Open Sesame - Latest Comments

Re: OS Alternative for Enterprise CMS

nengard — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 09:01:16 -0000

Thank you so much for the info!!

Re: OS Alternative for Enterprise CMS

patrice chalon — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 08:59:55 -0000

Hello,
We tested alfresco along with other EMS/DMS last year. From the open source ones, our 5 testers rated KnwledgeTree beter than Alfresco, but both appeared to be good products (we also considered, but not tested, Nuxeo, Maarch and exo).
At last, we went for a non open source solution.
Patrice

Re: Open Source ILS Survey

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:23:56 -0000

Great, well take a minute and fill out the survey then.

Re: Open Source ILS Survey

Tomson A J — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 05:52:07 -0000

my library is fully computerised using KOHA ILS. It is good software for libraries

Re: Running Greenstone on an iPod

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 06:54:45 -0000

Download it from the official site: http://www.greenstone.org/download

Re: Running Greenstone on an iPod

Peter — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 05:23:50 -0000

How can I get a copy of the digital library software Greenstone.

Re: Price #1 Reason to choose OSS

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:24:59 -0000

Check out some comments on my FriendFeed.

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:23:42 -0000

Jill, I'm not sure I understand. In the case of the open source ILS, your vendor is doing product development - and providing general customer service and help desk support. The difference in the open source model from the model libraries are used to is the fact that if they need a feature developed they can ask their vendor to create it for them (for a price) or they can take their idea to a contractor and they can program that piece for them. With your proprietary ILS you get the upgrades that the most people want and if you want something special you don't have access to the code so you can't ever get that feature.

As for the sustainable future, only time will tell - of course I believe it's the way we're moving - but even if you don't - if you're in the market for a new ILS anyway, why not try one where you get complete access to the data and code so that you can always take that with you should you have to move again?

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Jill — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 11:53:18 -0000

My thoughts are similar to Alex's. Maybe when people say support, what they mean is product development support. Customer needs are continually changing and the ILS software has to change to meet those demands. If you don't have a programmer on your library IT staff, and your software vendor isn't doing product development, you are left dependant on other libraries' IT staff to develop your ILS. I think that makes people uncertain about the sustainable future of an open source ILS.

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 06:27:35 -0000

Alex,

Those are some great points. When I go out to teach what open source is I show a wide range of software products to the attendees. Among those products I show Firefox and Thunderbird, both open source and both work once installed.

The problem is that you're talking about installing an operating system without asking for help and the ILS is along that same scale. I'm not saying that you can do it yourself, I'm saying that there is support out there for people without server and programming skills.

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Alex Grigg — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:47:15 -0000

As you know, Nicole, I have been one of the people that questioned the support for open source software. You and Matt make some good points here that are starting to make me think differently.

I think one of the reasons that the lack of support argument is going to continue to exist is that open source gives off that aura of something that is just for hackers. I mean, I installed Red Hat 5 (I think it was 5, but this is just off the top of my head) and then spent a couple of hours trying to make it recognize a USB drive without success. I hear Ubuntu is better for regular users and I may give it another shot, but Red Hat was a very successful piece of open source software and I couldn't make it do a lot of simple things, at least not easily. That is the perception that you're fighting against, the perception that open source is hard unless you're a programmer.

If you're marketing to a general consumer/library you have to present the piece of software as a product that works well as is. Sure, sure, you can add all of the fun tweaks to get it to do amazing things, but if I install this catalog on my servers today I want at least basic functionality tomorrow . . . or in a week if I'm being generous. If you show me you've got that, then your foot is in the door.

You may not even want to advertise your software as open source. Just call it free and mention on your licensing and about pages that, oh yeah, btw, this is open source for all you software gurus out there. I think that's key. Open source sometimes equates to half finished or un-user friendly and if you can fight past that stereotype then you're making giant leaps in the right direction.

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:47:15 -0000

Thanks Joe, unfortunately the last time I used Perl was in 2000 - so I think I need a beginner book!

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:46:36 -0000

:) Keep the good content coming and I'll keep quoting you :)

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:45:50 -0000

Oh geeze !! :)

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

MJ Ray — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:42:46 -0000

Haha Greg! Nice joke! No, as you know, Koha 3.2 will be in Perl and Koha 4.0 will be in Lisp.

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

Joe Atzberger — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:19:38 -0000

I can recommend "Effective Perl Programming" for a concise mid-level book:

http://www.amazon.com/Effective-Perl-Programmin...

It helps refine some of the clumsier approaches that I picked up as a beginner.

Re: The curious (mis)perception of open-source support

Matt Asay — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:03:07 -0000

You made my day, Nicole. Thanks for reading.

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 15:59:48 -0000

Why switch?

Re: Learn Open Source Programming

Greg — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:36:52 -0000

One of the Koha programmers recommended "Perl by Example" by Ellie Quigley, and that is indeed a really good text for Perl programming, although from your comments I'd guess that book would really be considered much more advanced--Einstein on steroids? Anyone who has had some exposure to programming previously could probably could follow "Perl by Example".

Actually I think Koha should have been written in Java. Maybe for Koha 3.2 the developers will switch from Perl to Java?

Re: Open Source Router from Netgear

MJ Ray — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 09:20:12 -0000

I'm no hardware wizard, but I've been burnt by these "Linux-friendly but not really" devices before, so I guess I'm very wary now.

Re: Open Source Router from Netgear

Nicole C. Engard — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:52:10 -0000

MJ, thanks for the update! I'll be honest I stink when it comes at hardware, I just figured it was something I shouldn't ignore.

Re: Open Source Router from Netgear

MJ Ray — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:13:58 -0000

Reportedly this "Open Source" router contains binary-only kernel drivers. Another perversion of the "Open Source" brand? So we're still better off getting one of the really Free-Software-friendly Linksys NSLUs than this "look at us, we're friendly" Netgear, according to comments like http://suihkulokki.blogspot.com/2008/06/creatin...

Re: Forrester Changes Its Mind

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:42:22 -0000

Thank you for taking the time to update us all. For those who were wondering - the link to Jeffrey's note is here.

Re: Forrester Changes Its Mind

Jeffrey Hammond — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 11:13:15 -0000

I honestly think that Matt has mis-characterized the research note that I published. In no way did I reach the conclusion that "no one is using open source". What I DID say is that open source appears to have been slow to catch on with decision makers, with only 17% of the 1000+ software decision makers at North American and European companies reporting the they are currently using open source. I then went on to state that what seems to be a low interest in adopting open source for it's own sake appears to be compounded by a general lack of awareness at the software decision maker level of the open source frameworks they may already be using courtesy of commercial products that wrap open source libraries and the use of open source programming languages. We've seen this pattern play out before; Linux or Eclipse comes into an organization through developer downloads, and it takes time for decision maker to realize the level of use in their own organization. If you read my response to Matt's post, you'll see more detail there.

Re: Is ignorance open source’s biggest enemy?

Nicole C. Engard — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:41:38 -0000

I know that our company goes out to libraries interested in hearing about open source - just like the larger vendors do. We also offer online demos (with a host).

I'm not sure what else can be done - as you implied - it is harder when your company is smaller than others.