[Koha] LC, development, and flamewars

[Pat Eyler]

I'd like to chime in here before things get too hot.  The Koha community
is one where developers and user have been able to talk and work together,
and that has been one of the keys to making things work.

Both MJR and Ed have good points, which we should all try to remember.  We
don't need to get into a running battle here though.

LC is an important feature for Koha, and one that we'll be working on for
2.2.

Developers working on Koha need to make a living -- the more money they
get for working on Koha, the more work they *can* do on Koha.


Unless someone wants to either pitch in and help pay for LC (or some other
feature they'd like), or contribute to getting the work done through some
other means (see my previous email), why don't we get back to the business
of making Koha (the community and the software) really shine.

thanks,
-pate


Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki/manager               migrant Linux sys admin
the Koha project               ruby, shell, and perl geek
http://www.koha.org            http://pate.eylerfamily.org
On Tue, 23 Dec 2003 COURYHOUSE at aol.com wrote:

> you said: "unhelpful "we're not using
> koha" reply to a survey, cc'd to the developers (to annoy them?"
>
> Our reply: I believe we hit reply all on the mail page... whatever addresses
> were in there of course were cc'ed!  Why did we reply to the survey we were
> not using it (yet)? Please study it... We, as well as others that exist in the
> academic, scientific and technical community  use the library of congress
> numbers rather than Dewey to catalog our books in.
>
> Let us digress back into history further ... this was a feature that  had
> been requested ages ago,  most probably before you came on board and had slipped
> though the cracks.  Both the LC and  Dewey information is present in the MARC
> record, and at the expense of sounding harsh,  if you do not  know what a
> library of congress cataloging number is, and you are doing programming work on
> this project,  perhaps you should study up on it a bit.
>
> You mentioned.... "links to other projects"
>
> I believe  what you are referring to was he DYNIX Link... If you are not
> familiar with DYNIX you need to be. It is a very expensive product with many
> interesting features.  If you carefully read the message that included the DYNIX
> link  it was to offer  a look at the other part of the world you are personally
> attempting to involve yourself in. Only by examining all of the product
> offerings that are out there will you understand  what the state of the art is. This
> state of the art is what others that are  looking at library automation
> systems  look at also. As I had previously stated.... it is always a goal to meet
> or exceed what exists already... and HEY!( yep this one was a shout)  if you
> don;t study it you will continue along in a direction that you think  is
> reality but the rest of the world is examining he entire picture, not just what you
> are working on...
>
> Ed Sharpe archivist for SMECC
> On 2003-12-23 02:04:53 +0000 ed sharpe <esharpe at uswest.net> wrote:
>
> > perhaps we could also hope   that there are some programmers on this
> > project
> > for purely altruistic reasons and not trying to milk $$ from  each
> > line of
> > code....   sometimes things need to get done just for the pure reason
> > they
> > need to get done....
>
> I am quite uphappy about this email. I may as well write that "we
> could also hope that there are some librarians who work for purely
> altruistic reasons and not trying to milk $$ from each collection". We
> all know that programmers need money to live, just like librarians, so
> why be so hostile to the idea?
>
> Library free software interests me. There are some libraries which are
> real assets to their communities and could benefit from it, but I have
> no grant funding any more. I have to make money to live and koha-based
> projects are part of that. There is a lot of koha work that I do for
> free, including things that "need to get done" but no-one will pay
> for. I cannot afford to help everyone for free, so I pick a few things
> at a time which look like fun, good ideas and worthwhile. I hope that
> someone appreciates it, even if you don't.
>
> The paid work is on top of that, extra to the time that I would spend
> on koha anyway. If we've no paid work on koha, that time gets filled
> with other paid work because it has to be. Payment brings extra
> programmer time to koha. (Don't worry about my email writing: I type
> very quickly.) Those priorities are determined by what the payer
> wants, so if your idea doesn't get worked on for free and it's
> important to you, consider trying it commercially.
>
> Maybe smecc can't afford to do that. I can't find details about staff
> or funding on its web site. Off the top of my head, I can't recall
> what they contributed or offered to koha. A quick search for smecc on
> the lists gives the LoC request many times, including some BLOCK CAPS
> SHOUTING, links to other projects, and an unhelpful "we're not using
> koha" reply to a survey, cc'd to the developers (to annoy them?). I
> think people wanting free help need to be more open about their
> institution and reasons, and nicer to potential helpers. I suspect it
> will be the same with any of Pat's suggested groups. No-one donates to
> people who offend them, even a charity.
>
> > (remember folks to make it  print out the library of congress catalog
> > number
> > instead of the Dewey number it is  just  one field you are dealing
> > with! )
>
> I don't know/remember what's required for this. I probably won't do it
> unless I need it, because I've other things to do and it now makes me
> think of this unhappy exchange. I think you should reconsider your
> methods of motivating people. Maybe you can find out what has to be
> done and record it on bug report 498.
>
> --
> MJR/slef     My Opinion Only and possibly not of any group I know.
> Please http://remember.to/edit_messages on lists to be sure I read
> http://mjr.towers.org.uk/ gopher://g.towers.org.uk/ slef at jabber.at
>   Creative copyleft computing services via http://www.ttllp.co.uk/
> _______________________________________________
> Koha mailing list
> Koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
>