How to know libraries that use Koha?
Hi, It may be interesting to know the number of libraries that use Koha in a country, in particular to defend collective interests of users of Koha. But, because Koha is a (really free and really good) open source project, it can be difficult to know them. There is local or national communities, but no one is forced to enroll, fortunately. Two non-exclusive possibilities can be used to know that, but it implies an intervention of koha-community.org. - The first one is declarative: during Koha installation or later, it can be suggested to the librarian to inform koha-community.org via a form in Koha. - The second is automatic: add a little script in Koha (five to ten lines) that check the current version number of the release, so koha-community.org can check and geolocalize logs and build a map of all implantations in the world. It can be used to inform librarians too that its Koha installation needs update or upgrade, in particular when there are security alerts. In fact, this is a mechanism used by many CMS. For example, on the homepage of http://drupal.org, we can know the number of installations in the world and their location. It uses simply a mechanism that checks the current version and security alerts via a little file containing last release numbers on the central server. Is there a project to implement such things? Sincerely, Daniel Berthereau
Hello Daniel, Not all Koha installations are done or used online. We still would not know the exact number of installations. Olugbenga Adara Skype: gbengaadara Blog: http://gbengaadara.blogspot.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/gbengaadara Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/gbengaadara ----- Original Message -----
From: Daniel Berthereau <Daniel.koha@Berthereau.net> To: "Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz" <koha@lists.katipo.co.nz> Cc: Sent: Thursday, July 4, 2013 7:07 AM Subject: [Koha] How to know libraries that use Koha?
Hi,
It may be interesting to know the number of libraries that use Koha in a country, in particular to defend collective interests of users of Koha. But, because Koha is a (really free and really good) open source project, it can be difficult to know them. There is local or national communities, but no one is forced to enroll, fortunately.
Two non-exclusive possibilities can be used to know that, but it implies an intervention of koha-community.org. - The first one is declarative: during Koha installation or later, it can be suggested to the librarian to inform koha-community.org via a form in Koha. - The second is automatic: add a little script in Koha (five to ten lines) that check the current version number of the release, so koha-community.org can check and geolocalize logs and build a map of all implantations in the world. It can be used to inform librarians too that its Koha installation needs update or upgrade, in particular when there are security alerts. In fact, this is a mechanism used by many CMS. For example, on the homepage of http://drupal.org, we can know the number of installations in the world and their location. It uses simply a mechanism that checks the current version and security alerts via a little file containing last release numbers on the central server.
Is there a project to implement such things?
Sincerely,
Daniel Berthereau
_______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On 5 July 2013 06:20, Olugbenga Adara <gbengaadara@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Daniel,
Not all Koha installations are done or used online. We still would not know the exact number of installations.
Or they could send me a library card to put on the wall https://secure.flickr.com/photos/ranginui/8402095633/ Seriously though, a button they could click might be ok, the phone home option I don't like much at all. It would totally have to be opt in I feel Oh, and do please send more library cards for the wall :) Chris
* Chris Cormack (chris@bigballofwax.co.nz) wrote:
On 5 July 2013 06:20, Olugbenga Adara <gbengaadara@yahoo.com> wrote:
Hello Daniel,
Not all Koha installations are done or used online. We still would not know the exact number of installations.
