Excellent Amy! Thanks for pulling all this together and for doing it so promptly! I'm still not caught up from being away!
As I read this, I realized there was probably lots more that people might want to contribute to the collected stories about the conference. Can we add this as a blog post and invite comments there and here? Lori On Mon, May 7, 2012 at 6:52 PM, Amy Terlaga <terl...@biblio.org> wrote: > Hello, friends – here is our May Evergreen Newsletter: Conference Edition > **** > > ** ** > > Amy**** > > ** ** > > May 2012 Evergreen Newsletter: > Conference Edition**** > > ** ** > > Two-hundred-and-seventy-one members of the Evergreen community convened in > Indianapolis during the last week of April for our fourth annual Evergreen > International Conference. This was a sizable increase from last year’s > number of 180 attendees. Our community continues to grow up and out, with > representatives from Mexico, Finland, the Netherlands, Canada, Wales, and > the U.S. in attendance.**** > > ** ** > > Jim Corridan, Shauna Borger and their crew from the Indiana State Library > kept us all busy, informed, and entertained during the four days of the > conference. Here are some of the highlights:**** > > ** ** > > Hackfest / Interest Group Day (Wednesday)**** > > ** ** > > The Wednesday Developer Hackfest proved to be very fruitful. A number of > projects were tackled including making Syndetics content appear in TPAC and > a Mexican-Spanish translation of the catalog. Dan Scott showed the others > how to sign off on patch contributions, too.**** > > ** ** > > The Documentation Interest Group (DIG) meeting was led by *Yamil Suarez*of > Berkeley College of Music in Boston. DIG is looking for proof-readers > to review the documentation that has been approved for the website. If > interested, you can email documentat...@evergreen-ils.org.**** > > ** ** > > IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Reports Interest Group, by Jenny Turner, PALS > Over 30 individuals interested in reports in Evergreen met ; attendees > were from a variety of libraries with various experience using Evergreen's > reports interface. **** > > Meeting attendees broke into groups according to interest. Jenny Turner > (PALS) convened a Q&A session for Evergreen Reports newbies and > investigators. Jessica Venturo (Bibliomation) lead a group that discussed > staff client report ideas, new features in 2.2, and brainstormed items to > add to the Taskforce's wish > lists<http://open-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=evergreen-reports:taskforce_wish_lists>. > Amy Terlaga (Bibliomation) met with current and interested SQL reporters to > share ideas on how this form of reporting may be used.**** > > Following the small group meetings, Darrell Rodgers of Emerald Data > Systems shared wireframes of development his company intends to do for GPLS > to create a user-friendly interface for management-level reporting. These > wireframes are now available on the Evergreen website: > http://evergreen-ils.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=evergreen-reports:reports_wireframes. > **** > > Notes from the Reports Interest Group's meeting will be made available on > the Reports Taskforce's website in the near future. Watch the Evergreen > General<http://libmail.georgialibraries.org/mailman/listinfo/open-ils-general>and > Reports<http://list.evergreen-ils.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/evergreen-reports>mailing > lists for news about our upcoming meeting - all are welcome! > Interested in learning more about our work? Contact Jenny Turner at > repo...@evergreen-ils.org. **** > > ** ** > > Conference Opening Remarks: The State of Evergreen (Thursday)**** > > ** ** > > IN THE SPOTLIGHT: The State of Evergreen, by Tara Robertson, Systems and > Technical Services Librarian, Emily Carr University of Art + Design > I was asked to participate in The State of Evergreen because of the unsung > heroes project. I loved the series of blog posts that Chris Cormack has > been doing to highlight Koha community members and adapted his idea for the > Evergreen community. I learned two things. First, people were reluctant to > promote themselves and write bios listing all their accomplishments. I > shouldn’t have been surprised by this. It was more effective to ask > someone’s coworker, colleague or boss to highlight their contributions. I > like that our community values humility, but know that most people enjoy > being recognized for work that they are proud of. Second, some people felt > that the work that they did was insignificant and not worthy of being > recognized. Almost all of these people were women who had been nominated by > other people in the community. After an email or two all of these people > agreed to be profiled. I want to help foster a culture where we recognize > and value all sorts of contributions that are key to making the community > strong, sustainable and an enjoyable place to be. What do you want this > community to look like? Why do you put your time and energy into making > Evergreen better? **** > > ** ** > > User Programs (Thursday and Friday)**** > > > The user programs were varied, covering a wide range of topics – > everything from “Evergreen Basics” for newbies to the nitty gritty of > circulation rules settings with “Down the Rabbit Hole: In-Database Approach > For Circulation/Hold Policy Configuration.”**** > > Tony Bandy of OHIONET had this to say about the Template Toolkit OPAC > Customizations: Nuts and Bolts program on Friday: "Learning about the > Template Toolkit OPAC and all of the coming options for our consortium, > (COOL, http://www.cool-cat.org), I'm excited about the many changes on > the way."**** > > ** ** > > IN THE SPOTLIGHT: PROGRAM - Resource Sharing in Evergreen > Grace Dunbar, Tara Robertson, and Mike Rylander teamed up to discuss the > many different Evergreen objects that could be shared, both within your own > library system and beyond, with the whole Evergreen community. Especially > exciting was the announcement that Equinox will be establishing a central > object sharing service that they will host for the community. Objects such > as report templates and serial prediction patterns could be uploaded and > downloaded whenever libraries wanted to share the fruits of their labors. > Pending some development in the related Evergreen modules, the link to > this shared server would be seamless; if a library searched for a report on > their own server and did not find it, they could automatically be directed > to the shared server. There will also be a built-in description and rating > system to ensure that well designed templates and reports are more > discoverable.