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I will describe the technical underpinnings of Carrier, challenges that we’ve faced since its implementation, enhancements planned for the next release of the software, and discuss our plans for releasing this software for others to use '''for free'''.
== We Built It. They Came. Now What? ==
* [[User:evviva|Evviva Weinraub]], Oregon State University, evviva.weinraub@oregonstate.edu
You have a great idea for something new or useful. You build it, put it out there on GitHub, do a couple of presentations, maybe a press release and BAM, suddenly you’ve created a successful Open Source tool that others are using. Great!
Fast-forward 3 years.
You still believe in the product, but you can no longer be solely responsible for taking care of it. Just putting it out there has made it a tool others use, but how do you find a community of folks who believe in the product as much as you do and are willing to commit the time and energy into building, sustaining and moving this project forward. Or just figuring out if you should bother trying?
In 2006, OSU Libraries built an Interactive Course Assignment system called Library a la Carte – think LibGuides only Open Source. We now find ourselves in just this predicament.
What can we do as a community to move beyond our build-first-ask-questions-later mentality and embed sustainability into our new and existing ideas and products without moving toward commercialization? I fully expect we’ll end up with more questions than answers, but let’s spend some talking about our predicament and yours and think about how we can come out the other side.
[[Category: Code4Lib2012]]
