I was one of the first to welcome the Ex Libris announcement of El Commons:

“a collaborative Web-based platform hosting the Developer Zone, where community members can access documentation for the open interfaces, upload software components that they have written and want to share, and download components from other community members, adapting such components to their needs”

I recently recorded a podcast conversation with Ex Libris Chief Strategy Officer and Library 2.0 Gang regular, Oren Beit-Arie about their Open Platform Strategy, of which El Commons is part.  From the transcript:

Richard: [28:11] So that won’t be limited to just Ex Libris customers then? You could be anybody that would want to interface with an Ex Libris system?

Oren: [28:21] This is something that we are still working on, some of the calls for these. I definitely think, and this is our goal, to enable access to everybody who is interested.

[28:31] We definitely see this as an opportunity. For example, at some point at least to enable noncustomers to go in and for example perhaps even end users will be interested.

Well El Commons is up running and accessible at http://www.exlibrisgroup.org.  Unfortunately as Oren hinted, you can only enter the commons with your  Ex Libris Documentation Center or SupportWeb user name and password – a bit of a misuse of the generally understood idea behind a commons methinks.

To be fair to Oren and his colleagues, really opening up is a massive shift in culture that I suppose is a bit like turning a large oil tanker, but the sooner you bite the bullet and walk-the-talk the better for you and the whole community.   Come on in the Open water is great - and it is only a bit scary when you first jump in.

Photo published on Flicker by Daquella manera

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