[OPEN-ILS-GENERAL] Minutes of the resource allocator summit

[Galen Charlton]

Hi Dan,

On Sat, Mar 22, 2014 at 9:01 PM, Dan Scott <dan at coffeecode.net> wrote:
> Hi, I unfortunately wasn't able to attend the Resource Allocator
> Summit but wanted to reply to a few of the points in the minutes;
> hopefully Ben & Kathy's report out to the community will be able to
> address some of these questions.

Thank you for taking the time to read the minutes.  Of course, a brief
set of minutes cannot capture the entirety of the event, so I've taken
the liberty to responding to some of your comments below, and hope
that other attendees of the meeting weigh in if they see other gaps.

> On Fri, Mar 21, 2014 at 9:44 AM, Galen Charlton <gmc at esilibrary.com> wrote:
>
> <heavily snipped>
>
>> Equinox's idea lab a potential model?
>
> Could more context be provided for this question? If the discussion
> was about adopting the Equinox Idea Lab as-is, it quite bluntly seems
> like a way of centralizing funding, communications, and control of
> development within a single company, and I'm fundamentally wary of any
> such centralization.

Equinox's Idea Lab service was brought up as an example of one, among
many, approaches that have been taken to aggregate funding for
development projects.  If the community finds that ideas (as it were)
from the structure of that service to be useful in putting together
development pools, informally or formally, via Conservancy or via
other means, great!

But to be crystal clear, we are not suggesting, and did not suggest at
the summit, that Idea Lab be adopted by the community as the sole
means for pooling development funds.  Instead, it is one option among
many, which could include:

- funds managed by Conservancy on behalf of the project that would be
disbursed to developers after an open, competitive selection process
- ad hoc development pools created on a per-project basis by two or
more libraries, as has been done many times in the past
- grant-funded projects coordinated by a state-wide entity that also
aggregates funding from other states and libraries
- grant-funded projects whose monies are managed by Conservancy under
the direction of the EOB

I submit that at this time, there is no single mechanism of pooling
funds that would be appropriate for all situations and that
consequently, there is room for a variety of approaches to be tried.

>> Needs identified:
>>
>> -Volunteers
>> -Time
>> -Predictable Resourcing
>
> What aspects of predictable resourcing were discussed? Financial
> contributions to pooled funding? Sweat equity, such as organizations
> pledging to devote 1 person-day of their own
> developer/documentation/graphic design/other skilled resources per
> week for a year to a common effort?

Both funding and sweat equity were discussed.  Regarding the latter,
one point that was brought up by Elizabeth McKinney was that PINES
staff members' job responsibilities explicitly include spending time
on Evergreen community work, and that PINES employees are evaluated on
it.  This is a practice that I think is great, and which I encourage
other consortia and service agencies to consider adopting if they have
the means.

>> Brilliant ideas identified:
>>
>> -coffee fund for developers (incentive)
>
> Huh. Did the developers in the room confirm this would be more of an
> incentive than recognition?

As I recall, the notion of a coffee fund as such was a jocular
suggestion.  However, the broader context was on finding ways to
recognize contributors for their efforts, and I think it fair to say
that suggestions for doing that would be welcomed.

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
skype:  gmcharlt
web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/
Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
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