There was an interesting conversation in one of the sessions I attended, after a participant asked who is responsible for building the software we use in higher education.
Universities aren’t in the business of building software, so it seems reasonable to think that we’re not going to do this well. Companies and organisations are designed to build software, but they have a commercial interest that isn’t always aligned with the interests of universities. Open source organisations may have similar values to universities, and they may have the skillset to build software that would serve our needs, but few open source projects transition into building and maintaining long-term, sustainable communities.
There are also few organisations with the expertise and capital needed to build integrated systems that universities are looking for. Microsoft and Google spring to mind. If we wanted to build a digital infrastructure in my school, I don’t believe that we could do it with open-source software. And I’m a huge fan of open-source.
The vertical and horizontal integration of software products into coherent and stable ecosystems is a harder technical challenge than many people appreciate. I don’t know what the answer is, but I’m close to 100% sure that universities aren’t going to be the ones building the software they use to function.