**** > > ** ** > > Team Indiana is in the process of collecting all PowerPoints from the user > programs. You will be able to eventually find them by starting here: > http://evergreen2012.org/conference-programs-posted-on-blog/**** > > ** ** > > Fun in Indy**** > > > There was no end to the good time fun during the evening hours; when the > sun went down, the dine arounds, receptions, good drinks and good > conversation could be had by all. One of the big hits was the Friday Night > Pub Crawl which began at The Ram Brewery, with a surprise private brewery > tour. Participants learned about specialty brewmaking with exotic > ingredients like bacon. No bacon beer was left to partake, as > unfortunately it had a very limited run due to its overly aggressive bacon > mouth feel. The night ended at The Slippery Noodle where a blues band > played into the wee hours, leaving Matt Carlson of KCLS to tweet, ”Band at > the Slipperynoodle tearing the Blues up right now, amazing. Think i've > found the best place in Indiana”**** > > ** ** > > Board Update / Developer Update / Community Meeting (Saturday)**** > > > Elizabeth McKinney led the Evergreen Oversight Board update which included > the introductions of the new Board members Rogan Hamby, Kathy Lussier, and > Ben Hyman.**** > > ** ** > > Galen Charlton, assisted by most of the Evergreen developers, did a bang > up job with the Developer Update. He explained that Evergreen releases > will all now have release managers and that Evergreen 2.2.0 will released > by June 8th. He also explained the Evergreen developers’ participation > in the Google Summer of Code project which will lead to some really nice > customizations when the individual projects are completed. (Look for more > information about the Google Summer of Code project in an upcoming > newsletter, later this Summer.)**** > > ** ** > > IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Community Meeting, by Lori Ayre, The Galecia Group**** > > Lori Bowen Ayre led the community discussion. Topics discussed included > finding ways to break out of the various “silos” the various Evergreen > committees and groups find themselves working in. For example, developers > tend to communicate on the IRC and the developers mailing list. Plus there > are special mailing lists for DIG, the Web Team, Report Task Force, the > Oversight Board and (just announced) Catalogers. Also, many libraries are > gathering info about development work that they may undertake in the future > and sometimes there are duplicate efforts underway. Some working groups > didn't have any structure (e.g. a mailing list or working area on the web) > such as translators and Sys Admins. And in some cases, we just plain > needed more people involved (e.g. on QA and user interface). **** > > Ideas for improving the feedback loops between various community members > that have arisen during the course of the conference are: get the > newsletter going again (this will be implemented), do more community IRC > meetings, establish a community manager/coordinator, have the Release > Managers and Maintainers communicate more frequently on the General Mailing > list (this will be implemented), rework the website on a platform that is > easier for everyone to contribute to and which provides targeted areas for > communication and resource-sharing among and across all the different > working/interest/user groups. An offer to host a "Technical Share Server" > by Equinox kicked off a lively discussion about the need for libraries to > step up and provide some community services for ourselves. **** > > There was general consensus that we need to find a way to find a way to > connect the silos and keep relationships with everyone in the community > clear, transparent, productive and consistent with our values. **** > > But what are our shared values? Here's what came up from the group: > openness, transparency, collaboration, sharing, respect, all contributions > are valued, creative ways to do old things, creating a quality experience > for patrons, the guiding principle is the user (where the users are patrons > and staff). Also, to be crazy awesome!**** > > The Web Team was tasked with sorting out the differences between "Interest > Groups" and "Working Groups" in terms of their purpose, what resources are > set-up for them (e.g. mailing lists, website space, wiki space). In > addition, the Web Team will stage a proof-of-concept website using Drupal > to provide the communication and information resources (or at least a > place for them) needed by all the users identified during the Web Teams > needs assessment work (many of which are represented by the "silos" > discussed earlier). The goal would be to make the website easier for all > the user communities to find what they need, to communicate with each > other and with the larger community, and to share resources with one > another. The new Drupal stuff would not replace the wiki, just supplement > it. The community will be asked to provide feedback on the proof-of-concept > site offered up by the Web Team.**** > > Finally, the group decided that a community purpose statement will be > drafted by a group of volunteers for feedback by the community. Volunteers > were John Houser, Angela Kilsdonk, Jed Moffitt, and Beth Longwell. > > **** > > That’s it for this conference edition. I’ll end with a couple of quotes > from two conference attendees:**** > > ** ** > > “[I ] took away several things of value: new contacts who I can go to for > information, and who in return can come to me; the opportunity to help out > Equinox with their Millennium connector for Fulfillment, and important > information on networks and how they interact with Evergreen.” – John > Boggs, Peninsula Library System**** > > ** ** > > "From keynote to classes and even after hours, being at the Evergreen 2012 > conference helped me to become more familiar with the system and the great > contributors to the project." – Tony Bandy, OHIONET**** > > ** ** > > Registration is already open for the 2013 conference in Vancouver, British > Columbia: http://eg2013.evergreen-ils.org/. See you all there! **** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > ** ** > > +=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+**** > > Amy Terlaga**** > > Assistant Director, User Services**** > > Bibliomation, Inc.**** > > 32 Crest Road**** > > Middlebury, CT 06762**** > > 203-577-4070 x101**** > > www.biblio.org**** > > ** ** >