Pat Eyler wrote:

Hello, I thought I'd take a moment to share some success that we've had (and some less than successful efforts we've made), and ask what other methods people have used and how they've worked.

We started french and german language mailing lists for Koha tranlsation/development effort in August. The french list has taken off (growing to ~30 subscribers with ~25 posts/week); the german list has not (~4 subscribers, ~2 messages/week). We've also had on again/off again interest in a couple of other languages.

I think that the keys to the french language success have been: translating publicity -- my bi-weekly newsletter is being translated into french and distributed by members of the mailing list. getting the word out -- some of the french speaking folk are actively talking up Koha within their milieu working together -- I wish I could read french ... I see several threads of discussion running on the list. It certainly looks like they're working together to solve problems.

The Koha project has also been growing as well. As with the french group, I think the key has been building a community. My biggest role as Kaitiaki has been trying to get in front of people. So far, we've been fairly successful in parlaying Press Releases and my newsletter into mentions on blogs, bigger articles in on-line magazines (LinuxPlanet, Gnu-Friends, and Biblio-Tech), and interest from people who'd not seen koha before. We're hoping to make a succesful jump into conferences, expos, and users group presentations over the next 3-6 months.

Which of these things have you been using? How have they worked for you? What other methods have you been using that I've missed? Is there a way that we can share the fruits of these efforts? I'd certainly be happy to use Koha announcements to shine some light on MARC::Record, or other OSS4Lib efforts. I'd hope that other projects would be willing to cooperate as well.

What do you think?

Hi, Here is Paul, french-developper of koha. I agree with what Pate said, and just wanted to add some testimony. I'm the first being impressed by the success we have with koha. In fact, I think we had a big chance : * 1st, a developper (me !) that really wants to get involved in the project and has time for this. * 2nd, a librarian, very well knowing the spirit of free-software and interested in koha. I started to work alone on koha, for a christian library (and for free), and Nicolas has found me by himself... and the community growed... Thanks to him for lobying action, and "advertising" on some friends and french-ml, and thanks to me that is ready to answer french questions, and be careful with french developement. About the french mailing list : we speak of 3 things : * Answer to questions about koha v1.2.x (actual ones) * Ideas for the 1.4 version (the MARC one, note i'm the release manager of this version) * Asking and Assigning work on french version (for example : french website has been translated and is being reread by members of the list, and 4 differents persons are working on french UNIMARC parameter tables) Note : at the moment, our biggest goal is to try to convince ENSSIB to get involved in koha. What is ENSSIB ? It's the french national school for librarians... If we succeed, 1st, we will get some funds (I hope ;-) ), 2nd it will be a BIG recognition for koha in France. -- Paul koha Release Manager 1.4