On this Thanksgiving holiday, we would like to offer our thanks to all who have supported us through the use of our simulations.   We thank you for your participation, encouragement and feedback.  Because of you, we are able to continuously improve our games and customer service.

“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.”  – John Fitzgerald Kennedy

A Russian Proton / Breeze M launch vehicle lifted off from Baikonur at 7:19 AM Phoenix time 24 November. 9 hours and 12 minutes later, the Breeze M released the Eutelsat W7 communications satellite in a Geo Stationary Orbit. International Launch Services (ILS) was responsible for the mission. The 5,627 kg W7 satellite was built by Thales Alenia Space and has a 15 year life expectancy.

Ignition. Credit: www.zenite.nu

Liftoff. Credit: www.zenite.nu

Depuis maintenant plus d’un mois et demi, les Ils de la Semaine règnent sur Footballwrite.com le vendredi soir . Je vous rappelle en quelques mots le principe , toutes les semaines, Baptiste et Moi choisissons deux joueurs qui nous ont déçus, ou ravis… N’ayant pas encore eu la force de faire un papier sur le match France – Irlande, vu pour ma part  des tribunes du Stade de France, les Ils de la Semaine, eux, ne manquent pas le rendez vous !

Robbie Keane : Autant commencer par le positif… S’il y a un joueur qui a impressionné le Stade de France mercredi, ( autre que Lloris, encore une fois parfait ) c’est bien Robbie. J’aurai pu choisir Duff, le milieu offensif des Verts, mais l’indomptable, l’incorrigible Keane a pris le dessus . Il est souvent, voir trop souvent, confondu avec Roy Keane, l’ancien joueur de Manchester, qui aujourd’hui coach une équipe de seconde division anglaise . Mercredi soir, Robbie Keane a redonné l’espoir à tout un peuple, à ces 12 000 supporters qui avaient fait le voyage dans le but d’encourager l’équipe qu’ils chérissent tant , en inscrivant le but du 0-1 . Une belle action, des défenseurs noyées ne sachant pas quoi faire, et voilà l’ouverture du score. Bien placé, il aura permis entre autre à son équipe nationale de repartir vers l’avant de nombreuses fois. L’Irlande n’est pas qualifiée pour la Coupe du Monde, mais certains qui passeront ici, j’en suis sûre, auraient préféré voir en Afrique du Sud Keane qu’Henry ( le 2ème il de la semaine ) … Petit rappel, après un passage mitigé à Liverpool, Keane évolue de nouveau cette année à Tottenham, dont il n’aura finalement jamais pu se détacher. Come on Robbie !

Thierry Henry : Capitaine de l’Equipe de France, attaquant de classe mondiale, en entrant sur la pelouse du Stade de France, Thierry Henry ne pensait pas en ressortir avec l’étiquette de tricheur collée à sa peau. Plutôt discret pendant 102 minutes de jeu, l’ancien Gunners a envoyé l’EDF en Afrique du Sud d’un double contrôle de la main. Au lendemain du match, toute la presse mondiale lui est tombée dessus. Traité de « tricheur hypocrite » par Tony Cascarino dans The Times, faisant la Une de tous les journaux de sports, Thierry Henry ne se doutait pas qu’il avait remis en question toute sa carrière d’un coup de main. Un geste qu’il défend en parlant de réflexe même si les images traduisent une véritable envie de mettre le ballon sur son pied droit. Les jours et les semaines à venir vont être dures du côté de Barcelone pour notre Titi national. L’attaquant a envoyé un communiqué de presse à Sky Sports News où il avoue que la meilleure solution serait de rejouer le match. Le feuilleton continue …

Footballwrite & Baptiste !

Major Open Source ILS Products, by Marshall Breeding

This article from last year’s Library Technology Reports offers an overview and comparison of the four most prominent open source ILS products — Koha, Evergreen, OPALS, and NewGenLib, as well as a discussion of the open source phenomenon in ILS products in general.

There are a lot of tables — I enjoy tables — breaking down what kinds of libraries are using what kinds of software, what kinds of population and circulation figures they’re working with, things like that. Koha is a favorite among small to mid-sized public, academic, and special libraries, while Evergreen, designed by a consortium of libraries in Georgia, has been preferred for large library systems. Large individual libraries are still reluctant to adopt the fairly new open source ILS applications. I was interested to discover that open source hasn’t made much of an impression outside of the United States and Canada, although it has been a choice option in some developing countries.

