I know it might be uncool to admit it, but I like the rugby world cup

And it’s not just about the rugby, although for the most part it was a weekend of excellent games, a lot of which were tense and undecided for the best part of the game.

But for me, it’s also all the other things going on, highlights of this weekend include

  • Kahurangi and his cousin Te Manaia watching the opening ceremony together and providing commentary. All commentary should be done by 4 year olds
  • Spending Sunday morning with my family listening to a Welsh folk singer, followed by a Kapa Haka group, followed by eating South African peanut butter and beef curry.
  • Watching USA vs Ireland on the couch with my wife, an ex college rugby player herself.
  • The few minutes of thinking “Oh my god Romania might actually win this game”
  • Giving a South African fan 50 cents, just as he was about to leave and not be able to buy the homemade ginger beer he wanted, and getting a huge bear hug in return.
  • Te Po Atarau chasing a man dressed as a lion around the South African cultural festival, frantically waving a Welsh flag at him.
  • The many and varied happy people walking around the waterfront, smiling and waving to each other.

I reckon it was a great opening weekend, I wish Wales and Argentina had won, but you can’t have everything. Fiji day at Te Papa on Saturday, you’ll find me and the kids there, bring it on.

Random musings from a retiring release manager

As most of you probably know, to the great pleasure of my wife and family, the release of 3.6.0 on October 22 will be my last release as release manager for Koha.  I will undoubtedly do another post after the release doing more introspection and thank yous, but I had a few thoughts in my head now that I wanted to get down before  I forgot them.

My goals as RM

These are totally my own goals, and I have no delusions of grandeur that they are ‘the’ goals or anything like that. Just my own ones.

I think I can sum it up in one short phrase

The release is for the users

What I mean by this, is I saw my role as working for the users who install and use Koha without support. My role was to provide stable and solid releases so that those without support companies, or inhouse developers could use Koha. If this happened to make life easier for developers and/or support companies/organisations then that is a very happy byproduct, but not the goal.

I was (and am) exceedingly lucky that the company I work for (Catalyst IT) understand this. They gave me the freedom and support to pursue this goal, even when by doing so I made things harder (in some instances) for Catalyst. Catalyst are a company of 130+ people spread over 3 countries, working on free and open source software. From mission critical systems like the NZ electoral role and software that runs the general elections, down to small libraries running Koha. With an organisation of that size, it is easy for people to lose sight of the big picture, but to their credit the directors haven’t.

They understand my role as RM was to better the project, and if that betters Catalyst too then that was a happy bonus. They understood it is up to us at Catalyst to work out how we can serve our own needs and our clients needs while still being good citizens of the project.

This has turned into a bit of a thank you to Catalyst, which wasn’t how it started, but I think it is how I will leave it.

