feasible, 
these common solutions are provided by commercial providers under 
contract to the CSG universities. Where commercial solutions are 
infeasible, highly talented individuals from participating CSG 
universities are commissioned to provide them. The Common Solutions 
Group sponsors CSG projects, which provide technology tracking and 
implementation functions.

CSG institutions include: Brown University, Carnegie Mellon University, 
Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Duke 
University, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Indiana 
University, MIT, Pennsylvania State University, Princeton University, 
Stanford University, University of California - Berkeley, University of 
Chicago, University of Colorado - Boulder, University of Delaware, 
University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, 
University of Texas at Austin, University of Virginia, University of 
Washington, University of Wisconsin - Madison, Yale University.

Information on CSG can be found on their website (http://www.stonesoup.org).

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Open Source Applications Foundation (OSAF) is a non-profit 
foundation set up in 2001 by Lotus Development Corporation founder, 
Mitchell Kapor to create and gain wide adoption for software 
applications of uncompromising quality using open source methods. Its 
first product, code-named 'Chandler', will be used to manage email, 
appointments, contacts, and tasks and easily allow information to be 
shared with friends, family, and colleagues. As an open source 
application it will be free and will run on the Windows, Macintosh and 
Linux platforms. OSAF operates with a staff of 15 employees and 
volunteers and was funded initially by a $5 million commitment from Mr. 
Kapor.

Information on OSAF <http://www.osafoundation.org/index.htm> and the 
Chandler development plans 
<http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Main/ProductRoadmap> can be 
found at (http://www.osafoundation.org 
<http://www.osafoundation.org/index.htm>).



-- 
===============
Pieter Hartsook

Marketing Specialist
Open Source Applications Foundation
415 946-3033 wk
510 928-9783 cell


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