Re: An X PRIZE for next generation catalogs?

Yes it is, now we just need to find a rich open source benefactor! Maybe
Linus or
Eric Raymond (if he still has his proceeds from the IPO of VA Linux)

John Rutherford
wayne state.

Simpson, Sarah wrote:
> I think this is a fantastic idea!  A prize to come up with a catalog
> that will do everything we want it to do and do it well.  I wonder if
> the X Prize people would be interested?  If not, we should look for
> other ways to do this.  Even setting up the criteria for such a prize
> might move us down the road and get current vendors thinking about ways
> to do more.
>
> Sarah Simpson
> Tulsa City-County Library
>
> Opinions expressed are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my
> library.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Next generation catalogs for libraries
> [mailto:NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu] On Behalf Of Andrews, Mark J.
> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 9:06 AM
> To: NGC4LIB_at_listserv.nd.edu
> Subject: [NGC4LIB] An X PRIZE for next generation catalogs?
>
> An old model of change is the "carrot and the stick."  Sometimes they
> are the same thing; in business the carrot and the stick is (sorry to be
> crass) money.  There's also prestige and the sheer fun of competition.
>
> Now competition has not really decreased along with the number of ILS
> vendors - witness the rise of Evergreen and Koha.  But those products
> appear as overblown science projects from somebody's garage - somebody
> had to pay for the kernel of those products to be developed.  The money
> spent to create Evergreen and Koha was not spent on commercial products,
> hence the "stick" - commercial vendors didn't get business they
> otherwise might have had.
>
> But what about the carrot?  Do we need an X PRIZE (see
> http://www.xprize.org/) as a carrot for a next generation catalog?
> Don't get me wrong - Evergreen is great, Koha is great, other open
> source library catalogs are great, commercial products are great.  We
> have competition, but we need more of it.  People don't work for free,
> they need to pay the bill while they work and have something to strive
> for besides the brief notoriety of some original, creative work - like
> prestige, the fun of competition and yes, money.
>
> So, do we need a neXtPRIZE?  How do we organize and fund it?  What's a
> good amount?  $10,000?  $100,000?  More?
>
> I'm good for $50, but I don't think that's going to get us anywhere.
>
> Mark Andrews, Creighton University
>
> PS - As my employer is in the midst of a fundraising campaign, I list
> its name for identification purposes only - not to detract from their
> efforts to raise money.  Or anybody else's efforts to raise money
> either.  MJA
>