[Koha] Message from PTFS/LibLime

[Chris Cormack]

n 16 September 2010 07:50, Owen Leonard <oleonard at myacpl.org> wrote:
> 2010/9/15 John Yokley <jyokley at ptfs.com>:
>> In this regards, LibLime will help organize and fund the creation of a Koha
>> Software Foundation as a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation.
>
> There has been much discussion in the community about what kind of
> organization to form, and all of this discussion has been out in the
> open. No decision has been made, but you are welcome to join in and
> express your opinion.

I'd like to second Owens call for PTFS/LL to join the discussions on
the shape/make up of what the community decides is the best approach
for long term holding of community assets.
As Owen says there has been much discussion, including 5 meetings, and
2 votes around this area. PTFS/LL were welcome, and as far as I know,
did participate in all these discussions. These discussions were and
should remain public, and I think that an IRC meeting as suggested by
Vicki has some merit.

To correct a misunderstanding the HLT Committee was not formed to hold
assets. Horowhenua Lihrary Trust is a not for profit registered
charitable trust. It is them, along with Katipo, who created Koha in
1999 and released it under a Free Software License (GPLv2 or later) in
2000. The community voted with a large majority that they should be
who should hold assets in the short to medium term future.
The HLT Koha subcommittee was then formed to try and negotiate the
transfer of those assets. This was successfully achieved in quite a
few cases, with Biblibre assigning their European Union wide 'Country
Mark' on Koha to HLT ownership. HLT also own the official Koha domain
(koha-community.org).

Back to the topic at hand, some of the questions that are currently on
the table are :
1/ Should it be a foundation or an association
2/ Where should it be based (what has the most favourable/safe laws)
3/ Should we join an existing foundation, two that were talked about
were Software in the Public Interest http://www.spi-inc.org/ and the
Software Freedom Conservancy http://conservancy.softwarefreedom.org/
4/ If we were to create our own, how would it be made up
5/ What role would it play, holding assets, or would it attempt a more
hands on role

I would love to hear PTFS/LL input on these.

As well as your answer to Owen's question.

Chris