The article continues with a breakdown of the companies that support this open source software (such as LibLime for Koha), a review of the technical backend of an open source ILS implementation, and finally a feature-by-feature rundown of the specific software discussed, based on documentation and demo sites. This would be a great source for a library curious about which open source ILS to explore in more detail.

It has been a while since the last post as we have been up to our eyeballs in vendor demonstrations and Integrated Library System Request for Proposal Rapid City Public Library. We anticipate the RCPL Board to make a decision on a vendor in the upcoming 30 – 60 days. If a vendor other than ExLibris is picked we hope to continue to work with SDLN for interopertability in connecting systems. For future posts regarding the ILS process and implementation and for the sharing of other topics of interest we will be moving our information to the Librarians and Libraries in the Black Hills blog The wiki will be linked for historical purposes but please join us at the blog for future updates, comments and feedback. This wiki has now been archived at Librarians and Libraries in the Black Hills blog

De nos jours l’investissement d’une somme d’argent importante pour le développement d’un site web n’est pas forcément facile pour tout le monde, surtout dans le cadre de l’ouverture d’une entreprise ou pour un particulier désirant se lancer dans une activité secondaire.

C’est pour cela que Core-IT propose des créations de site web à partir de 160.- (CHF).
Ce prix inclus une maquette simple ainsi que le site web et le nom de domaine préalablement choisi avec le client.

L’hébergement du site est facturé par l’hébergeur. Les tarifs peuvent varier selon les services mis à disposition par les hébergeurs.

Le délai de mis en ligne est de 48 heures environ.

Nous proposons aussi le Référencement de site à partir de 50.-, de plus nous pouvons vous inscrire sur différent annuaires du web affin d’améliorer la fréquentation de votre site web.

Nous Produisons aussi des bannières publicitaires animées à partir de 50.-

Disponible aussi pour les utilisateurs de WordPress.

Exemple:

via WebJunction

With all the recent news and discussion about Integrated Library Systems (including Marshall Breeding’s call for participation in this year’s Perceptions 2009 International Library Automation Survey), I thought it apropos to mention the upcoming webinar WebJunction is hosting in collaboration with ALA TechSource.

On December 10th at 1:00 Eastern join us for a discussion of Integrated Library Systems (ILS) and the trend toward customizability through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) with library systems expert Marshall Breeding and representatives from leading vendors in the field. We’ll discuss new features and capabilities available in the most modern library software, and what it really means for these tools to be “customizable.” This event will coincide with the publication of Marshall Breeding’s December 2009 issue of Library Technology Reports.

Register now for the webinar

So the other day I am trying to make updates to the catalog during the de-acquisition process and wouldn’t you know it, but the title is not in the catalog.  The book had a barcode and a security patch, so it could have been circulated (if anyone actually wanted to read it), but it was not in the ILS catalog.  This was the weirdest thing…  I think the gremlins may have attacked my computer in the 30 seconds it took me to move from one book to the next.

Even with the common solutions most of us would have though of: rescanning the barcode, entering the title, and other searches for the work – it was still in the deep dark maelstrom that is the library unknown.  I’d heard about this place, but never entered it myself until now.  So what did I do?  I searched the OPAC to see if we even had it listed for the patrons… Nope!  The book, despite the fact that I was holding in my hands in the library office just didn’t exist.

Ultimately, I added the book by hand to the library excess list, but it was kind of weird and because it came from a series that often is cataloged two different ways, I had to double and triple check how I listed the book.  For those of you in library land that don’t know what an excess list is… when government libraries de-acquisition books they often send out the excess list to other libraries to see if anyone else is interested.  It’s an interesting process and I have held books in my hand that were copyrighted anywhere from 1910 to 1997 while doing excess lists…

Best of luck to all my fellow library land job searchers…

It has been a while since the last post as we have been up to our eyeballs in vendor demonstrations and
Integrated Library System Request for Proposal Rapid City Public Library 2009_PDF_versionWe anticipate the RCPL Board to make a decision on a vendor in the upcoming 30 – 60 days. If a vendor other than ExLibris is picked we hope to continue to work with SDLN for interopertability in connecting systems.

