[Eg-oversight-board] Vendor Listing Submission

Mon Sep 9 23:52:11 EDT 2013

Thanks for the reply Dan. I do hope we can have ongoing discourse about this. 

My primary concern is that we are a vendor agnostic technology company and as such, we don't provide links to any technology companies, sites, etc. from our website. 

I know that we are unique in the community in this way. 

We do list the names and logos/icons of the technologies that we work with regularly on our site to showcase some of our areas of expertise and we're already in the process of adding the evergreen name and logo to our site as we've been working with it now for many years. 

Darrell Rodgers 
President 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
678.302.3000 x1100 
Help Desk 678.302.3000 x1500 
http://www.emeralddata.net 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Dan Scott" <dan at coffeecode.net> 
To: "Darrell Rodgers" <drodgers at emeralddata.net> 
Cc: "eg-oversight-board" <eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org>, "Kathy Lussier" <klussier at masslnc.org> 
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 11:34:06 PM 
Subject: Re: [Eg-oversight-board] Vendor Listing Submission 

If the primary concern is a potential loss of SEO, use the rel="nofollow" attribute on the link: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/96569?hl=en 
On Sep 9, 2013 11:23 PM, "Darrell Rodgers" < drodgers at emeralddata.net > wrote: 

Thanks for the quick response Kathy. 

I must say I'm deeply disappointed that despite the fact that we have been vetted and have the credentials and references, we have been denied. 

I had hoped the board would be more focused on trying to include organizations like ours that are wanting to be supportive of the community. 

It's been our understanding from many in the community that it's been looking for more ways to engage additional vendors; not exclude them. 

Perhaps in the future there will be an opportunity for the community to accept organizations that aren't solely focused on subsets of technology. 

Hopefully, that day will come soon. Thank you for your consideration in this matter. 

Darrell Rodgers 
President 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
678.302.3000 x1100 
Help Desk 678.302.3000 x1500 
http://www.emeralddata.net 

From: "Kathy Lussier" < klussier at masslnc.org > 
To: "Darrell Rodgers" < drodgers at emeralddata.net > 
Sent: Monday, September 9, 2013 3:56:59 PM 
Subject: Re: Fwd: Vendor Listing Submission 

Hi Darrell, 

I apologize for the delay in responding. I got pulled into a few different directions after getting your e-mail last week. 

The policy is clear that the community expects a link back to the community web site in return for being listed on the support providers page. 

Thank you, 
Kathy 
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier 
On 9/9/2013 3:40 PM, Darrell Rodgers wrote: 

<blockquote>

Kathy, I wanted to follow up on this to make sure you got it and to find out when I should expect a response. Thanks. 

Darrell Rodgers 
President 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
678.302.3000 x1100 
Help Desk 678.302.3000 x1500 
http://www.emeralddata.net 

From: "Darrell Rodgers" <drodgers at emeralddata.net> 
To: "Kathy Lussier" <klussier at masslnc.org> 
Cc: "Evergreen Oversight Board" <eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 2:59:08 PM 
Subject: Re: Vendor Listing Submission 

Thanks for the background Kathy. I appreciate all the info. 

I also appreciate all the work you've put into the vetting of vendors to make sure they are viable and can deliver for the community. I know there is no question that we are one of those vendors and likewise that the intent of the board is not to keep legitimate vendors off the listing pages. 

I am also very happy to comply with your request to put a "mention of Evergreen" on our website, in fact, we've been planning this for some time now. Thanks for the idea of a libraries page under industries served, we may do just that. 

I'd be completely fine with a page with mention of Evergreen on there and even include the logo if you like, but I don't do links because of all the problems they cause. 

As you probably know, websites get rated according to the links on their sites and broken or downed links count against your ratings. In an effort to safeguard against this, we've always had a no links policy, but as I said, I'm happy to mention and put a logo for the community on the site. 

Will this suffice for the board purposes? 

Darrell Rodgers 
President 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
678.302.3000 x1100 
Help Desk 678.302.3000 x1500 
http://www.emeralddata.net 

From: "Kathy Lussier" <klussier at masslnc.org> 
To: "Darrell Rodgers" <drodgers at emeralddata.net> 
Cc: "Michael Peters" <mpeters at emeralddata.net> , "Evergreen Oversight Board" <eg-oversight-board at list.evergreen-ils.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 2:44:08 PM 
Subject: Re: Vendor Listing Submission 

Thank you for the e-mail Darrell. I'm also copying the Evergreen Oversight Board on this message since they are the group that approved this policy after considerable discussion with the community. 