Statistics for Koha 3.4.4 release

It’s that time again. Koha 3.4.4 has been released, so here are some statistics

  • Processed 99 changesets from 30 developers
  • 22 employers found
  • A total of 2459 lines added, 1873 removed (delta 586)
  • 85 Bugs closed
Developers with the most changesets
Owen Leonard 16 16.2%
Chris Cormack 8 8.1%
Ian Walls 7 7.1%
Chris Nighswonger 6 6.1%
Robin Sheat 6 6.1%
Marcel de Rooy 6 6.1%
Magnus Enger 5 5.1%
Frédérick Capovilla 5 5.1%
Katrin Fischer 4 4.0%
Colin Campbell 4 4.0%
Liz Rea 3 3.0%
Paul Poulain 3 3.0%
Sophie Meynieux 3 3.0%
Janusz Kaczmarek 3 3.0%
Frédéric Demians 2 2.0%
Nicole C. Engard 2 2.0%
Srdjan Jankovic 2 2.0%
Frère Sébastien Marie 2 2.0%
preprod34 1 1.0%
Julian Maurice 1 1.0%
Brice Sanchez 1 1.0%
Christophe Croullebois 1 1.0%
MJ Ray 1 1.0%
Juan Romay Sieira 1 1.0%
Jane Wagner 1 1.0%
Alex Arnaud 1 1.0%
Jean-André Santoni 1 1.0%
Stéphane Delaune 1 1.0%
John Seymour 1 1.0%
Ricardo Dias Marques 1 1.0%
Developers with the most changed lines
Magnus Enger 1065 39.0%
Chris Nighswonger 297 10.9%
Colin Campbell 197 7.2%
Chris Cormack 182 6.7%
Owen Leonard 175 6.4%
Frédéric Demians 146 5.3%
MJ Ray 142 5.2%
Robin Sheat 87 3.2%
Marcel de Rooy 61 2.2%
Ian Walls 55 2.0%
Paul Poulain 44 1.6%
Brice Sanchez 35 1.3%
Jean-André Santoni 34 1.2%
Srdjan Jankovic 29 1.1%
Liz Rea 23 0.8%
Sophie Meynieux 15 0.5%
Katrin Fischer 14 0.5%
Frédérick Capovilla 12 0.4%
Janusz Kaczmarek 10 0.4%
Frère Sébastien Marie 10 0.4%
Christophe Croullebois 8 0.3%
Jane Wagner 8 0.3%
Alex Arnaud 6 0.2%
Julian Maurice 5 0.2%
Juan Romay Sieira 3 0.1%
Nicole C. Engard 2 0.1%
preprod34 2 0.1%
Stéphane Delaune 2 0.1%
John Seymour 2 0.1%
Ricardo Dias Marques 2 0.1%
Developers with the most lines removed
MJ Ray 111 5.9%
Colin Campbell 78 4.2%
Srdjan Jankovic 14 0.7%
Jean-André Santoni 8 0.4%
Alex Arnaud 3 0.2%
Developers with the most signoffs (total 285)
Chris Nighswonger 94 33.0%
Chris Cormack 88 30.9%
Paul Poulain 27 9.5%
Nicole C. Engard 18 6.3%
Katrin Fischer 16 5.6%
Ian Walls 14 4.9%
Owen Leonard 6 2.1%
Robin Sheat 5 1.8%
Liz Rea 4 1.4%
Marcel de Rooy 3 1.1%
MJ Ray 2 0.7%
Julian Maurice 2 0.7%
Colin Campbell 1 0.4%
Alex Arnaud 1 0.4%
Sophie Meynieux 1 0.4%
Frederic Demains 1 0.4%
Magnus Enger 1 0.4%
Frédéric Demians 1 0.4%
Top changeset contributors by employer
Catalyst 16 16.2%
ACPL 16 16.2%
Biblibre 11 11.1%
ByWater-Solutions 8 8.1%
Foundations 6 6.1%
Rijksmuseum 6 6.1%
Libriotech 5 5.1%
frederick.capovilla@sys-tech.net 5 5.1%
BSZ-BW 4 4.0%
PTFS-Europe 4 4.0%
NEKLS 3 3.0%
januszop@gmail.com 3 3.0%
semarie-koha@latrappe.fr 2 2.0%
Tamil 2 2.0%
juan.sieira@xercode.es 1 1.0%
preprod34@koha.ccsr.qc.ca 1 1.0%
PTFS 1 1.0%
mjr@phonecoop.coop 1 1.0%
john.seymour@nal.gov.au 1 1.0%
brice.sanchez@sys-tech.net 1 1.0%
sekjal@samael.local 1 1.0%
koha@ricmarques.net 1 1.0%
Top lines changed by employer
Libriotech 1065 39.0%
Catalyst 298 10.9%
Foundations 297 10.9%
PTFS-Europe 215 7.9%
ACPL 205 7.5%
Tamil 146 5.3%
mjr@phonecoop.coop 142 5.2%
Biblibre 120 4.4%
ByWater-Solutions 62 2.3%
Rijksmuseum 61 2.2%
brice.sanchez@sys-tech.net 35 1.3%
NEKLS 23 0.8%
BSZ-BW 14 0.5%
frederick.capovilla@sys-tech.net 13 0.5%
januszop@gmail.com 10 0.4%
semarie-koha@latrappe.fr 10 0.4%
PTFS 8 0.3%
juan.sieira@xercode.es 3 0.1%
preprod34@koha.ccsr.qc.ca 2 0.1%
john.seymour@nal.gov.au 2 0.1%
koha@ricmarques.net 2 0.1%
sekjal@samael.local 1 0.0%
Employers with the most signoffs (total 285)
Foundations 94 33.0%
Catalyst 88 30.9%
ByWater-Solutions 32 11.2%
Biblibre 31 10.9%
BSZ-BW 16 5.6%
ACPL 6 2.1%
BigBallOfWax 5 1.8%
Rijksmuseum 3 1.1%
Tamil 2 0.7%
mjr@phonecoop.coop 2 0.7%
NEKLS 2 0.7%
wizzyrea@gmail.com 2 0.7%
Libriotech 1 0.4%
PTFS-Europe 1 0.4%
Employers with the most hackers (total 31)
Biblibre 7 22.6%
Catalyst 3 9.7%
ByWater-Solutions 2 6.5%
Foundations 1 3.2%
BSZ-BW 1 3.2%
ACPL 1 3.2%
Rijksmuseum 1 3.2%
Tamil 1 3.2%
mjr@phonecoop.coop 1 3.2%
NEKLS 1 3.2%
Libriotech 1 3.2%
PTFS-Europe 1 3.2%
brice.sanchez@sys-tech.net 1 3.2%
frederick.capovilla@sys-tech.net 1 3.2%
januszop@gmail.com 1 3.2%
semarie-koha@latrappe.fr 1 3.2%
PTFS 1 3.2%
juan.sieira@xercode.es 1 3.2%
preprod34@koha.ccsr.qc.ca 1 3.2%
john.seymour@nal.gov.au 1 3.2%
koha@ricmarques.net 1 3.2%
sekjal@samael.local 1 3.2%

