The software for this project is clearly just one part of an ambitious
and interesting venture. The first question I'd ask is how you plan to
assemble the programming team for this. Do you have the resources to
hire core people, or will you be counting entirely on volunteers? Doing
a big project on volunteer efforts is possible but difficult.
Then you have to sketch out the technology in broad strokes, but with a
little more detail than given here. A good starting point is to decide
which OPAC you want to work with initially; that'll affect a lot of your
technological choices.
I don't think the hosting site will much affect the quality of
developers you can attract, but Github is the "hottest" open source site
right now, so it might offer some benefit. From a technological
standpoint, I like Github; it has a number of features making
collaboration and forking easier. Avoiding malicious code is a matter of
finding people you can trust, whichever site you go through.
On 12/7/12 2:58 PM, Donna Campbell wrote:
> Dear Colleagues,
>
> I understand from a professional colleague, who referred me to this list,
> that there are some experienced open source programmers here. I am in the
> early stages of planning for a conference session/open source project in
> June 2013 for a different professional library organization. Here is the
> session title and description:
>
> Open Source Platform Project for E-book Lending
>
> Facilitate a discussion between interested collaborators of how to create
> an alternative model that allows theological research libraries to
> permanently own their e-books "without concern over rising licensing fees
> or changing terms from aggregators and distributors." (Matt Enis, "Harris
> County PL to Test DCL Ebook Model" Library Journal 137, no. 16 (October 1,
> 2012):16). This is a preliminary step to construct a team to design or
> tailor an ideal e-book platform akin to Douglas County Libraries
> (Colorado) or Harris County Public Library (Houston, TX) where libraries
> purchase to own e-books and lend to users as with print books
> (one-copy/one-user) in a seamless fashion in their OPAC. We will assess
> the human, financial, and technological resources that are needed to
> create and maintain the platform. The platform would be library-owned and
> library-managed and available to share with other ATLA member libraries.
> System administrators, programmers, IT specialists, electronic resource
> managers, and others who desire to make this project happen are encouraged
> to attend. Different perspectives are also welcomed.
>
> I have corresponded with Douglas County Libraries but I also want to ask
> this group if you have any suggestions for the following elements for a
> successful project like this:
>
> 1. What kind of skill sets (esp. programming) should I be seeking?
> 2. Where would the best place to host an open source project (e.g.,
> Sourceforge.net, Google, etc.) to draw expertise and to avoid malicious
> code?
> 3. What software/hardware would you recommend that would be a means to a
> quality end-product as well as provide efficiency?
> 4. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
--
Gary McGath, Professional Software Developer
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