For future posts regarding the ILS process and implementation and for the sharing of other topics of interest we will be moving our information to the Librarians and Libraries in the Black Hills blog The wiki will be linked for historical purposes but please join us at the blog for future updates, comments and feedback.

This wiki has now been archived at Librarians and Libraries in the Black Hills blog

Qu’on a hésité pour ces ils, nombreux sont les joueurs qui ont été à l’honneur cette semaine . Lampard, Drogba, Lisandro, Cris, Gourcuff, Carrasso… Finalement, Baptiste et moi avons décidé de récompenser deux joueurs de classe, deux attaquants, deux joueurs qui méritent d’être les Ils de cette semaine !

Lisandro Lopez : Prononcez comme vous voulez, Li(z)andro ou Li(ss)andro, mais Lopez devient de plus en plus le chouchou de Gerland ! Une technique, une ” sévère ” intelligence de jeu , et l’Argentin fait des ravages depuis son arrivée à Lyon . Transfert coûteux, mais aujourd’hui, Aulas ne peut rien regretter d’un joueur, qui s’est encore une fois montré décisif mercredi face à Liverpool . Titularisé côté gauche, poste qu’il n’adhère pas particulièrement lui qui préfère jouer dans l’axe, il s’est souvent montré dangereux balle au pied . Si Gomis ne m’a pas convaincu , Lopez , toujours dans les bons coups , pèse lourd sur cette équipe de l’OL . Si une Lisandro – dépendance  n’est pas totalement installée, nul n’en doute quelle pourrait le devenir . Son égalisation face à Liverpool, est le résultat d’une gniac sans relâche . Ce but montre aussi que cette équipe de Lyon sait, contrairement aux autres années, revenir dans un match européen, rapidement ! Tandis que Benzema a du mal à marquer dans sa nouvelle équipe du Real Madrid, Lisandro s’est quant à lui plus que bien adapté à sa nouvelle vie …

Didier Drogba : Absent lors des trois premiers matchs de Chelsea en Ligue des Champions cette saison à cause de ses déclarations après la demi finale perdue contre Barcelone l’an dernier, Didier Drogba faisait sa rentrée européenne mardi dernier, à Madrid contre l’Atlético. Pour son grand retour, l’attaquant ivoirien a ébloui… les spectateurs par son niveau. Deux buts qui ont permis au club londonien de choper un ticket pour les huitièmes de finale. Un retour resplendissant au top comme lors des premières saisons avec Chelsea. En effet, son histoire d’amour avec José Mourinho lui avait permis de devenir l’attaquant vedette en Angleterre. Puis des changements d’entraineur, des baisses de formes et l’arrivée de Nicolas Anelka qui l’avait placé à l’ombre des projecteurs. Depuis, une complicité avec l’attaquant français et voilà le duo magique du club de Roman Abramovitch. Duo qui permet aussi de remplacer l’un par l’autre à la tête de l’équipe. Et mardi soir, Drogba était sur le terrain pendant que Nico s’échauffer à côté avant sa rentrée, vingt minutes avant la fin. Menés 1 à 0 à 10 minutes de la fin du match, l’Ivoirien et ses potes semblaient se diriger vers leur première victoire mais Didier sauta et propulsa de la tête un centre de Malouda dans les filets d’Asenjo. Quelques minutes plus tard, il récidivait, dribblait les deux derniers défenseurs avant de s’y reprendre à deux fois pour battre, une seconde fois, le portier madrilène. Un second but impressionnant. Une réalisation qui remet l’attaquant sur le devant de la scène. Didier Drogba est bien là, qui en doutait ?

Footballwrite & Baptiste

Following the success of the Marketplace Train-the-Trainers seminar in Cairo, Egypt in March 2006, ILS teamed with The Education for Employment Foundation (EFE) again to deliver another Train-the-Trainers seminar – this time in Palestine.

In September 2009, Martin Klima of ILS and Dr. Mark Peterson from the University of Wyoming trained 17 business leaders and educators in Ramallah, West Bank.

The seminar participants learned how to incorporate the Strategic Management simulation into the Mini-MBA course. This highly-innovative mini-MBA business training program designed by the EFE teaches unemployed university graduates the practical skills needed by employers. The programs aim to provide jobs, incomes and a better future for the youth in Gaza, West Bank and other countries in the Middle East.

