> > MJ, could you clarify ... who is the Koha Kaitiaki? > > I think it's still Rachel at Katipo. I think I remember some talk in > a meeting of one of the other long-timers (Owen? Chris? Irma?) > stepping in, but I don't think it actually happened yet.
I think that before we start talking about a new Kaitiaki it would be good to come to an agreement about what the position entails. Here's the text on the web site (http://www.koha.org/about-koha/faq.html#faq19): Who is this Kaitiaki person? Kaitiaki is the Maori word for Guardian. When the Koha user and developer community realized some sort of combination Benevolent Dictator/Juggler might be a good idea, they chose a name that would reflect what they felt his/her role would be. The Kaitiaki is currently elected from among the membership of the developers' list - this includes the Katipo staff as well as representatives of several of the libraries and the far flung contributors of code, documentation, and kibitzing. This person is also responsible, with the advice and consent of the community, for trying to decide target dates for things like releases and features scheduling... and trying to help bring some order from the chaos ;). He also helps coordinate efforts and agendas, particularly through the mechanism of the every-few-weeks IRC meetings. Traditionally, the Kaitiaki also handles things like release announcements to sites like OSS4lib. Right now, responsibilities for things like release dates and features scheduling is the responsibility of the Release Managers. IRC meetings have been release-oriented, so RMs have been in charge of their own meetings. I could see the Kaitiaki acting as a coordinator among RMs, if that was necessary, although there has been so little action on 2.x that this doesn't seem to have been necessary. I like the idea of the Kaitiaki being responsible for announcements and things like that, so that Koha can have a spokesperson independent from any branch or company. The catch is that the Kaitiaki has to have time and inclination to devote to the job. The Kaitiaki has to take the initiative of getting the word out on Koha when the opportunity arises. If the Kaitiaki is to help manage the RMs and come to agreements on release dates, features, etc, then he or she needs to be able to understand the technical details of the product as well as the business needs of all the parties involved. How do others see the role of the Kaitiaki? Let's hammer out a job description. -- Owen P.S. I wouldn't want the job, it sounds like too much work! ;) -- Web Developer Athens County Public Libraries http://www.myacpl.org _______________________________________________ Koha-devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/koha-devel
