[Koha-devel] candidacy

[Nicholas Rosasco]

Since my hat (which I should have been wearing while I was out of town a few
days ago -- a goodly portion of my head is now a truly fetching shade of
red/pink) seems to have been chucked into the ring, I suppose I should say
something.

I'm a little more... taciturn? than Pat, but since what he has sent out has
made sense...

I'd be looking for
Release managers/Coders in Chief --
Stable and Devel [yeah, most likely Chris and Paul]
I'd like to see us integrate usable MARC with an eye to moving a MARC
version to stable by September.

Advocacy people --
International, and English [Pat, and someone else, I suppose]
Ideally, I'd like to see Koha acquire more of an installed based, as I would
hope to attract developers interested in making it meet there needs.  The
usual reasons of 'more users better' for open source apply here, and don't
really need repeating :).  These people would also have a brief for creating
a more visible koha presence (at things like oss4lib, and for e-mailings,
etc).  I'd also like to see an organized effort for translations, hopefully
not just by a developer.

Chief Librarian --
Self explanatory, I hope.

Support manager --
Responsible for coordinating documentation, and support tools (like the
installer, and the conversion utils allowing you to upgrade), and for
packaging for a user-friendly application.

Standards Specialist --
Someone who "gets it" (more than we do) on how the commercial apps implement
these standards -- preferably this would be someone from a library currently
using commercial tools who is willing to let us do testing against them for
compliance sake.

------
My primary goals for Koha relate directly to the above spots.

* Creation of a 'pipeline' for features and versions
  (ie request -> schedule -> devel -> release -> tested/stable/mature ->
repeat)
  with the logical things to make that easier (good introductory
documentation, clean code, etc)

* Increase of installed copies and int'l support
  Free software has stronger adherents where the expense of the commercial
version is insupportable.  Logically Koha should 'play' to that community.
More installed copies means more people thinking about how Koha can be
better.

* A move towards becoming a viable replacement for the midsize library
(short term) that participates in a larger framework (Inter Library Loan,
circulation protocols).  (Long term) The capability to support a national
library [obviously, on larger hardware] -- especially one with more than one
official language.

* The creation of a community (both business and individual) that can use
koha effectively -- ie, flexible enough to support a large library with
specific needs and configuration requirements, but with enough user and
configuration support that the small guy :) [which, btw, includes me] can
use it for his home or small business library.  Modularity in things like
barcodes, circulation setup, and membership should permit this to happen.
--
The fine print:
I'm waaaay behind the coders here.  I know just enough about Perl to know
how much I don't know!
I'm not a librarian, either.  I know a little about libraries, I've worked
for one, but I'll confess I don't fit firmly into either of the two primary
koha demographic groups!
I'm an American -- surrounded by Kiwis, Frenchman, and Canadians -- with all
the viewpoint baggage :) that implies.
By background, I'm a scheduling and documentation geek.  I would be obliged
(if elected) to lead mainly by persuasion -- I am not sufficiently skilled
in perl to do an all night code-a-thon to build something.  This would also
makes me hands off about coding -- I'd much rather get my news on Where We
Are from the wiki than the CVS updates.
By temperment, I'm a tad rententive -- I much prefer things orderly, and the
engineer in me can get a little obnoxious about scheduling and process.
You should (before voting) ask someone else's opinion of my contributions to
the project as such, as it sure as heck isn't coded features.
---
All that Having Been Said, I have enjoyed being on the project, I'd like to
think I've been useful, and I would be ecstatically happy to work for
someone else, either as a manager/whatever, as Deputy Geek in Chief, or
simply as Documentation Wonk.

Best,
Nick