On Tue, Nov 4, 2014 at 9:12 AM, Schulkins, Joe
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Presumably I'm not alone in this, but I find Stack Overflow a valuable resource for various bits of web development and I was wondering whether anyone has given any thought about proposing a Library Technology site to Stack Exchange's Area 51 (http://area51.stackexchange.com/)? Doing a search of the proposals shows there was one for 'Libraries and Information Science' but this closed 2 years ago as it didn't reach the required levels during the beta phase.
>
> The reason I think this might be useful is that instead of individual places to go for help or raise questions (i.e. various mailing lists) there could be a 'one-stop' shop approach from which we could get help with LMSs, discovery layers, repository software etc. I appreciate though that certain vendors aren't particularly open (yes, Innovative I'm looking at you here) and might not like these things being discussed on an open forum.
>
> Does anybody else think this might be useful? Would such a forum be shot down by all the vendors legalese wrapped up in their Terms and Conditions? Or are you happy with the way you go about getting help?
>
> Joe

I suspect such a site wouldn't work for the same reason the Libraries
site failed; the potential audience is relatively small, but more
importantly it's made up of people who know how to do their own
research and so ask a smaller volume of questions than you see on most
Stack Exchange sites. A model where opinion-based questions don't work
and where questions with a definitive answer have the people with the
questions just finding it themselves most of the time seems doomed to
failure on the SE platform.

That said, despite my pessimism I'd probably support an Area 51
proposal just to see what happens.
--
Geoffrey Spear
Metadata Manager
Health Sciences Library System
University of Pittsburgh