Dear All The Opencast board would like to inform the community that Mara Hancock has moved on from UC Berkeley to California College of the Arts, therefore giving up her position as chair of the board and as a board member. We are saddened about Mara's departure for she played a major role in establishing and advancing Opencast as an idea, a project, and a community.
Mara, interim director of ETS at the time, was the initiator of the Opencast movement in 2007 when she put out her feelers to learn how universities across the globe were managing the challenges of educational video. Initial talks soon led to workshops bringing together colleagues from a number of North American and European institutions to discuss the various efforts - and how to consolidate them. Mara succeeded in moving these gatherings towards an actual cooperation with the Matterhorn project, which we wouldn't have seen without her contribution towards organizing and funding this effort. With the release of Matterhorn and its subsequent adoption by academic institutions across the globe, her vision of providing HEI with a free, open source tool to produce and distribute academic video became a reality. We would therefore like to thank Mara for her initiative, her continuing support of the community and the project. We wish her all the best for her new position at the California College of the Arts and are hoping to see her back with us once she discovers the institution's need for a video management system... Luckily, we don't have to add anything about the project not being the same without her, as Mara has indicated her willingness to continue helping us on an advisory basis. With this in mind, the Opencast board has decided to leave vacant the position of the chair until the scheduled elections in September 2012, details of which will soon be announced. Where necessary, the board as a whole or the co-chair (Olaf A. Schulte) will act accordingly. UC Berkeley as a key institution to the Opencast Community and the Matterhorn project will remain committed on the Opencast board as well: Michelle Ziegmann has been invited by the board as additional board member with a one-year term as community evangelist - a position no one could deny she's the ideal candidate for. Feedback is welcome. Regards The Opencast Board _______________________________________________ Matterhorn mailing list [email protected] http://lists.opencastproject.org/mailman/listinfo/matterhorn To unsubscribe please email [email protected] _______________________________________________
