I have mixed feelings on the subject, but I think there is some merit in somebody maintaining a list somewhere. As now, it should not be any type of certification by the Koha community or a partner program, but for non-users researching Koha, a link to a list would be quite helpful, and better than relying on Google (which promotes paid listings). I just googled "koha" and the first item on the list? koha.org. A pie diagram unfairly penalizes smaller companies, perhaps with only a few individuals who could still provide excellent installation and support services, but don't have the staff to have 1,000 commits. While I realize I have left dangling "somebody maintaining a list somewhere", a list of Koha providers associated with the broad Koha community has value. Greg ------------------------------------ On 07/01/2015 09:06 AM, Tomas Cohen Arazi wrote:
The subject is self-explanatory. But I'll try to explain my position a bit further.
The project doesn't have a partner program, so being listed there only means you are listed.
What is the benefit for people listed? I would say marketing and/or some SEO advantage (Liz told me there are counter measures applied so it is not used for SEO). Some places, notably India and others, expect some kind of official certification for service providers, and people are referring to being listed on the site as a way to certify their validation as service providers.
I think this hurts the project, because people tend to trust some quality degree is assured if companies are listed, which we cannot certify; and also makes community members spend a lot of time reviewing people's sites, with try/error iterations very often [1].
I propose we replace the current listing with (a) nothing or (b) some pie diagram with companies/institutions contributions (git log, or what best addresses the need) to the project.
I would vote (a). If there is some consensus that contributing companies/institutions should have some public recognition by the community, then we can do (b). How companies position themselves on the market is not something the community needs to address, but the company's challenge. [2]
Kind regards Tomas
[1] I'm pretty sure we can write a script that generates different valid sites that should be accepted for the list, so I find depressing that people doesn't even do the effort to comply with the simple rules we have put. [2] Unless we start an official partner program, but I'm sure we are still far from that. If you want to actually be part of the Koha community and be recognized, do something for the project, write a valuable article for the newsletter, contribute an enhancement, actively report and/or fix bugs, organize Koha promoting events: Get involved.