Key dates for the 3.6.0 Release

This is a repost of my post over at koha-community.org

We are rapidly closing in on the 3.6.0 release, so I thought it would be good remind everyone of the key dates.

  • Feature freeze � 22 September 23:59 UTC � From this point on, no new features will be considered for inclusion into 3.6.0
  • String freeze � 8 October 23:59 UTC � no bugs that change templates accepted after this point. This allows the translators to translate without things changing on them
  • Translations finished 18 October 23:59 UTC � Translations submitted, so that they can be tested before release
  • Release 22 October

And just a point, translators should not feel they need to wait until the 8th to start translating, but should begin as soon as they are able.

Changes for 3.4.3 broken down by filetype

The first number is the number of lines added, the second the number removed, so we code see for example Robin added 40 lines of developer documentation (files like readme, install.* etc)

Contributions by type and developers

devel-doc 50 0
        JAMES Mason: [10, 0]
        Robin Sheat: [40, 0]
code 108 84
        Chris Nighswonger: [31, 13]
        Chris Cormack: [1, 1]
        Ian Walls: [5, 10]
        Magnus Enger: [2, 2]
        Colin Campbell: [7, 6]
        Frère Sébastien Marie: [1, 1]
        Owen Leonard: [1, 1]
        Marcel de Rooy: [30, 30]
        Dobrica Pavlinusic: [1, 1]
        Janusz Kaczmarek: [1, 1]
        Katrin Fischer: [7, 6]
        conan (aka Fernando L. Canizo): [4, 2]
        Jesse Weaver: [13, 10]
        Paul Poulain: [4, 0]
unknown 14 3
        Nicole C. Engard: [1, 1]
        Liz Rea: [3, 0]
        Robin Sheat: [10, 2]
image 0 0
        Owen Leonard: [0, 0]
documentation 270 0
        Chris Nighswonger: [193, 0]
        Chris Cormack: [1, 0]
        Owen Leonard: [17, 0]
        Robin Sheat: [59, 0]
build 38 10
        Owen Leonard: [2, 2]
        Katrin Fischer: [2, 2]
        Robin Sheat: [34, 6]
template 140 94
        Chris Cormack: [1, 0]
        Ian Walls: [3, 3]
        Liz Rea: [8, 0]
        Owen Leonard: [89, 70]
        Katrin Fischer: [22, 21]
        Paul Poulain: [17, 0]

