Gerhard --

Thanks for the feedback.  Promoting an ecosystem of support options for FOSS in libraries is one of the goals of the FOSS4LIB site.  The site does have the notion of "Support Providers" that are attached to particular packages.  After setting up an account you can create one at this URL:

  http://foss4lib.org/node/add/provider

There is a section called "Supports" with different "Provider Types" listed (consulting, custom development, hosting, etc).  Providers in FOSS4LIB are tied to packages (you can see, for instance, the providers already registered for Koha at http://foss4lib.org/package/koha ).  There isn't a way to have a provider "stand alone" in a directory, but I'd be interested in hearing more about the use cases where we might want to make them available that way.


Peter

On Jan 22, 2012, at 12:47 PM, Mr Gerhard Bissels wrote:
> 
> Peter,
> 
> I'd suggest to add a directory of support providers for FOSS for libraries. Of course, I would say that because Library Co-op are a team of consulting librarians specialising in FOSS for libraries: but I also get the impression that many librarians (at least in the UK) are hardly aware of FOSS alternatives, let alone commercial support for it. At least in the UK FOSS might be easier to market once it is generally understood that commercial support for FOSS is available - with the added benefit that there may be a choice of support providers for the same product…
> 
> The Koha community website offers a directory of commercial support providers. A similar directory that would allow searches by application type (LMS, link resolver, ERM, VLE …) and individual application (under LMS: Koha, Evergreen…), so support providers could tick what they can offer, might be a useful starting point.
> 
> Kind regards
> 
> Gerhard

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