The 2006 Cairo seminar resulted in jobs and promising careers for dozens of young professionals from the Gaza strip. The Ramallah program is even more ambitious. It strives to train several hundred young leaders from West Bank over the period of the next few years.

The Participants of the Train-the-Trainer seminar in Ramallah, West Bank, September 2009. Front row, right to left: Samer Salameh, Wisam Shamroukh, Mahmoud Bader, Jawwad Al-Hirbawi, Raed Rajab, and Mark Peterson. Middle row, right to left: Nidhi Patel, Malak Masri, Hind Muhtaseb, Darin Zeidan, Fairoze Darwesh, Ibtesam Ziadeh, Saba Al-Sabawi. Back row, right to left: Akram Hijazi, Aiman Tamimi, Mahmoud Ibrahim, Shadi Hamad, Musadak AL-Masri, Shadi Al-Sharif, Martin Klima, Mohammad Naja, Peter Khoury.

ILS recently had the pleasure to showcase one of our newest simulations to students in Reims, France.

Dr. Ernie Cadotte, Marketplace author and trainer,  traveled to Reims, France to introduce students to the Venture Strategy Live simulation.  The participants commented that everything is “very life-like” and they feel “like they are really managing a company.”

Dr. Cadotte remarked that it was wonderful to see the Live game in action.  The students were able to view the game on higher-resolutions screens which helped to showcase the visually-rich artwork and videos of the Live game.

Request more information or a personal tour

—————-
Now playing: The Beatles – Dear Prudence
via FoxyTunes

By now, you’ve probably read about SirsiDynix’s “position paper” on open source, first posted on WikiLeaks. It’s kind of funny that almost exactly 11 years to the day after the first Microsoft Halloween document was leaked, SirsiDynix has provided the library systems community with a similar story. The author of Sirsi’s document, Stephen Abram, wrote a blog post in response and has been very busy answering the comments being posted to it. By the time he had posted his response, the story had already spread beyond the regular library blogs and tweets and got as far as the Linux Weekly News.

I suspect that LWN is how David Skoll found out about this issue, and what probably led him to Abram’s blogged response. David Skoll has been busting FUD against free and open source software for quite a while. While I don’t know him personally, he and I share the same hometown, the same public library system, and, for a few years, the same Linux user group (although that was a decade ago). He is (from what I hear) a super-smart programmer but not, to my knowledge, a programmer in the library systems world. So I was surprised to see him pop up in the comments on Abram’s post.

He probably doesn’t fit into SirsiDynix’s model of a “developer”. He’s actually a  library patron only. One of his responses to Abram was a simple story about an issue he had with the Horizon ILS at the OPL:

I’ve written a tool (using WWW::Mechanize) to fetch my list of books due and email me about upcoming return dates. I had to use an undocumented GET parameter to get XML, and parse through the XML to get the info I needed. I’m sure that if your software were open-source, it would be far easier to integrate.

Here’s a user seeking an API to use his municipal library’s ILS, which happens to be from SirsiDynix. He’s not on code4lib, he’s not a SirsiDynix customer or developer. He just wants to access his personal patron data through an API without having to jump through silly hoops.

Further down, Abram responds, apparently not aware that Skoll is a user (i.e., a patron), and not a systems librarian (i.e., a SirsiDynix customer):

Tell me, what’s the difference between an open source ILS that alows you to write and share API’s and a proprietary ILS that let’s you write and share API’s? You might want to reserve your criticsm for the ILS’s that restrict API use.

Further down in the thread, Abram adds:

I have little patience for concerns about theoretical restrictions when requests have not been made for training or access

When Abram asks “what’s the difference between an open source ILS that alows you to write and share API’s and a proprietary ILS that let’s you write and share API?” he’s ignoring the fact that Mr. Skoll’s story gives us the answer, as he obviously had to fight through undocumented functions to get his tool to work. Ironically, Sirsi’s system doesn’t seem to fit into the two categories listed by Abram. It appears that it’s not even “a proprietary ILS that let’s [sic] you write and share API”. Does every ILS user wishing to write a simple ILS-based app, just like Mr. Skoll, have to shell out thousands of dollars for API training first? (And then not be allowed to share his work?) These restrictions wouldn’t be possible with an open source ILS.