Statistics for 3.4.3

  • Processed 38 csets from 18 developers
  • 12 employers found
  • A total of 620 lines added, 189 removed (delta 431)
Developers with the most changesets
Owen Leonard 14 36.8%
Ian Walls 3 7.9%
Katrin Fischer 3 7.9%
Chris Cormack 2 5.3%
Chris Nighswonger 2 5.3%
Liz Rea 2 5.3%
Nicole C. Engard 1 2.6%
Marcel de Rooy 1 2.6%
Robin Sheat 1 2.6%
Dobrica Pavlinusic 1 2.6%
Colin Campbell 1 2.6%
Magnus Enger 1 2.6%
Paul Poulain 1 2.6%
conan (aka Fernando L. Canizo) 1 2.6%
JAMES Mason 1 2.6%
Janusz Kaczmarek 1 2.6%
Jesse Weaver 1 2.6%
Frère Sébastien Marie 1 2.6%
Developers with the most changed lines
Chris Nighswonger 224 35.8%
Robin Sheat 143 22.8%
Owen Leonard 109 17.4%
Katrin Fischer 31 5.0%
Marcel de Rooy 30 4.8%
Paul Poulain 21 3.4%
Ian Walls 13 2.1%
Jesse Weaver 13 2.1%
Liz Rea 11 1.8%
JAMES Mason 10 1.6%
Colin Campbell 7 1.1%
conan (aka Fernando L. Canizo) 4 0.6%
Chris Cormack 3 0.5%
Magnus Enger 2 0.3%
Nicole C. Engard 1 0.2%
Dobrica Pavlinusic 1 0.2%
Janusz Kaczmarek 1 0.2%
Frère Sébastien Marie 1 0.2%
Developers with the most lines removed
Ian Walls 5 2.6%
Developers with the most signoffs (total 106)
Chris Nighswonger 37 34.9%
Chris Cormack 35 33.0%
Nicole C. Engard 12 11.3%
Ian Walls 7 6.6%
Magnus Enger 4 3.8%
Frédéric Demians 3 2.8%
Liz Rea 3 2.8%
Colin Campbell 2 1.9%
Frère Sébastien Marie 1 0.9%
MJ Ray 1 0.9%
Owen Leonard 1 0.9%
Developers with the most reviews (total 0)
Developers with the most test credits (total 0)
Developers who gave the most tested-by credits (total 0)
Developers with the most report credits (total 0)
Developers who gave the most report credits (total 0)
Top changeset contributors by employer
ACPL 14 36.8%
(Unknown) 5 13.2%
ByWater-Solutions 4 10.5%
Catalyst 3 7.9%
BSZ-BW 3 7.9%
NEKLS 2 5.3%
Foundations 2 5.3%
PTFS-Europe 1 2.6%
Libriotech 1 2.6%
Rijksmuseum 1 2.6%
KohaAloha 1 2.6%
Biblibre 1 2.6%
Top lines changed by employer
Foundations 224 35.8%
Catalyst 146 23.3%
ACPL 110 17.6%
BSZ-BW 31 5.0%
Rijksmuseum 30 4.8%
Biblibre 21 3.4%
(Unknown) 20 3.2%
ByWater-Solutions 14 2.2%
NEKLS 11 1.8%
KohaAloha 10 1.6%
PTFS-Europe 7 1.1%
Libriotech 2 0.3%
Employers with the most signoffs (total 106)
Foundations 37 34.9%
Catalyst 35 33.0%
ByWater-Solutions 19 17.9%
(Unknown) 5 4.7%
Libriotech 4 3.8%
Tamil 3 2.8%
PTFS-Europe 2 1.9%
ACPL 1 0.9%

NZ Koha users group meeting

Today I had the great fortune of attending the first New Zealand Koha users group meeting, in the birthplace of Koha, Horowhenua. There were 51 attendees and even road closures and snow didn’t stop people attending. There was a really good mix of Library types, I think 18 from Publics, 18 from specials, and the rest schools, corporate and academic.

It was run as unconference so the first task of the day was to decide what would be talked about the rest of the day. The programme that we came up with was

  • The community – How to get involved and make the most
  • Installation/Migration/Training and Why should we use Koha
  • Features – what’s there, and what would we like added
  • Serials, Acquisitions, Cataloguing
  • Managing digital resources
  • Consortia
And one other I have forgotten, hopefully someone will leave me a comment with what it was. The discussions went really, with lots of participation. It definitely won’t be the last meeting, I think we are leaning towards 2 a year but that’s something that will be decided on the mailing lists.
While we were busy plotting plans to take over the world, (or at least New Zealand) Koha 3.4.3 was released.