Unicon Participates in Four Sakai Technology Seminars at Community Source Week; Sessions Cover a Variety of Topics Ranging from Faculty Support to Advanced Tool Development

PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 24, 2006--Unicon Inc., the leading independent provider of enterprise portal, collaboration, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions, will be presenting and participating in four technical sessions based on the Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment at the Community Source Week Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia, from May 30, 2006 through June 2, 2006. The sessions are open to all attendees of the conference.

Unicon's Participation at Community Source Week

“ThomsonNOW on Sakai: Just what you need to know and do NOW”

Title: "The Sakai Framework - Six Fundamental Models"

An overview of the six models that make up the Sakai Framework and provide the basis for developing Sakai tools. The presentation is oriented toward developers who want to get a better idea of how to use the Sakai framework for tool development.

Title: "Academus Open Campus - Technical Demonstration"

Unicon will demonstrate its Sakai Pilot program, Academus Open Campus. Academus Open Campus allows institutions to easily and affordably develop, run, and evaluate a fully functional Sakai Collaboration and Learning Environment.

Title: "Faculty Support on Sakai" - Unicon is one of four panelists

Different types of campuses have varying levels of expertise in instructional technology amongst faculty. This panel presents four approaches to training and faculty support on their campuses.

Title: "ThomsonNOW on Sakai: Just what you need to know and do NOW"

This presentation will review how Thomson Higher Education is addressing the needs of the Sakai community through its ThomsonNOW on Sakai solution. Thomson is collaborating with both Optimized Learning and Unicon for Sakai integration.

Primary Speakers for Unicon and Sakai Presentations

Speaker Bio: Mark Norton of Nolaria Consulting

Mark Norton is the senior technical consultant of Nolaria Consulting. Norton has been involved with Sakai since its start in early 2004 and has contributed to the formation of SEPP, Sakai architecture, tool development and training. He is currently assisting Unicon with their Academus Open Campus offering.

Speaker Bio: Patricia Wolfe of Unicon Inc.

Wolfe has more than 12 years of experience in corporate training and project management, working with companies such as Dell Computer, Motorola and Thomson Learning. Wolfe's expertise in Sakai extends from the instructor tool suite through Sakai functional administrator. Wolfe currently works with universities around the United States to deliver Sakai training and consulting services.

About Sakai

The Sakai software is a community source effort to develop a platform for innovation in collaboration, teaching and learning, and research support software. The Sakai Project's primary goal is to deliver the Sakai application framework and associated course management software (CMS) tools and components that are designed to work together. For more information visit www.sakaiproject.org.

About Unicon

Unicon is a provider of enterprise portal, collaboration, learning and integration technology for higher education institutions, and is the leading commercial supporter of the uPortal open source Web portal initiative. Unicon solutions are based on open source and community source technologies to increase productivity while reducing costs. The company is the developer of the Academus Enterprise Portal and Web Content Management Solution and creator of the Academus Open Campus Web site www.academusopencampus.com, which allows academic instructors and IT personnel to try new online technologies, products, and services in a low-cost and risk-free environment. Unicon is also a Sakai Commercial Affiliate. More information about Unicon Inc. is available at http://www.unicon.net/.