We don’t know how many David Skolls we have amongst our patrons but savvy patrons like him do exist. What’s more, they are already accustomed to having publicly published API documentation for other online products to do all sorts of neat things with data — all without having to ask for permission to see the API documentation or paying for “training”. Why is Mr. Skoll’s initiative rewarded with such a rude brush-off? He may not be a SirsiDynix customer but he is a SirsiDynix user (and after the response he received, I’ll bet he’s not a happy one).

Finally, Skoll very explicitly explained later in the thread that he was a library patron looking for an API and, finally, Abram understood. Skoll then received the following non-answer to his query:

As for e-mail alerts, our software supports this as well as RSS when the library implements it.

It neither answered his question, nor was entirely honest (“our software” in the above sentence refers to Unicorn or Symphony, completely different products than the one Skoll’s library is currently using).

Why is it so hard for Abram to turn that answer into: “Here’s our API. Look at all the neat things that you can do with our system!” ? The result would be a happier patron, a potential new developer, and a positive story that spins itself.

As it stands, it looks like he’s just trying to dismiss a smart user trying to make better use of his local library’s ILS. That’s just plain silly and violates Ranganathan’s 4th and 5th laws.

Depuis 3 semaines, chaque semaine sur Footballwrite.com vous retrouvez une analyse de deux joueurs qui nous ont marqué durant la semaine. Après, Lloris et Gignac, Gourcuff et Gonalon, voici Torres et Balotelli qui nous ont ravi cette semaine ! Enjoy !

Fernando Torres : Geule d’ange, mèche dans le vent, El Nino a encore frappé cette semaine face à Manchester United. Ca tombe bien, car les Reds en avaient bien besoin de ces trois points pour se remettre dans le timming. Si Liverpool nous a rassuré quant à ses possibilités à vaincre cette saison, n’y aurait il pas une Torres dépendance qui est e train de se mettre en place ? Bien présent en attaque, toujours à l’affût, l’ancien butteur de l’Atlético est devenu la coqueluche des chanteurs d’Anfield . La force de Torres à Liverpool est d’avoir une très bonne entente avec Gerrard… Si ces deux là sont sur le terrain, la foudre peut frapper… et à plusieurs reprises. Voici ci dessus ce que pensent quelques supporters de Fernando : ” Torres est décisif et s’est imposé comme un des piliers de Liverpool, sans lui l’équipe joue mal et a du mal à marquer. ” , ” c’est le plus complet “, ou même ( peut être avec un léger brun d’exagération) ” le meilleur joueur du monde “. Coqueluche d’Anfield, soit, il est en train de le devenir aussi en Espagne, où il s’impose de plus en plus. Un  but en finale de la Coupe d’Europe, et voilà l’Espagne qui hurle son nom… El Nino, un grand, sans hésitations !

Comment neutraliser une défense adverse ? Appelez le Gerrard et Torres et il répondra à vos questions !

Pour la deuxième édition des Ils, Albertine et moi avons choisi de parler de Yoann Gourcuff, la déception, et de Maxime Gonalons, la surprise.

Yoann Gourcuff : Il y en a un qu’on attendait mercredi soir, et il n’a pas répondu présent. En effet Yoann Gourcuff n’a pas réalisé un match à la hauteur de nos espérances contre le Bayern Munich. Le meneur de jeu n’a pas pu brillé par ses dribbles et ses passes d’habitude parfaits. Le marquage individuel choisi par Van Gaal pour inhiber le talent de Gourcuff a payé, le Bordelais a été transparent en première période. Même si en seconde mi-temps, le Girondin a été plus en vue, son pénalty raté a, définitivement, tué son match. Ce samedi, Yoann a délivré une passe décisive sur corner pour son pote Marouane. Le meneur de jeu de l’équipe de France se remet peu à peu de son mauvais match contre des Allemands qu’il retrouvera le 3 novembre, cette fois-ci, à Munich.

