[Koha] Re: Sounds very interesting, what is it?

[paul POULAIN]

Rosalie Blake wrote:

>>Dear Rosalie
>>
>>I am the librarian at a Christian Bible College and we are in the
>>process of introducing IT and recording all our books on a database.
>>What is this software you are offering and what commitments would we
>>have to you?  Is it simply free software that we would trial for you,
>>or is there a cost involved as well?
>>    
>>
Hi Alistair,

I'm Paul from France.
I just want to confirm that there is no hidden problem with koha. I plan 
to use it in a few months for 4 christian (catholics) libraries here in 
France (80000 books).
koha is developped under "free-software" concept. It's a concept that 
says it's better to share information and developments than to hide and 
restrict them.
It's VERY powerful to develop software like this one.
For koha, for example, we are around 10 persons in 3 continents, 
involved in the development. A proprietary software would never be so 
active...
Why do we that ?
Everybody here has it's own interest. Mine is for my catholics 
libraries. I don't have to pay 20 000+ Euros (around 20 000 $), but I 
give a hand, and thus make koha better. Katipo builded the first 
versions, and now, gains what "community" do without cost.
I know someone who said, 2000 years ago "give and you will recieve" 
(exact translation from french, not sure it's the same in english). 
That's exactly how free software works.
--
Paul
Koha 1.4 Relase Manager