Unicon, Inc., the leading provider of open source enterprise portals, applications, and top end technology consulting for higher education, today announced the Unicon Cooperative Support Program for uPortal has developed and contributed over 40 new uPortal enhancements to the open source JASIG community from July 2007 through May 2008. The development contributions include technical fixes, feature enhancements and improvements, along with completely new functions and capabilities. Unicon currently has 34 academic institution members in its Cooperative Support Program for uPortal. In addition to receiving expert technical assistance for their uPortal instance, members vote on and prioritize fixes and features most needed and desired for their enterprise campus portal.
Unicon's Cooperative Support Program is a commercial support program that provides member institutions with many benefits including a predictable cost support solution. The program provides a dedicated team of expert development and technical support specialists for uPortal for direct technical support and assistance. All development work and fixes performed by the team for individual institutions are contributed back and shared with the uPortal community.
"Unicon's Cooperative Support Program provides us with top notch commercial support for our open source enterprise portal solution, and also gives us a forum for networking with other institutions that share the same goals," said Duran Goodyear, Web Developer, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. "As a member, I also like that we are able to vote on and influence which enhancements and fixes are done first under the program."
"Unicon's Cooperative Support Program for uPortal is an example of an open source commercial business model that works for everyone," said Jonathan Markow, JASIG Executive Director. "In the relatively short time it has been in operation, the program has grown to benefit the company, to meet a real need among participating uPortal institutions, and to provide a productive source of expertise for the good of the community at large."
Unicon Cooperative Support Program for uPortal Members Include:
â— Brooklyn College-City University of New York
â— Heartland Community College
â— Jacksonville University
â— Sault College
â— Shenandoah University
â— South Dakota State University
â— Southwestern University
â— Tacoma Community College
â— Trinity University
â— University of the Arts, Philadelphia
â— University of California, Merced
About Unicon's Cooperative Support Program
Participation in the program requires an annual subscription fee that enables institutions to access the support services and also funds a dedicated support and development team. Support issues are managed on a priority basis with guaranteed service level agreements and an escalation mechanism for top priority issues. All development work performed by the team will be done in direct participation with the open source uPortal community. The Cooperative Support Program for uPortal is a strong complement to Unicon's other services for uPortal which include various bundles comprised of implementation, project planning, installation, configuration, branding, and training components.
About Unicon
Unicon, Inc. is the leading independent provider of open-source frameworks, applications and professional services for the online campus. Unicon delivers enterprise portal, collaboration, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions worldwide. The company is a Sakai Commercial Affiliate for the community source Collaboration and Learning Environment and also a commercial affiliate of the uPortal open source Web portal initiative. Unicon strives to base its solutions on open-source technology for increased productivity and reduced costs. Unicon also provides a full complement of professional consulting, training and support services. More information about Unicon, Inc. is available at www.unicon.net.
Unicon is a Registered Trademark of Unicon, Inc. All other product or service names are the property of their respective owners.