(source : i.telegraph.co.uk)

Maxime Gonalons : La relève , c’est le mot qui planait au dessus de la tête d’un certain Maxime Gonalons, devenu pro à Lyon en Juin 2009. Et tous de suite, les grandes expressions des journalistes, comme ” Ce petit est un génie…”, sont apparues aux oreilles des footeux. Mais pour m’extasier sur Maxou, j’ai du attendre mercredi dernier lorsque l’OL affrontait Liverpool. Cris KO, Puel l’a remplacé par Gonalons, qui s’est tout de suite montré à la hauteur de ce match, et en aucun cas bouleversé par le jeu adverse. Montant souvent sur les corners, Gonalons a fait mouche et su remettre son équipe sur le droit chemin. Une première récompense pour ce joueur, qui revient de loin ( Gonalons a failli se faire amputer d’une jambe ) et qui mérite amplement, sa place dans ce ils de la semaine ! Je peux aujourd’hui confirmer la phrase des journalistes, la relève est bel et bien là !

Footballwrite et Journalsport

Organizzato da ILS (Italian Linux Society) trovate tutti i dettagli qui.
A Rimini il LUG Rimini organizza una sua manifestazione, qui tutti i dettagli.
A tutti un augurio di un buon Sabato e buon Linux Day 2009 !!!

Had my latest Drs appointment this morning.  Still no internal checks.

Since I never know if he is going to check me or not in the female region, before my appointment I always try to freshen up (in Tokyo I just took a shower when I woke up before my appointment, here my shower is like at 6pm, so 6pm-9am doesn`t always mean that the female parts are going to be nice and clean).  Since I can`t really take a shower, I just use a soapy towel and wash off that way.  When I had my urine test today it was a bit cloudy-like and I was thinking it was because perhaps I didn`t get all the soap cleaned off (not easy when your stomach keeps getting bigger and you have to use a towel) so I wasn`t surprised when the Dr was on the phone with the lab that checks the urine and he was saying something was present but that the baby seemed fine so he wasn`t worried about it.

After the phone call, he tells me that since my due date is Monday he wants me to come again in the morning and he will check to see if I am dilated, if I am then I will be checked in (and I am assuming induced) if I`m not then we will wait.

I can`t say I want to be induced, but MIL told me yesterday that she thinks when the baby is 3 weeks old it would be perfectly fine for me to return to Tokyo, especially if my mother is still here.  If she comes on Monday or around then, then mom and I will have a week in Tokyo before she leaves, if she comes later then mom and I won`t be able to return to Tokyo and I am not sure the ILs will allow me to take the train back by myself (as if I am a small child and not an adult) and I would probably have to wait until Taka can have a weekend off and come down here to get me and take me back.

At this point, I`d rather have a not so nice birth experience than have to stay here too much longer.  I am definitely starting to annoyed at MIL, who while be really nice, can act like a small child sometimes.

I just re-read a draft of this post that I wrote on the plane last night.  It is super geeky and a bit mathy (not a real word).  In B-School, I loved micro economics because in the case studies there was a right answer – an optimal output, an equilibrium price, an economic order quantity.  I try to apply the concepts in the significantly less black and white world of real life.  This time, I am looking at marketing decisions in the Multi-Family space and can’t quite understand the forces that drive them.

How much is too much to spend in sales and marketing to acquire a customer?  In some industries this is a relatively common question to answer.  For example, in the online retail space where you are selling to a very fickle customer (who has limited brand loyalty), you know you have spent too much when the cost to sell and market has exceeded the marginal profit of the product you just sold.  Until you have reached that point, all of your marketing is profitable.  Typically, there is a curve from cheap marketing sources to expensive marketing sources and you only throw out those sources that meet the above definition of “too much”.  This does not seem to be the case for Multi-Family marketers.

We see a lot of churn of marketing partners for apartment owners, consistently moving money from one marketing tool to another.  I have asked myself “what conditions must exist to get rid of a marketing partner?”

Here is what I can think of:

