[Koha] LibLime Thoughts

[Chris Nighswonger]

Kudos, Joanna, for speaking up as a LL/PTFS customer!

It would be good to hear from more LL/PTFS customers on the specific points
addressed in this post. Surely an NDA is not part of a standard service
contract.

2010/4/30 Joanna Hause <jhause at seuniversity.edu>

>  As an ordinary mortal and end user of Koha w/ no programming skills at
> all...
>
>
>
> We bought into Koha via LL as an open source product.  We specifically did
> this to avoid the problems of legacy systems and because we were and
> are fully in support of the open source concept.  We went with LL because we
> do not have the capability of hosting and troubleshooting a system on our
> own.  We were most unhappy with the direction that LL took after selling us
> what they clearly stated to be an open source product, and which our
> contract clearly states as well.  But we were very hopeful when PTFS
> purchased LL that the situation would improve and that the obviously forked
> product could begin its journey back into the community.  Based on this
> email exchange, I think our hope was and is misplaced... unfortunately.
>
>
>
> It isn't just programmers and/or developers on this list; there are end
> users as well.  While we rarely if ever post, we do read.   And this is not
> reading well.
>
>
>
> ________________________________________
> From: koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz [koha-bounces at lists.katipo.co.nz] On
> Behalf Of MJ Ray [mjr at phonecoop.coop]
> Sent: Friday, April 30, 2010 5:46 AM
>
> To: koha at lists.katipo.co.nz
> Subject: Re: [Koha] LibLime Thoughts
>
> David Schuster <dschust1 at tx.rr.com> wrote:
> > If all of these people were sitting in a room together they would have
> been
> > able to work this out, but due to distance and time communication is
> harder
> > to achieve.
>
> I don't think distance and time are the problems here.  It's more the
> mentality.  software.coop has bought and sold across timezones and
> distances from Australia to western Canada without serious problems
> (well, except the US stone-age banking systems), using email, IRC,
> telephones and more.  I doubt the HLT committee are thicker than me.
>
> [...]
> > I know this doesn't look like a business transaction, but for PTFS it is
> and
> > that is how they have known how to do business in the past.  They will
> need
> > to become comfortable in talking and working with the community but it
> can't
> > happen over night.
>
> We must not let our Koha community become a business transaction.  The
> community is not something to be bought and sold itself.  We must make
> it independent in perpetuity, don't you think?
>
> This is not how to do business with a volunteer community, with NDAs,
> nighttime conference calls so long that they have agendas and secret
> approaches to individual participants.  I'm not sure it's ever a
> good way to do business, personally.
>
> Whether PTFS becomes comfortable with that is a matter for them.
> We can show the horse to water, but we cannot force it to drink.
>
> [...]
> > I hope both parties read this and can pull back rethink how this will be
> > approached and try again.  We are all very attached to this emotionally
> so
> > we need to be careful on how we react to postings and emails in a
> > professional manner.  I would hate to see this return to the situation we
> > had 8 months ago.  At least PTFS was willing to talk with HLT which is
> more
> > than we had gotten previously.
>
> Professional is overrated - passionate is better.  At its core, a
> professional is someone who professes something because they are paid
> to do so, a lawyer or advocate being the classic example.  I prefer
> working with people who believe in what they're doing, even if I don't
> agree with them, rather than an organisation doing things for the money.
>
> We should still be polite and civil, though.
>
> I think the acquisition of LibLime has set us further back than 8
> months ago.  In terms of community, we're just a little further on
> from where we were 16 months ago.  Happily, the software has continued
> moving forwards.
>
> Regards,
> --
> MJ Ray (slef)  Webmaster and LMS developer at     | software
> www.software.coop http://mjr.towers.org.uk        |  .... co
> IMO only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html |  .... op
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