[Koha] First things first for a Koha foundation

[Nicole Engard]

Thanks Thomas for bringing this up - I haven't seen much discussion on
list about the options for forming a foundation and I think it is
important to note that for expediency sake we really need to align us
with an exisiting non profit to get the ball rolling.  Of your two
choices I think HLT is the best fit since they are library specific,
but I guess the results of the final survey (which I will finish when
I'm back home) will tell us what the majority want.

Nicole

On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 9:58 AM, Kyle Hall <kyle.m.hall at gmail.com> wrote:
> I agree completely. I will also be happy to donate kohademos.org to
> the Koha non-profit, when it is formed.
>
> Kyle
>
> http://www.kylehall.info
> Information Technology
> Crawford County Federated Library System ( http://www.ccfls.org )
>
>
>
>
> On Fri, Oct 9, 2009 at 12:51 PM, Thomas Dukleth <kohalist at agogme.com> wrote:
>> Reply inline:
>>
>> 1.  MINUTES TO RESOLVE BUT FIRST THINGS FIRST.
>>
>> Original Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha demo links on koha.org
>>
>> On Fri, October 9, 2009 14:12, Kyle Hall wrote:
>>> What we really need is fr.demo.koha.org, en.demo.koha.org, and so on.
>>> This would require Liblimes assistance, and we can ask, but I don't
>>> know how long it would take to set up.
>>
>> It would take only a few minutes to direct domains or subdomains to
>> something under community control.  We should move on with the business of
>> setting up a legal entity for the Koha project which can manage that and
>> receive funding.
>>
>>
>> 2.  FASTEST WAY TO ORGANISE OURSELVES.
>>
>> The fastest way to set up such an entity which can receive donations to
>> support what may be needed at least for an interim period is through
>> having a foundation held by HLT or SPI for a temporary period.  Setting up
>> an independent Koha project entity should also be done but would take
>> perhaps some months of discussions about bylaws which we could be
>> discussing while already having legal status via another organisation such
>> as HLT or SPI.
>>
>> An independent foundation now choice for which the majority voted in the
>> first poll perhaps without understanding the question or implication well
>> would delay matters because of all the discussion about bylaws and other
>> matters needed and which ought to occur before registering.  [There were
>> some problems with the design of the first poll which we should fix in
>> future by having wide community discussion of the drafting of any poll.]
>> Registering an independent entity with the government is easy and may take
>> little more than a couple of weeks.  More weeks may be required to obtain
>> certification of non-profit status.  Yet before all that one has to know
>> all the particulars of the registration and decide in what jurisdiction it
>> should be registered primarily which may take months to agree.
>>
>> I believe that I understand correctly that both HLT and SPI either already
>> have in SPI's case or within a few days can have in HLT's case a bank
>> account in the US and in Europe to receive monetary donations in the local
>> currency.  Receiving donations in the local currency would allow the
>> project to direct their use in that currency without any loss of value in
>> currency conversion.  HLT certainly already has a bank account to receive
>> donations in another local currency where there is significant interest in
>> the project.  HLT is certainly the most flexible.
>>
>> I favour HLT because of their greater flexibility and commitment to the
>> Koha project from its very inception.  SPI has much better governance
>> rules which we could discuss adopting or adapting for ourselves as an
>> organisation held by another organisation and later as an independent
>> organisation.  HLT's charter grants them perhaps a little too much
>> flexibility and the Koha community should expect a legal guarantee from
>> them to take on the full trust of the community.  They have demonstrated
>> over the years their complete willingness to not try to exert any undue
>> influence on the project for any private interests of their library.
>> Combining that implicit trust with a guarantee for the Koha community
>> gives me great confidence.
>>
>> I might be persuaded that SPI is a better choice but I merely guess that
>> the very size of SPI would make it more difficult to obtain rapid
>> attention when it may be needed.  Perhaps some reports from other projects
>> they host would persuade me otherwise.
>>
>> The Software Freedom Conservancy could also be a good choice but their
>> worst problem is that they have become so popular that to preserve the
>> degree and quality of attention given to each accepted project there is
>> now a three to six month waiting list for application consideration.  I
>> think that the application waiting period is now too much time for the
>> level of impatience I perceive from those most active in the Koha
>> community.
>>
>> In the final ballot, please vote for a project organisation which we can
>> actually implement now.  Of the possibilities currently nominated that is
>> only a foundation held by HLT and SPI for an interim period.  The project
>> can have all assets held on its behalf transferred to own independent
>> foundation soon afterwords but everything needs to be agreed and in place
>> first.
>>
>>
>> 2.  MANY PROBLEMS WITH THE COMMUNITY WEBSITE.
>>
>>>
>>> Somewhat of an annoyance, the 'Demos' link on koha.org takes me to the
>>> showcase, not to demos.
>>
>> I had identified a large number of such problems including that one
>> specifically when the new website went up.  I reported them to the mailing
>> list but I have not yet taken the time to report them formally as bugs.
>>
>> The worst problem is that the navigation links are not displayed in a
>> visible manner on the world's most commonly used web browser, Internet
>> Explorer with the default IE configuration.  I have had to fix CSS
>> problems with Internet Explorer and it can be tricky because some things
>> are interpreted backwards to the standard.  The default Plone stylesheets
>> would have worked but they were not modified or replaced for the Koha
>> website with cross-browser compatibility in mind.
>>
>>
>> 3.  NEW WEBSITES.
>>
>>> As an alternative, I just registered kohademos.org. I could make
>>> en.kohademos.org point to http://demo.koha-fr.org/, and
>>> fr.kohademos.org point to
>>> http://demo.koha-fr.org/cgi-bin/koha/changelanguage.pl?language=fr-FR.
>>> It seems like a reasonable way to handle it would be to have one
>>> company host a demo in their native language, for each language. This
>>> would spread out the amount of work and bandwidth required.
>>
>> We should coordinate such efforts through an entity in which we can place
>> our collective trust for holding the domains and other key aspects of the
>> project.
>>
>> When we have ourselves properly organised, then we can make requests of
>> LibLime from a position of strength as a community prepared to offer an
>> alternative if LibLime is disinclined to cooperate.  Presently, with
>> LibLime in control of the community domain and no official community
>> alternative to offer any request is made from a position of weakness.
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
>> Thomas Dukleth
>> Agogme
>> 109 E 9th Street, 3D
>> New York, NY  10003
>> USA
>> http://www.agogme.com
>> +1 212-674-3783
>>
>> [...]
>>
>>
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