[Koha] From the Kaitiaki

[pate at bigfun.whirlycott.com]

                                                   28 June, 2002
To the Koha community;
 
Namaskar,
This week's note is a short one.  Not because we haven't done much, but
because we're all getting pretty busy.  I'm currently talking to a
couple of organizations about getting some more visibility for Koha.
I don't want to tip my hand just yet, but I'm hopeful that we'll see
Koha beginning to make appearances in the bigger Open Source world
'Real Soon Now'.
 
We're also starting to see some more feedback from other library
centric Open Source projects.  It looks like the idea of some
inter-project cooperation is gaining ground.  One interesting area
that came up was in helping one another in securing financing
(sponsorship, hired work, or grants all come to mind) -- this will be
an important area for Koha moving forward.  
 
Free Software doesn't come without a price tag, the price is just
hidden better than with other software.  Much of Koha is developed by
volunteers in their 'spare' time.  If there were funding available for
given tasks, it would give the developers more time to work on Koha
(because they'd need to spend less time making a living).  If you're
interested in helping this way, please take a look at
<http://koha.org/installation/support.html> for some potential
vendors.
 
   1.2
     We're still hard at work on 1.2.1.  In fact, Steve Tonnesen has
     produced three Release Candidates this week alone.  He's also
     made the job easier by automating this process, so expect to see
     Release Candidates for every future release -- it's another way
     we're trying to improve our process.
 
     Other big features for 1.2.1 include:
      * a much improved installer (it only requires 1 ip address, and
        creates a branch and a printer during install now)
      * more work on the Z39.50 programs
      * sample data that can be installed to test a new koha system
 
     Many thanks to Paul and Steve who've both jumped in and are
     making the 1.2 series really shine.
 
   Translations
     The first question people seem to ask when volunteering to do
     translations of Koha is, "Where do I start?".  Since we're still
     on the verge of having the application readily translatable, this
     question deserves a thoughtful answer.
 
     There are a number of things that could be translated and provide
     value to the project.  These newsletters, if translated, could
     help advertise Koha to people who don't currently know about it.
     The Manual could be translated to help users and developers who
     don't understand english.
 
     I think one of the best documents to translate would be the
     INSTALL document.  If we could get this done in multiple
     languages, it would be much easier to get Koha into the hands of
     the people who will help us make it suitible for international
     use.
 
   IRC Meeting
     Due to some scheduling conflicts, this weeks irc meeting was
     postponed.  We're going to shoot for 7/11 (7/4 is a big holiday
     in the US, so that won't work either).  The proposed agenda is
     currently: 
      * CVS
      * 1.2 schedule
      * 1.4 plans
      * thoughts on templating
      * translations
      * documentation housekeeping
      * community (Koha, and the larger OSS4lib, and the larger library
      * new koha website
 
   Community
     The Koha community is continuing to grow.  More libraries are
     trying Koha out, and many of them are sticking with it.  We've
     added more people to the developers list, several of whom are
     concentration on testing new Koha releases.  Another exciting
     advance is the new <www.koha.org> website.  Rachel and her team
     at Katipo have done a wonderful job.

   
I'd like to hear back from people who are currently using or
investigating Koha.  If you've got stories, requests, or suggestions,
please feel free to drop me a line at:  kaitiaki at koha.org
 
Dhanyabad,
-pate
 
 
Pat Eyler
Kaitiaki of the Koha Project
 
 
ps.  This weeks language is Bengal.  Hopefully my usage isn't too far
off.  Thanks Md. Aftabuddin, for helping out.