Dear colleagues, I have been carefully going through the comments on SOUL V/s open source software for past few days. I would like straighten-out a few points that were raised by Prof. Laxman Rao in his mail addressed to professional colleagues: 1. SOUL Software works on a self-sustenance model. The INFLIBNET Centre is not investing huge money on the Software. All expenses on the SOUL including, R & D, maintenance, salary for SOUL Coordinators, Technical Assistants, etc. is born from the sale of SOUL software, in fact, the Centre have saved funds from sale of SOUL and this savings is being now used for further strengthening the support system for SOUL; 2. SOUL support and maintenance system has been strengthened now. We had only two coordintors in the past. We have now deployed five SOUL Coordinators, two more will be engaged shortly. Each SOUL Coordinator can have two to three Technical Assistants depending upon the number of installations in a given region. In all, there will be seven Coordinators and 21 Technical Assistants. SOUL Software Support Unit is also functioning from the INFLIBNET Centre for past more than 8 months. Expenses on strenghthened support system is being born from income from SOUL software. 3. SOUL 2.0 has several new features and functionalities. Senior library professionals are advised to examine the product and then give their considered opinion. I am sure Prof. Laxman Rao did not have opportunity to see SOUL 2.0. A large number of library professionals have helped us with their feed-back during development of SOUL 2.0. Actual users were in involved in various phases of development. Feedback from most of the Library professionals has been highly positive for SOUL 2.0. My Software Team at the INFLIBNET Centre has worked day and night to bring the software to this stage. The 2nd version of Software was developed in a record time to less than one year. It is in-appropriate to criticize a product without even fully exploring its features and functionalities. 4. Dr. Satish Deshpande, Dr. Haravu, Dr. Sathyanarayana (JNTU), Dr. Goudar and other colleagues have already given their considered views about open source software and co-existence of other LMS packages. The SOUL Software has its own followers. We have more than 1800 installations and number is growing inspite of existence of several open source software. We are committed to all our existing clients. The software will be given free of cost to all our existing clients with all the support that they require. 5. The INFLIBNET Centre has set-up an Open Source Software Laboratory. Our scientists are working on all open source software including NewGenLib. I would like to re-iterate here that for most library science professionals, open source essentially means “free” software, they neither have expertise nor resources to customize it. I know a couple of big libraries who are struggling with open source software LMS packages without much success. It would be our endevour not only to provide support for all or selected open source software, but also contribute to their development. 6. The price of SOUL 2.0 and its associated services were fixed as per the guidelines laid down by the our Governing Board. We had to consider cost of inputs in terms of manpower, infrastructure, etc. However, we can revisit the prices, if desired. 7. As on now, the INFLIBNET is not considering to make SOUL 2.0 an open source given the fact that it is developed for Microsift OS, a proprietary OS. We are committed to develop it further, make it completely platform independent and then we may consider to make it open source. I would like to ensure the academic community and library professionals that the INFLIBNET Centre is doing its best and results are already visible. Thanks and regards Dr. Jagdish Arora Director, INFLIBNET Centre Opp. Gujarat University Guest House Post Box No. 4116, Navrangpura Ahmedabad, Gujarat - 380009 Tel: +91 79 26305702 (Direct) +91 79 26308528, 26304695,26305971 Mobile: 09974881882 Fax: +91 79 26300990 and 26307816 E-mail: jarora@inflibnet.ac.in; director@inflibnet.ac.in -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.