OS4Ed proudly announces the release of openSIS Version 4.2 for general availability.  Our team is very excited about this release and we are proud to continue our efforts to provide quality open solutions to education organizations around the world.  openSIS  Version 4.2 is a continuing demonstration of our commitment to the education community.  We are grateful for your interest and support and have many new exciting features and enhancements detailed in the announcement below.  We have some other exciting developments that are nearing completion.  Later in November, we will have some news about School Interoperability Framework (SIF) and openSIS, so keep an eye on your email for this exciting development. 

We also would like to welcome to the openSIS family the following new clients:

l        Catholic Academies

l        The State of Oregon

l        South Plains College

l        Adventist International School

Also, for this release openSIS goes to the community as free and open.  openSIS 4.2 is deployed through Eduforge for open source development.  There will be no registration required and community members will be free to add functionality to openSIS. 

We have some specific functionality requests from the community and will soon be starting a developers mailing list to all work together to accomplish these needs.  In addition to the mailing list, we will be adding some Web 2.0 tools to further build community and encourage collaboration among our users and clients.  Look for these changes to come over the remainder of 2008.

Thanks again for your support and we hope you find that openSIS Version 4.2 continues to help meet your needs in student information systems.

Casey Adams

President, OS4Ed

November 4, 2008 - openSIS Version 4.2 General Availability Release

OS4Ed announces the release of openSIS 4.2 for general availability.  Version 4.2 was developed exclusively in Ubuntu 8.04 and tested on both Ubuntu and Windows.  All new features and enhancements are detailed in the Release Notes in the code base available for download.  This version of openSIS focuses on 4 core areas:

1. Stability – Our highest priority in this release is to provide a stable application that users can be  confident in using day in and day out for their student management needs.  Extensive testing has been done with production clients and hundreds of improvements have been implemented in this version.  Included in the installation download are step by step guides for installing openSIS and setting it up for first time use on Linux and Windows so new users get off to a good start.
2. Usability – Many interfaces of openSIS have been redesigned to make the application more intuitive and easier to use.  We have  added several new fields based on feedback from clients who have been using openSIS.  The student information section has been completely redesigned with a complete overhaul of the Address tab.
3. Reports – All reports in openSIS have been completely redesigned to provide professional clean looking reports ready to print.  Pagination and other features have been added to ensure that reports print correctly and on individual pages where required.
4. Validation – Efforts continue here with new validation and protection measures to help clients enter good data and prevent costly mistakes that can arise from deletions.  Easy to understand messages are returned for validation and attempted deletions that help clients understand exactly why the program will not execute the specific action.

openSIS Version 4.2 is a significant milestone for OS4Ed and continues our commitment and growing tradition of providing free quality open source applications to the global education community.  Visit the openSIS website for more information. 

Like many people, I have a profile on Linkedin.com and I have a few recommendations. I didn’t full understand LinkedIN and the potential it had for me until I learned about the groups. LinkedIN groups offer individuals the ability to join a larger body of people interested in the same subjects as you. You can start discussion in your groups, email members, etc.

Somebody commented on one of my blogs today that having to register for free SW applications and solutions was not open and it was just plain wrong. Why? In registration, you are asked to provide some information. Why? So the people who are working hard to GIVE you your free application can communicate with you, can get feedback and can inform of you new developments.

I was speaking with a professor from LSU recently about efforts to reform schools where students were not making advancement. We both agreed that the institution of education in America is essentially broken in many ways. And while our discussion was great and heartfelt, I came away from it with no real new ideas about how to fix a broken bureaucratic institution. There are so many obstacles that I surrender to defeat very time I think about ways that can be adopted to achieve widespread school improvement.