[Evergreen-web-team] Some content thoughts about the Evergreen site

[Bob Molyneux]

Hello Web Team,

I have some observations: one about the LIS world and some comments on 
the Website content.

One is that I would like to suggest that two User Groups be added to the 
. I don't know your conventions but I think something for LIS students 
and LIS teachers. I have several reasons for suggesting this.
1. There are a few LIS teachers who attempt to include open source ILSs 
in their classes. I think this is a good thing for them to be doing and 
would that more would. Right now, I probably get most of the calls from 
the few students working on Evergreen. I take them because I have taught 
in three library schools and I think it important to help the next 
generation. It will also encourage the spread of Evergreen and open 
source software if students are familiar with both and the thinking 
behind open source development and its value in the library world.

2. What I can do is limited with those students now is limited. Koha 
with Class offers a way for students to use Koha and mess with it to 
learn functionality. Now we have documents I refer to. I would argue for 
an equivalent Evergreen with Class. Dan Scott and I have talked about 
this many times and it just hasn't been a priority. I see you envision a 
sandbox. Bravo.  Maybe we can replicate them for classes. Professor Xs 
class gets one for a semester, Professor Ys gets another.

3. There also should be content suitable for teachers to use and assign 
for their students. I don't think this need be a separate category of 
content because to my mind this would largely overlap with Potentials 
who would be investigating Evergreen. An intro page for 
teachers/students with discussions of what is on the Evergreen Website, 
what its context is, suitable links to sources of information, and how 
to set up your class's sandbox.

4. However, there will be a few students who will be interested in the 
underlying technology and I think that the materials for Admin and 
Developers could largely accommodate this kind of user. Things like 
server configurations for Admin types, say, would be good I would think.

5. Choosing an ILS. What are the criteria your library should use? We 
are *always* getting the cost question and, frankly, it is unanswerable. 
However, if we could constrain the choices, we might be able to do 
something. There are a few sites where this has been discussed so links 
to those sources, too.

I think that perhaps a page with appropriate title for teachers and 
students to land that has introductory material and then provides links 
to the relevant material on the Evergreen sites would create something 
useful and not provide too much that has to be updated constantly.

--
About the Potentials and folks who are investigating Evergreen. I have 
done a fair number of blog posts directed specifically at this kind of 
user and students. Largely, I think this comes from having talked to 
individuals at conferences and such and given talks to groups who are 
just getting their sea legs with this here open source thingie. If I get 
a question a couple of times, there is a good chance that I will do a 
blog post on it. And I have been very concerned about folks in these 
groups coming to the Evergreen site and not knowing which way was up. 
The Web site has grown by accretion because everyone was busy. I am so 
glad you are here because it needs the systematic look you are giving 
it. And I love the Evergreen 101 idea. It is needed.

--
One other type of thing is pulling together variations on the same 
theme. An example near to my heart:
http://www.evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:evergreen_and_open_source_glossary

The provenance of this document is that it is something I wrote in 2008 
and Karen put it on the wiki with some additions and emendations. It is 
out of date. Here is the current version:
http://blog.esilibrary.com/an-open-source-ils-glossary-html-format-v-2/

Everything I have done is Creative Commons Share Alike. I think taking 
out the Koha specific language of the current glossary and combining the 
two on the wiki would be a step forward and reduce complexity for 
updating and confusion for all users.

IMHO,

Bob

-- 
Bob Molyneux
| V.P., Business Development
| Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
| phone: 1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457) x710
|      : 770-709-5570
| email: bob at esilibrary.com
| Skype: ESI-Bob
| Web: http://www.esilibrary.com/