I responded to a private email from Kebede earlier, perhaps he/she has not yet received my email ... I'll repost it here. Pat Eyler Kaitiaki/manager migrant Linux sys admin the Koha project ruby, shell, and perl geek http://www.koha.org http://pate.eylerfamily.org ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2004 12:04:23 -0500 (EST) From: Pat Eyler <pate@eylerfamily.org> To: Kebede Hundie <khundie@bca.bw> Subject: Re: Koha On Tue, 20 Jan 2004, Kebede Hundie wrote:
Dear Pat Yeller,
Hello Kebede, I've added Rachel Hamilton-Williams (Hi Rach!) to this email, as she's the head of the largest firm commercially supporting Koha (and the firm which originally developed it.)
My name is Kebede Hundie, working as Systems Librarian for several years in several African countries. I have a Masters degree in information science and Bachelors degree in library science. Originally, I am from Ethiopia.
Having briefly introduced myself to you, I would like to inquiry about Koha free ILS. I have read an article on Linux Journal, Feb. 2003 as well as looked at the Koha website, where I first learnt about the software. And I have been so much impressed with the whole thing about Koha and people who involved in developing and supporting the system.
Thanks for the kind words. It sounds like you have an excellent background for getting involved and contributing to Koha.
I would like to ask you about the sustainability of the system, like further versions, supports, its future whether it may be a commercial system after certain period of time or discontinued.
The GPL (the license used for Koha) is interesting in that it allows Koha to be used/sold/supported commercially right now, while keeping the software free for people to use, to share, and to improve. The license also protects the software from being discontinued -- because it is free, a library can hire anyone they want to support or improve it (even taking on those roles themselves if they so desire).
I am asking this because I am very much interested in providing support to local libraries in Africa, particularly, Eastern and Central Africa, where most libraries are unable to pay for commercial systems. I am also very much interested in marketing the system to libraries in the region so that they will be able to benefit from this free software. That is why I want to know about its future!
This sounds like an excellent venture! Do you think you'll be working alone, or do you have other people who might work with (or for) you? I think trying to 'go it alone' would be difficult, especially in such a large but undeveloped part of the world.
The other thing is, how can I be a "support" center for the software in the above region? What are required from me?
Well, I can't *require* you to do anything. I'd ask that you do a couple of things: * Subscribe to the koha-devel and koha mailing lists. These will help you become involved in the Koha community and give you some perspective on what problems Koha users typically face. * Participate in the development community. This may mean doing some development work (either adding features or fixing bugs) which your clients are interested in, working on translating Koha into appropriate languages, and/or helping design (and maybe implement) major new features. * Help to publicize Koha to both libraries and to technical people in your area. You'll find that it is much easier to keep Koha going when there are several of you working on it in your area. It would also be great if you could let us know what is happening with Koha in Africa. Sometimes, we might be able to provide the advice/help/resources that you need. At other times, news of your progress might be the good news we need to hear. thank you for contacting me, I hope that we'll be working together a lot more in the future. Pat Eyler
Any additional information, should I know.
Kind regards, Kerbed Hun
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