[Eg-oversight-board] Staff client funding

[Kathy Lussier]

Hi all,

I would like to bring up the Evergreen web client project up for 
discussion again at this week's Board meeting. I know we've previously 
discussed the role the Executive Oversight Board can play in the 
development of a new web client, but we haven't come up with any solid 
plans yet. Now that Equinox is working on the prototype for a client, I 
think it gives us some focus on where the EOB might be able to provide 
leadership.

FUNDING
I think this would be a great opportunity for the EOB to raise funds 
around a project. Specifically, I would like to look into the 
possibility of following up with one of the grant organizations Rogan 
and I investigated earlier this year - 
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ar4gDMUDwDXqdFNOcllSNklDZHFxdnFuRk9BMndKUXc&usp=sharing. 
We hadn't proceeded with any grants at the time largely due to a lack of 
matching funds. However, if we are funding a specific project, I don't 
have any worries about raising the matching funds. Speaking for MassLNC, 
I know we will be contributing funds one way or another to the web 
client project when the time comes. Those funds will either go to the 
community as a match for a grant or go directly to a vendor. If I 
thought MassLNC's funds could be used to help bring in outside funds for 
the project and lessen the financial burden on Evergreen sites, I'm 
going to opt to send those funds to the community. I expect there are 
others who feel the same way.

Once the prototype is done, I think we will be in a good position to 
apply for a grant. The prototype will show that some solid work has 
already gone into the project and that we have a proof of concept for 
the technology that will be used. Also, we will soon have a report from 
the OmniTI performance evaluation we could show potential funders to 
demonstrate that we have consulted third-party expertise on the client.

One challenge that would arise if we were to apply for a grant is that, 
if the community is funding the project through the EOB, then the 
Oversight Board needs to take ownership of the project, meaning there 
needs to be a commitment among Board members to make decisions on 
selecting developers/vendors, possibly breaking up the project into 
different components, and on a myriad of other issues that take a lot of 
time and work. We need to determine if that time and level of commitment 
is available. But, as with the funds, somebody in the community 
eventually needs to make that commitment anyway. It's really a matter of 
doing it differently and shifting the primary responsibility to the 
Board. I  will volunteer to work on it if there are others willing to 
put the work into it as well.

Another thing to consider is the fact that 10% of any funds contributed 
to the community go to the SFC. We would need to make sure that any 
financial value we get out of making the staff client a community-funded 
project outweighs the funds that eventually go to the SFC. If there is a 
large grant involved, it makes sense for the community to raise the 
needed money as matching funds since the hope is the size of the grant 
would be larger than the 10% that goes to the SFC. However, if there 
isn't a grant involved or if the grant is very small, I would be more 
inclined to work directly with other funding partners and send the funds 
directly to a vendor as we've done in the past so that 100% of my funds 
support the actual development.

IDENTIFYING COMPONENTS OF THE PROJECT/NEEDED EXPERTISE
I think the Board could also provide value to this project by perhaps 
identifying some project components/outside expertise that might be 
outside the typical scope of work for our development projects. I'm 
thinking specifically about user interface expertise, but there may be 
other areas of expertise that I haven't thought of.

I've already spoken to other community members about this and have also 
shared my thoughts with Grace at Equinox. I strongly believe that we 
need to involve some User Interface expertise into this project so that 
we can provide some focus on UI as part of this project. We wouldn't be 
able to bring somebody on board soon enough for the prototype project, 
but I think it's important we have this expertise on board soon so that 
we have a good set of recommendations from which to build the web 
client. I think we need to strike a balance between seeing some nice 
improvements in usability and the need to get the project done in a 
timely manner.

I'm wondering if there is a way for the EOB to provide leadership on 
this piece of the project. Over the past few weeks, I've contacted some 
reputable UI consultants in our area and I've had some follow-up 
discussions with one that seems particularly promising. She is also 
willing to talk with us gratis to help us organize a UI project, 
identify what kind of services we would need, etc. Of course, these 
initial meetings would be followed up with a quote from her firm to do 
the UI work, but we don't need to make a solid commitment yet for that 
work to be done. I was thinking the EOB could be involved by doing the 
following:

* Identify folks to meet with the consultant during these initial 
meetings. These meetings will be purely organizational meetings, not the 
actual usability study where we would be looking for end users. However, 
she did say she would need a walk through of the software during these 
early meetings, so we do need some people who have a solid understanding 
of how the staff client works. It would also be good to have some 
decision-maker types who are good at seeing the big picture and able to 
identify priorities for a UI study.

* After these initial meetings, decide whether to continue work with 
this particular consultant or decide to get quotes from other consultants.

* Continue working with the UI consultant throughout the process. This 
would include recruiting end users who would be involved in the process, 
prioritizing tasks we want to focus on, making decisions.

There is also the question of how to fund a UI consultant. It would be 
great if the community had funds to contribute to support this project. 
Unfortunately, I think we need to bring on a UI person before we could 
pull together any type of grant. It may be one of those projects where 
we need to do the traditional call for development partners that's been 
used for other joint projects.

Anyway, those are my initial thoughts on how the EOB can provide some 
leadership on the client project. I'm open to any feedback you all may 
have on either of these topics.

Thanks!
Kathy

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