[Koha-devel] What is GoKoha.com

[Eric Bégin]

Hi Paul and Koha community,

Following Paul's request, let me introduce what is GoKoha.com.

Paul and Chris are both correct; we are a startup company based in Montreal, Canada.

The GoKoha project was born from the need to give Quebec's small libraries a low cost alternative to existing commercials ISL. We present Koha as an opportunity for librarians to follow the path of technology-based services.

Currently, the small libraries in Quebec cannot offer the same level of services to their patrons partly due to their budget limitation. Quebec's librarians are not strong believers in Open Source solution like Koha. Moreover, the proprietary vendors brainwash them by claiming that Koha will not be able to fulfill their needs. As you can imagine, we need a lot of preparation to break this myth.

The reason we are still quiet about our project is that we are aiming to create a hype around Koha by the end of 2006 to maximize the impact. We expect to convince librarians that Koha is a serious option for them and that GoKoha will be there to fully support its usage. Meanwhile, we are working on pilots projects integrating Koha in small libraries.

Of course, our intention is to respect the Open Source philosophy by giving back as much as we can to the community. This contribution will take place when customers will request more features and by participating in Koha community's discussions. Having said that, we are currently in this early phase of getting familiar with that wonderful tool and we would appreciate Koha community help on this matter.

If you have any questions, comments or hints on convincing Quebec's librarians of using Koha, feel free to contact me directly or on this mailing list.

Best Regards,
Eric Bégin
eric at gokoha dot com