Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Cary Gordon]

My take is in the quote.

Cary

On Fri, Dec 7, 2012 at 11:58 AM, Donna Campbell  wrote:
> 1. What kind of skill sets (esp. programming) should I be seeking?

The first and foremost skill you'll need is vision along with the
ability to articulate it. Next you need management and organization.
If you have those upfront, the coding will be easy(ish).

> 2. Where would the best place to host an open source project (e.g.,

I prefer GitHub.

> 3. What software/hardware would you recommend that would be a means to a
> quality end-product as well as provide efficiency?

Use AWS or another infrastructure service that won't lock you in. That
way you can change resources as your needs change. Don't buy servers.

Software will depend on your approach. If you can find an existing
project to build on, you can concentrate on building just what you
need. If not, choose a modern programming language appropriate to the
scale of what you are doing. In my opinion, Python and Ruby are at the
top of that list. I suspect that Ruby is a bit most popular in this
venue.

We work mostly in PHP, because most of our work is building on top of
Drupal, A WCMS written in PHP.

> 4. Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Pick a license before you start.

I agree with Tom Cramer that the key element of spinning up an open
source project is setting the governance model.

Cary

-- 
Cary Gordon
The Cherry Hill Company
http://chillco.com

Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Sharp, Chris]

+1

This is an excellent guide for not only the processes, but the typical culture 
of Free/Open Source software projects.  Code4Lib is much like a F(L)OSS 
project, so what you'd learn there is very relevant, IMHO.

- Original Message -
> From: "Erik Hetzner" 
> To: CODE4LIB@LISTSERV.ND.EDU
> Sent: Friday, December 7, 2012 3:28:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

> Hi Donna,
> 
> For understanding free/open source software development processes,
> you
> can’t beat Karl Fogel’s book, Producing open source software,
> available online: http://producingoss.com/
> 
> best, Erik
> 
> Sent from my free software system <http://fsf.org/>.
> 

-- 
Chris Sharp
PINES System Administrator
Georgia Public Library Service
1800 Century Place, Suite 150
Atlanta, Georgia 30345
(404) 235-7147
csh...@georgialibraries.org
http://pines.georgialibraries.org/

Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Erik Hetzner]

At Fri, 7 Dec 2012 14:58:11 -0500,
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:
>
> […]

Hi Donna,

For understanding free/open source software development processes, you
can’t beat Karl Fogel’s book, Producing open source software,
available online: http://producingoss.com/

best, Erik
Sent from my free software system .

Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Gary McGath]

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

Re: [CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Tom Cramer]

Donna,  

The Hydra Project is a distributed, open source software project that started 
in the library community for digital asset management. We have spent a fair 
amount of time defining and polishing our approach to many of the questions you 
have asked about your proposed project. 

You may find it helpful to look over how we've structured (and documented) our 
approach to defining developer skills, development infrastructure, community 
infrastructure (for effective collaboration, outreach and social mechanisms), 
and licensing issues. 

Project website: http://projecthydra.org/
Project wiki: https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra/The+Hydra+Project
Developer Infrastructure & Norms: 
https://wiki.duraspace.org/display/hydra/Developers

If you're looking to establish a collaborative, open source effort, my main 
suggestion to you would be that you spend at least as much time focusing on the 
community and social mechanisms of the project as you do on the code. If you 
take care of the institutions and people in the project, they can take care of 
the code. This is the way the Apache Software Foundation works, and we've found 
it to also be true in our own projects. 

Good luck!

- Tom

 | Tom Cramer
 | Chief Technology Strategist & Associate Director 
 | Digital Library Systems & Services
 | Stanford University Libraries
 | tcra...@stanford.edu



On Dec 7, 2012, at 11:58 AM, 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.
> 
> Cordially,
> 
> Donna R. Campbell
> Technical Services & Systems Librarian
> (215) 935-3872 (phone)
> (267) 295-3641 (fax)
> Mailing Address (via USPS):
> Westminster Theological Seminary Library
> P.O. Box 27009
> Philadelphia, PA 19118  USA
> Shipping Address (via UPS or FedEx):
> Westminster Theological Seminary Library
> 2960 W. Church Rd.
> Glenside, PA 19038  USA

[CODE4LIB] Open source project questions

[Donna Campbell]

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.

Cordially,

Donna R. Campbell
Technical Services & Systems Librarian
(215) 935-3872 (phone)
(267) 295-3641 (fax)
Mailing Address (via USPS):
Westminster Theological Seminary Library
P.O. Box 27009
Philadelphia, PA 19118  USA
Shipping Address (via UPS or FedEx):
Westminster Theological Seminary Library
2960 W. Church Rd.
Glenside, PA 19038  USA