[Koha] Nelsonville RFPs

[Pat Eyler]

Hello,
I recently recieved a question about the RFP process and who might be
responding to it/them.  I'd like to make my answer a bit more public in
hopes that it might stir some conversation.

I hope that there will be several people, groups, and/or companies
submitting responses though.  Let me explain why:

  If there are more developers brought into the project, we will have a
  bigger pool of talent to work with for all of the Koha development.
  Additional people should also bring extra insight to development.

  Some organizations require multiple respondents to an RFP.  Having more
  than one response helps show that the Koha development community is more
  vibrant --- and that it would survive the disappearance of a single
  development group (e.g., if Katipo were to suddenly disappear right now,
  it would be a mojor blow to Koha).

  It will help make releaseing RFPs and looking into Koha more attractive
  to other libraries if they know that there is a compete market.

I'd also hope that the responses to the RFP (perhaps expunged of financial
information) could be discussed in the open.  I think that the value
gained by working together on planning these new features will be worth
the effort.  This will require a major departure from the traditional
RFP/response pattern, but doing RFPs for OSS projects is already pretty
radical.

thanks,
-pate