[Koha] Some more thoughts to add.

[Brendan Gallagher]

Hi All --
Greetings from ByWater Solutions! I hope everyone had a great weekend  
and mother’s day. I love the passion I have seen on this post over  
the past few days. Although we are relatively new in the community we  
are completely dedicated to Koha and wanted to weigh in on the  
conversation.
In regards to the pay-for-support listing page; I vote that the  
companies be listed by location, which can either be implemented by a  
linkable map or just listed by region. However, I also truly believe  
that this should not be solely decided by the vendors and developers  
of Koha, but by the users as well. They are the ones whom are going  
through the arduous task of deciding which company, if any, to choose  
to lead them through the task of migrating to a new ILS. Another  
reason for this belief is that as per human nature, whomever controls  
that page will have self (company)- interest in mind, whether intended  
or not.
I also have a question about the Koha-manage list. What are the  
qualifications to be on this list? I've sent several requests to join,  
to no avail, and I have never received an answer as to why? My company  
is listed as a pay-for-support option and we are heavily invested in  
supporting the community. To me, having exclusivity to a list where  
many of the decisions being made for the community are done seems  
against the whole community/ open-source ideal. For example, the  
discussion of how to list the pay-for-support companies was completed  
and decided on that chain and then changed on the community koha.org  
website. The escalation surrounding this issue may have been prevented  
if all of the members in the community, some of whom this directly  
affected, were allowed to be part of the discussion.
I think many of us in the Koha community will be interested to see if  
any of these discussions, suggestions and ideas actually yield any  
results. As of right now it seems to be self-serving, as we have yet  
to see any changes. Every community feels growing pains when it comes  
to evolution and change, but only the successful ones foster open  
discussion, hold each member in esteem, and have leaders who can chose  
the path of humility when change is needed. I sincerely hope we can  
take that path and look back at the issues we have now, and will have  
in the future, as inevitable speed bumps on the road to success.  
ByWater Solutions has not yet had the opportunity to contribute major  
developments or groundbreaking answers to problems in the community,  
but I hope my comments will still be taken seriously regardless.
Thanks, merci, gracias, tēnā rawa atu koutou.
-Brendan

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Brendan A. Gallagher
ByWater Solutions
CEO, Director of Innovation
Support and Consulting for Open Source Software
Installation, Data Migration, Training, Customization, Hosting,  
Complete Support Packages
Headquarters: Santa Barbara, CA - Office: West Haven, CT
Phone # (203)823-5847
http://bywatersolutions.com
info at bywatersolutions.com
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