COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND CONTRIBUTION TO KOHA OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECT. Vimal Kumar V. Technical Assistant Mahatma Gandhi University Library Kottayam Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom State Meet 26-28 September 2014 Cochin University of Science and Technology.
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COMMUNITY PARTICIPATION AND CONTRIBUTION TO KOHA OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PROJECT.
Vimal Kumar V.Technical Assistant
Mahatma Gandhi University Library
Kottayam
Democratic Alliance for Knowledge Freedom State Meet26-28 September 2014
Cochin University of Science and Technology.
Fallacy of FOSS uptake In IndiaThe habit of looking at FOSS as an endless well to
draw from
Little active contribution
The constant worry of livelihood
Tendency of creating ivory towers
Isolated islands of development
Reluctance to share knowledge
Lack of inter-disciplinary approach
We have to LOCALISE
KOHA COMMUNITY AND OPENNESS
GPL License,Busy email discussion forum,Community participation from various countries,Public source code view.
FOSS and peer review
"given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow"
CATHEDRAL MODEL: Code developed between releases is restricted to an exclusive group of software developers.
BAZZAR MODEL: code is developed over the Internet in view of the public.
Open Core vs FOSS
Open Core is like Dr. Frankenstein's monster, it will turn on its own creator ultimately.
Example of an Open Core Project
INVOLVEMENT IN DISCUSSION FORUMHabit of posting in Discussion forum?
58% 42%
Koha discussion forum response time
Busy and responsive email discussion
'Karma' is NOT living offwhat you did YESTERDAY
Like “recurring deposit” - more you do, moreyou grow
Like mobile “top-up” - re-charge from time totime or your 'Karma' balance goes down overTime.
Higher the 'Karma' → Greater Visibility inProject → Greater responsibility → PROJECTLEADERSHIP
'Karma' means EVERYTHING counts● Did you find a bug and report it?● Did you fix a bug and posted the solution?● Did you help in brainstorming a project?● Did you answer new users' questions on mailing
lists?● Did you design logo and artwork?● Did you help maintain the website?● Did you organise a local event around the
project?● Did you translate the project into your own
language?● Did you code?
'Karma' means even the 'squirrel' is credited
But we are NOT Programmers!
You are absolutely correct!
A majority of developers of Koha hold advancedLIS degreesOnly 5% of LIS professionals dabbling withcoding would be good enough
What about the rest ?
USERS → Power Users
1
2
3
4
5
Users involvement in FOSS development process.
Koha dashboard
CONCLUSION
Koha project offers lot avenues for cooperation,
Community support is very strong,
Need more training and awareness among LIS professionals and students ,
Need more cooperation between LIS professionals and developers community,
Government should frame policies to encourage the use Open Source software in libraries,
Courtesy
The ideas organized for the presentation based on discussion on 22 September 2014 with
Sri. Indranil Das Gupta.
He is an active computing technology enthusiast and user since 1987. He is one of the few Koha master code developers from India.
I have borrowed few slides from his presentation titled
“Of Dodos, 'Karma' & Free Software in the Library”
http://tinyurl.com/owpla28
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