October 24, 2005
 
To colleagues and friends of SLN:
 
The SUNY Learning Network (SLN) is a program of Learning Environments in the Office of the Provost and Vice-Chancellor for Academic Affairs of SUNY. SLN has experienced a decade of remarkable success, growth and service to SUNY’s academic mission, serving over 100,000 enrollments on 40 SUNY campuses in 2004-2005.
 
SLN’s Learning Management System is a complex, robust, homegrown application on Lotus Notes/Domino. However, it faces a foreshortened horizon. At the same time, SLN is responsible for sustaining the programs it currently serves and to continue to thrive and grow along with the dynamic opportunities in online learning on our campuses and internationally. As a result, SLN must completely upgrade its technology and reconfigure the services around it.
 
In the last eighteen months, LE has mounted a broad, thorough and inclusive investigation into new technologies to support SLN’s programs and services, including the 2005 LE Task Force whose report forms the basis for the attached document, SLN Technology Strategy Report: Request for Public Comment (SLN RFPC). This document identifies a candidate solution that will integrate the open source application uPortal with best in class tools from other open source applications, including Sakai and LAMS. More importantly the SLN RFPC identifies an innovative approach to technology development, a strategy designed to keep SLN agile and responsive to SUNY needs while providing significant efficiencies, cost-savings, and assurances of continuity to our SUNY campuses.
 
We are asking for your comments about the Educational Appropriateness, Technological Feasibility, Risks and Opportunities that you see in our plan, as well things we may have missed. The purpose of the SLN RFPC is to gather sufficient refinement and specification for this plan from your feedback to create a Request for Proposals which LE hopes to issue shortly. To this end, we are asking for your comments along with those of other SUNY and external stakeholders, including open source and proprietary providers.
 
Please send your comments electronically to us no later than November 14, 2005 to rfc@sln.suny.edu.  We are further counting on you to inform faculty and students and other interested parties on your campus and to invite their feedback as well.
 
LE  is also staging a series of open forums at several SUNY sites in the next two weeks. Please refer to the attached open forum schedule.

Thank you in advance for your input. As always, I welcome your dialogue with us. Feel free to contact me with other comments or suggestions.
 
David Porush, Executive Director
SUNY Learning Environments
State University Plaza T-305
Albany, New York 12246
tel: 518 443-5389
fax: 518 443-5181
e-mail: david.porush@suny.edu