Open Communication for Open Source

1. Open Communication for Open Source The Koha Experience Brenda Chawner October 2003

2. Outline • Introduction • Free/Open source basics and culture • Free//open source software development • Issues • Opportunities • The Koha project • Koha roles/options for libraries • Koha communication channels/tools • Email discussion groups • IRC • WikiWikiWeb • Bug tracking • Summary/conclusion • Discussion and questions Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

3. Introduction • About me • • currently Senior Lecturer, School of Information Management, Victoria University of Wellington • • teach courses on information technology and business information sources • • working on a PhD looking at factors that affect the roles people take on in open source projects in library and information management, in order to help participants in all roles understand how to get people with the skills they need involved • Presentation objectives • • to describe what is involved in managing and participating in a distributed free/open source software development project, using the Koha project as a case study • • to describe the tools used to facilitate communication between the various groups of people who are involved in the Koha project Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

4. Free/Open source basics • ‘Free/Open source’ means • • source code for software is distributed at no cost, with licensing conditions that allow users to modify it in any way they wish • • any modifications that are subsequently re-distributed must also be available as free/open software • • authors’ rights are protected, and changes are only incorporated into a distribution with the permission of the “owner” (but new projects sometimes “fork” from existing ones) • • two groups, the Free Software Foundation and the Open Source Initiative, represent different political positions about the reasons for making source code available, but have broadly similar positions on software distribution and licensing • • each group maintains a list of licenses that meet their conditions; the GNU General Public License (GPL), which is both free and open, is the most commonly used license • • a wide range of software is available under F/OS licenses, ranging from operating sytems and other utilities (Linux, Apache, Sendmail, BIND) to programming languages (Perl, PHP) to database management systems (MySQL, PostgreSQL) to application software (OpenOffice, Koha, Greenstone, MyLibrary) Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

5. Free/Open source culture • ‘Free/Open source’ culture involves: • • a “gift” economy — participants gain prestige by contributing back to the community • • varying levels of participation, such as giving feedback, reporting bugs, providing facilities (either to host shared project resources or to fund specific developments), writing documentation or specifications, testing new releases, writing code; people can also be “passive” users if that’s their preference — there is no requirement to be an active participant • • open communication — discussion list archives are usually widely available; anyone who is interested can participate • • frequent releases and rapid improvement, though sometimes more in theory than in practice Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

6. Free/Open source software development • Having source code available means that: • • developer/user communities evolve for individual projects, and their structure varies widely from project to project • • people are able to take on roles that suit their interests and skills (sometimes this is done on a voluntary basis) • • informality rules, in contrast to commercial software development projects which tend to have formal procedures and standards • F/OS software is said to have: • • high quality • • access to source code makes it easier for people to identify and fix bugs • • short development cycles • • distributed development means that people take a modular and incremental approach to changes/enhancements Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

7. Free/open source software development issues • • software may be released at an “immature” stage lacking key functionality • • level of technical knowledge required to install and operate the software may be higher than for commercial/proprietary equivalents • • compatibility with a specific environment may not have been tested (there are many Linux distributions, for example, and software is unlikely to have been be tested in all permutations) • • code quality may be uneven, depending on skills of developer • • documentation may be out-of-date or non-existent • • participants have varying • • skills • • levels of understanding of requirements (some are professionals, others interested “amateurs”) • • geographic spread of participants means projects need to accommodate people in different time zones (both an advantage and a disadvantage), from different cultures, and possibly speaking different languages Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

8. Free/open source software development opportunities • • many options for support (in-house, contracted to an external organisation, with a choice of vendors) • • can determine own upgrade path (no contractual obligations or requirements) • • can fund new developments, based on local priorities, and (optionally) contribute them back to the community • • savings on license fees can be used to fund enhancements or training, for example • • mutual benefit — if you help others, they will help you Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

9. The Koha project • • began in 1999 when the Horowhenua Library Trust (HLT) in Levin, New Zealand, was looking for a Y2K compliant replacement for their library management system • • responses to an RFP showed that a commercial system would cost roughly 25% of their annual budget, and would have meant a significant increase in annual telecommunications costs for the dedicated lines a new system would require • • Katipo Communications Limited proposed a new system, using open source tools and telnet for branch access, to be released as open source under the GPL • • Koha (the Maori word for ‘gift’ or ‘donation’) went live at HLT on 3 January 2000, and was released under the GPL as the world’s first open source library management system later that year • • written in Perl, with a MySQL database, originally for a Linux/Apache environment, but is also available for Windows Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

10. Horowhenua Library Trust • • a regional library located in Levin, New Zealand, approximately 100 kilometres (60 miles) north of Wellington (the capital) • • 3 libraries (main one in Levin, with smaller branches in Foxton and Shannon, as well as a volunteer-run library in Tokomaru • • in 2001/2002, it had • • ~71,000 titles (80,000 items) • • serves a population of ~30,000 • • ~435,000 items issued annually • • 13 FTE staff Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

11. Katipo Communications Limited • • started by Rachel Hamilton-Williams in September 1996, specialising in the development and maintenance of Web sites, as well as server configuration and management, and network support • • now has 12 staff ranging from IT specialists to graphic designers • • a wide range of clients, both in New Zealand and offshore, from all sectors (commercial, education, government, non-profit, not to mention several public libraries) • • Katipo had an existing business relationship with Horowhenua Library Trust before submitting their proposal to develop Koha in 1999 • • recommended releasing the software under the GPL for two main reasons: • • to give the Horowhenua Library Trust a form of insurance against anything happening to Katipo, which is a small business • • neither the Library Trust nor Katipo saw themselves in the business of marketing and supporting a library management system. • In the open source philosophy, marketing is done by word of mouth. The software grows as members of the community contribute to the project Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

