CAS Is A Standard Protocol, Not A Standard Application

I’m not really part of the Jasig CAS Community (learn more), but I do maintain the wpCAS WordPress CAS client and I’ve started development of a CAS server component for WordPress. That project is on hold because one of the products that I’d expected to integrate with it doesn’t use standard CAS and the vendor [...]

Closed Formats Are Bad For Libraries, Stop OOXML Now

Microsoft just won’t quit. Now they’re trying to make OOXML an ISO standard. Please help stop this.
Here’s how I explained it in Open Source Software for Libraries:
The state of Massachusetts in 2005 announced new IT standards that required its 80,000 employees and 173 agencies to adopt open file formats. The decision didn’t specify the applications [...]

The ILS Brick Wall

Nicole Engard last month posted about The State of our ILS, describing the systems as:
I’d say it’s a like the crazy cousin you have to deal with because he’s family! It doesn’t fit, we are a very open IT environment, we have applications all over that need to talk to each other nicely and the [...]

About My code4lib Presentation

As with all my other presentations, the my slides tell less than half the story, but I’ve posted them anyway. I’m told the audio was recorded, and there’s a chance that will help explain all this, but until then you’ll have to piece this all together from my previous writings, what little I’m about to [...]

Lessons From The Microformat World

I can’t help but like microformats, and part of that comes from the dogmatic principles that drive them. Among those is the notion that none of us should attempt to create a format out of whole cloth. Here’s how they explain it:
Under the title of “Propose a Microformat” they tell us: “Actually, DON’T!!!”
ask yourself: “are [...]

Not Invented Here

I couldn’t say it, but Alexander Johannesen could: libraries are the last bastions of the “not invented here syndrome” (scroll down just a bit, you’ll find it).
Between Alex’s post and mine, I don’t think there’s much to say except this: there may be five programmers in the world who know how to work with Z39.50, [...]