1. Full Up! The community is at capacity and need fewer leases, so it cuts out its most expensive sources.  (They should probably get more units).
2. All Duplicates – No Unique Leads. All of the specific leases that a marketing partner generates can be sourced elsewhere at a cheaper rate.  In that case the community will only do better by moving, because every lead is a duplicate.
3. Unique Leads are not Profitable.  In the case where the marketing partner generates some unique leads, there is some math to do.  I would guess that you would look at all leases – see how many were sourced ONLY from this partner and then calculate a cost per lease – rather than 1^st to source the lead, last to source the lead or other attribution model.  To test if the unique leads are profitable, you must first answer, “How much revenue do you expect from a renter?”  The easy math is just (lease rate * expected months of rental). Next, “How much will it cost to maintain that unit (maintenance costs over the term)?”  If the cost to acquire that lease exceeds the profit – get rid of that source.  Unless my estimates are wrong, this is an extraordinarily big number.  Average rent is ~$675, average tenure exceeds 14 months – so ~$9,500 in revenue.  Even with ridiculous ongoing unit maintenance of 75% of revenue a cost per lease of $2,300 would still be profitable and worth the spend.
4. Can’t Tell What Leads are Unique.  This could truly be a conundrum in the print world – just because someone called from one magazine does not mean that they would not have called from another magazine.  Since we can’t really track unique magazine readers, this could be the cloud that influences decisions.  But in the online world you can use tools like Hitwise, Comscore, Compete and others to see the unduplicated audiences.
5. High Required Return on Marketing. If you assume that you have many places to invest the free dollar, you should invest it where it gets the highest rate of return.  If the Multi-Family industry has super high return expectations, the break even point falls dramatically.  Using some round numbers from the above example, if the industry expectations for return on investment are 20% the you could only spend $1,900 to obtain that $2,300 in profit.
6. Finite Budget.  In a world where budgets are arbitrary and finite you are always trying to replace expensive sources with cheap sources.  But you should only have a finite budget when you have finite supply.  Unless you have reached the point of “Full Up!”, spending an extra $1.00 to get $1.20 back within the year is always good business.

So, what are some other explanations for constantly shifting dollars?

1. By moving dollars you gain negotiating leverage to reduce marketing cost for a long time.  In the example I had above, if by temporarily firing that $2,300 marketing partner I would forgo a lease or two, but reduce my rate to $2,000 per lease thereafter – that is a good game to play (much more profit in the long run).  The question is could you have achieved the new negotiated rate without firing the provider?
2. You want to truly test what are unique leases.  I am a bit suspicious of this in a world where everything is pretty well tracked.  But, one method to see how much a marketing partner is worth is to fire them, measure the change in income and determine what you are willing to pay to get them back.
3. You think that the renter will eventually find you.  While this is a bit of a twist on the Unique Renter scenario – here you believe that by putting a sign on your building you will eventually get your renter in the door – it just will take some time.  In that case you would need to do similar math and just use the extra time to get the apartment rented.  So if it took 3 months more to rent the apartment without the marketing partner you would have $675 * 3 = $2,205 in revenue.  Assume the same ridiculous 75% of revenue in maintenance cost and if the cost to acquire the lease exceeded $500, you should get rid of the partner.

I am sure that I am missing something in all of this calculus – I just can’t put my finger on it.

Durante o mês de setembro falou-se muito na imprensa especializada da decisão da companhia Liblime de realizar uma versão denominada Liblime Enterprise Koha (LLEK) desenvolta por eles mesmos e sem oferecer as modificações à comunidade.

Esta decisão foi questionada em profundidade por pessoas independentes e outras empresas que trabalham no desenvolvimento do Koha.

A decisão da Liblime é similar ao acontecido com outros  aplicativos e sistemas operacionais no que a empresa desenvolve por um lado o seu próprio projecto dirigido ao setor empresarial com software enriquecido e novas utilidades e ferramentas, procurando um maior benefício económico, e por outro mantém uma versão “menos evoluída” em mãos da comunidade. Exemplos como os de Fedora da RedHat, OpenSuse da Novell ou Zimbra de Yahoo, são alguns exemplos de decisões similares.

A fratura entre a LibLime e outras empresas que colaboram com o desenvolvimento do Koha está servida. Companhias e particulares propõem manter o desenvolvimento  criando uma fundação para que o aplicativo fique em mãos da comunidade como se realizou para outros projectos como Mozilla ou o OpenOffice.

De qualquer maneira vai ser um tempo de mudanças nos que a comunidade terá que reagir e contribuir a dirigir o desenvolvimento deste aplicativo.

• O último número do Smart Libraries Newsletter da ALA correspondente ao mês de Novembro centra a sua capa neste assunto.
• Marshall Breeding propõe a criação da fundação numa carta aberta à comunidade.
• Joann Ranson comenta sobre a reciprocidade no seu blogue. O mesmo tema que utiliza Roy Tennant.
• Desde a França Biblibre recolhe num inquérito a opinião sobre a criação da fundação.
• Mais dados sobre o debate no blog Marlène´s corner