[Eg-oversight-board] Thinking strategically: EOB involvement in "future of EG XUL client"?

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi all,

I do think the Board can provide some leadership on this issue.

One of the reasons MassLNC worked to hire a consultant to do a 
performance evaluation for Evergreen was to help guide the community in 
this decision. During the future of the staff client meeting and a 
previous developers meeting, there were a lot of conflicting opinions on 
the best path forward, and those of us at MassLNC thought an unbiased, 
outside analysis would be helpful in making this decision.

Unfortunately, we have had some delays in the project, not by any 
negligence from the consultant, but due to problems we've encountered 
setting up the test environment. We're seeing the light at the end of 
the tunnel and expect the evaluation to begin shortly, but that still 
leaves another 2 1/2 months before the evaluation is done.

That may be too long for the community to wait before making the 
decision of what the next staff client might be, but I personally would 
feel more comfortable if the decision were based on some kind of 
thorough evaluation that explores the source of the problems that we 
have and what would be the best approach moving forward.

Kathy

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
(508) 343-0128
klussier at masslnc.org
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier

On 8/29/2013 12:36 PM, Yamil Suarez wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Right now someone brought up the topic of the future of the EG XUL client on the DEV list[1]. This topic has come up in the past, and I thought we could discuss it a bit at the next EOB meeting or just by email. I think it could be a situation were the board can try to provide some support and/or leadership for this type of long term strategic decision that will probably  have to be made. I am not suggesting that the board will be the one making the decision, but that we can try to help the process along.
>
> For the record, my simple understanding of the issue is that the XUL client from Mozilla, which serves as the basis of the EG client, will very likely stop meeting EG's key needs in the long term. Again, my understanding is that the Mozilla XUL client development community's long term design decisions will conflict with what the EG software needs to work properly. This leaves the EG community with choices like continuing to use the versions of XUL client that still work for EG, though at some point we will not be able to use a ny new verions of the XL client. The EG community might also consider using an alternative design that replaces XUL client with something else.
>
> Somebody else in the EOB can explain this much better than me, but I just wanted to start a conversation within the EOB, because this seems to be a situation were someone has to help keep a long term strategic mindset in mind.
>
> Thanks,
> Yamil
>
>
> [1] http://georgialibraries.markmail.org/thread/6ltqtlzbk2iq27hj
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