[Koha] Koha demo links on koha.org

[Thomas Dukleth]

While it is certainly inappropriate for the only linked demonstrations to
not include running community versions of the code, I agree with Nicole
Engard in not asking for the removal of LibLime demonstration links, at
least at this time.  Rather than merely encouraging links to many
demonstrations from particular support companies, I suggest that the
support companies volunteer and/or co-operate in producing some especially
good community demonstrations which are not an advertisement for any
particular support company.  The French demonstrations at the French Koha
website, http://www.koha-fr.org/ , are run by BibLibre but they do not
contain anything which could be construed as an advertisement for
BibLibre.

Community demonstrations which do not advertise support services via
logins, URLs, or other means should be listed first.  If some have an
interest in providing other demonstrations which may be of interest for
providing different configuration examples but may contain some subtle
advertisement then those should be listed afterwords with some appropriate
label separating them.

Removing the only demonstrations now would be counter-productive. 
Furthermore, we should not push LibLime further away from the rest of the
Koha community than they are taking themselves.  We should welcome any
change of stance that they might have on community participation in future
without holding anything against them.

There had been a time when the only English community demonstrations were
provided by LibLime and as long as no one else was offering any others it
was difficult to question their use as advertising for one particular
support company.  There are now other options and interested people should
put those forward.


Thomas Dukleth
Agogme
109 E 9th Street, 3D
New York, NY  10003
USA
http://www.agogme.com
+1 212-674-3783


On Thu, October 8, 2009 19:28, Nicole Engard wrote:
> Owen, I'd actually change that and say that the demo links shouldn't
> be removed - there are plenty of genuine Open Source Koha
> installations that can be used instead - I know that ByWater has some:
> http://bywatersolutions.com/content/category/4/21/42/
>
> Nicole
>
> On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 7:00 AM, Owen Leonard <oleonard at myacpl.org> wrote:
>> I think it's inappropriate for Koha.org to link to LibLime demos,
>> given the fact that LibLime's demo page explicitly showcases "LibLime
>> Enterprise Koha," a closed version of Koha which has not been shared
>> with the community. Demoing LEK is useless to those who wish to
>> participate in the Open Source Koha. I call on LibLime to either
>> provide direct links to genuine Open Source Koha installations or
>> remove the demo links.
>>
>>  -- Owen
>>
>> --
>> Web Developer
>> Athens County Public Libraries
>> http://www.myacpl.org
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>>
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