[Web4lib] RE: Open source support models

[Lori Bowen Ayre]

I think Tim's message gets at the issue which is that small libraries
may have someone who can roll out a basic fully Microsoft system, it
gets trickier when you one or two IT people are expected to support
all the Microsoft network and server stuff, the desktops plus be at
least conversant in PHP and Perl or Ruby or....whatever!

It definitely gets trickier to find expertise when we stray.  And as
Cary (I think) said, this is going to take time for us to develop in
the libraries.  I see consortia getting involved in some of these
migration and support and perhaps even development roles so they can
provide some expertise and much needed hand-holding for the smaller
libraries that do want to jump into something like Koha.

I posted on this very topic just before I found this thread...its
definitely in the air right now:
http://www.galecia.com/weblog/mt/archives/000284.php

Lori

On Fri, Jul 11, 2008 at 11:48 AM, Tim Spalding <tim at librarything.com> wrote:
>> software support that's worth something costs something. No argument there..
>
> That seems right, but you can get support for many open source
> products without paying. When an open ILS acquires the same sort of
> community around it that something like Perl or Ruby has, you'll be
> able to get at least most of your support from the community.
>
> If getting your support from a community sounds like "getting your
> thursdays from a banana," you need to hear Clay Shirky's talk on open
> source and love:
>
> http://conversationhub.com/2007/07/10/video-clay-shirky-on-love-internet-style/
>
> As an extension, I think Shirky's logic and example offer long term
> succor to those Open Source ILSes built in newer languages. There are
> a lot of Ruby hackers reveling in love for one another and for their
> language. C++ is just a different cultural phenomenon. Perl, as Shirky
> says, has a lot of love behind it, but it's on a long-term decline. So
> too is PHP, my language. This is good news for Project Blacklight
> (Ruby), mixed news for Koha and VUFind (Perl and PHP respectively) and
> bad news for Evergreen (C++?).
>
>
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