I want to give you some background on the creation of this policy. After some discussion at an Oversight Board meeting , I sent out an e-mail to the Evergreen general discussion list last July asking the community for feedback on a possible policy for the paid support provider page. You can read the discussion thread at http://markmail.org/message/tvitn6sfordu2dao . 

There was disagreement on some aspects of the policy, specifically when it came to the question of how much vetting should occur. However, there was overwhelming support when it came to the requirement that providers add a visible link to the project web site. Although the Board was ultimately the entity that approved this policy, it did so after open discussion with the community during which any community member, including vendors, had an opportunity to raise whatever concerns they might have with the policy. I believe we ultimately adopted a policy that placed very few barriers on vendors who wanted to be listed on the project web site. 

I've heard many good reports on the services Emerald provides, and I would be happy to see the company listed on the Evergreen support provider page. I also value the support Emerald has provided to the conference and the community. However, speaking as just one of 11 members of the Board, I will continue to support the requirement that providers listed on that page make some mention of Evergreen on their own web sites, including a link to the project web site. It not only shows support for the project, but also provides guidance for those users who discover your company from the listing page and want to get more information on how your services fit in with Evergreen. 

I also do not think this policy is unusual in open source software communities. Our policy was based on a similar policy from the Koha community, and I know the PostgreSQL community has similar requirements. 

I hope Emerald can find somewhere on its site where an Evergreen link would be appropriate (perhaps libraries can be added as one of the "industries served"?). 

Thank you, 
Kathy 

Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier 
On 9/3/2013 1:27 PM, Darrell Rodgers wrote: 

<blockquote>

Thanks Kathy. 

I think you're referring to this line below: 

Show support for the Evergreen community by adding a visible link on their Evergreen offering page to the Evergreen community web site at http://evergreen-ils.org 

As a vendor agnostic technology company, we work with literally hundreds of different types of technology every day. 

For this reason, we don't have offering pages dedicated to individual technologies. (We'd never do anything else if we did!) 

We do have an ever growing list of companies that we support with Evergreen as well as their other technologies. 

We've been happy with our continued conference participation and do plan to continue to support the conference, foundation and community. 

Please let us know if you need anything else from us to get us listed. 

Thanks again. 

Darrell Rodgers 
President 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
678.302.3000 x1100 
Help Desk 678.302.3000 x1500 
http://www.emeralddata.net 

From: "Kathy Lussier" <klussier at masslnc.org> 
To: "Michael Peters" <mpeters at emeralddata.net> 
Cc: drodgers at emeralddata.net 
Sent: Tuesday, September 3, 2013 1:11:58 PM 
Subject: Re: FW: Vendor Listing Submission 

Thanks Michael! 

I hope you enjoyed your long weekend as well. I'm not sure what happened with the e-mail. I checked the list archives this morning to make sure I didn't miss anyone, but your e-mail isn't there either. 

I went to Emerald's web site, but didn't see a link back to the Evergreen community web site. Is that available? 

Thanks! 
Kathy 
Kathy Lussier
Project Coordinator
Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative (508) 343-0128 klussier at masslnc.org Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier 
On 9/3/2013 12:50 PM, Michael Peters wrote: 

<blockquote>

Kathy, 

Good afternoon. I hope you enjoyed your long holiday weekend! 

This vendor listing was submitted on 8/23/13. I’m not sure why you did not receive it, but, this message I’m forwarding below does confirm that it was submitted on that date. Thank you for getting on the page as soon as possible. 

Michael Peters 
Senior Systems Analyst 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
Phone: 678.302.3000 x1013 
Help Desk: 678.302.3000 x1500 
www.emeralddata.net 

From: Michael Peters [ mailto:mpeters at emeralddata.net ] 
Sent: Friday, August 23, 2013 11:01 AM 
To: ' open-ils-general at list.georgialibraries.org ' 
Subject: Vendor Listing Submission 

Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
Contact: Darrell Rodgers ( drodgers at emeralddata.net ) / 678.302.3000 
Web: http://www.emeralddata.net 

There are plenty of IT firms ready to be your provider. Emerald clients realize they need more than a provider, they need a trusted technology partner . Emerald Data Networks is prepared to be your partner in your endeavor into the Evergreen ILS world. Emerald Data Networks provides a combined 19 years of experience with Evergreen ILS and is prepared to be your partner in technical support, data migrations, custom feature development, software upgrades, capacity planning, and more! 

Thanks! 

Michael Peters 
Senior Systems Analyst 
Emerald Data Networks, Inc. 
Phone: 678.302.3000 x1013 
Help Desk: 678.302.3000 x1500 
www.emeralddata.net 

</blockquote>

</blockquote>

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</blockquote>

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