12. Koha roles/options for libraries • While F/OS software projects are sometimes seen as Eric Raymond’s “great babbling bazaar of differing agendas and approaches” (The Cathedral and The Bazaar, 2000), the Koha community members take on a range of well-identified roles: • • Kaitiaki/Project Manager (currently based the state of Washington) • • Developer (~30 registered developers in Europe, Canada, the USA, New Zealand) • • “Sponsors” — libraries who initiate projects to add specific functionality to Koha, or provide resources for the Koha community • • Documenter • • User • • a range of options for this, from passive users who install the software and are essentially “silent”, to more active users who report bugs or suggest enhancements, or test new releases Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

13. Koha communication channels/tools • • The Koha community use a range of communication channels and tools for planning, solving poblems, and generally managing ongoing development: • • email discussion lists • • Internet Relay Chat (IRC) • • WikiWikiWeb • • bug tracking system • • the combination provides participants with different types of interaction and “permanence”, depending on the context • • email is fast, but asynchronous, short term rather than long term (push rather than pull) • • IRC is fast, synchronous (like a live conversation, but text), impermanent (more pull than push) • • WikiWikiWeb is more permanent (but pull rather than push), better for documentation / collaboration than the other channels • • bug tracking system is another open source application, based on a database, and an essential project management tool Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

14. Email discussion groups 1 • • we are all familiar with these, but the approach the Koha community has taken is to have a number of lists, each intended for specific groups • • these include • • the main Koha list (hosted by Katipo) • • a list for Koha developers (hosted on SourceForge) • • a list for Windows users (hosted on SourceForge) • • separate lists for French-, German-, and Portuguese-speaking community members • • additional lists for: long-term strategy (koha2010) and specific features (koha-rss, for example) Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

15. Email discussion groups 2 • • different lists use different management software, and have varying levels of traffic • • the developers list is currently the busiest, particularly as work on the new release intensifies (over 1670 messages so far in 2003), but the main Koha list is growing in use, with 144 messages in 2000, 270 in 2001, 830 in 2002, and 960 in 2003 (to 13 August) • • archives are available for all lists, but the form differs depending on the software used to manage the list, with some available as online archives, and others using email commands to retrieve records from an archive Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

16. IRC 1 • • IRC (Internet Relay Chat) is a real-time, text-based communication tool that uses “channels” (usually beginning with a #) • • the main Koha IRC channel is #koha, and it is used most by the developers to “chat” about things; there is some informal discussion, but meetings may also be scheduled (for example about testing for the new release) • • IRC users are identified by a “nick”, and most of the Koha developers use a 4-character version of their name • • Katipo host the server at irc.katipo.co.nz port 6667, and anyone with an IRC client can join • • logs of IRC discussions are hosted by the Coast Mountains School District in British Columbia, Canada, an early adopter of the Koha software Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

17. IRC 2 • • IRC is used for a mixture of informal and formal communication, and is useful for building relationships between participants • • “always on” — someone always seems to be listening, “Koha never sleeps” • • meetings scheduled at (relatively) convenient times means participants in different time zones can interact in real time, for example, one person is in British Columbia and another is in France, with others in the US and New Zealand Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

18. IRC 3 Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

19. IRC 4 Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

20. WikiWikiWeb • What is a wiki? • • a collaborative web authoring and content management environment, using HTML forms and simple markup for formatting • • the original wiki (“wikiwiki” is Hawaiian for quick” was written by Ward Cunningham for the Portland Pattern Repository in 1995 • • the original wiki concept has been widely replicated, and there are a number of wiki clones based on the original, written in different languages and with slightly different features • • the Koha wiki space is hosted by the Studio of Arts and Sciences in Sydney, NSW, Australia, uses the Tavi wiki engine, and is used for a range of documents and discussions • • it includes a list of Koha users, arranged by continent, with 19 libraries listed in mid-August 2003 Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

21. WikiWikiWeb demonstration • • a live demonstration of how WikiWikiWebs work, to show how to edit an existing page or add a new one, and to demonstrate some useful features, such as “recent changes” and searching Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

22. Bug tracking 1 • • uses Bugzilla, an open source system for recording and tracking bugs and enhancement requests developed for the Mozilla project • • widely used, particularly for open source projects • • provides a full range of facilities for managing bugs/enhancements, including status (e.g. new, assigned, resolved, verified) and severity (blocker, major, normal, trivial, enhancement), as well as which developer is working on it and who reported it • • people need to register (giving a valid email address) in order to view records, and to add new bugs Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

23. Bug tracking 2 Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

24. Bug tracking 3 Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

25. Summary/conclusion Email IRC WikiWikiWeb Bugzilla People Processes Koha Technology Together these create an effective environment to support a virtual team Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

26. Discussion • Comments and/or questions? Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source

27. Further resources • Free Software Foundation www.fsf.org • Open Source Initiative www.osi.org • Koha www.koha.org • Horowhenua Library Trust www.library.org.nz • Katipo Communications Limited www.katipo.co.nz • Nelsonville Public Library Koha page http://www.athenscounty.lib.oh.us/koha.html • #IRChelp http://www.irchelp.org/ • Koha IRC logs http://hss-labs.cmsd.bc.ca/cgi-bin/kohalog.pl • The original wiki http://c2.com/cgi/wiki • The Koha wiki http://www.saas.nsw.edu.au/wiki/index.php?page=KohaProject • Koha Bugzilla http://bugs.koha.org/ Chawner: Open Communication for Open Source