RE: check it out

[Peter Schlumpf <schlumpf@nslsilus.org>]

Jeremy did a good job of summarizing the program and all things
open-source at ALA, so I won't repeat his remarks.  I do have to echo the 
sentiment that it was an excellent program that went far in providing an
overall presentation of the open source concept to the library community
-- much further than my original expectations.  I hope that everyone who
attended felt it worthwhile and were able to get a lot out of it.

Dave did an excellent job of organising the thing and I'd like to thank
him for inviting me to speak (being a first-timer at presentations like
this, I hope I did well enough) about the Avanti project -- not an easy
thing as development is still at the bricks-and-mortar stage.

As for Avanti it may get a boost, as Jeremy and I discussed incorporating
Avanti as a circulation component within OSDLS. Since both projects are
working toward a common end they could benefit from eachother in a
combined effort.

And to those of you on this list who came to the event, thanks for showing
up!  Feel free to tell us your impressions.

Overall, in every way, I think the program was a resounding success!

Peter

___
Peter Schlumpf
North Suburban Library System
schlumpf@nslsilus.org

On Wed, 12 Jul 2000, Frumkin, Jeremy wrote:

> OK, let's see how well the faulty memory is working....
> 
> The Open Source program at ALA was extremely well-attended and
> well-received. We had somewhere around 250 people attend the session. In my
> not-so-unbiased opinion (IMNSUO?) it was an overall excellent program that
> really provided a lot to those who attended.
> 
> Tim O'Reilly spoke first, and he did an amazing job of linking open source
> and the open source 'attitude' to libraries and the library community. Tim
> was very entertaining and I don't think anyone was disappointed in his talk
> (I personally could have listened to him talk for another 2 hours). Dan
> followed Tim's talk (thanks Dan for stepping up top the plate and speaking
> after Tim) with an excellent presentation on Jake, which generated a lot of
> excitement from the audience (as displayed by the questions after Dan's talk
> and the people coming up to speak to Dan at the O'Reilly booth).
> 
> Peter spoke after Dan, and did a great job of presenting a technical topic
> (Avanti and API's) to an audience that had a mix of technical and
> non-technical interests. Peter's concept of an API for a circulation system
> opened up a few eyes, I think. Finally, I spoke (you've heard the best; now
> here's the rest) about implementing OSCR at the University of Arizona, and
> also about a new open source project we are doing, called the Tree of Life
> (http://phylogeny.arizona.edu/tree).
> 
> Tim mentioned during the session that he would mail out copies of 'The
> Cathedral and the Bazaar' to anyone who left their business card or address
> (from those who attended the program). We had about 60 or so people do just
> that. A couple of other highlights:
> 
> - Fred Kilgour attended (and stayed the entire 3+ hours). (Someone should
> ask Dan about his dinner with Fred)
> - Dave did an excellent job of facilitating the talk. Many, many kudos to
> Dave for helping make this happen; without his knowledge of LITA and program
> planning, all of this never would have been possible. Thanks Dave!
> - The people at O'Reilly were all really happy with the program and our Open
> Source presentation in the exhibits area. The whole thing was win-win-win
> all around. We even have a good chance of getting a big-name O'Reilly author
> to talk at ALA-San Francisco (stay tuned for more details)
> - The exhibit area turned into an excellent venue to demo and talk to people
> about open source and libraries. We had numerous people come to the O'Reilly
> booth just to talk to us about open source. O'Reilly was also kind enough to
> bring and let us pass out copies of 'Linux in a Nutshell' to people who came
> to our OS demos.
> 
> I'm sure there's much, much more I'm leaving out. The whole thing was a huge
> success and a great leap forward in promoting open source in libraries.
> 
> -- Jeremy