[Koha] Thoughts on volunteering

[Jared Camins-Esakov]

Greetings, fellow members of the Koha community,

My name is Jared Camins-Esakov. There are two reasons that name might sound
familiar. The first is that in my day job I do a lot of work with Koha
(hosting, support, bespoke development, and all that jazz). The second is
that just over a month ago I finished my term as Release Manager for Koha
3.12. I am very proud of what we did during my six month term. Koha has
more features and works better for more libraries than ever before. I think
that's a big deal. During those six months, I spent a lot of time working
on Koha, as my wife can attest. I think I could count on my fingers the
number of days in the entire release cycle (more than six months!) that I
didn't do _anything_ related to the Koha release. I did this because I
believe that Koha is important, and a better Koha is better for all of us.
>From a business point of view, volunteering my time was a good investment
because I am now selling and supporting a better system.

But you know what? I don't expect to be paid for all that time I spent
volunteering my time for the community. Volunteering my time to build Koha
3.12 was its own (sometimes frustrating) reward. That's what Open Source is
all about*, and I am proud to be a member of a community that understands
this.

Regards,
Jared Camins-Esakov

*Not to say that you can't or shouldn't make money from working on Open
Source projects. I believe strongly that you can and should (and, of
course, my company does), but contributing to an Open Source project like
Koha is about more than just money.


P.S. Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to ask everyone in the Koha
community to take a moment to thank your friends and family for sharing you
with us.

-- 
Jared Camins-Esakov
Bibliographer, C & P Bibliography Services, LLC
(phone) +1 (917) 727-3445
(e-mail) jcamins at cpbibliography.com
(web) http://www.cpbibliography.com/