Or they could send me a library card to put on the wall https://secure.flickr.com/photos/ranginui/8402095633/
Seriously though, a button they could click might be ok, the phone home option I don't like much at all. It would totally have to be opt in I feel
Oh, and do please send more library cards for the wall :)
Whoops that wasn't the most recent photo https://secure.flickr.com/photos/ranginui/8486024505/ Chris -- Chris Cormack Catalyst IT Ltd. +64 4 803 2238 PO Box 11-053, Manners St, Wellington 6142, New Zealand
On 4 July 2013 21:20, Chris Cormack <chris@bigballofwax.co.nz> wrote:
Seriously though, a button they could click might be ok, the phone home option I don't like much at all. It would totally have to be opt in I feel
I think an opt-in system would be cool. There is already an enhancement bug for this: Bug 6293 - Add a button to the intranet for registering with the Koha community http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6293 There is even a wiki page for collecting related ideas: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Add_a_button_to_the_intranet_for_registe... Best regards, Magnus Enger libriotech.no
To the Koha community, Please keep in mind that I am also very interested in maintaining a comprehensive representation of the libraries that use Koha in the lib-web-cats directory of Library Technology Guides. This directory is used quite frequently by those interested in making comparisons among the library automation software options available. While having a list for the benefit of the Koha community internally has great benefits, being represented in lib-web-cats helps document the global impact of Koha to a broader audience. Lib-web-cats currently lists 2,184 libraries using Koha, which I know is incomplete: http://www.librarytechnology.org/libraries.pl?ILS=Koha http://www.librarytechnology.org/map.pl?ILS=Koha I'm aware of http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Koha_Users_Worldwide and I occasionally check the installations mentioned on it to be sure that they are in lib-web-cats. It would be helpful if any opt-in registration function built into Koha might also send a notification to lib-web-cats so that it can also be added to that directory. Apart from any potential automated mechanism, any library using Koha that is not already listed can register it on lib-web-cats manually, or simply send me a note by e-mail for it to be added. Thanks to all for your consideration. -marshall Marshall Breeding Editor, Library Technology Guides www.librarytechnology.org Marshall.breeding@librarytechnology.org twitter.com/mbreeding -----Original Message----- From: koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz [mailto:koha-bounces@lists.katipo.co.nz] On Behalf Of Magnus Enger Sent: Friday, July 05, 2013 3:07 AM To: Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz Subject: Re: [Koha] How to know libraries that use Koha? On 4 July 2013 21:20, Chris Cormack <chris@bigballofwax.co.nz> wrote:
Seriously though, a button they could click might be ok, the phone home option I don't like much at all. It would totally have to be opt in I feel
I think an opt-in system would be cool. There is already an enhancement bug for this: Bug 6293 - Add a button to the intranet for registering with the Koha community http://bugs.koha-community.org/bugzilla3/show_bug.cgi?id=6293 There is even a wiki page for collecting related ideas: http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Add_a_button_to_the_intranet_for_registe... Best regards, Magnus Enger libriotech.no _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org Koha@lists.katipo.co.nz http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
On 05/07/13 14:08, Marshall Breeding wrote:
Please keep in mind that I am also very interested in maintaining a comprehensive representation of the libraries that use Koha in the lib-web-cats directory of Library Technology Guides. This directory is used quite frequently by those interested in making comparisons among the library automation software options available. While having a list for the benefit of the Koha community internally has great benefits, being represented in lib-web-cats helps document the global impact of Koha to a broader audience.
lib-web-cats aren't comprehensive because they do not even try to represent the richness of relationships between libraries, their suppliers and each other. Anyone looking to the cats to make comparisons is making a choice which is obvious, simple and wrong - I think librarians are smart enough to do better than that, because that limitation is now fairly well discussed in the koha archives: http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Koha-Usage-Examples-td5740430.html#message... http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Fwd-Web4lib-Request-to-participate-in-2010... http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/ILS-Perceptions-survey-Marshall-Breeding-t...
It would be helpful if any opt-in registration function built into Koha might also send a notification to lib-web-cats so that it can also be added to that directory.
If lib-web-cats were available under a FOSS licence, I'd be OK with that. The middle link above has mbreeding refusing to publish under a FOSS licence in 2010, but I hope maybe things are different in 2013 and maybe the lib-web-cats go free now? In general, I agree with other commenters that this should be very opt-in, rather than any sneaky automatic phone home. I'd also like it to be offered to the first superlibrarian with something like an "Ask me later" checkbox rather than in the installers, so we hosting and installation providers don't have to make the choice for libraries. Thanks, -- MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op http://koha-community.org supporter, web and library systems developer. In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html Available for hire (including development) at http://www.software.coop/
participants (7)
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Chris Cormack -
Chris Cormack -
Daniel Berthereau -
Magnus Enger -
Marshall Breeding -
MJ Ray -
Olugbenga Adara