FAQ's

What is Open Source?

Open source software refers to programs for which the licenses allow users to:

  • freely access, install, and run the software for any purpose;
  • modify the original software;
  • redistribute copies of the original or modified programs;
  • share modifications with the community.

This is in sharp contrast to use of commercially developed software for which a licensing fee is required and user modifications are not permitted, or when changes are made by the campus IT staff and they are not supported.

What is Community Source?

Community source describes a model for the purposeful coordinating of work in a community. It is based on many of the principles of open source development efforts, but community source efforts rely more explicitly on defined roles, responsibilities, and funded commitments by community members than some open source development models.

What motivates interest in a project like Kuali?

There are two principle drivers: customizing to higher education needs, and retaining control of our own destiny through community ownership of the intellectual property rights.

But isn't Kuali based on financial software that IU developed for its own use?

Can other institutions adapt and customize it? Aren't too many things hardwired into the program? Kuali is based on the overall design of the IU software, not on the software itself. If we started with a blank piece of paper, the project could not be completed at this price tag. We're moving the proven design from an old technology base to a new one. Of course, everybody has wish lists. So an impressive Functional Council is working on the requirements, from both public and private institutions, with a separate set of representative specialists who scrutinize each module. Our architects and senior developers from all the institutions have been meeting intensively to work out the Kuali nervous system, abstracting the business rules and deciding what should go in which layer. A strength of the project is having input from the seven founding institutions.

What resources must an institution dedicate to adopting Kuali? Does Kuali call for more internal resources than a traditional commercial application?

As is, Kuali costs less than a commercial product. It takes a certain amount of expertise to install any software, and you can hire, rent or outsource that expertise, or even use an ASP [application service provider] model and buy the cycles "turnkey" from someone else. One advantage of open source is that it provides a marketplace for buying those services. You have more choices, not just the companies which have been certified in a product by that product's vendor. A number of commercial firms are now interested in providing Kuali services such as hosting, managing Unix boxes, or even providing a Tier One facility. Or, you may want to do all that yourself, but rent the specialists you need on an as-needed basis. Now that there's an open source option and nobody has the intellectual property advantage, there is a competitive market for these services, and the rates will be saner.

Will smaller institutions be able to use Kuali?

Kuali is designed for all Carnegie classes. All projects work with a diverse set of institutions to ensure specifications scale to both small and large, and public and private institutions.

What other licenses do you need to run Kuali? Do they diminish the independence from commercially licensed software?

Kuali software is licensed entirely as open source under the ECL 2.0. Further, Kuali software makes use of other free and open source software as noted in the Acknowledgments. In addition, anyone using the software will need to separately license other parts of the software stack such as the operating system, database, application server, etc. Kuali runs on a full open source reference stack that includes Linux, MySQL, Apache, and Tomcat.

Must an institution be a member of the Kuali group and contribute to the development project in order to be able to use the software?

Anyone may use Kuali software. It is freely available under an OSI certified open source license. Membership in the Foundation a choice many institutions make because the Foundation plays such an important role in coordinating the development of Kuali software and engaging our community. Membership dues pay for the many ways that the Foundation helps to make our community more effective such as the technology infrastructure, the community events like Kuali Days, and the Foundation staff who act as facilitators and coordinators among the development teams located all over the world.

What are the auditors going to say when I tell them we are switching to open source software?

That's a great argument for us, and Kuali started with a financial system so it was critical to address this. Indiana University has extremely rigorous financial controls and internal audit. Passing the internal audit scrutiny of Cornell, Michigan State, and San Joaquin Delta College in California, which is a tough state, should help bolster confidence that the software is being looked at carefully from the auditing standpoint.

Can I have access to your database tables, schema, and data relationships to access the customization we need to do?

ER diagrams for the released modules can be found here: https://test.kuali.org/confluence/display/KULDOC/Entity+Relationship+Diagrams+2