[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Evergreen web page for paid support vendors

Wed Jul 10 14:04:04 EDT 2013

I agree w/ Rogan.  While there may be some vendors that are better/worse
than others, the impetus of vetting their qualifications should fall to
anyone contracting with them anyway.  It seems like a duplication of effort
to have an extensive vetting process in the beginning (I mean, there should
be SOME criteria) when there has to be extensive vetting down by a
contracting agency anyway.

On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 1:50 PM, Rogan Hamby <rogan.hamby at yclibrary.net>wrote:

> I'm more in favor of high lighting active and proven community members
> than vetting some and searching for any kind of misrepresentation.
>
> I think there is a big difference in the models in terms of labor for the
> web team and how it frames their relationship to the community.
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 10, 2013 at 1:45 PM, Mike Rylander <mrylander at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> While I am personally an active community member, I'm also an employee
>> of a service provider, so unless I see something that seems
>> particularly antagonistic toward service providers I'll stay out of
>> most of this discussion except to say this: in my opinion, the purpose
>> of the page is not well served if there is not at least some
>> demonstration of competency for the specific services or products
>> offered by a vendor or service provider.  I don't know what sort of
>> vetting should take place, and I realize that there is a burden
>> involved to fearless our volunteers, but I'm of the opinion that a
>> blanket "caveat emptor" is enough to help those looking for Evergreen
>> services if there are, in fact, inaccurate offerings listed.  I wish I
>> had a solution, or even a suggestion, but I'm not sure I'm the one to
>> be offering such in this particular case.  That said, if others feel
>> my input would be valuable I'm happy to speak publicly or privately
>> about possible solutions to any real or perceived problems.
>>
>> However, on a more positive note, I'd like to address Kathy's question
>> about third-party services and vendors.  I believe that the "vendor
>> page" could be used to good effect to reward (or, perhaps, highlight)
>> those third party vendors that are active contributors to the project.
>>  Those that sponsor or implement specific, measurable feature
>> improvements in Evergreen don't fall into the "support vendor"
>> category, but go beyond "our stuff works with Evergreen because we
>> followed standard X."  Vendors of that type don't currently have much
>> representation or exposure, but they are important.  I'll give a
>> couple examples (of which there are quite a few more, actually) to
>> help clarify:
>>
>>  * EBSCO sent a developer to the 2012 hackfest with the expressed
>> purpose of implementing NoveList Select functionality in Evergreen,
>> and they wanted to do that so they could make sure Evergreen will
>> continue to be able to integrate their content. (They partially
>> sponsored the event, too, but that's a different thing.)
>>  * PV-SUPA sponsored development to integrate their RFID hardware with
>> the Evergreen staff client, and enthusiastically agreed to have it
>> developed in such a way as to allow other 3rd party products to
>> integrate in a similar way by paying to have a plugin framework built,
>> instead of pushing for a special-case integration just for them.
>>
>> Recognizing 3rd party contributors of this sort, along side direct
>> service providers, would provide incentive for future and broader
>> collaboration and contribution, and highlight those external products
>> and services that have both (actual) external and community backing.
>>
>> Thoughts?
>>
>> --miker
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jul 9, 2013 at 5:28 PM, Kathy Lussier <klussier at masslnc.org>
>> wrote:
>> > Hi all,
>> >
>> > At the June Oversight Board meeting (minutes available at
>> >
>> http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=governance:minutes:2013-6-20
>> ),
>> > I raised the question of whether the Evergreen community should develop
>> a
>> > policy regarding the paid support vendors that are listed on the
>> Evergreen
>> > web site at
>> > http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=faqs:evergreen_companies.
>> >
>> > I don't think the community should be in a position of endorsing any
>> > Evergreen provider. However, I think it's important that the companies
>> on
>> > the list do indeed provide Evergreen services so that users don't waste
>> a
>> > lot of time investigating companies that don't really work with
>> Evergreen.
>> > There was a consensus at the Board meeting that a policy should be
>> > considered.
>> >
>> > I would like to get feedback from others in the community on the
>> guidelines
>> > you think should be used for this page. As an example, Koha asks support
>> > providers to follow the procedures outlined at
>> > http://koha-community.org/support/paid-support/how-to-get-listed/. The
>> Koha
>> > community asks support providers to send an e-mail to the general list
>> with
>> > contact information and a description of services provided. The
>> providers
>> > must also show their support for the community by adding a visible link
>> to
>> > the Koha web site.
>> >
>> > I think the Koha guidelines might offer a good starting point for the
>> > Evergreen community.
>> >
>> > During the meeting, there was discussion about whether we should define
>> what
>> > an Evergreen service is. Migration, hosting, support, development,
>> training,
>> > and implementation seem like obvious Evergreen services. Should
>> peripheral
>> > devices or third-party services that work with Evergreen be included or
>> are
>> > they a different animal?
>> >
>> > Does everyone like the Koha model of requiring listed vendors to add a
>> > visible link to the project web site?
>> >
>> > Does anyone have any other thoughts on the subject?
>> >
>> > Thanks!
>> >
>> > Kathy
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Kathy Lussier
>> > Project Coordinator
>> > Massachusetts Library Network Cooperative
>> > (508) 343-0128
>> > klussier at masslnc.org
>> > Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/kmlussier
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Mike Rylander
>>  | Director of Research and Development
>>  | Equinox Software, Inc. / Your Library's Guide to Open Source
>>  | phone:  1-877-OPEN-ILS (673-6457)
>>  | email:  miker at esilibrary.com
>>  | web:  http://www.esilibrary.com
>>
>
>
>
> --
>
> Rogan Hamby, MLS, CCNP, MIA
> Managers Headquarters Library and Reference Services,
> York County Library System
>
> "You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit
> me."
> -- C.S. Lewis <http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1069006.C_S_Lewis>
>

-- 
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