I recommend making sure your library hires a consultant who knows how to navigate procurement waters in an OSS and a proprietary environment. ;)
Seriously, there are only a couple of us out there and hiring the wrong consultant can kill your OSS options. I've seen it happen many times. Lori Sent from my iPhone 4 On May 3, 2011, at 11:59 AM, Lee Phillips <[email protected]> wrote: > Greetings to all my Koha pals, esp. MJ and Paul!!! > As a library admin person I had put together the criteria for RFPs for > our ILS search. Of course I already knew about Koha and Evergreen, so I > could add specifications in the RFP that only FOSS could meet. Is that > fair? Yes I believe it is. MJ is right the lack of technical expertise > on the part of procurement leads to the path of least resistance for the > support staff who prefer someone else to blame when things don't work, > instead of learning, contributing and evolving. I think this would be an > EXCELLENT topic for a presentation at KohaCon-" How to write a RFP that > is vendor/ FOSS neutral". I was able to decide what was best for my > library and ask the vendors to meet that expectation. The question that > ALWAYS favors FOSS is "Do I control my records and will it cost me to > retrieve them if I move to another vendor?" I am unaware of any option > other than FOSS that can answer that question in the affirmative. > As a public librarian it is imperative for me to control the data. Or NO > deal. > And MJ, you are so right about all "free crap" passed out at conferences > by vendors"made in China" or a 3rd world country...etc... > I am most proud of my FOSS stickers on my netbook cover from KohaCon 10. > Almost as good as a tattoo! > Cheers all > Lee Phillips > Butte Public Library > Butte MT > > On 5/3/2011 8:36 AM, MJ Ray wrote: >> Paul POULAIN wrote: >>> Le 03/05/2011 12:09, MJ Ray a écrit : >>>> Did the National Library of NZ use a procurement process? >>> iirc, Dan Christie, Catalyst director (Chris C. employer) spoke of this >>> during KohaCon. iirc, he said it was hard to convince OpenSource was a >>> possibility. >>> that's all I remember, i've forgotten the details (but i'm not surprised >>> by this news, it was implied when I heard don speaking of that) >> Chris Cormack passed me the link >> http://www.dgmarket.com/tenders/np-notice.do~5329124 >> which doesn't work for me (no cookies until you show me a privacy >> policy, nasty error page) but might contain information. >> >> http://bywatersolutions.com/2010/10/26/kohacon10-promoting-free-softare-in-libraries/ >> is Nicole's blog post about Don's talk but I'm not sure I see >> the above comments reflected in that. >> >> Here's an interesting question from #koha - when should suppliers >> protest about defective procurement processes? I think it's best >> done while the process is still open (so there is still some chance >> it could be suspended and relaunched) but others said it's better >> to bid first, complain later. Any procurement experts here? >> >> Thanks, > _______________________________________________ > Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org > [email protected] > http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha _______________________________________________ Koha mailing list http://koha-community.org [email protected] http://lists.katipo.co.nz/mailman/listinfo/koha
