[Koha] [Fwd: Re: Koha Foundation Vote is open]

[Thomas Dukleth]

Please, whenever we next have a community poll, we should go back to using
FOSS software, such as LimeSurvey which we have used in the past.  Using
non-FOSS software, such as JotForm if I understand correctly, where the
source code is not even available for audit is particularly problematic
for community surveys.

Some language furthering Koha as FOSS and the Koha community in a FOSS
environment wherever practical should be in the organisational purpose of
any Koha community foundation incorporation papers.  FOSS should be the
primary reason people choose Koha and we should avoid diluting that
message wherever practical.

[Previous reply with a minor word order correction is quoted below.]

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



---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: [Koha] Koha Foundation Vote is open
From:    "Thomas Dukleth" <kohalist at agogme.com>
Date:    Thu, May 16, 2024 02:20
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Reply inline with a word order correction.]

On Wed, May 15, 2024 21:47, Auld, Andrew wrote:
> The Koha Foundation proposal vote is now open. You can place your vote on
> the Koha Community website and there you will also find a link to the
> proposal and background research. Votes must be placed by 5pm UTC on
> Friday
> 14 June. One vote per person please.

If I remember correctly, previous survey software used for voting on Koha
community concerns certainly had the principle of one vote per person but
allowed vote reconsideration and changing the one counted voted by voting
again with a different vote.

> https://koha-community.org/koha-foundation-vote/

In https://ptfs-europe.com/koha-foundation-proposal/ , very little is
stated about the intended governance structure of a foundation other than
the legally required five member board of directors and two volunteers,
and the unstated presumptive necessity that it has to avoid legal
conflicts of interest to comply with Open Library Foundation and US
non-profit 501c3 rules.  For example, there is no statement considering a
concern of historic discussions of a possible Koha foundation to
geographically federate some input into foundation governance for such an
internationally distributed project as Koha to avoid the foundation
excessively serving US or Anglo-US interests based on the US location of
the foundation other than "in the
first instance, to keep the governance light".

There is also no historical background explaining that the project had
previously organised under Horowhenua Library Trust [HLT], subsequently
THT.   Upon the dissolution of THT for Horowhenua District Council [HDC]
to directly run Horowhenua libraries directly, Koha community assets might
have devolved to HDC which had created HLT and then THT as an
administrative organisation for local libraries.  I do not remember what
happened if anything decisive subsequent to "THT and Koha: a new Trust
Deed" - https://lists.katipo.co.nz/public/koha/2016-October/046346.html
and https://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/THT_and_Koha .  The complication
at the time was that there was no representative Koha community
organisation to which THT or HDC could transfer Koha community assets
other than THT which was being dissolved.

[...]


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