Note this blog entry is a continuation of http://biblibre-wordpress.test.biblibre.eu/blog/billet/nouvelles-de-la-communaute-internationale-koha/ (blog entry, in french only, that relates the proposal of ptfs/liblime for a foundation).
PTFS’s initial post to the Koha mailing list sounded positive and as such got positive feedback from members of the Koha community.
But, since that original email, here’s what has happened:
- ptfs/liblime announced their new website. You’ll see there a new logo for a software called “KOHA”. The Koha (notice the lower/upper cases) community has not been warned in any way (and of course not asked). Unfair
- the koha.org website displays LibLime’s Harley release on homepage, the official version is announced lower, and much less visible than LL Harley. Unfair
- a blog, previously managed by Nicole Engard has been resurrected and a new entry has been added. It is available here : http://blogs.liblime.com/open-sesame/archives/728 . Nicole wrote an answer on his own blog, at http://www.web2learning.net/archives/4177 . Unfair? nope, worse than unfair. The feedback from the SLA Illinois Chapter President, Dianna Wiggins clearly shows that things are not what ptfs/liblime blog post says.
- libtechguide announced a few days ago (http://www.librarytechnology.org/ltg-displaytext.pl?RC=15112) that ptfs/liblime has released a new free software to manage MARC records. I downloaded it because we are very interested by such a tool, and could have work on a UNIMARC improvement. But… the licence of the tool says : “This is free application and can be distributed as such. It is provided “as is”, and comes with absolutely no warranty of any kind, either express or implied. If you use the features of this distribution, you do so at your own risk, and you agree to free the author of any consequences arising from such use, either intended or otherwise.” it is not free/openSource software. It just mean you can use it free of charge, not that you can modify & redistribute it. ptfs/liblime is a company that pretends to be “the library community’s most trusted provider of open-source solutions” and it’s a serious problem: how can you be a leader and misunderstand so much the very software you hope to lead?
At the end, the most important thing I want to point is that OpenSource software centered around trust. I work with Chris Cormack, Nicole Engard, and all the other Koha contributors because I have experienced everyday in the last 8 years that they are trustworthy. I hope/think they consider BibLibre as trustworthy as well.
I tried to encourage ppl to trust ptfs for years now (and I have some mails still in my mailbox to prove that), but, frankly, i’m (definetly) discouraged now. When what you do is so different compared to what you say, one day, you can’t be trusted anymore.
So, I write publicly that ptfs/liblime failed to integrate the Koha community.
BibLibre will go our way with the rest of Koha community, and I know the Koha community will just continue to go its own way as well.
