Steering Committee Meeting Minutes
Plinkit Steering Committee Meeting minutes for February 22, 2007
Minutes – submitted by Deborah Littrell, Texas State Library
Participants: Oregon: Jim
Scheppke, Darci Hanning; Illinois: Tom Peters;
Texas: Deborah Littrell; Colorado: Gene Hainer, Jim Duncan, Sharon Morris;
BCR: Ellen Fox
Financial statement
Jim Scheppke reported that the balance as of January 31, 2007 was $86,337.80. There is a February bill for the technical writer of $7,393, leaving a balance of $78,944.
State reports
Illinois reports they have a sandbox site up for demonstration. The systems are lining up libraries, although no live sites yet. They will need to send staff to the Plone boot camp and will need reimbursement from the collaborative.
Texas reports the server and template will be ready next week, training has been arranged, the systems have libraries lined up, and they are arranging a Plone boot camp for Austin.
Colorado reports one site went live this month, there will be another next month, bringing the number of sites up to four. They are doing individual training and have a workshop scheduled for March.
Oregon reports they had a good response to their “Take the Plinkit Challenge” promotion, with 8+ libraries indicating interest. Two additional sites are close to going live/trained, with 2 to bring up, and 4 in the queue, bringing the total to 16-18 sites. In a new development, they have a larger, suburban library (Hillsboro Library) interested in Plinkit. They have two Linux servers (one for development, one for production) for Plinkit, and are testing an upgrade to 2.1.4, as well as an upgrade to the WSIWIG editor. They are presenting at OLA.
Project Coordinators’ report
Darci reported on the following three projects:
- The final review of the
administrator’s manual is underway (states should expect to receive the final
draft 2/23/07) and the review should be completed the following week.
- The update to the training manual should be done for Texas by March 13 (comments from Texas needed).
- They are reviewing the statement of work for the automated upgrade/scripting software projects, with a new draft statement of work next week. This will be posted to the collaborative website and they will select designers from the Plone community to respond.
Copyright Policy
Discussion was held on the need/type of language regarding copyright needed for Plinkit manuals and other printed materials. Contributing factor – the original materials were developed with funds that dictate open access, the collaborative is paying for the updates, although the collaborative funds are also state/federal funds. Texas suggested the Creative Commons model in the open source spirit and the other states agreed. In this model we would ask for the source to be credited and for others not to use the materials for profit. A potential issue was raised about a state that is not a member of the collaborative but uses the Plinkit materials and product. The group determined that the materials are fairly specific to Plinkit and unlikely to be of great benefit otherwise, and that the software is on a protected website. Colorado mentioned that some federal grants (Edgar) allow copyright, although this would raise the question of who would hold the copyright. Jim from Colorado will investigate the Creative Commons licenses and report to the Steering Committee. The committee will make a decision by email. The administrator’s manual will be ready next week, which is too soon to include any licensing language. This could be added later.
Inviting more states to join the collaborative
Jim Scheppke reported that he sent a message to COSLA and got some comments, but no firm interest. Summary of contacts:
Ohio – quite a bit of interest, cost is an issue, would be working with OPLIN who may be looking at doing it themselves with another technology
Washington – had good questions, timing doesn’t work with their budget cycle, there is a strong push for a particular technology in the agency, may be interested in paying more to outsource the project
Vermont – looking at an end-to-end solution given the size of the state and their staff
Oklahoma – have asked to see Plinkit materials, need follow-up
Other discussion – having more libraries up may generate more interest, some states may need a hosted solution. BCR was asked to think about this idea.
Other
Next meeting April 16 at the same time (starting 2 pm Pacific time). We will discuss the fee for the upcoming year. We have a good balance now but 2-3 software projects in process.
