Bookpoints - Podcast with ByWater Solutions about our Open Source Summer Reading Software

My pals at ByWater Solutions invited me to talk about our open source summer reading software, Bookpoints. Jessamyn West has been working with us as we complete our 2017 version of the software so I invited her to join me so we could all have an open source love fest.  Listen to the podcast here:  https://bywatersolutions.com/podcast.

And if you've never heard of Bookpoints....well!  It's the summer reading program software we created in partnership with California Library Association and Library of Virginia.  It is inspired by the good work of Maricopa County's Great Reading Adventure (GRA). We are hosting around 25 libraries in California who will be using Bookpoints for the second year.  Library of Virginia hosting another cohort that has also been working with us since the early GRA days. Our project page is readingbydesign.org.

GRA is built on Windows.  Bookpoints is built on Drupal.  Both are open source.  When we originally began developing Bookpoints, it seemed like the folks who had developed GRA would join us on the Drupalized version but they ended up rewriting their code and keeping it Windows-based. It is available for free to download so if you are a Windows shop, you might want to check it out.

Bookpoints is built on open source software from top to bottom and we offer hosting and support so you don't need to have a server to install the software, you can just contract with us. At least you'll be able to contract with us in 2018....so far we are limiting our work to the California and Virginia libraries that we've been working with over these last three years (one year on GRA and two on Bookpoints) but we plan to offer services to other libraries starting in 2018.  Both CA and VA libraries have been using the software for free as a result of grants but the CA libraries won't be grant funded next year and the California Library Association won't be involved so we are putting together a plan to offer fee-based hosting and support.

If you are interested in taking a peek at Bookpoints later this summer or fall, let us know and we'll give you access to one of our sandbox versions or direct you to our GitHub where you can download the code and have your way with it! 

Send an email to team@readingbydesign.org for more info or to get on the "I'm interested in 2018!" list.