Thursday Threads: Patron Privacy on Library Sites, Communicating with Developers, Kuali Continued

In the DLTJ Thursday Threads this week: an analysis of how external services included on library web pages can impact patron privacy, pointers to a series of helpful posts from OCLC on communication between software users and software developers, and lastly an update on the continuing discussion of the Kuali Foundation Board's announcement forming a commercial entity.

Before we get started on this week's threads, I want to point out a free online symposium that LYRASIS is performing next week on sustainable cultural heritage open source software. Details are on the FOSS4Lib site, you can register on the LYRASIS events site, and then join the open discussion on the discuss.foss4lib.org site before, during and after the symposium.

Feel free to send this newsletter to others you think might be interested in the topics. If you are not already subscribed to DLTJ's Thursday Threads, visit the sign-up page. If you would like a more raw and immediate version of these types of stories, follow me on Mastodon where I post the bookmarks I save. Comments and tips, as always, are welcome.

Analysis of Privacy Leakage on a Library Catalog Webpage

My post last month about privacy on library websites, and the surrounding discussion on the Code4Lib list prompted me to do a focused investigation, which I presented at last weeks Code4Lib-NYC meeting.
I looked at a single web page from the NYPL online catalog. I used Chrome developer tools to trace all the requests my browser made in the process of building that page. The catalog page in question is for The Communist Manifesto. It's here: http://nypl.bibliocommons.com/item/show/18235020052907_communist_manifesto. ...

So here are the results.
- Analysis of Privacy Leakage on a Library Catalog Webpage, by Eric Hellman, Go To Hellman, 16-Sep-2014

Eric goes on to note that he isn't criticizing the New York Public Library, but rather looking at a prominent system with people who are careful of privacy concerns -- and also because NYPL was the host of the Code4Lib-NYC meeting. His analysis of what goes on behind the scenes of a web page is illuminating, though, and how all the careful work to protect patron's privacy while browsing the library's catalog can be brought down by the inclusion of one simple JavaScript widget.

Series of Posts on Software Development Practices from OCLC

This is the first post in a series on software development practices. We’re launching the series with a couple of posts aimed at helping those who might not have a technical background communicate their feature requests to developers.
- Software Development Practices: What's the Problem?, by Shelly Hostetler, OCLC Developer Network, 22-Aug-2014

OCLC has started an excellent set of posts on how to improve communication between software users and software developers. The first three have been posted so far with another one expected today:

I've bookmarked them and will be referring to them when talking with our own members about software development needs.

Kuali 2.0 Discussion Continues

...I thought of my beehives and how the overall bee community supports that community/ hive. The community needs to be protected, prioritized, supported and nourished any way possible. Each entity, the queen, the workers and the drones all know their jobs, which revolve around protecting supporting and nourishing the community.

Even if something disrupts the community, everyone knows their role and they get back to work in spite of the disruption. The real problem within the Kuali Community, with the establishment of the Kuali Commercial Entity now is that various articles, social media outlets, and even the communication from the senior Kuali leadership to the community members, have created a situation in which many do not have a good feel for their role in protecting, prioritizing, supporting and nourishing the community.
- The Evolving Kuali Narrative, by Kent Brooks, "I was just thinking", 14-Sep-2014

The Kuali Foundation Board has set a direction for our second decade and at this time there are many unknowns as we work through priorities and options with each of the Kuali Project Boards. Kuali is a large and complex community of many institutions, firms, and individuals. We are working with projects now and hope to have some initial roadmaps very soon.
- Updates – Moving at the Speed of Light, by Jennifer Foutty, Kuali 2.0 Blog, 17-Sep-2014

As the library community that built a true next-generation library management system, the future of OLE’s development and long-term success is in our hands. We intend to continue to provide free and open access to our community designed and built software. The OLE board is strongly committed to providing a community driven option for library management workflow.
- Open Library Environment (OLE) & Kuali Foundation Announcement, by Bruce M. Taggart (Board Chair, Open Library Environment (OLE)), 9-Sep-2014

Building on previous updates here, the story of the commercialization of the Kuali collaborative continues. I missed the post from Bruce Taggart in last week's update, and for the main DLTJ Thursday Threads audience this status update from the Open Library Environment project should be most interesting. Given the lack of information, it is hard not to parse each word of formal statements for underlying meanings. In the case of Dr. Taggart's post about OLE, I'm leaning heavily on wondering what "community designed and built software" means. The Kuali 2.0 FAQ still says "the current plan is for the Kuali codebase to be forked and relicensed under the Affero General Public License (AGPL)." As Charles Severance points out, the Affero license can be a path to vendor lock-in. So is there to be a "community" version that has a life of its own in under the Educational Community License while the KualiCo develops features only available under the Affero license? It is entirely possible that too much can be read into too few words, so I (for one) continue to ponder these questions and watch for the plan to evolve.