OSAF receives $98,000 grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

[Ben Teitelbaum <>]

With luck Chandler can evolve to exploit the SIP/SIMPLE call routing,
IM, and presence infrastructure we are working to deploy. -- ben

http://www.osafoundation.org/MellonAnnouncement_Mar-31-2003.htm

March 2003

We are pleased to announce that the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has
agreed to provide a $98,000 grant to fund a planning project to extend
OSAF's Chandler software application to meet the information
technology needs of higher education. The Open Source Applications
Foundation (OSAF) originally planned for its new Personal Information
Manager application to target individual and small-to-medium business
users that need a better tool to manage and share their email,
contacts, calendars and notes. Based on expressions of significant
interest from the higher education community, OSAF, with support of
the Mellon Foundation, is undertaking a study of how to address
administration, scalability, and security issues of that segment.

Chandler, comprising both a polished application itself and a platform
for developing information management applications, takes a fresh view
of email, calendar, contacts, and instant messaging functionality, and
features sophisticated information sharing based on easy,
server-optional networking. OSAF founder Mitchell Kapor said, "We're
committed to serving the broad base of users while also offering
advanced capabilities for the more expert user. Above all, we're
committed to keeping the end-users' interests and needs central to our
undertaking."

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
Mellon Foundation approached OSAF and encouraged us to explore the
possibility of extending Chandler's functionality so that it could be
successfully deployed and used in the higher educational setting. This
grant provides funding to determine the additional requirements as a
prelude for implementing a higher education version of
Chandler. Support for open source development from institutions like
the Mellon Foundation are significant in ensuring sustainability of a
non-profit open source endeavor like OSAF. Since the Chandler
application will be distributed for free OSAF actively seeks grants
and donations to provide sustained future development and support.

Mr. Kapor said, "We're excited about working with universities to meet
their needs with an open source solution and possibly expand the
capabilities of Chandler." 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 and announcements concerning this special fund, is available
on its website (http://www.mellon.org). The Foundation does not make
grants directly to individuals.

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 an $5 million commitment from
Mr. Kapor.

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