[php4lib] New Group Announcement

[Nicholas Rosasco]

[Please excuse the cross posting -- I'm aware it is not the greatest of
netiquette, however, several earlier recipients urged me to send this to the
various lists I've CC'd.  Thank you for your patience.  Nick Rosasco]

-*- -*- -*- New Group Proposal -*- -*- -*-
A variant of this message has been sent around to a significant number of
Open Source Library Software people and projects.  Some of the recipients
have already expressed interest in joining the proposed group.  If you are
interested, please email nrosasco@acm.org -- please include URL and name of
any project(s) affiliations you may have.


- Motivation

The recent ALA conference seems to indicate that the library open source
community may benefit from a group that collaborates in the development of
Open Source tools for libraries and in raising awareness of their benefits.

OSS4lib and their services do a fantastic job of keeping both the user and
developer communities posted on day to day things like releases, however a
deeper degree of collaboration - particularly in the areas of conferences
and compatibility questions - may be useful.


- Background

Libraries normally select an application for the long haul, for both user
and budget issues.  The standards behind cataloging and interlibrary
circulation in particular are not simple, and there is no reason to not do
our best to pool this knowledge and effort. This collaboration would also
help us spread the word to libraries currently unaware of the possibilities
of open source applications.

- Proposed Activities
* Mail list, website, "umbrella identity."
* Shared conference coverage.
* Discussion of programming practice.
* Integration compatibility testing
* Compatibility testing (Especially in terms of cataloging standards)
* Assistance in grant and proposal writing.
* Recognition of projects that underpin work, and community building
efforts.
* Collective involvement in standards, professional communities.

- Suggested name
The Callimachus Group.  Callimachus is recorded as the first Cataloger and
one of the earliest Librarians of the Great Library of Alexandria.  As one
of the first bibliographers and a scholar of what could be described as
organizing things and increasing accessibility thereby, his name lends
itself well I think to a group centered on giving libraries find better
tools for accessing their collections and services.  He was also a scholar,
and a writer/poet -- and there are certainly some that would argue that well
written code can be poetic.
[Ref: http://web.utk.edu/~bhedrich/dg~1.htm]